UPNP

[Steven]

@hiccup, i am really confused by your comments from earlier where you were saying the flac files played ok. What that because you forced transcoding to MP3?

for the foobar log, it says it sending a flac file but the file size is: 4,476,904 bytes
for D:\foobar library temp\Glenn Gould - 1 - Variation - Flac - no RG.flac
is that the correct file size for that file? It seems more like the size i would expect for a MP3 file

[hiccup]

I'm even more confused (and probably frustrated) than you.
It once played with previous versions after Beeliever's suggestions about device capabilities bitrate range.
Now it doesn't, trying out the same and other settings.
Also at one moment I noticed MB had 'smart gain' activated again, while I was pretty certain I had disabled it before.

Maybe it would be better if I first take a vacation, see a shrink, start testing all over again, and only re-appear in this topic when I found something that makes better sense and is repetitively reproducible.

I'll let you know when that moment arrived. Thanks for all your efforts up until know.

[hiccup]

for the foobar log, it says it sending a flac file but the file size is: 4,476,904 bytes
for D:\foobar library temp\Glenn Gould - 1 - Variation - Flac - no RG.flac
is that the correct file size for that file? It seems more like the size i would expect for a MP3 file

It's correct.
Especially for this testing purposes I used a 1:03 track, and made copies as flac with, and without RG, and MP3 with, and without RG.

Hey, let's have some short musical comfort during this hard work, I uploaded the file to the familiar link.
(and maybe a little bit for the purpose of when you have doubts about the quality of the file....)

[Steven]

@hiccup, hopefully this update to MusicBeeBass.dll will address the issue of sound chopping for your environment
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

as to not seeing the device, the only thing i can suggest is to give it 30 seconds or so as sometimes the protocol can take a little while.
If you do find it still doesnt see the devices without using foobar first i will need to put in some more debug code but i dont see the foobar plugin doing anything special (as much as i can tell from whats logged)
As to transcoding to LPCM or WAV, apparently it is the case its not supported which is quite astonishing and at least LPCM is a DLNA requirement, so you would need to set your transcode settings to MP3 if you wanted to use replay gain/ equaliser etc

[hiccup]

@hiccup, hopefully this update to MusicBeeBass.dll will address the issue of sound chopping for your environment

Yes!
Flac is now playing indeed.
I still have some unexplainable things happening, but I will see if I can pinpoint those later on.

For now I have two observations and one question:

1.
I mentioned before that I suspected that MB had changed ReplayGain setting from 'off' to 'on' by itself.
I now know what happened. After your suspicion it was still on (while it wasn't), I clicked on 'off' again from the drop down 'Controls' menu to be very certain. But what happens then, is when clicking 'off' again, that closes the drop down menu, but invisibly has changed the setting to 'Smart Gain'. I assume that's probably behavior that should be changed?

2.
A flac file with no ReplayGain values plays fine, but an identical copy of that track, but with RG values calculated won't play and gives the silence/noise burst error. And this happens when the MB RG playback setting is set to 'off'. So somehow RG/transcoding seems to be forced even by only having RG tagfields filled-in.

And a question:
I still have some other unexplainable errors in this area that are difficult to repeat.
Could that maybe be due to the fact that I have installed MB portable on a drive that is encrypted, and is manually attached after Windows has started up completely?

[Steven]

1. is fixed for the next v2.5 update
2, i really cant see how it wouldnt work (other than you no realising Smart Gain was enabled by point 1). The plugin uses the current Replay Gain mode at the time playback starts for the track. If replay gain is on in musicbee itself and the song has track or album gain values then it will be transcoded. If replay gain is off or the song has no gain values then that by itself wont trigger transcoding. Other things that might trigger transcoding include the sample rate of the track exceeding the configured sample rate range of the device, forced trancoding because the low bandwidth option is ticked, equaliser and/or dsp being enabled. Continuous output option being enabled
3. you will need to explain what the issues were and are they still happening with the latest version

[hiccup]

2, i really cant see how it wouldnt work (other than you no realising Smart Gain was enabled by point 1). The plugin uses the current Replay Gain mode at the time playback starts for the track. If replay gain is on in musicbee itself and the song has track or album gain values then it will be transcoded. If replay gain is off or the song has no gain values then that by itself wont trigger transcoding. Other things that might trigger transcoding include the sample rate of the track exceeding the configured sample rate range of the device, forced trancoding because the low bandwidth option is ticked, equaliser and/or dsp being enabled. Continuous output option being enabled

And yet it does somehow. My previous statement about flac with rg values (often) not playing is still 100% correct. (but not always, see below)
I have had all the settings and tick boxes as you required them. Only during 1 test of the dozens I have done by now, RG was accidentally on, as I explained to you.

