Topic: iHeart problem and sound problem

My problem is that I try to play a iHeart station and no sound and then no sound from any other station coming out of iHeart. I have to restart Chum to play music. iHeart seems to mess with the sound output. ??? If I don't go to iHeart no problem.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

2 (edited by leo_keil 2016-07-12 09:30:27)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I've been putting up with that problem for years. A reboot fixes it, but it's still frustrating.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Hmmm, OK, I don't think I've heard of that problem.  I'll see if I can reproduce and determine the cause.  It's possible that IHR is doing something out-of-spec for the music subsystem.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Does it ever reboot, say "Initializing?"
I noticed that symptom with Pandora and "My Music Files", that last just this evening.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Like the above, my classic would shut off the iheart app randomly (usually if I had the sleep timer set to greater than 60 minutes). Rebooting always fixed the problem... however as of yesterday, iheart won't play at all.  Reboots don't help. Any suggestions?

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I have no sound on Iheart right now.
Pandora works, but Iheart, no output. I tried different stations.
I am rebooting.
The reboot did not restore function.
I think Iheart is down at least for Chumby.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

iheart works fine on my computer, just not Chumby, not sure what happened. Glad to hear it is not just me.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I agree, it works fine on a computer, but no sound on Chumby. This started a day or so ago.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Haven't used iHeart in while but I used to have problems with it losing sound. I would restart and that would fix it.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

10 (edited by Steevo 2017-10-17 07:16:30)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Iheart is still not working. I have rebooted. It just has no sound.
Pandora works.
Is this a server problem? 
Does anyone have Iheart working on chumby today?

11 (edited by demarks51 2017-10-17 07:52:21)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I will try to go to iHeart tonight and see what happens. I am curious now. I have my ChumDash where I normally sit and it does not have iHeart available yet. I'll get back with you on this. I do think some stations have been changed from the iHeart side. Even when it worked I would hit a Country station and it would play classic rock or something.
It may be time to recreate the iHeart app. I would like to see YouStreams return as a music choice. Or Music Choice. Amazon Music? Google Music? Any other music app?

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I'm investigating the iHeartRadio issue, will let you know what I find out.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I tried iHeart music yesterday and most of the links to stations did not work. I did find a couple that did work. I like Classica and it did not work. I noticed a while back that some of the stations marked say as country station was now a hits radio. I think iHeart has been doing some big changes. That may be the reason for some of the links to stations are not working.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

14 (edited by Steevo 2017-10-18 18:51:42)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I did a little further testing. I didn't find any Iheart stations that worked at first glance, and I was looking at Los Angeles.
One thing I noticed, the station logos do not load. The square is black.
As you recall some time ago I brought up that one station had a Christmas styled logo on the Chumby and Duane said that the station logos had not been refreshed since the new server went live.
He refreshed it and the logo was normal.
Now, the logo is blank. So if the logo is supposed to come from the Chumby server, it's not anymore.
That might be a clue.

I looked at some different cities, and I found that a Knoxville, TN station, "evolution" does play. But again no logo loads.
I tested further and all the listed Knoxville, TN stations play. 9 of them. No logos though.
I checked Pueblo, CO and none of those stations play.
Some of the stations in Springfield, MA play.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Same here. Looks like iHeart has done major changes to their lineup in many cities. Don't know if you refresh server that it will fix it. No logos are loading. I am not an iheart fan but have listened to it. Wish we could add another music source like slacker or amazon.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

It may be that Iheart is doing away with cities, and some of their content seems to not be actual physical radio stations anymore. For example some of those entries are appearing in multiple cities now, and have no call letters or frequency. There's a entry that just says "smooth jazz" and I saw it in various cities. So not a real station, and no actual city, more like a genre.

17 (edited by Steevo 2017-10-19 16:38:28)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

OK, I am seeing more anomalies.
I found a talk radio station that works.
KFYI 550 in Phoenix.
It says Newstalk 550 on the right.
Oops, now it says Metallica Enter Sandman.
Now it says Newstalk 550 again.
I didn't touch it.
Haha. That's indicative of something being weird!
Now, I have it paused, and it says 550KFYI on the right.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Here's the issue.

The data feed that chumby used to get the station lists has been removed by iheartradio.  If anything's working, it's because of momentum, and it can be expected to fail completely over time..  I'm trying to locate a replacement data feed.

It appears that they've shuttered their third-party developer program, so this might be the end.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I think they have general content feeds and allow djs to localize each station. Pretty common practice. Classica was in multiple markets but now is missing. I think they are downsizing or regrouping and app has not kept up.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I heart has been pretty aggressive at getting listeners, I imagine if you find the right guy they would turn that feed back on if they can. I hear their ads, all the more reason they ought to enable the feed for Chumby.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I found another feed, I'll see if I can make something out of it.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

Duane's a *real* programmer, isn't he? Wow.
Not too many like that. 
I know a couple, definitely not too many.

23 (edited by ehertz 2017-10-22 07:51:29)

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

One of the stations I listen to a lot is KFI. About three weeks ago, I noticed that the URL I had loaded into "My Streams" stopped working. I also saw that  I could no longer get it through the iHeartRadio app on the Chumby. At the time, I figured this was just a temporary problem. (I have seen them lose the connection to their stream for a couple of days every few months.) However, this time, the problem never resolved itself. In addition, I noticed that other iHeart stations also stopped working.

This weekend, I decided to try to solve the mystery. I found a series of messages on the radiodiscussions.com board (specifically discussion 6172619 on "Are IHeart iPhone MP3 feeds ending"). Here is the link:
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showth … ;p=6172619

Basically, it turns out that iHeart feeds now come through the domain ihrhls.com, rather than akamaistream.net. The posts describe a method for finding any iHeart feeds by looking at the source for an iHeart page playing the station you are interested in. I was able to use this method to find three feeds (KFI, WOR and WTKK) that I wanted to restore to My Streams.

Admittedly, this does not solve the  problem with the direct iHeartRadio app used by the Chumby system. But, it does provide an alternative for those willing to do a little research.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

From what I can tell, the iHeartRadio system for distributing streams has been updated or replaced several times in the last couple of years, and at least once earlier this year.  What seems to have happened is that the system that chumby used since 2009 was still working until just a little while ago, when it was finally removed.  This probably corresponded to updates to the iOS and Android apps, since they used to use the same backend that chumby used.

Re: iHeart problem and sound problem

I've successfully imported updated stations from the new feed on my development server machine, testing now with devices.   Looks good so far.  Fortunately, there's no required change to the iheartradio app on the chumby devices, it's all handled transparently by the server.