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Jojamela Soon · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:57 pm Post subject: Stream skips and drops

We very seldom have trouble with our stream at SC, but twice now, with the same artist, I've had big problems with the stream skipping, warbling and dropping (usually for just a few seconds- maybe a buffering problem?)

I tried listening to the stream via winamp instead of SL just to make sure it's not a SL problem. At this point I think the problem may be on the artists's end. They're using a cable connection so it should not be a bandwidth problem. It also doesn't happen when the artist is just talking, only with the singing and guitar playing.

Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be so I can give some advice?
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Distilled1 · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 392 Location: Chicago

its cable ...cable SUCKS! ... well at least any comcast if they are in a populated area and many homes are connected at the same time.

I know a couple people that have this issue off and on, only while singing and playing but talking is fine... so maybe I am wrong with the comcast jumped aheas not reading. Could this be an issue with the computers power supply? just wondering if the soundcard is trying to possess more than a simpler sound and taking power from the earthnet card? or ??? never thought about that, I think we should pop this into the help with tech issues, it could be a simple as a bad mic maybe ??? or a sound card we all want to stay away from.

next artist I have with this issue I am going to try and collect their specs what card computer connection music hard/software etc. see if maybe we can find a constant with this eh?
EDIT:Maybe wi-fi and not wired connection? that will do it for sure
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RayW · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 563 Location: Twin Cities, MN

One thing about voice vs music, drops and skips are a lot more obvious on music. Voice can get away with a lot of errors.

The other thing is the CABLE. Quality depends on how many subscribers are online at any given moment.

Plus, I had a minor issue when I first got cable...lots of drop-outs. Someone told me to look at the lower channels (2-5) to see the quality. And, yes, mine was bad. And my bad service tracked with my bad reception. Got a cable tech in. Turned out to be a poor "T" connector on my line, near where it came in the house. Pulled it (didn't need it) and things have been great ever since.

Just some ideas. Could be the computer, card, mixer (if has one), mic or any cable inbetween.
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luketemplar · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 314 Location: United Kingdom

i think the problem may be due to processor power more than bandwidth. Marijkie Freenote suffered terribly from sound skipping when trying to stream and run SL at the same time. Problem was worse when singing quickly - less noticable when talking and with slow songs. When she tried with 2 seperate computers her sound was flawless. Obviously this isn't an option for everyone but reducing SL to running at the bare minimum requirements and keeping your camera focused on a very small part of the venue which has no avatars may help.
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Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1184 Location: Rhode Island

Cable, so long it's connected correctly, is still the fastest connection you can get. FIOS looks cool but check out the price tag.

If you're getting skips, ask the performer to check the quality setting on the stream. Any higher than 64K is going into dangerous territory unless s/he is getting red-hot performance out of the line. Many people are running home LANs. If another computer on that LAN is doing something, that will suck up bandwidth and cause drops. Consider dropping the bandwidth you're allowing SL to consume when you're performing so the audio stream will have a better shot.

Sure, sometimes it's the network jacking you around but usually it's because the line is over-saturated at the source (i.e. you're doing it to yourself).

One more: if you have been using Skype, make sure it's shut completely off.
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ticious · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 2085 Location: Chicago

I once had a MAJOR problem where the stream was skipping horribly but only for European listeners. It was perfect for American and Canadian listeners. Outside SL, in WinAmp, it was perfect in the US and Canada, but the Europeans couldn't even connect.

I got hold of my stream provider, he detected nothing (he was in the US) and said it was probably the listener's isp. I pointed out that there were 40 odd effected listeners in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands all having the same problem and that I could NOT believe they were all just coincidentally having the same ISP problem. He got on the phone to his provider as I switched to my back up stream (which worked flawlessly).

It turned out to be some sort of hardware problem in a downstream relay and was effecting ALL of the streams my provider was supporting at that time. His provider fixed the hardware problem and then all was well again.
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Haroldthe Burrel · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:41 pm Post subject:

I'm no tech, but I was told it was all about the higher bitrate uploading like Silas says. One person to talk to about this would be Melvin Took if you can get hold of him in world. He spoke on this subject to a large group in Menorca one day. Maybe Slim or Silas can remember.

HtB
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Vincent Merricks · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 15

I'm the artist that Jojamela mentioned. It's not my current mixer causing the problem as it happened even worse with the previous sound interface I used. We have Comcast hi-speed internet service. I am using my laptop and it is a wireless connection. I can't go direct because of the location of the router/modem, which is in My mother-in-law's room because that room is in the center of the house. My music equipment is a few rooms away. I'm using am Alesis Multimix8 USB sound interface. USB because the laptop doesn't have a built in sound card. We do have multiple computers connected at the same time. Usually only mine and my mother-in-law's, which is connected via ethernet cable to the router/modem and she rarely does more than check her mail and have Yahoo messenger and Weatherbug running.

We have had a problem recently being disconnected for anywhere from a few seconds to a minute at a time on both the wired and wireless systems. Luckily it only happened once during a performance and it reconnected quickly and automatically. This happens off and on all day and I'm looking into what the problem may be, but it seems to be an issue that may have to do with Comcast and not with us or the wireless although we do lose local networking when this happens. I don't think it would cause the skipping either, but maybe a period of 30 seconds or so wothout sound. We recently got a new Linksys router/modem from Comcast because of longer lasting connection issues we were having a few months ago.

I have used both Simplecast and Winamp/ShoutCast to stream. It seems to be worse with SimpleCast (I know, that's strange). The SimplCast settings I used are MP3Pro, 64kb/s, 44.1khz, stereo. The Winamp settings are: for Input, Soundcard (rather than Winamp) and 44.1Hz Stereo. The encoder settings are MP3, 64kbps, 22.050kHz, Stereo. I'd appreciate any help with this issue and I'm running pings and other tests to show Comcast and see if they can help with the intermittent connection problems.
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luketemplar · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 314 Location: United Kingdom

Like any symptom there's usually more than one diagnosis possibility to the problem - consider then a 'simple' to 'complicated' approach. if lowering the bitrate doesn't help, consider asking the performer to try streaming without SL running. If none work consider speaking to the stream provider.
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ticious · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 2085 Location: Chicago