Poor Message Sound Quality (WAF dropping to zero!!!)

[Toinky]

I have, on occasion, had phone messages that were of such poor quality that I couldn't completely understand the message. The sound sort of flips in and out--from clearly audible to a very faint inaudible muttering and back again several times. This happened only rarely, and of typically no serious consequence--until now. The WAF has dropped to zero on this phone messaging thing because a critical message came in indecipherable. I've attached the wav file to let those who are interested see how the problem of the quality shifting in and out occurs. Any help would be greatly appreciated (and may redeem HSP from the garbage can my wife has relegated it to).

[Rick Tinker]

NEVER heard that before. However, if we are going to help you, it is going to require that you tell us what hardware you are using HomeSeer Phone with.

Have you adjusted the volume setting under the modem properties in HomeSeer Phone?

What have you done to try to fix this?

Since I have never received this sort of complaint before, I am suspecting bad hardware somewhere. The other reason to suspect this is that other than the difference between the PCI modem and the Hi-Phone, HomeSeer Phone uses the same software with everybody so if it were a software problem, we'd have a few thousand complaints about it.

Please provide more information so we can help you.

[Toinky]

Thank you for the quick reply and sorry I didn't provide hardware information without you having to ask. I can't decide if it's good you've never heard of this problem before. It happened again tonight after a week of no problems (probably 20 good messages).

I am using a--ahem--"HAL" PCI Modem on an Athlon XP 2100 w/ 512M memory and plenty of HD space using Win XP SP1. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I have two sound cards installed on my system: (1) Vinyl AC'97 sound chip on the ASUS motherboard; (2) A C-Media PCI card ("MadDog" brand).

The unfortunate part is that I can't reliably reproduce the problem. It happens only rarely and how the conditions under which it occurs differ is not clear.

As far as trying to fix this, I have not even had an idea where to begin. The most I've tried is updating HSP to the beta version and it still happens.

I had not tried adjusting the volume on the modem. I assume you mean the "record gain over the phone" setting. I will adjust this downward toward the middle of the slider bar--it was set about 75% (~175)--to see if anything changes. Because of the intermittent nature of the problem it may take awhile to find out if it works.

Any additional suggestions would be welcome.

[Stuart]

Hi,
Are any of these calls from cellphones ? Also with the two sound cards, what if anything was running when the calls came in ?
Stuart

[Toinky]

Good idea to check the cell phone as possible cause. None of the problematic messages have been from a cell phone. The one I posted is from a long distance number, but the problem has also occurred from local numbers.

As far as other software running, I have HS & HSP (of course) with MR26A and PowerLinc Plugins, ATI Remote Wonder (an RF TV remote controller that should use many CPU cycles when idle), a system monitor (tracks CPU temp, etc.), and VNC (Virtual Network Connection, a low resources using program that allows remote control via network connections).

[Stuart]

Hi,
one other thing I've found is with cordless phones. My sisters phone gets clobbered by both her microwave and planes flying overhead. Hers is a 2.4ghz phone.
Stuart

[jmonaco]

I have always had the same, admittingly annoyin g, problem. I have the HS modem on an Intel 2.4G Hyperthreading-based CPU box, w/Win XP Pro. SoundMax is the audio management utility that came loaded on the system. The incoming volume settings are in the middle third of the range for phonein, line-in, wave, mic, aux. Calls come in from land lines - not cell phones. Any advice would be appreciated.

[CJVann]

This same in-and-out sound on voicemail has just recently started (5/10/04) happening to me as well. Bad messages were all local calls from land lines. I am running HS on a dedicated hp pavilion a250n 2.6GHz w/ 512MB DDR SDRAM and 120 GB Ultra DMA HDD and an ATI All-in-Wonder-Pro 9600 (with remote) and a HAL-2000 PCI modem. HSP (2.0.170) uses Software silence detection, with sensitivity at 40, Playback Vol at 126, and Record gain at 231. I've attached a sample message. Failures are random, some messages are fine, others cannot be understood at all. ALSO - sometimes when calling to leave a message, it no longer starts the outgoing message right away. You may have to wait approx. 20 seconds for the outgoing message to begin, other times it's immediate.

[Chas821]

I'll chime in as well!

I also have this same problem and it is also intermittent....never a constant problem but almost impossible to track down as it comes from all call sources (local, LD, Cell). My messages sound just like the two wav files posted.

System: AMD Athlon XP (2000+), 512MB RAM, latest HSPhone released version (no beta) and the HAWKING MODEM (still can't catch a HS modem).

Chuck

[rjh]

I would try moving the modem to a different PCI slot if you can. It almost sounds like something in your PC is causing noise, like maybe a fan or another PCI card. If you have stuff on USB, you might disconnect them also. HSP saves the raw audio right from the chipset on the modem card, so the modem is picking up the noise, or not receiving the audio properly.

You might also try disconnecting the phones from the phone jack, as they could be causing the problem.

-Rich

[bruce l]

Mine is doing it as well. I've set the Record gain to a middle level - it was set to max. Maybe that will help.

[CJVann]

I don't think it's a modem location problem. My messages started dying when I tried to help eliminate the 2-minutes worth of "you forgot to hang up your phone" beeps at the end of every message by enabling silence detection. Before that, it always worked fine. I finally did a re-install of Homeseer/HSPhone, and the problem went away.