Transcoded radio streams have stopped working

[DavidHB]

I described the process I used to set up transcoded radio streams (in particular the BBC HLS streams) in this thread. All was working well. Suddenly, I find that the transcoded streams fail to play.

Non-transcoded streams play from the playlist perfectly well. Transcoding of music files is also working. It is only the transcoded radio streams (mp3 as well as aac) that fail. The player 'sees' the playlist entry and displays its title, but then just displays the 'waiting' icon for a while, and then stops.

For diagnostic purposes, I am using a test.m3u file containing only the entry for the Linn Classical station given in the User Guide, that is:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,[Linn] Linn Radio Classical
[http:]//radio.linnrecords.com/cast/tunein.php/linnclassical/playlist.pls
(square brackets inserted in the previous line to prevent the creation of a link)

I have tried this using MinimServer/Minimstreamer installations on both my NAS and my PC. These are the essentially identical transcoding properties I am using on the two installations:



There is a difference in the behaviour of the two installations. From the NAS, both playlist entries show in the Control Point, but the "[Linn] Linn Radio Classical" (transcoded) entry fails to play, as described. The "Linn Radio Classical" entry plays normally. From the PC, only the "Linn Radio Classical" entry is visible, and plays normally. At the moment, I cannot think of a reason for this difference.

There are only two recent changes to my system that could conceivably have a bearing. Firstly my Linn players have been updated to Davaar 29. This implements the BBC HLS streams in the standard Linn/TuneIn arrangement (these streams cannot be transcoded as they bypass the server). Secondly, the transition to fibre-optic broadband meant that I had to change my router. The router is not in the path taken by the streamed music, but everything had to go on a different subnet, so I am running all devices on DHCP until I get round to allocating fixed addresses to those that should have them. I am inclined to think that these changes are not relevant, but I mention them just in case.

I'd be grateful for suggestions as to what I should investigate next.

David

[simoncn]

(21-05-2015 15:21)DavidHB Wrote:  There is a difference in the behaviour of the two installations. From the NAS, both playlist entries show in the Control Point, but the "[Linn] Linn Radio Classical" (transcoded) entry fails to play, as described. The "Linn Radio Classical" entry plays normally.

The stream that is failing to play needs to use ffmpeg for transcoding. Could there be some problem with your ffmpeg installation?

Quote:From the PC, only the "Linn Radio Classical" entry is visible, and plays normally. At the moment, I cannot think of a reason for this difference.

The stream ID might already have been used for another stream. If so, there will be an error message in the MinimServer log.

[DavidHB]

(21-05-2015 16:29)simoncn Wrote:  The stream that is failing to play needs to use ffmpeg for transcoding. Could there be some problem with your ffmpeg installation?

Possibly, though my MP3 test album is transcoding normally. I should have checked the log , and now see the message

HTTPSource: unknown host for URL http://radio.linnrecords.com/cast/tunein...aylist.pls

on the log for the NAS installation

(21-05-2015 16:29)simoncn Wrote:  The stream ID might already have been used for another stream. If so, there will be an error message in the MinimServer log.

Yes, I'm getting that kind of error from the PC installation. Here is the log message:

Error: playlist Playlists/test.m3u: duplicate stream ID 'Linn'
MinimServer[Bridge] is running
MinimStreamer: transcoding converter is 'C:\FFMPEG\bin\ffmpeg.exe'

What I don't quite understand is that I don't get this error on the NAS, even though the playlist files are identical in both installations. Nor am I sure why the location of FFMPEG is (correctly) displayed.

David

[simoncn]

(21-05-2015 17:05)DavidHB Wrote:  I should have checked the log , and now see the message

HTTPSource: unknown host for URL http://radio.linnrecords.com/cast/tunein...aylist.pls

on the log for the NAS installation

It sounds like your NAS no longer has access to the internet.

Quote:Yes, I'm getting that kind of error from the PC installation. Here is the log message:

Error: playlist Playlists/test.m3u: duplicate stream ID 'Linn'
MinimServer[Bridge] is running
MinimStreamer: transcoding converter is 'C:\FFMPEG\bin\ffmpeg.exe'

What I don't quite understand is that I don't get this error on the NAS, even though the playlist files are identical in both installations. Nor am I sure why the location of FFMPEG is (correctly) displayed.

David

The trancoding converter message is intended to confirm that the ffmpeg executable was located successfully at the location you specified.

The simplest solution is to change [Linn] in your test playlist to something else to resolve the conflict. Have you located the other playlist file containing this stream ID and have you confirmed that the [Linn] entry in this other playlist file exists and is visible on the NAS?

[DavidHB]

Thanks, Simon. All fixed now, with your help, for which many thanks. In case it helps anyone else, here's how. As you correctly surmised, I had two problems.

(21-05-2015 18:15)simoncn Wrote:  The transcoding converter message is intended to confirm that the ffmpeg executable was located successfully at the location you specified.

Noted. This message, in conjunction with the fact that music files were transcoding normally, was sufficient to confirm that the working of FFMPEG as such was not the issue.

(21-05-2015 18:15)simoncn Wrote:  The simplest solution is to change [Linn] in your test playlist to something else to resolve the conflict. Have you located the other playlist file containing this stream ID and have you confirmed that the [Linn] entry in this other playlist file exists and is visible on the NAS?

This is something I had not appreciated - the identifiers in square brackets must not be duplicated across the whole set of playlist files scanned by MinimServer. For this and other reasons, I guess that it makes sense to have only one playlist file for radio stations in normal use. Simply changing the test file as you suggested got the transcoded radio streams working from the PC. So in this case, the cause of the problem was just that familiar ghost in the machine, maintenance-induced unserviceability.

(21-05-2015 18:15)simoncn Wrote:  It sounds like your NAS no longer has access to the internet.

Once again, your diagnosis was correct, but the cause was a bit more interesting. The starting point was the change of router, with the consequent change of subnet, DHCP address range and Default Gateway. The NAS was using a DHCP-assigned IP address, which did change appropriately, but the DNS server address, which was supposed to change automatically, did not do so. Putting the NAS on a fixed IP address allowed the DNS Server address to be reassigned; making it the same as the Default Gateway (i.e. the router address) resolved the issue. I think that it makes sense to have the NAS on a fixed address, obviously on the same subnet as the router, but outside the range of addresses served by DHCP. I'd hate to have to explain that lot to someone unfamiliar with networking!

David