BBC radio streams not working

[simoncn]

(22-02-2015 20:44)PhilD Wrote:  Thanks, I used the 320 kbps radio 4 stream. Both are very similar. LMS takes 3 seconds to start audio after play has been pressed. The i83 takes between 3 and 4 seconds.

Thanks! I have been able to reproduce the stuttering problem here using multiple clients and I am thinking about a possible approach for solving this. (It isn't simple.) I will let you know when I have something working.

[PhilD]

(22-02-2015 21:38)simoncn Wrote:  

(22-02-2015 20:44)PhilD Wrote:  Thanks, I used the 320 kbps radio 4 stream. Both are very similar. LMS takes 3 seconds to start audio after play has been pressed. The i83 takes between 3 and 4 seconds.

Thanks! I have been able to reproduce the stuttering problem here using multiple clients and I am thinking about a possible approach for solving this. (It isn't simple.) I will let you know when I have something working.

Many thanks for your effort, it is very much appreciated. As it stands I'm happy streaming to a single device, so a solution isn't urgent for me. It's just good to know that this is a real phenomenon and I've not had you running around on a wild goose chase!

[PeteManchester]

(16-02-2015 16:38)simoncn Wrote:  

(10-02-2015 18:21)simoncn Wrote:  The BBC appears to have discontinued the AAC streams for national radio stations. These are being replaced by new HLS AAC streams. I am working on a technical solution to enable MinimStreamer to handle the new HLS streams.

This solution is now available in MinimStreamer 0.5.2. When you play an HLS stream via MinimStreamer, it is automatically converted to a "normal" AAC ADTS stream. The converted AAC stream can optionally be transcoded to other formats such as wav, wav24 or L16. It can also be recorded to an AAC ADTS file.

I have tested this with the BBC streams in the following .m3u playlist file:

Code:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,[*R1] BBC Radio 1
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_one.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R1X] BBC Radio 1Xtra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_1xtra.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R2] BBC Radio 2
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R3] BBC Radio 3
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_three.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R4] BBC Radio 4 FM
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_fourfm.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R4L] BBC Radio 4 LW
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_fourlw.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R4X] BBC Radio 4 Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_four_extra.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R5] BBC Radio 5 Live
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R5X] BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*R6] BBC Radio 6 Music
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_6music.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*AN] BBC Asian Network
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/high/ak/bbc_asian_network.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1,[*WS] BBC World Service
http://bbcwsen-lh.akamaihd.net/i/WSEIEUK_1@189911/master.m3u8

Edit: corrected some errors in the above stream URLs.

Hi Simon,

Is there an easy way to find the URLs of the BBC local radio streams.

Thanks,

Pete.

[simoncn]

(23-02-2015 10:53)PeteManchester Wrote:  Hi Simon,

Is there an easy way to find the URLs of the BBC local radio streams.

Thanks,

Pete.

See this post for a downloadable package containing these URLs.

[Ken]

I am streaming the 320 Kbps R4 stream to my Sonos system using minimserver on a Windows 7 laptop. Not much going on on the laptop, ostensibly, but we are talking Windows! However the stream is occasionally stuttering. Generally it picks up without intervention, but sometimes restarting via the Sonos Controller is required.

Someone has reported on the Sonos forums that they have experienced the same issues running minimserver on a Mac and a Raspberry pi.

I presume the fix addressed at PhilD's issue will hopefully fix the issue I am experiencing.

[simoncn]

(25-02-2015 18:39)Ken Wrote:  I am streaming the 320 Kbps R4 stream to my Sonos system using minimserver on a Windows 7 laptop. Not much going on on the laptop, ostensibly, but we are talking Windows! However the stream is occasionally stuttering. Generally it picks up without intervention, but sometimes restarting via the Sonos Controller is required.

Someone has reported on the Sonos forums that they have experienced the same issues running minimserver on a Mac and a Raspberry pi.

I presume the fix addressed at PhilD's issue will hopefully fix the issue I am experiencing.

The issue reported by PhilD relates to playing the same stream on multiple renderers at the same time. Are you doing this?

[simoncn]

(20-02-2015 21:47)Santelises Wrote:  Chain: error stopping chain
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.minimstreamer.HTTPRequestTarget.stop(HTTPRequestTarget.java:109)

This bug is now fixed in MinimStreamer 0.5.4.

[Ken]

(25-02-2015 18:56)simoncn Wrote:  

(25-02-2015 18:39)Ken Wrote:  I am streaming the 320 Kbps R4 stream to my Sonos system using minimserver on a Windows 7 laptop. Not much going on on the laptop, ostensibly, but we are talking Windows! However the stream is occasionally stuttering. Generally it picks up without intervention, but sometimes restarting via the Sonos Controller is required.

Someone has reported on the Sonos forums that they have experienced the same issues running minimserver on a Mac and a Raspberry pi.

I presume the fix addressed at PhilD's issue will hopefully fix the issue I am experiencing.

The issue reported by PhilD relates to playing the same stream on multiple renderers at the same time. Are you doing this?

No only to one Sonos player, and so long as I sync Sonos players playing the same source only one stream is taken from source and Sonos then re-sends that to the other Sonos players.

[Ken]

I think I had assumed the fix would increase the size of the buffer, thereby reducing stuttering.
Having said that I have been listening to Radio 4 for the last hour and as time has passed it seems to be more stable. I have not had to restart it.
I had also assumed that the BBC was responsible for some of the stuttering given that the MP3 streams definitely stutter quite a lot.

[simoncn]

(25-02-2015 19:29)Ken Wrote:  I think I had assumed the fix would increase the size of the buffer, thereby reducing stuttering.
Having said that I have been listening to Radio 4 for the last hour and as time has passed it seems to be more stable. I have not had to restart it.
I had also assumed that the BBC was responsible for some of the stuttering given that the MP3 streams definitely stutter quite a lot.

You could try setting delayHLS=10 in the new stream.options property as described in this post. This increases the stream delay from the real-time analogue signal. Please let me know whether this improves things.