RadioBOSS 5.7 [beta]

[pety]

If it freezes for some time, this could mean that there's not enough CPU power and yes this could lead to events being skipped. But generating a playlist on another computer should not affect things.

Dmitriy, what means "not enough CPU power". What kind of power?

 

[djsoft]

Dmitriy, what means "not enough CPU power". What kind of power?

If the CPU load is high, like 30% and more of constant load, this is not good and if some other software, or even RadioBOSS starts to perform some heavy task, it may freeze a bit and scheduled events may skip (it has to freeze for 4-5 seconds for that to happen).

 

[pety]

If the CPU load is high, like 30% and more of constant load, this is not good and if some other software, or even RadioBOSS starts to perform some heavy task, it may freeze a bit and scheduled events may skip (it has to freeze for 4-5 seconds for that to happen)

Now I understand, thanks a lot.

 

[DJSTU]

Using MS Win 7
RB 5.7.2.0
News.wav & Sports.wav files
See attached pic.

I am trying to ascertain why these files will not play in full, from one end to the other, with no intro or end mixing.
There are two WAV files and there is no problem at the Intro end, but only at the tail end.
Both end up having the tail faded out and the sound cut before the file has finished playing.
These two files are for News and Sports and are downloaded afresh every hour or even half hour.
Therefore the size constantly varies all the time, but not by huge amounts.
YET the end keeps getting cut off by the same set amount of time.
More so on the Sports file than the News file.

Am I missing something here in order to make this file play in full ?

Later Edit:
I have had some success in removing the Crossfades (Ctrl + J) for Music which removed 2.5 secs. But this means all Music files are now affected.
It won't let me save any settings using Track Tool nor will it let me save the WAV files to a new category so as to have their own specific crossfade settings.

So I am presuming that it may be best to convert these WAV  files to MP3 ?
Would that improve things ? I think the answer is YES.

What actual files does RB process happily (MP3, AAC etc) ?
Is there a list somewhere ?

 

[djsoft]

You can prevent mixing of those songs, place them in a certain folder (and make sure that new files are donwloaded to the same folder as well), create a file type that is based on that folder: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/using_different_types_of_files.htm and configure crossfade settings for this file type: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/crossfades.htm

 

[DJSTU]

Thank you for the reply DJSoft.
I have tried your suggestions.

There are still several issues however :
(1) The files were already in their own separate folder, on a network folder.
The files did NOT have a read-only attribute.
When I tried to add the "File Type" in, which is the new one I created called "News", the choice was there and I was able to select News, and save it, BUT when I re-opened the file the File Type was just blank again.

So I copied the two files to a local "My Computer" disk.
When I added the File Type to both files, this time, on the local disk, they saved it with no problem at all.

(2) As per the attached pic on Playlist.
For testing I added one of the two files, Sports, in amongst the music playlist.
The file started off fine but cut off short.
See the Track Tool pic. File Size 50.3secs and END 46.94 secs. You will note this box is NOT ticked, nor did I touch it at any stage. Is this being affected by the file constantly changing in size every hour/halfhour ?
Any suggestions on how I can overcome this problem.


(3) Pics attached also of Ctrl+J - Track Tool - File Type details.

 

[djsoft]

(1) The files were already in their own separate folder, on a network folder.
The files did NOT have a read-only attribute.
When I tried to add the "File Type" in, which is the new one I created called "News", the choice was there and I was able to select News, and save it, BUT when I re-opened the file the File Type was just blank again.

You don't need to assign file types for the files. Just configure the file type to use the folder - in this case, all files in the specified folder will be considered as belonging to a file type. Please see the link to the user manual I posted above.

See the Track Tool pic. File Size 50.3secs and END 46.94 secs. You will note this box is NOT ticked

Track Tool calculated the End point based on sound level - it cuts off the silence according to Gap Killer settings: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/miscellaneous.htm
You can change the threshold if it cuts off the real sound - it is possible if the level of the file itself is low.

 

[DJSTU]

Thank you for your replies DJSoft.

I had anticipated from my previous experience of Gap Killers for it to be a some form of mixing points, whereas you have designed it as true gap killer. Now that I know that, it has completely solved the problem I was having.
Thank you.

Now, this is not vital, since workarounds are available, but do you have any idea why on a network drive "File Type" would not save on the WAV file. This has me puzzled. It seems to work fine saving File Type on an MP3 file on a network drive, but not WAV.

Every so often I give RadioBoss a good tryout/thrashing to see if its now at the point of my finally putting it to air. That of course is where I will make a purchase to give it a go.
Over the last few years you have made a lot of good, and at times major improvements thus bringing it to a point of being a very good product.

Now I am already using your RadioCaster which works well. So I am not needing Broadcasting Output. However I do want Play an internet stream,  both LAN and WAN.
I should email you to talk about price.

There are always things that I want to see changed.
This is one...
and to me quite important. Thus it becomes a sticking point.
Scheduled Events
Why have you got it so that a you can Repeat every X minutes on Time but not on Hours ?
Surely repeat should be available for both (in my view).
If for example I want "Hours" (being 0 thru 5) to start at 0:11 and repeat every lets say 8 mins, I am puzzled as to why that isn't a choice/option.
To not have this means a multitude of events to take its place still using hours, but the event being created just for the purpose of the minutes.

 

[djsoft]

I had anticipated from my previous experience of Gap Killers for it to be a some form of mixing points, whereas you have designed it as true gap killer.

There's also a level-based mixing point, in the crossfade settings: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/crossfades.htm

do you have any idea why on a network drive "File Type" would not save on the WAV file.

