Subsonic Clients w/Madsonic Server 5

Need help? Post your questions here.
texneus
Posts: 1
Joined: 31 Aug 2013, 17:28
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Subsonic Clients w/Madsonic Server 5

Unread post by texneus »

Is Madsonic Server 5.0 Beta5 Build 3600 supposed to be backwards compatible with Subsonic clients (specifically on Android)? I cannot get it to work with either the standard Subsonic or Ultrasonic Android clients. I can browse the library but nothing will play.

On Madsonic server, the log reports:
[9/1/13 3:22:10 PM CDT] INFO PlayQueueInputStream texneus listening to "Farewell To The World/18 Weather With You.mp3"
[9/1/13 3:22:10 PM CDT] DEBUG TranscodeInputStream Starting transcoder: [/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg] [-i] [/mnt/NetworkMedia/Music/Main/00CDs/Crowded House/Farewell To The World/18 Weather With You.mp3] [-ab] [64k] [-v] [0] [-f] [mp3] [-]
[9/1/13 3:22:10 PM CDT] WARN RESTFilter Error in REST API: broken Stream

On Subsonic the file appears to download anyway (but will not play). The subsonic demo server works fine.

On Ultrasonic I don't get the WARN in the log, but otherwise it looks the same. It does not appear to download the song and does not play anything either.

One thing I have noticed which may be confusing the players is they report the stream is 320kbps mp3 (source file format) even though it is transcoding the file.

Server is installed on a clean Debian Wheezy install via the .deb package and Oracle java 7.25 (in a Virtualbox VM for testing). Audio plays fine in the Madsonic web interface on a remote PC.
GJ51
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 192
Joined: 15 Dec 2012, 17:52
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 83 times

Re: Subsonic Clients w/Madsonic Server 5

Unread post by GJ51 »

The single most vexing issue with the entire Subsonic family is stability and compatibility. I've come to the conclusion, however, that it is only reasonable to expect that the Madsonic server would be compatible with the Madsonic app.

It's a constant struggle to keep everything fully functional for a variety of reasons. The first is due to the fact that the overall process depends on several independently produced components, any one of which can throw any other component off kilter.

We recently found a way to pipe live TV from the Silicon Dust HD Homerun Prime into Subsonic. It works awesome and my son now has access to live TV in his dorm room over the interweb! I was doing some testing and I can get the TV to play on the stock Subsonic app, but it won't play on either the Madsonic or Dsub app or on the Madsonic desktop. Go figure.

We are constantly dealing with Java updates, different version of ffmpeg, and application revisions. It's a constant search to figure out which combinations work with each file type on which environments. I've long searched for the "Holy Grail" of the one combination that handles everything without any glitches, but alas, the answer remains elusive.

If we could ever get to the point where had rock-solid dependable transcoding and playback with all file types across all the playback platforms, that would be ideal, but having been in this game for almost 3 years now, I don't think were close yet. It's all still a work in progress and a search by each user to find the best combination that works for your particular use scenario.

I don't think it's the fault of any single developer, it's just the nature of the beast.

It's also not reasonable to expect that Marty can anticipate what the other app developers are going to do that may make their apps non-functional on Madsonic. I've seen stretches where the Subsonic app wouldn't work with Subsonic. Then there are also variables with different versions of Android and different results with the same Android versions on different phones. In retrospect, it's amazing that you can usually get this working across so many platforms with servers running different hardware and different OS platforms feeding an infinite variety of desktops and phones. Inevitably, there will be issues.

HTH

Also keep in mind that all 5.0 releases are still tagged as beta. I've not been able to get any of the 5.0 versions to transcode to ogg, which I like to use on my phone. So I set up a seperate Subsonic site that only outputs ogg for all my mobile users to connect to. Then another site for the live TV output. Then a madsonic site for desktop use. Would I love to have one site that could do it all? ABSOLUTELY!!


EDIT: Big LOL - The site I set up for doing the live TV feed from the HDhomerun is Subsonic 4.8 on latest Java and Tomcat 6. It will play the live feed AND Recorded TV with no problems. The latest Subsonic Android app will play the live TV stream very nicely - BUT - the app can't play the recorded TV even though it works fine on my desktop and to add insult to injury I can access the same site through the Madsonic Android app and it will play the Recorded TV, but it won't play the live stream.

I'm so confused ... :roll:
These users thanked the author GJ51 for the post:
Madsonic
Rating: 7.69%
Post Reply