jSub and Subair stalling - anyone know why?

[jeffcavicchi]

Both applications stall when I use them - I don't think they are overruning the download rate, they just seem to hang every once in a while. I have the latest versions of both programs and AIR, and I have no problem streaming music directly from the Subsonic website. I'd like to use a desktop app, but not if it is going to hang...

In addition to the random stalling, if I pause playback and then try to resume, in either application, everything freezes until I clear the playlist and then reload...

Anyone else having these issues? Any solutions? I have added both programs to the list of "Allowed" programs in Windows Firewall - no change.

[GJ51]

I've used Subair from time to time without any of the problems you describe. The Demo site only has 128kbps music on it. If you don't have a problem with 128kbps music from your site, but see issues at higher bit rates, you'll need to look at how much load is being drawn on your server at the higher rates, and your transcoding settings.

[jeffcavicchi]

So, where is the best place to adjust bitrate? Under the player settings? Or under the User settings? I;m not really sure how the two differ...

The interesting thing is that I can stream music at the higher bitrates via the web interface without any problems...

[GJ51]

I'd be guessing that it can be set in the Settings/Transcoding in the lame settings in step 2, but I'm not the expert. Stozher is the man to answer transcoding questions.

It does seem strange that everything works fine in the browser, but has problems with Subair. What format are your music files?

[jeffcavicchi]

They are all mp3s, in the 200-300 bitrate range - nothing special. I don't think it is a bitrate issue, because the problem occurs most often when I pause playback and then try to resume. When using Winamp the problem happens less often, and the error message I get there is "Troubling syncing stream."

Seems more like the various players are losing their connection to the server, and then can't quite figure out where to resume playback.

[GJ51]

You are welcome to try testing on my server.

http://maplegrove.subsonic.org

guest
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to see if you get similar problems. That way we can tell if it's the server or the application.

[jeffcavicchi]

Thanks Gary! I'll give it a try and let you know. I adjusted all of my bitrates down to 196 max, and that seems to have fixed all but one problem - I still cannot pause a song and then resume at the same place. I can pause and then start the song over again at the beginning...

I suspect this is a glitch in Subair, though, and not related to the stalling/hanging problem - that problem seems to have been resolved by adjusting the bitrates down.

[GJ51]

I just retested my Subair and it does not exhibit the same behavior. When I pause/resume the seek indicator displays a jump back to the starting position and then jumps back to the resume spot and begins play at that point. The fact that your not seeing the same behavior may be indicating either a problem with the app install or it could be something missing in the music track itself.

[jeffcavicchi]

Interesting - is there any lag between the time it jumps back and the time it starts to play? Mine does the same thing - jumps to the beginning and then jumps back - but never seems to resume play. Maybe I'm just not waiting long enough? I'll give it more time and see if it restarts - and I'll try my Subair install using your server and see what happens.

Thanks for helping with this!

[GJ51]

I don't observe any lag, the seek marker just jumps to the 0:00 mark and then returns to where it was and resumes the playback.

[jeffcavicchi]

Something very odd is happening - I get no skipping, no problem with pause and resume, etc, when using the web interface at 192kbps. But, when I try to run through Subair, I get occasional skipping and the pause function just doesn't work. Something is getting lost in the transition from the server to Subair - not sure what. I am going to just keep reducing the bitrate to Subair and see if eventually the pause function works...

Of course, I can just use the web interface, which works just fine. At this point I am pursuing this more out of curiosity than anything else.

Anyone have a way to contact the programmer responsible for Subair? I'd like to see if he has any ideas...