This is a technical limitation, due to limited tagging support for WAV files. The additional information for WAV tracks is saved in alternate data streams, and those are not supported for network drives. As a workaround, if possible, you can use FLAC format instead (or MP3 or any other if lossless compression is not necessary).

Now I am already using your RadioCaster which works well. So I am not needing Broadcasting Output. However I do want Play an internet stream,  both LAN and WAN.
I should email you to talk about price.

Network stream playback will also require at least RadioBOSS Standard. Please also note that broadcasting from within RadioBOSS is usually more convenient, e.g. you'll see the number of listeners for every track in the playlist, and there are also statistic charts available in RadioBOSS.

Why have you got it so that a you can Repeat every X minutes on Time but not on Hours ?
Surely repeat should be available for both (in my view).

I'm not sure where this limitation comes from, technically it should be possible to have repeats when "Hours" option is used as well. We'll see if the limitation could be lifted in one of the next updates.

 

[nelson c]

Dmitry a while ago I found that TrackTool was consuming enough CPU and had started alone (without any visible window). This is normal?

 

[djsoft]

Dmitry a while ago I found that TrackTool was consuming enough CPU and had started alone (without any visible window). This is normal?

This doesn't look normal. Does it happen always or sometimes, with certain tracks?

 

[nelson c]

There are moments that RB freezes completely for a minute. It occurred to me to open the task manager and I found this. It's the first time that I see it

 

[djsoft]

There are moments that RB freezes completely for a minute. It occurred to me to open the task manager and I found this. It's the first time that I see it

Then this is even more odd, as it's Track List that utilizes CPU, and it shouldn't affect RadioBOSS, especially given that RadioBOSS works with high priority and Track Tool has "normal" priority. The cause can be somewhere else, typically, this is caused by antivirus software when it scans files that programs access - it could lead to freezes and high CPU load sometimes.

 

[nelson c]

I found that the program freezes for several seconds because of too much use of the hard disk by RB. In less than a minute the program is distilled and everything goes back to work well.
It happens randomly but this happens a long time ago (I think from RB 5.6)
I think it happens when a very long playlist is loaded and the program was minimized for a long time. After minimizing when trying to pre-listen the program hangs for about 30 seconds, before the playback begins.
It's random but it happens to me several times a day.
Now we install a new PC on the air and it continues to happen (It is without any antivirus, even Windows Defenser deactivated).

For when can we expect a new beta?
Among other things I am needing to read and modify the custom fields from the API. 

 

[djsoft]

I found that the program freezes for several seconds because of too much use of the hard disk by RB. In less than a minute the program is distilled and everything goes back to work well.

When you load a playlist, it reads the tracks metadata in the background. The process is not intensive and will not impact PC performance at all. Unless the PC is very slow and/or loaded with other tasks.

I think it happens when a very long playlist is loaded and the program was minimized for a long time. After minimizing when trying to pre-listen the program hangs for about 30 seconds, before the playback begins.

Minimizing does not affect anything. Unless you have some other software installed that somehow intercepts minimizing/maximizing and does something (I remember such case in the past when a user had alternative Start menu installed and it resulted in weird RadioBOSS crashes).

For when can we expect a new beta?
Among other things I am needing to read and modify the custom fields from the API. 

The next version will allow this. The beta will be released in September.

 

[nelson c]

I just used RB, after a night that was running in the background.
And again the same problem. I did not even pre-listen:
I did a scroll in the list and when I found a track without the intro. Try to right click with the idea of opening tracktool, but the program is hung. 30 seconds later everything went back to normal. And since then it worked well.

The strange thing is that the program hangs when "Double click" (for the pre-listen) or right click (for the popup).

At 2 o'clock in the morning a new list is loaded by the scheduler.
Maybe the metadata scan was never done. (It's a guess)

In the capture that I enclose the use of the disk perhaps it is not so big (Too late in making the capture). But as soon as I opened the task manager I saw that RB was in "Orange" (Indicating that he is using the maximum read or write capacity, I saw 7 Mb of transfer almost all the time)

When you load a playlist, it reads the tracks metadata in the background. The process is not intensive and will not impact PC performance at all. Unless the PC is very slow and/or loaded with other tasks.

It is a new PC with i3 7th generation and 4 gb of Ram I think it should be more than enough

Minimizing does not affect anything. Unless you have some other software installed that somehow intercepts minimizing/maximizing and does something (I remember such case in the past when a user had alternative Start menu installed and it resulted in weird RadioBOSS crashes).

The installation is clean and there are only popular programs installed such as Chrome, SQL, Teamviewer, etc.
There is nothing that can affect the normal functioning of Windows.

 

[djsoft]

I did a scroll in the list and when I found a track without the intro. Try to right click with the idea of opening tracktool, but the program is hung. 30 seconds later everything went back to normal. And since then it worked well.

This does not reproduce here, the menus and prelisten are instant. There are also no complaints from other users  -if those problems were common, we'd know about it, as it makes RadioBOSS unusable.

On your screenshot everything looks fine. RadioBOSS only uses 1% CPU and uses disk drive only 4 MB per second - this is nothing for modern drives, even regular HDD's allow speeds around 200-300 MB/s and SSD's are several times faster.

(Indicating that he is using the maximum read or write capacity, I saw 7 Mb of transfer almost all the time)

7 MB/s is also nothing. I think it's something to do with disk drive. It could be a hardware failure that's making it extremely slow. It can be something to do with drivers. But there's nothing wrong with RadioBOSS, so we can't fix it from here.