Problem..

[simoncn]

(06-07-2016 17:37)robt Wrote:  Simon, if you are interested in resolving this I am happy to keep working with you on this.

The problem might be related to characters in the URL for the artwork or it might be something in the artwork data. If you can identify any pattern to which art files cause the problem, this would be helpful information.

You could also try taking a file that causes the problem and replacing its artwork with artwork from another file that doesn't cause the problem. This should clarify whether or not the problem is related to something in the artwork data.

[robt]

I've started a bit of experimenting.

Last night I played a track to one of my Stream 93is vis minimserver and MS crashed after less than two minutes of play. Tonight I've played the same album having removed the "cover.jpg" from the folder ( I thought I'd removed the embedded artwork but forgot to save!) and so far its playing for ten minutes without issue. Interestingly, the embedded artwork is now showing correctly on the streamer when last night it wasnt. Could it be that there being a cover.jpg or folder.jpg in the same file as the the tracks be causing the problem?

I've attached the artwork in case it tells you something and a zip of the log file in debug to see if you can see anything untoward so far. It will probably show that I made a change that activated auto rescan while the file was playing and also that I was using minimstreamer to stream Radio 5 live to my Cyrus at the same time.

As I type, all still running well. Now about twenty minutes without issue.

[attachment=1231]

Having trouble adding a .zip file - forum says not allowed file type...

[robt]

Try the attachment again..

   

[robt]

Again


  MSlog.zip (Size: 30.18 KB / Downloads: 2)

[robt]

Now stress testing!

Streaming the same album to both Stream 93is while using Minimstreamer to the Cyrus. Running smoothly with no problems, it really seems to be the included cover artwork AND embedded in the same folder thats causing the issue. Tomorrow I shall replace the cover.jpg in the folder and expecting MS to crash...

[simoncn]

(07-07-2016 22:04)robt Wrote:  Now stress testing!

Streaming the same album to both Stream 93is while using Minimstreamer to the Cyrus. Running smoothly with no problems, it really seems to be the included cover artwork AND embedded in the same folder thats causing the issue. Tomorrow I shall replace the cover.jpg in the folder and expecting MS to crash...

Thanks for this information. It is very surprising because MinimServer ignores the cover.jpg file if there is embedded artwork.

[robt]

Ok. Not as simple as i thought (hoped). I replaced the cover artwork but Minimstreamer functioned correctly. Choose another album with embedded artwork that had previously crashed MS and removed the cover,jpg file and MS still crashed.

Ive tried lots of permutations and I cant get a consistent result. Is there a size limit to embedded art or cover / folder files for MS?

What I can say is that MS often fails to show the cover art (on the Stream93) when playing the same file via Synology's own media server, the files show fine so the one conclusion I can come to, and backed up by the MS logs is that it is the cover art that is causing the issue.

I understand why the crashes occur, because the Streamer is constantly asking for MS to pass it and its obviously not happening. Yet Synology's own server seems to have no problem and the cover art is displayed and no sign of crashing. When MS crashes, I cant even re start it without rebooting my NAS. Something I have done 6 or 7 times this evening.

I shall continue to try to pin this down. Simon, do you have any further suggestions? What should I look for in the log files to see where and when MS is being asked for the artwork?

Cheers..

[simoncn]

MinimServer doesn't have any size limit for embedded art files.

I have already looked at the log files. They show that the control point is continually requesting cover art from the server. They don't show why the control point is doing this. For information about why this might be happening, you would need to ask the control point developers.

[DavidHB]

@robt

Simon is the expert here, but I do recall from a number of previous threads that virtually all renderers have a size limit (typically, I think, the relating to the size in pixels rather than the file size); as Simon explained, this is not a server limitation. It is at least conceivable that this is creating the issue at the control point. Whether the origin of this issue is in the renderer or the control point (or both) is unclear. It is also unclear whether you have checked the pixel size of the artwork in your problem files.

If your Synology media server is for some reason sending album art at a smaller size than MinimServer, it is plausible that this is within the renderer's (or control point's) limitations, whereas the art sent by MinimServer is not. What is certainly true is that oversize album art is often at the root of problems between server and renderer, so it may be worth eliminating this as a possible cause.

You might try checking the pixel size of the album art in a sample set of 'problem' files compared with a control set of 'good' files. As Minimserver will be using the embedded art, you really need to copy this from the files (I'd use MP3Tag for this) and paste it into into a basic image editor (in my case it would be Irfanview) to check the size. If the artwork size is the issue, you can use the image editor to resample to a suitable smaller size, paste the new image back into the tag editor and save the file; in MP3Tag it's easy to make this change to a whole album in one go.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your continuing investigations.

David

[robt]

(08-07-2016 23:53)simoncn Wrote:  MinimServer doesn't have any size limit for embedded art files.

I have already looked at the log files. They show that the control point is continually requesting cover art from the server. They don't show why the control point is doing this. For information about why this might be happening, you would need to ask the control point developers.

I have emailed Roberts Radio a couple of days ago and asked them for the limitations of the renderer.

Please dont think I am in any way criticizing Minimstreamer here. I know I could just use another server but nothing else does what Miminmstreamer does. It works absolutely flawlessly with my Cyrus Stream XP and acts as my radio tuner. It helps me get the very best from my main system and allowed the Stream 93s to access the BBC aac streams for a year when Roberts couldn't achieve it!

I cant do without Minimstreamer, I just hope there is somewhere along the line a simple fix or workaround. I have no doubt that the problem is caused by the renderer but I also know that there is little hope that Roberts or Frontier Silicon will be interested or want to help.