3. you will need to explain what the issues were and are they still happening with the latest version

I can only do that when I can put it in wordings describing performed actions that might make some sense to you.
Currently I can only say, sometimes MB won't play flac at all, sometimes also foobar won't play anymore after using MB, sometimes MB will play  flac with rg values, sometimes not. Sometimes MB will play a flac without RG, but not an identical but differently named file.
To me it feels like maybe somewhere some buffer is filled or overflowed, or maybe some process held hostage by another part of an application.
I have no clue.
I think it is not sensible to burden you with more error logs or 'not workings' before I get some better idea of what and when this exactly happens.

[Bee-liever]

@ hiccup
MB and foo are not using the same port?

[hiccup]

@ hiccup
MB and foo are not using the same port?

No, they are set differently, but I also never have them active at the same time, I always close one before I try the other.
As I mentioned somewhere before, what might very well be the complicating and hindering factor here, is that to use the Squeezeboxes at all, Logitech Media Server has to be started and running in the background. But I have no insight in the exact workings and possible influence that might have on these problems. Hopefully some other Squeezebox users will step in with other insights and feedback.

[Steven]

could you run using this version (not the usual link):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/gl5hncldo3lzqfq/mb_Upnp.zip

it will add info to the log to see what is triggering the transcoding

[hiccup]

I ran it again.
First, (with my pc have had running for a long time and having done lots of experimenting) I played flac, with, and flac without rg values. Both played fine. (while at that moment foobar wasn't playing any files at all anymore)
Then I restarted my computer, and tried to play mb again. mp3's played fine, but flacs (with or without rg values) didn't play at all.

edit,
Now, a couple of minutes later, just before wanting to post this and check mb one more time, now flac without rg values play, but flac with rg values won't.
(during this testing fb has not been started up once)

I uploaded the error log from before 'edit', and a second one including what is happening now. Hopefully this is going to give some clues.

[Steven]

there were a couple of Network changed events while the plugin was running so i assume that would not be when you rebooted your PC and in those cases there was a new IP address "10.3.0.1" in the active list of network addresses that was the primary address. Perhaps you know what that address might be?
I dont see any cases of transcoding or failing to play. So i guess in the cases where it failed to play it was because MB hadnt received any message to activate the device at that point in time. I have added some extra logging to confirm that piece of information

[hiccup]

I am not aware of 10.3.0.1, but some googling points to Cisco and/or VMware.
The cable modem behind my router/firewall is a Cisco, but in it's settings I see no 10.x.x.x anywhere.
As I mentioned before, I do have VMware installed on my PC, but not running at startup. Yet even-though in the background VMware processes are running. I once read that is known behavior of VMware that not everybody is happy about.


1. MB played all formats with no problems.
2. Restarted PC, started MB, but I forgot to first start LMS.
3. Started LMS, started MB again, mp3 plays, no flacs play.
4. Closed MB
5. Waited 5 minutes started MB, everything plays fine.
MB log uploaded

6. foobar won't play at all (only "Connecting" showing on SB display)
7. Restarted PC
8. foobar played flac
foobar log uploaded

9. MB won't play flac
10. Waited five minutes
11. restarted MB
12. flac without rg value plays, flac with rg value doesn't. (silence/noise bursts)
additional error log on steps 9-12 uploaded


Next week I have a cleanly installed laptop available.
I'll see how that one behaves with the same testing, without having VMware, foobar, etc. etc. installed.

[Steven]

i dont see any log for steps 1-5

edit:
i'm sorry hiccup but i am spending way too much time on this and there really isnt anything that i can see that explains the behavior you experience.
In all cases there is no transcoding being done, so I cannot see how the RG version of the file has anything to do with musicbee ie. MB is just copying the file as any file to the device

[hiccup]

No problem. Let's leave it for now. I believe we both spend too much time on this.
Hopefully all this effort invested also helped you and other potential users of this plugin.

If I get better and more consistent results on the clean installed laptop anytime soon, I'll let you know.