1 (edited by tribecca 2010-12-04 12:29:05)

Topic: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I just picked up a 3.5" Infocast from BestBuy.  I've been using it to listen to music on ShoutCast.  I don't know if this is just an issue with ShoutCast or not, because that's the only music app I've tried so far.   

My issue is that while listening to music, after a random period of time the music will just stop.   Sometimes it even stops the music and starts beeping quietly, but the alarm is turned off so I have no idea what this means or how to stop it.  It's really annoying.   Anyone know?

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Hmmm, interesting - that shouldn't happen.  I'll try to reproduce it.

Which SHOUTcast station are you listening to?

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

indie pop rocks

http://somafm.com/play/indiepop

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Cool, thanks.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Just noticed it says "Idle" when this happens, although it's not beeping this time.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Could it be due to a slower internet connection?  I noticed it sometimes happens at the same time as websites start to load slower on my computer.  The only way to get it stop beeping is to stop the music and then resume it.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Yes - the most common cause would be a very slow, or unstable connection.  Streaming a live music stream requires a continuous minimum amount of bandwidth.  Most streaming clients, including this one, preload a certain amount, but if the connection is slower than the music that's playing for more than a few seconds, the connection will drop.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Is there a way to stop it from beeping when that happens though?

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I'm looking into that - it should only be beeping like that if the audio was the result of an alarm - in which case, it's trying to wake you up since the music stopped.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I've experienced the same phenomenon. I got a 3.5" InfoCast last Saturday.

I listen to "KCRW World News" on ShoutCast. I have found that the audio stream stops and the alarm beep starts. It has happened anywhere from two minutes after starting the stream to two hours. Hitting "stop" and then "play" will restart the stream.

This is after selecting the KCRW World News channel in shoutcast, and pressing the "play" triangle. Then putting the InfoCast into night mode with the timer not checked.

At first I thought it was because the wifi connection was dropping out. Status showed signal quality between 60-70%. I moved the router to a new location, and signal quality is 80-90%, but the alarm still comes on.

In the same location as the InfoCast, I used to have a Roku Soundbridge Radio to stream the same internet radio station with wifi, and the connection quality was never a problem.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I also noticed that the beeping is soft.  I check the alarm settings and I have the alarm volume on high, even though it's off.  So if it was the alarm you'd think it would be louder.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Yeah, that's particularly interesting - that it's quiet.  That's a helpful clue as to what's going on.

I'm pretty optimistic I'll find this one.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Same for me. The beeping is at the volume of the radio playback (medium) not the alarm volume (max).

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I have had a similar problem.  I have an alarm to use Shoutcast stream to wake me up.  For the last few days it would wake me with a soft beeping.  Today it was my Shoutcast station that woke me.  I don't know how to pinpoint the problem.

15 (edited by chmilar 2010-12-16 13:49:42)

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

Last evening, when I wanted to listen to the KCRW All News Shoutcast stream, it did not appear using the Shoutcast search box. Later on, it did appear, and I could listen to it.

During the night, the box was softly beeping. Going to the Music panel, the stream still appeared as playing, with the Stop button available. Stopping it toggled the button to Play. Pressing Play failed.

Using the Shoutcast search box, the stream was missing again. (Two other KCRW streams appeared when searching for "KCRW", but "KCRW All News" didn't.)

So one possibility is that Shoutcast streams are disappearing occasionally, whereupon the Infocast starts beeping to notify that there is a problem with the stream.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

chmilar wrote:

. . . whereupon the Infocast starts beeping to notify that there is a problem with the stream.

" The Terminator: The Skynet [Infocast] Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2010. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet [Infocast] begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug . . . "

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I've had the exact same problem too, with the same channel as well (KCRW)... I leave it streaming 24x7, and anywhere from 5 minutes to a few days into streaming it'll drop into beeping. Stopping and starting the stream solves it.

I noticed once or twice it coincided with network issues; one time I bumped the ethernet cable on my router and it started beeping, and another time I noticed websites were hiccupping.

Maybe it's losing sync with the stream and instead of retrying it falls into some alarm state?

18 (edited by kbuster 2011-02-24 21:03:39)

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

The same thing is happening for me, though the alarm sound is quite loud - same as station volume. Rather disappointing since I am quite happy with my new Soundcast station find "Jazz24" which is a very good jazz station that beats any of the Pandora genre offerings. I agree that it may be caused by disruptions in feed and thinking about the incidents today I think they may have been caused by microwave usage that seems to affect my wireless reception on the infocast but doesn't completely knock out stations like Pandora - just causes brief blank moments. I'll continue to monitor this and hope that I can continue to use this station I've found on Shoutcast without the alarm interruptions and the need for a station "restart". I hope someone figures this out.

Just thought I'd add that after further listening to the infocast, I don't think the beeping is caused by microwave interference (or gamma rays from outer space for that matter). It's more likely that the interruption in wireless reception was due to streaming a youtube video on another pc. I think that the streaming abilities of these infocasts is sensitive and doesn't take much other activity on the same wireless network to throw them off - at least that's my recently developed theory.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I'm experiencing the same issue with my 3.5" Infocast; when playing a SHOUTcast stream normally, if the connection is interrupted in any way, it'll resort to beeping instead of trying to reconnect to the stream.  I contacted Insignia support about it, and they just shrugged me off, telling me to contact their networking help desk.  So that's a dead end.  I know this thing has a relatively weak antenna, so it's going to lose its connection here and there; it just seems like the Infocast in particular has had some sort of modification to its software that makes SHOUTcast playback work in an undesirable manner.

At least Pandora works; when it loses its connection, it just moves on to the next song and reconnects.  In either case, if this is going to be a constant problem, I'll probably pick up a cheap USB ethernet adapter and give it a wired connection.

Re: Beeping (not alarm) ?

I just told Chumby about this on my Chumby one and they had me load the Beta software and so far its been OK with no beeping. The beeping is annoying when it happens. Will let you know if its corrected. BTW, when it does happen, you can shut it by hitting the stop button in the music player area. I checked alarms, they are all off.