SlimPlayer Internet Radio plugin

[jphipps]

One issue I have seen, is that the H2 database TCP port is the same as the one used by slimplayer. The Ortus plugins use the H2 database.

One thing you can try, is go into the H2 plugin and change the tcp port by 1 number and then it won't conflict. As long as you change the H2 port on the server and all the clients, the Ortus plugins should work fine...

Thanks,
Jeff

[alton987]

I have already changed the ports. I'm still at a loss. Maybe some of these screen shots will help?

[dlevey]

I am struggling to make this work.

Sage server 7 running on WHS.
Extender
Client

I followed the instructions to install.
I can see the softsqueeze in the squeeze server webpage, and I renamed it Extender.
I configured everything in the options on the extender.

I can't power on the slimplayer on the extender, nor on the client.

I can power on the extender slimplayer via the squeeze web page and select stations, and they play to the audio output looping back through a capture card. If I tune in the capture card on live tv I can hear it (most of the time) I just can't power on the player in sage.

On the extender, I am supposed to have the Player Mac Address as the server Mac address, correct?

As I understand this, in the case of an extender, the softsqueeze software is created by the sageserver and output on the host via the physical audio out, and is then picked up by sage on the capture channel, which is then played by the plugin; right?

[rwc]

I'm not trying to steal the thread (so if I'm being rude and should post in a new thread please let me know)..but I've got 2 questions/issues that are killing me!

1. I use iPeng to control the various "slim" devices in the house..it works great with the plug in...but when I want to start watchign a video, I have to start the video, press stop, and then start it again otherwise there's no audio...is a known issue?

2. When the machine goes to sleep--after I wake it up, I can't poweron the slimplayer, I need to exit sage and start it up again...

Any ideas on how I can resolve these?

THANKS!

rwc

[dlevey]

I forgot.

I see a lot of these in the server log for Squeeze server

[11-05-16 16:55:02.1822] Slim::Networking::IO::Select::__ANON__ (146) Error: Select task failed calling Slim::Web::HTTP::sendStreamingResponse: illegal file descriptor or filehandle (either no attached file descriptor or illegal value): at /<C:\Program Files\Squeezebox\server\SqueezeSvr.exe>Slim/Networking/IO/Select.pm line 149.
; fh=Slim::Web::HTTP::ClientConn=GLOB(0x78859dc)

[mkanet]

Okay for those that are completely lost in getting slimplayer to work. Lets take a couple of steps back...

Before replying on this thread again, try to get Logitech Squeezebox Server to work with Logitech softsqueeze client on a any PC or laptop on your LAN (changing channels, navigating, playing audio, etc). Be sure to install the java mp3 plugin on the client box. If you're not able to do even that, then you need to visit logitech's support forum and ask your questions there on how to get things workin. This shouldn't be too hard; as they were designed this to work with almost no instructions. I know if I can do it, you guys definitely can do it.

Once you get SBS--> Softsqueeze 3.9b2 to work properly/reliably, I dont think you even have to configure slimplayer if its on the same PC as Softsqueeze (since they share the same configurations).

If you want to get it to work on your extender after doing this,
all you need is a working sound card on your WHS (even a cheapo builtin sound card in the motherboard like my Realtek audio and any cheap old-fashioned analog TV capture card that sageTV supports (and is added to sageTV's list of capture devices). The analog video/audio capture card I use is the Hauppauge 950Q (which would connect to the WHS box via USB and is setup to be the loopback device in slimplayer. The sound card's output should go into the audio input of the analog TV capture card. You dont have to use an analog capture card; but that makes things much more time consuming to setup.... I didnt even go down that route.

One more thing, make sure that your server nor client doesnt go to standby. Settings things to standby causes problems; in fact, SBS has a plugin to prevent standby.

-MKANET

[alton987]

Squeezeboxis fine on my host PC. The screen shoot is form the host PC. I can listen fine through the WebUi for SoftSquezze but SAGETV does not pick it up. As you can see in the screen shoot the Squeezebox\Softsqeeze is running fine but I do not have a option to power on the server in my slim player. My issue is with slimplayer detecting the Squeeze server.

[mkanet]

Alton, sorry if this seems a bit harsh, but please read my previous post.

You need to get this working with Logitech products FIRST. How is the server/softsqueeze "running fine" if you cant even turn it on/listen to radio on Softsqueze? (nothing to do with sageTV/slimplayer). Im almost certain once you get that working, the rest will fall right into place.

There are many, many people on Softsqueeze forum that can help you get started. I doubt your setup is that much different than other people's. You may want to make sure your Windows firewalls aren't blocking either of the "Slim" protocol ports on both server and client. That would definitely cause the symptom youre mentioning.

Again, getting these two logitech products isnt meant to be that hard. The forum will help you get started.

Originally Posted by alton987

Squeezeboxis fine on my host PC. The screen shoot is form the host PC. I can listen fine through the WebUi for SoftSquezze but SAGETV does not pick it up. As you can see in the screen shoot the Squeezebox\Softsqeeze is running fine but I do not have a option to power on the server in my slim player. My issue is with slimplayer detecting the Squeeze server.

