Streaming problem with LG BD670

[valsolim]

Hello,

I have just bought Asset UPnP and have found out that its streaming doesn't work well with my renderer (LG BD670) on my setup (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, Linksys WRT54G router). It seems like the data packets are being damaged on the way. The resulting audio has regular artifacts - something like periodical clicking (approx. 2 times per second). Of course, at first I thought that it was caused by WiFi connection so I tried to lower the bitrate and I also tried a standard wired connection, however, it didn't mitigate the problem at all. I have also tried two other media servers (Nero Mediahome and Jamcast) and they work absolutely okay on the same setup. The processing power of my machine is also more than sufficient for this task (Intel Core i5, 6 GB RAM) and the problem appears regardless of whether I use transcoding or not. Streaming audio card output through WASAPI is affected as well.

Do you have any chance to test Asset UPnP on the same setup (W7 64bit, LG BD670), or could you possibly send a debug version of Asset to me so that I could send some transmission logs back to you?

Do you have another suggestion for me? I really want to use Asset since the other two media servers I tried don't give me the features I'm looking for.

Thanks for your help!
--
Miloslav

[Spoon]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

As UPnP is based on TCP, it is not possible for the data to get damaged on the way, it either gets there or not. When there is no transcoding, Asset gives out the file as it, this is a very simple transaction, not much can go wrong there.

Anyhow, try R3.1 in the beta section of the forum.

[valsolim]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

As UPnP is based on TCP, it is not possible for the data to get damaged on the way, it either gets there or not. When there is no transcoding, Asset gives out the file as it, this is a very simple transaction, not much can go wrong there.

Anyhow, try R3.1 in the beta section of the forum.

Yes, I understand, but maybe some packets do not get through or the audio stream is not reassembled properly on the other side, I don't know... The strange thing is that my problem is specific to Asset. The other servers either don't transcode the formats I want or they have other drawbacks, but the basic streaming to LG BD670 works well with them.

I forgot to mention: I have already tried the R3.1beta. Unfortunately, it didn't solve this problem.

Can you see some possibility to cope with this issue? As a long time dBpoweramp user, I'm open to cooperate with you on identifying the problem ;-)

Best regards
--
Miloslav

[Spoon]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

It is not possible to debug from the server side, only the player side, after all it is requesting the data and rebuilding it at the other end. Try reporting to LG.

[RLANE]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

I read on another forum the the LG devices sometimes have problems with the wireless N protocol. You might try (I know not how with your GL device) only enabling the G WI-FI protocol.

[valsolim]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

Hello, RLANE,

I read on another forum the the LG devices sometimes have problems with the wireless N protocol. You might try (I know not how with your GL device) only enabling the G WI-FI protocol.

thanks for the suggestion but my router is already G-only, moreover, the problem persists even on the wired connection.

There must be really a problem with streaming input files or re-assembling the audio stream on the other side. I have observed that for some files from my library (e.g. for MP3 in less usual bitrates like 263 kbps) the resulting audio output is completely broken in time domain. It sounds so bad as if somebody cut the incoming audio into small pieces and play them in a different order.

Best regards
--
Miloslav

[valsolim]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

Hello,

after I switched the debug logging on I have found two problems with the combination of Asset UPnP and LG BD670:

1. Asset UPnP transcodes every format (even MP3) into WAV, regardless of the fact that I have left the MP3 files to play "as is". And LG BD670 can play MP3's for sure...

2. LG BD670 communicates with the server in quite an imperative way: during normal playback, it always incrementally asks for consecutive sample ranges. LG says: "Give me the samples from 2048 to 10443". Then, after a while: "Give me the samples from 10444 to 20413", and so on. Asset has to reopen the given file at every iteration and extract just the given sample range from the file.

I'm not sure but I'm afraid that decoders are not ready for this mode of work, therefore, the beginnings and ends of the resulting sample ranges could be possibly modified. This would explain those regular clicks that I can hear during playback of CBR files and also the total mess I can hear during playback of VBR files.

I have read somewhere that Jamcast, for instance, solves this behaviour of certain renderers by so called "EnableSeekTrickMode" option. I assume that Jamcast in this mode disobeys the requests for streaming just a small sample range and sends the whole track to the renderer instead.

So, could you, please, tell me what shall I do to overcome the first mentioned problem?

And what do you think about the second problem and my hypothesis? ;-)

Thanks for reply and best regards!
--
Miloslav

[Spoon]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

Asset offers 4 streams for each track, for example an mp3 would be:

mp3
wav
lpcm
mp3

For some reason the LG is picking a middle one (which is only there for compatibility reasons, such as a player which cannot play a format).

[MikeTheCat]

Re: Streaming problem with LG BD670

I got exactly the same problem.