Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos streaming BBC radio 4

BBC R4 keeps interrupting, stuttering and dropping out altogether when streamed via Sooloos. I can reliably stream other stations and music sourced from the MD600 but R4 is just flaky.

Setup is:

BT Infinity Unlimited -> BT HomeHub4 -> unmanaged ethernet switch (1) -> ethernet over power -> ethernet over power -> passive ethernet switch (2) -> 818

I do lose connection with other stations and music perhaps once a day but with BBC R4 it can be every 5 minutes; infuriating when we are about to find out what evil Rob Titchener is planning next.

Everything (except MD600) has been rebooted or power-cycled many times to no effect.

I know ethernet over power is not perfect but if that was the problem then other statioons and streamed music would also be affected.

Thoughts?

Do other BBC stations work? The BT Home Hub often seems to give problems with streaming. If you can, I would try another router at least to eliminate the Home Hub from the many variables.

Well since posting my original comment things have improved without me doing anything.

I am just passing a 4 1/2 hour continuous stutter-free stream of BBC R4. Don't think I have ever got past a couple of hours in the past without some interrruption.

Just hope the commentator's curse dosn't strike

Well it has started dropping off every so often again.

Can anyone explain the logical path between the BBC output and my internet connection?

Is there a regular two-way authentication check back to the Beeb to make sure I am in the UK and thus allowed to hear certain content?

I have not had dropping off on Radio iPlayer, but I certainly have on TV - I think when their servers get overloaded. Is it possible you are suffering from a lack of bandwidth at the BBC end?

Yes. I am having random buffering (spinning dots) on iPlayer even when viewing programs which will have lower levels of popularity on BBC4.

There are no problems with ITV hub and the other online services. Are the BBC trying to plead for more Government (i.e. our) money to provide a bigger pipe? They should try sending fewer news reporters to stand outside of buildings to tell me what is going on inside.

It's not at my end as I get consistent 67MB download speed and very few dropouts.

I have done multiple experiments and tests and am starting to think this is an ID41 stability issue.

If you are correct on ID41 theory would not other streams be affected.

Hector

They are (I have come to realise) just far less so, but that may be because of the relative listen times.

Streamed R4 for 30 hours non-stop to an MS600 without the ethernet over power plugs involved; the stream restarted gracefully twice. So it seems that it is not a BBC capacity or BT HH problem (probably).

Streaming R4 to the 818 and at the same time streaming to Control:PC on a laptop connected to the same dumb switch after the ethernet over power plugs. The 818 lost connection but the laptop continued - which seems to eliminate the power plugs.

When the 818 loses connection I have noticed it briefly drops off the Control:PC zone list on the top right.

Thanks to Hector I came up with a new way of testing.

Started streaming R4 via the USB input from a laptop connected to the same dumb switch, eliminating the ID41 card.

Then I started playing a stream from another website at the same time - cacophonous for sure. After a while the R4 feed dropped but the other website feed persisted.

I am now totally lost, anyone have any thoughts?

Hi Gianni

Was the laptop wired or wirelessly connected?

Russ

Everything wired off the "passive ethernet switch (2)" per the description in my first post.

To clarify my post above; I was streaming from two different sources (R4 via Control:PC and another different stream from a website) on the same W7 laptop at the same time and out via USB - hence the cacophony. Why should one stream drop and not the other?

Is there a limit to the length of ethernet? Thinking of temporarily bridging past the ethernet over power but it would need 30m+ of cable.