Author Topic: Stuttering audio  (Read 6354 times)

mvivona

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Stuttering audio
« on: 2013-04-26, 23:41:26 »
I have the RRC-1258MkIIs with the WiFi interface. The software is ver. 2.68. on both sides. The radio is an iCom-706MKIIg using the removable face-plate cable setup.

The audio sounds great, but every few seconds it does a quick hiccup or stream stutter. If I am rotating the dial, it will also freeze the screen. When I say freeze, I mean for about 1/2 of a second. Sometimes it does freeze, then comes back after about 10 seconds, but not real often.

I have tried all the other codecs and only a few seem to be usable and both have the issue.
My network connection is high speed cable modems on both ends. Speedtest on the radio side (work location) shows 5Mbps up, and 20Mbps down. The control side (my house) shows 10Mbps down and 1.2Mbps up.

It is very annoying, especially when you are on HF with no help from squelch. Makes a great product feel bad. I have read of other users on this forum experiencing the same issue, but have not tripped across someone that has solved it yet.

sm2o

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Re: Stuttering audio
« Reply #1 on: 2013-04-27, 09:14:46 »
Hi

First update to latest version. But I guess if you bring both units to the same LAN you will not get any problem so in the end it's a Internet problem anyway.

73 de mike

mvivona

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Re: Stuttering audio
« Reply #2 on: 2013-04-29, 01:24:27 »
I will update my boxes and try it again.

You would think that the Remoterigs should have the ability to easily send audio over an internet connection without stutter.
I work as an Engineer at the local TV station and we send live HD broadcast video all day long over the internet without stuttering. The units have adjustable FEC built-in which helps even in the worst connections.

Audio should be a piece of cake. Our Radio station sends broadcast quality audio all day long over slow cellular card. There is no excuse for stuttering when all we are listening to is noisy AM, or USB HF no-quality audio.
I hope ther is be a better answer than "its a internet problem anyway".

sm2o

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Re: Stuttering audio
« Reply #3 on: 2013-04-29, 07:40:54 »
Of course it's possible to send audio over Internet without stutter, but then you have to use large buffers for the audio to handle the jitter, thats whats done when you listen to music , look at video etc over the Internet.

But who wants to use large buffering when tuning on a radio. Seconds of buffering means that the audio would be out of sync compared to the VFO settings and the system would be useless. This is a relatime system which works  great, but it is depending on a good Internet connection.

You can increase the jitter buffer settingsto maxium, already with those settings you will start to feel the out of sync  tuning. We have limited the buffersize to keep an acceptable function even with the maxium settings.

73 de mike

mvivona

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Re: Stuttering audio
« Reply #4 on: 2013-04-29, 13:35:14 »
Thanks Mike,

I increased all the buffering to MAX. So far the stutter is behaving.
I see what you are talking about with the lag, but it's by no means unusable. As long as you know it's going to be laggy, it's very usable. This paticular radio is not my main base unit that I sit at and search for contacts, it's just a novelty radio that I put up at the TV station. The VHF/UHF antenna is up about 400ft. It's fun to play at that altitude. The HF antenn being over the TV station is way too noisy to be comfortable with. With that in mind, I usually just twist the dial very little. It mainly sits on one of two VHF stations. The lag is not an issue using it in thay manner. Put it this way. I would rather have my antenna at 300ft with lag than have my antenna at home in my attic (deed restricted neighborhood).

When we went digital with feeds over the internet at the TV station, we went from almost instant response from our field reporters to about 4 seconds. We thought it was going to be the end of the World and unusable. After we finally accecpted it, and realized that nobody really noticed, we work around it on every live shot.

I will do some more testing with different settings to see what the limit is and let you know. BTW, what continuous bandwidth does it requre to keep a nice flowing stream?

73 de Michael