Transcoding HLS streams

[davidp]

Hi

I've been following the BBC Radio3 HD saga closely. I have tried to use Minimstreamer to transcode the new BBC HLS streams for either my Cambridge Audio NP30 or Stream Magic 6 players. I have successfully followed the instructions on your UPnP page but both players report No Media. I have the stream.converter tag set for ffmpeg (I use an ARM QNAP TS-412) and have tried both *:wav and *:L16 with no luck.

I've no idea if this is a Minimstreamer issue (doubt it), a Cambridge Audio issue or a QNAP/ffmpeg issue. I've tried making sense of the QNAP forum which simply seems to suggest that the latest ARM QNAPs don't have ffmpeg and that installing it eats precious CPU.

Advice welcome.
David

[simoncn]

(25-02-2015 19:21)davidp Wrote:  Hi

I've been following the BBC Radio3 HD saga closely. I have tried to use Minimstreamer to transcode the new BBC HLS streams for either my Cambridge Audio NP30 or Stream Magic 6 players. I have successfully followed the instructions on your UPnP page but both players report No Media. I have the stream.converter tag set for ffmpeg (I use an ARM QNAP TS-412) and have tried both *:wav and *:L16 with no luck.

I've no idea if this is a Minimstreamer issue (doubt it), a Cambridge Audio issue or a QNAP/ffmpeg issue. I've tried making sense of the QNAP forum which simply seems to suggest that the latest ARM QNAPs don't have ffmpeg and that installing it eats precious CPU.

Advice welcome.
David

To the best of my knowledge, all QNAPs have ffmpeg preinstalled and it should run acceptably on the TS-412.

The issue is almost certainly related to the player. I have had reports of similar problems from other NP30 users. These appear to be caused by the player sending byte-range requests to MinimStreamer, which don't work when playing a real-time radio stream.. I'm not sure about the Stream Magic 6 but it might have the same issue.

Do you have an Android device? If so, you could try playing the transcoded L16 stream using the BubbleUPnP local renderer. This would confirm that your MinimStreamer and ffmpeg setup is correct.

[davidp]

(25-02-2015 20:19)simoncn Wrote:  

(25-02-2015 19:21)davidp Wrote:  Hi

I've been following the BBC Radio3 HD saga closely. I have tried to use Minimstreamer to transcode the new BBC HLS streams for either my Cambridge Audio NP30 or Stream Magic 6 players. I have successfully followed the instructions on your UPnP page but both players report No Media. I have the stream.converter tag set for ffmpeg (I use an ARM QNAP TS-412) and have tried both *:wav and *:L16 with no luck.

I've no idea if this is a Minimstreamer issue (doubt it), a Cambridge Audio issue or a QNAP/ffmpeg issue. I've tried making sense of the QNAP forum which simply seems to suggest that the latest ARM QNAPs don't have ffmpeg and that installing it eats precious CPU.

Advice welcome.
David

To the best of my knowledge, all QNAPs have ffmpeg preinstalled and it should run acceptably on the TS-412.

The issue is almost certainly related to the player. I have had reports of similar problems from other NP30 users. These appear to be caused by the player sending byte-range requests to MinimStreamer, which don't work when playing a real-time radio stream.. I'm not sure about the Stream Magic 6 but it might have the same issue.

Do you have an Android device? If so, you could try playing the transcoded L16 stream using the BubbleUPnP local renderer. This would confirm that your MinimStreamer and ffmpeg setup is correct.

Thanks for the input - sadly I don't have an Android device I could try so I looks as though I'm going to have to wait to see how Cambridge Audio addresses the problem - if at all. There may be a lot of unhappy NP30 users out there when the BBC finally does cut its UK only 320K AAC feed.

[rpmoore]

davidp Wrote:Thanks for the input - sadly I don't have an Android device I could try so I looks as though I'm going to have to wait to see how Cambridge Audio addresses the problem - if at all. There may be a lot of unhappy NP30 users out there when the BBC finally does cut its UK only 320K AAC feed.

I just bought the new Cambridge CXN and having got MinimStreamer up and running (confirmed transcoding BBC streams to my laptop) have found the same problems as you. It will be going back to the store on Monday morning for a refund!

Richard

[davidp]

(12-09-2015 12:38)rpmoore Wrote:  

davidp Wrote:There may be a lot of unhappy NP30 users out there when the BBC finally does cut its UK only 320K AAC feed.

I just bought the new Cambridge CXN and having got MinimStreamer up and running (confirmed transcoding BBC streams to my laptop) have found the same problems as you. It will be going back to the store on Monday morning for a refund!

Richard

Hi Richard

I've got my StreamMagic 6 working with the 320K AAC feed so I don't see why you would have problems with the newer CXN. The NP-30 has been reduced to the 128K MP3 feed which means I listen a lot less to Radio 3 in my office now! Hope you get it sorted as the CXN should be a superb streamer.

David

[rpmoore]

@davidp - I'd be interested to hear how you achieved this, might be a fix for me. Looking around the alternatives are to spend £2K on a Naim solution?

Richard

[davidp]

(12-09-2015 19:30)rpmoore Wrote:  @davidp - I'd be interested to hear how you achieved this, might be a fix for me. Looking around the alternatives are to spend £2K on a Naim solution?

Richard

Hi Richard - on the SM6 the process is as follows (I'm guessing it can't be much different on the CXM)

From the start-up menu pick:
Radio
Location
UK
All Stations
BBC National
Radio 3>
at this point you have the choice of:
Live MP3
Live AAC (UK only)
Podcasts

Select the AAC option and store it in a preset. Listening to the Proms as I type this - best of luck
David

[rpmoore]

@davidp - thanks for the tip, yes the CXN is the same. I thought you have managed to find a way to play the AAC HLS streams in the end!

I'm calling Cambridge in the morning before returning the CXN to see if and when they have it on their roadmap. Meanwhile, a Raspberry Pi running RuneAudio and feeding a Cambridge DacMagic via USB in my other room does the trick, and sounds good for the cash.

Richard

[rpmoore]

@simoncn - attached is my logfile of attempting to get the Cambridge CXN working. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Richard

[simoncn]

(14-09-2015 10:28)rpmoore Wrote:  @simoncn - attached is my logfile of attempting to get the Cambridge CXN working. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Richard

The important line from the log is this one:

HTTPSource: byte-range request could not be satisfied

As discussed in previous posts, there is no solution or workaround for this issue. Any renderer that sends byte-range requests can't be used with a live radio network stream.