Break In Signal When Listening To Radio On PC

pinkfloydian

I am using Virgin 240Mbps cable broadband. When I listen to redio on my PC, it constantly "drops" for a couple of seconds and then comes back.

Is there ant application that I can add to my PC that will tell me if the service is experiencing interruptions. I would like to have concrete evidence before I get on to Virgin, otherwise I will be wasting my time.

Also, is there any other things I need to check?

T

ED E

1. Find out what server is hosting the stream (not the website) that you're listening to
2. Run "Pingplotter" against it for 1 week.
3. Send to virgin.

5uspect

It can depend on the stream. Most radio stations few a few available. The tunein app for example gives a list of them and their reliability.

pinkfloydian

Thanks ED E and 5uspect.

How do I find out the server that is hosting the stream e.g. for Newstalk Radio

T

ED E

Its serving me from:

176.124.246.11  Radio Two Thousand Limited

So there's a good chance that its not a CDN and will be consistently the same place.

pinkfloydian

Thanks ED E.

Can you tell me how to check this myself, as I want to do it for a couple of others as well.

T

ED E

You can use netstat, but its a little awkward to read, so easiest way IMO is using Chrome.


Open site
Stream audio
Hit F12
Go to network tab
See what host/item continually sends traffic (most should load for a few MS then stop, stream will keep going).

bugfreebob

pinkfloydian wrote: »

I am using Virgin 240Mbps cable broadband. When I listen to redio on my PC, it constantly "drops" for a couple of seconds and then comes back.

Is there ant application that I can add to my PC that will tell me if the service is experiencing interruptions. I would like to have concrete evidence before I get on to Virgin, otherwise I will be wasting my time.

Also, is there any other things I need to check?

T

You could ask someone who is on Eir Broadband to tune in the same radio station and see if they experience the same drops. Max download speed is not really the most important performance parameter. More important for audio is any variation in latency or jitter. Most VM customer are having serious issues with Netflix video quality in recent months due to VM peering in Netherlands. Perhaps this also affecting audio?

I listen to all my radio over the Internet and very seldom experience drops from any station (Current setup is Tune-in radio app over Chromecast Audio with Eir Fibre Broadband)

Cuddlesworth

ED E wrote: »

You can use netstat, but its a little awkward to read, so easiest way IMO is using Chrome.


Open site
Stream audio
Hit F12
Go to network tab
See what host/item continually sends traffic (most should load for a few MS then stop, stream will keep going).

Cheers, no idea Chrome has that functionality.

pinkfloydian

Hi ED E

I'm, struggling to understand how to analyse once I've hit F12 and gone to Network tab. I get a huge list, which keeps changing every couple of seconds and can't differentiate between the entries (see attached example)

I'm streaming a live broadcast at the moment and the sound is constantly being interrupted. It's driving me crazy!

T

ED E

Is it a video stream or just audio? If the former, is video ok and just sound thats stuttering?

pinkfloydian

It was a video stream. The video was fine, but the audio kept breaking up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlxfo7_scsw

If I right-click in Microsoft Edge and Select "stats for nerds", I get some info. Is this of any use?

T

ED E

With video the stream is usually all in, not separate video and audio so if it were the network both would be halting.

Sounds (no pun intended) more like a playback issue. Have you tried playing back an MP3 file?

pinkfloydian

Thanks ED E

No problem with MP3 files.

Have you clicked on the link above and do you have sound issues?

T

ItHurtsWhenIP

pinkfloydian wrote: »

Thanks ED E

No problem with MP3 files.

Have you clicked on the link above and do you have sound issues?

T

I clicked on the link and did find the audio was a bit flaky, but no sign of buffering on the video. I've a wireless connection - 3Mbps down and the stats for nerds showed the stream using 1.0-1.3Mbps and no dropped frames. Very little else going on in my network at that time and my PC is fully updated. I had the same behaviour in Firefox and Chrome.

I've never experienced bad audio like that in any streaming without the video being also affected. My guess is it's sh1tty encoding on the other end.

pinkfloydian

Thanks MMFITWGDV

That online program is one of the biggest in the US, with millions of views, so I'm assuming it's not them.

Anyway, I'm probably confusing everybody by focussing on this. My main reason for this post was because I am getting breaks when listening to either Newstalk radio online (video and sound) or to RTE radio online (sound).

I'm trying to understand if it is my broadband and was wondering how I might gather "evidence" before getting on to my service provider.

T

TheChizler

Have you tried other devices?

pinkfloydian

Hi TheChizler

Yes - tried it on my laptop with same result.

T

ED E

Is this all wireless? Virgins biggest issue is crappy wireless performance. Don't see any mention of a wired test.

pinkfloydian

No ED E.

It's on a wired (ethernet cable) connection.

What I suppose I am looking for is a piece of software that will track sudden drops in signal for broadband. Is there such a thing?

T