Streaming continued with NAS turned off

[paulM]

I am a recent user and a self confessed computer luddite. I upgraded to the full licence for one reason only - to get Radio Paradise back after it stopped coming through TuneIn. Whilst I didn't think I would be able to get it going without begging for help, I was pleasantly surprised that even with my limited knowledge, I got it working with the minimum fuss, thanks to borrowing some scripts written by others.

I had a power cut yesterday that caused mayhem on my network. It took a while to get the various items of kit to reappear on my network, but when I had both the NAS and my DS visible, I tried to stream some radio. To my surprise, none of the BBC HLS streams worked but the Radio Paradise streams did. My computer knowledge is usually limited to rebooting and hoping for the best, so my next step was to turn the NAS off. Radio Paradise was streaming at the time, but I expected that it would stop when the NAS powered down. To my amazement, it continued to play. I left the NAS turned off for half an hour, just to make sure - and it continued to play for the entire time.

When I powered back up, everything returned to normal, so I have no issue to resolve but I am incredibly curious as to how/why the radio continued to play when the NAS, through which it streams, was turned off?

By the way, my wife and I are delighted to have Radio Paradise back, so thank you for providing a means with which to do it. Hopefully she will stop playing that bloody Harry Stiles CD now and our marriage will be saved!!

[simbun]

(18-02-2022 14:17)paulM Wrote:  When I powered back up, everything returned to normal, so I have no issue to resolve but I am incredibly curious as to how/why the radio continued to play when the NAS, through which it streams, was turned off?

What's the definition of the Radio Paradise stream in your playlist?

The format is:

Code:

#EXTINF:-1, [id;type,samplerate,channels] Name of Radio Station

If you don't specify an id e.g. [;aac,48000] then you're not actually using MinimStreamer at all, your control point is just handing off the radio URL it received from MinimServer and your DS is playing it directly.

The BBC HLS streams generally require MinimStreamer (especially if you used the example here), hence they weren't working

[paulM]

The Radio Paradise bit in my playlist is:-

#EXTINF:-1, Main Mix
http://stream.radioparadise.com/flacm

I'm fairly sure that I got it from an old post in this forum from a few years ago.

The BBC HLS playlist came from the minimserver website. It was the first one I tried when I upgraded because I thought it would be the most reliable one to make my first test with. Given that it worked first time, it seemed a pretty good choice. The BBC playlist looks like:-

#EXTINF:-1,[R2;aac,48000] BBC Radio 2
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/man...o_two.m3u8

The Radio Paradise one took a little longer, but fell into place when I found the right advice in this forum.

I don't understand the bit about using or not using minimstreamer. Is one better than the other and am I doing something wrong with either of the playlists?

I also still don't quite understand how it can work with the NAS turned off. Like I said, I'm a computer luddite!

[simbun]

MinimStreamer is used for modifying audio, whether it be for a local file or a remote stream like a radio station.

Typical uses are for:
Compatibility, for when your renderer doesn't support a particular format
Enhancement, like applying replaygain or room correction (look here for more details)

Most renderers don't support the streaming format HLS (HTTP Live streaming), so MinimStreamer can - on the fly - convert this to a format that your renderer does support.

The definition of your BBC stream (the R2 value in the declaration) tells MinimServer to use MinimStreamer to convert the radio station into a more supported format, so your renderer is actually sent a URL that points back to MinimStreamer instead of the BBC site itself.
You could take the R2 out leaving '#EXTINF:-1,[;aac,48000] BBC Radio 2', but I doubt your renderer will be able to play it.

On the other hand, your Radio Paradise station is being sent to your renderer as is, and because your renderer supports FLAC (which is the format Radio Paradise uses) it simply connects to the site and starts to play it without any further interaction from MinimServer (or your NAS which is why it continued to play).

Personally, for radio stations I'll try and avoid the overhead of the conversion, but obviously that's not always possible; the BBC for example are moving toward using HLS and MPEG-DASH exclusively, so if your renderer doesn't support it, you have no other option.

For local music I apply replaygain, so MinimStreamer is always in the picture there.

[paulM]

Oh my goodness, this conversation has brought up an issue I had almost forgotten about. I'd ripped over 1000 CD's before I found out that my Linn DS did not support ReplayGain. I've done over 2000 now and I still rip with ReplayGain, but have never been able to use it. Can MinimStreamer make ReplayGain work on a Linn DS?

[simbun]

(18-02-2022 18:44)paulM Wrote:  Oh my goodness, this conversation has brought up an issue I had almost forgotten about. I'd ripped over 1000 CD's before I found out that my Linn DS did not support ReplayGain. I've done over 2000 now and I still rip with ReplayGain, but have never been able to use it. Can MinimStreamer make ReplayGain work on a Linn DS?

Yes :-)
I assume you mean that the replaygain tags were added as part of the ripping process?

[paulM]

I rip with dBpoweramp. The ReplayGain setting has been on since the first CD.

[simbun]

Perfect.
The required changes are detailed in that post but if you have any problems just let us know.