[SOLVED] FluxFM stations - stream interruptions

[Rees86]

Hi, I'm not sure if the support portion of the forum is an appropriate section but since Moode comes with a significant amount of FluxFM stations pre-installed I thought I'd post my experience to see if anybody else can confirm a similar experience.

I've tried a handful of FluxFM stations (Hard Rock and MetalFM, for example) which are 320kbps streams and 100% of the time they're able to load and play, but I'd say 90+% of the time they suffer from stutter and pausing resulting from the buffer being run-out from lack of bandwidth.  I've tried the stations on two moode installations (different PI, different internet) and also on a Yamaha home theatre amp with internet radio functionality - same resulting stutter issue.

As a curiosity I connected to Germany through my VPN service and didn't seem to have any issue streaming - I'm thinking that maybe they're limiting the bandwidth going out of Germany / Europe?  I'm based in Ontario Canada, and my internet at both locations I tried are 1Gbps and 500Mbps download speed so it's definitely not a bandwidth issue on my end (Radio Paradise 320kbps / FLAC stations work just fine anyway).  Anyway, just looking to make sure I'm not crazy!

[Tim Curtis]

I have the same issue. It prolly is some sort of bandwidth/cost limiting by the broadcaster.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@Rees86

Here in Maryland I've been listening to FluxFM - Hard Rock since I saw your post. No interruptions here so far.

Code:

Audio Information
INPUT / OUTPUT
Source  http://streams.fluxfm.de/hardrock/mp3-320/streams.fluxfm.de/
Encoded at  VBR compression
Decoded to  24 bit, 44.1 kHz, Stereo, 320 kbps
Destination  Local
Output rate  16 bit, 48 kHz, Stereo, 1.536 Mbps

This is moOde feeding a Creative USB-BT adapter (for my BT headphones).

FYI, my ISP is RCN. They aren't great but they seem good enough.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

I think its YMMV outside of Germany/Europe with these stations. I've played many of them for hours w/o any issues but other times they have lots of audio glitches prolly due to bandwidth limiting, server or CDN congestion, etc etc.

[TheOldPresbyope]

How can music not receive the highest priority through all pipes and interconnections in the InterWeb™ 

[Rees86]

Thanks for confirming your experience.  I'm going to mark this as Solved since there's nothing much that can be done and will try my luck with the lower bitrate streams.