[alton987]

Does my screen shot not show my squeeze box working? I can listen to music fine in. the web squeeze soft client.

[mkanet]

Show me a screenshot of softsqueeze working (like below), then we can go from there.

Originally Posted by alton987

Does my screen shot not show my squeeze box working? I can listen to music fine in. the web squeeze soft client.

[Wirenut]

Did you try Autoload = True?

I have it set that way in my setup and it works very well. You may have to restart the server and the client if you're running the Sage Service.

Just thinkin' "out loud" here... and perhaps, if that doesn't work, try disabling any firewall... just to see if it's getting blocked. I'm assuming you're running SqueezeBox Server on the same machine, local machine, as the SageTV server... this is what I do.

[mkanet]

I thought of that too. But, if he can't get it to work with softsqueeze (and has the same behavior, it wont make a difference. Softsqueeze doesnt have an autoload feature. It turns on automatically if it can see the server. That's why I asked him to check firefox settings. Just because sageTV client can see the server, doesnt mean the slim protocol port(s) are reachable. Or, or it could be an audio problem. Bottom line, there's no setting in sageTV/slimplayer that can make this work if it doesnt work on the same machine that has softsqueeeze. The PC it's playing back on has to have a valid sound card selected (this can be done in softsqueeze and also slimplayer).

Originally Posted by Wirenut

Did you try Autoload = True?

I have it set that way in my setup and it works very well. You may have to restart the server and the client if you're running the Sage Service.

Just thinkin' "out loud" here... and perhaps, if that doesn't work, try disabling any firewall... just to see if it's getting blocked. I'm assuming you're running SqueezeBox Server on the same machine, local machine, as the SageTV server... this is what I do.

[Wirenut]

Originally Posted by alton987

Squeezeboxis fine on my host PC. The screen shoot is form the host PC. I can listen fine through the WebUi for SoftSquezze but SAGETV does not pick it up. As you can see in the screen shoot the Squeezebox\Softsqeeze is running fine but I do not have a option to power on the server in my slim player. My issue is with slimplayer detecting the Squeeze server.

He does say he can "listen fine" through the WebUi for Softsqueeze [this is really the SqueezeBoxServer WebUI and lists the attached players]. And the webui recognizes the Softsqueeze player as valid in his screenshot.

@Alton, you might want to take a look here.. http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/index.html
The softsqueeze player is essentially run headless via SageTV for a UI. But MKANET's screenshot is of one of the actual softsqueeze UI's available... Your screenshot is of the SqueezeBoxServer WebUI, which indeed can control the softsqueeze player, but from a different method. So you gotta be very close.

@MKANET What version of softsqueeze.jar are you running? I see there's a relatively new release of 3.9b2... I'm not sure what version I'm running at the moment I'm at work. Just curious....

[mkanet]

Hey Wirenut, thanks so much for your help.

I actually have softsqueeze 3.9b2 running on various PC's on my LAN; and, through VPN (I'm currently at work too... listening to my softsqueeze client coincidentally). For testing purposes, I wanted to see if he could simply run softsqueeze on a client PC on his LAN; which doesnt need softsqueeze installed locally on the server for this test (I used to run softsqueeze on my client PCs without ever having to install softsqueeze on the server at all (this is even before I had sageTV installed on the server). In fact, softsqueeze doesnt even need to be installed on the server or anywhere else to get slimplayer to work on an extender in SYNCH mode. Slimplayer on an extender (runnning in SYNCH mode) is essentially similar to running softsqueeze headless on the server. The only trick through is on WHS, I dont know if it can produce audio locally you need a valid sound card that can send sound to windows audio renderer and out the speaker jack (maybe need virtual cable software for a virtual sound card). I dont know how it would work without being logged into the server since I've never tried. But bottom line, there needs to be a valid audio device producing sound reliably for the player to start. I am able to make my softsqueeze client "not start" as well if I change to an invalid sound card using just softsqueeze client on any machine; including the server... Maybe that's the cause..

BTW, when the slimplayer plugin is installed, it automatically includes the latest jar from softsqueeze. That's all that's needed for slimplayer

Originally Posted by Wirenut

He does say he can "listen fine" through the WebUi for Softsqueeze [this is really the SqueezeBoxServer WebUI and lists the attached players]. And the webui recognizes the Softsqueeze player as valid in his screenshot.

@Alton, you might want to take a look here.. http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/index.html
The softsqueeze player is essentially run headless via SageTV for a UI. But MKANET's screenshot is of one of the actual softsqueeze UI's available... Your screenshot is of the SqueezeBoxServer WebUI, which indeed can control the softsqueeze player, but from a different method. So you gotta be very close.

@MKANET What version of softsqueeze.jar are you running? I see there's a relatively new release of 3.9b2... I'm not sure what version I'm running at the moment I'm at work. Just curious....

[dlevey]

My setup is this.

Sagetv7 running on a "headed" (not headless) WHS server.

Squeeze Server running on the WHS Server.

Multiple PC clients and an extender.

Slimplayer will not power on in any of the clients or extender.

I have installed softsqueeze on a client PC and it plays content from the squeezeserver just fine.

I installed and run softsqueeze from the server just fine (note this is softsqueeze running on the squeezeserver host, which is also the sagetv server, which should be simulating what using the extender requires in order to function, ie no clients involved at all).

with softsqueeze running, if I launch the sagetv UI on the server, softsqueeze stops working and just blinks the display on and off, and has no sound or stuttered sound. The Slimplayer still will not power from the client ui running on the server, nor from any other client or extender location.

Note that on several occasions, after the test just described, after closing the sage ui client on the server, softsqueeze does not return to functioning, even after powering it off and back on. Sometimes bouncing the sagetv service helps, sometimes a total reboot is needed.

I can understand them both not playing nice at once, as I believe only one softsqueeze installation per box will work, but, softsqueeze works just fine on the server without sage. Sage doesn't run Slimplayer at all.

Here's some screenshots.

First is softsqueeze running on the server.

Second is sage UI starting with softsqueeze running, and 3'rd is once sage is up, softsqueeze starts freaking out.

[dlevey]

oh, here's a couple more screenshots

[dlevey]

hate to keep doing it, but here's one more.

This is from the server that hosts sagetv and squeezeserver.

This is softsqueeze playing successfully on the server with the server ui in the background showing the streaming to the locally running softsqueeze instance.

It has been renamed to Extender on the Server ui.

[mkanet]

Thanks. I think I have an idea what's going on. Check your softsqueeze on your server while its on/playing... under its settings see what audio mixer it's using. It might be using the default mixer; which under RDP, it will use Remote Playback (Microsoft RDP Audio Transport); which is a valid virtual sound card. However, you dont have that virtual audio device available to you when you're outside of your RDP session. If this is true, the answer to the problem is in my previous post. The best guess I have right now based on all the information youve given me, its as simple as providing an audio device that's usable on the server. Can you check to see what audio devices you have to choose from in your softsqueeze preferences under audio mixer besides Primary sound driver, Java sound driver, and RDP Audio Transport? I think you need to focus on providing a valid sound card (virtual or real) that softsqueeze/slimplayer can use. None of your screenshots show what's under audio settings on your slimplayer clients (not on your server). Note, you can't have both softsqueeze and slimplayer both running at the same time on your server at the same time.. otherwise, it tries to flip back and forth between the two; causing a flickering effect.

If you can't get your onboard audio device (on your server) to show up under slimplayer's audio settings (on sageTV client not on the server), then you should try to see if you can get "Virtual Audio Cable" http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm to work on the server; and recognized as a valid audio device.

Unfortunately, I dont have much experience with WHS nor Virtual Audio Cable. However, I know there are people who use Virtual Audio Cable with Slimplayer SYNCH mode on their extenders... Im just not sure if they have WHS servers or not.

Thanks!

[dlevey]

All though I was in an rdp sessions for those examples, all is the same at the console of the box.

As noted in my earlier posts, I am not using the virtual audio loopback, I am using a hardware loopback.

Slimplayer is configured to use the local audio hardware (Realtech HD Audio). I have also tried to change it to the Java Sound driver with no luck.

I do have an additional piece of info, however. Even though the power on doesn't work, nor any softsqueeze interface control in any Sage client or extender, the audio is being sent to the audio out only when Sage UI is loaded on the server, or when it is launched from the extender.

I pulled the loopback cord and plugged in a speaker, and sound.

Pluggin the loopbak in and tuning to the Live TV on the capture card input, badly broken up and barely audible sound sometimes.

[mkanet]

Oh okay, now it makes more sense. You definitely need to use your realtek sound card that's used by your loopback channel. If the only way to get your TV tuner loopback channel to produce audio by having the sageTV client loaded on the server, then will have to keep that enabled. It sounds like that's the only way you can get your WHS server to produce audio when slimplayer needs it.

Lets put it this way, when you have softsqueeze playing audio through your realtek speakers... connected to your analog capture card on your server, you HAVE to be able to reliably tune into that "TV" channel on any client that's not on the server (without using slimplayer) and hear the audio every time. The popping and clicking can be fixed by changing encoding quality of the tuner in sageTV... we can address that later.. as long as what I said in this paragraph can be done reliably any time; which means, from what you said, you need the local server's sageTV client UI open at all times.

One more note, make sure that Windows firewall is disabled on the server and clients for testing purposes while trying to get softsqueeze to turn on. Once the firerwalls are disabled, then start playing with the settings on the softsqueeze client.

Originally Posted by dlevey

All though I was in an rdp sessions for those examples, all is the same at the console of the box.

As noted in my earlier posts, I am not using the virtual audio loopback, I am using a hardware loopback.

Slimplayer is configured to use the local audio hardware (Realtech HD Audio). I have also tried to change it to the Java Sound driver with no luck.

I do have an additional piece of info, however. Even though the power on doesn't work, nor any softsqueeze interface control in any Sage client or extender, the audio is being sent to the audio out only when Sage UI is loaded on the server, or when it is launched from the extender.

I pulled the loopback cord and plugged in a speaker, and sound.

Pluggin the loopbak in and tuning to the Live TV on the capture card input, badly broken up and barely audible sound sometimes.