No HSPhone TTS to incoming caller (Way2Call)

[dschoppe]

I have a recent problem that seems to have developed with my way2call (which has been working fine under Win7 x64 for a while). I've not reconfigured any HSPhone settings, although I have installed some new SW recently on my HS PC (PowerDVD) and I have been moving some functions to scripts (not HSPhone related though) from event logic.

In any case, after reboot of HS, HS Phone seems to work fine for a couple of calls. But then it stops working: It answers the line as normal, indicating in the HS log that it is speaking to the caller, but nothing is actually heard on the line. No errors at all are reported in the log. A reboot fixes the issue for a couple of calls, then the outgoing message is replaced with silence again. If the caller does speak, a message is recorded.

Any ideas what could be causing this issue and/or how to debug? I'm getting frustrated now and running out of ideas...

Thanks,
Don

[dschoppe]

I think this is an issue of W7 messing with sound cards again. At this point under Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Manage Audio Devices, I've disabled all devices not being used in Playback and Recording. I currently have four playback devices enabled and two recording devices enabled:

Playback
AMD HDMI Output - used by PowerDVD to play Blu-rays/DVDs (Radeon HD5700 HDMI->HDFuryIII (D/A)->Russound CAV6.6 source 6)
Speakers (Hi-Phone Desktop USB) - must remain enabled for HS Phone's TTS / wave playback over the phone line
Speakers (Juli@ Audio) - used for streaming music playback (Juli@ L/R analog line-out->Russound CAV6.6 source 5)
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) - default device and communication device, used for HS TTS/wav (MB L/R out->2CH mixer/combiner->Russound CAV6.6 page input)

Recording
Microphone (Hi-Phone Desktop USB) - default device and communication device, used by HS Phone VR/recording
Digital Audio Interface (Hi-Phone Desktop USB Aux) - also used by HS Phone

Attached are a few images showing my sound devices. So far, enabling/configuring per above has kept HS Phone alive an speaking overnight. Fingers now crossed.

[kwaugh]

Rdp?

I throw it out there because it's something that happens to me from time to time...

Whenever I see this issue, it's been because I have used RDP to connect to my homeseer box, but forgot to use the disconnect command to end the session...

[Pete]

I wrote a paragraph about my sound issues relating to TTS / Speaker and HS on W7 / W2012 64 bit and just lost everything due to the server busy messages (many this morning).

That said it seemed that W7 had a mind of it own in conflict with how HS would direct the audio and how the OS would keep defaulting the audio out of multiple audio devices.

WAF hit an all time low when my wife used the phone one day and HS kept talking over here. I keep saving the configs and eventually they stuck.

I utilized VNC to get to the box most of the time; but when testing much was done on the console.

You have introduced another audio output device causing the AI part of W7 to decide what is better for you rather than what you want for Homeseer.

After repetitive saves and restarts it the settings seemed to "stick". I then went back to using W2003.

[Rupp]

I'm not sure I can see any benefits to these sound card changes from XP. It seems forums are full of complaints of this new way of managing sound and input devices. I've not looked at Windows 8 but hopefully they migrated back or provide a better solution but I'm not holding my breath.

[dschoppe]

Thanks guys.

kwaugh, I don't use RDP to the box. I access it using VNC to an AddeLink iPEPS (IP KVM) so I'm effectively accessing the box via the local console.

Pete, thanks. I suspect you are right. Audio issues on Win7 x64, especially with the Way2Call in the mix, have been quite frustrating. Hopefully settings will "stick" once again!

Don

[Pete]

I guess I value the functionality of Homeseer and the W2C box first and foremost.

Everything else is secondary to me; but that is me. Maybe its my age (over 50% of my lifespan?) these days?

[JimBob]

I have a recent problem that seems to have developed with my way2call (which has been working fine under Win7 x64 for a while). I've not reconfigured any HSPhone settings, although I have installed some new SW recently on my HS PC (PowerDVD) and I have been moving some functions to scripts (not HSPhone related though) from event logic.

In any case, after reboot of HS, HS Phone seems to work fine for a couple of calls. But then it stops working: It answers the line as normal, indicating in the HS log that it is speaking to the caller, but nothing is actually heard on the line. No errors at all are reported in the log. A reboot fixes the issue for a couple of calls, then the outgoing message is replaced with silence again. If the caller does speak, a message is recorded.

Any ideas what could be causing this issue and/or how to debug? I'm getting frustrated now and running out of ideas...

Thanks,
Don

I get this occasionally on my WinXP box. I don't get a great deal of landline calls so have just learnt to live with it. Like you, a reboot sorts it out. So I don't believe it's Win7 specific.

Sorry that doesn't give you a solution but you're not alone!

[dschoppe]

Well, troubleshooting continues. HS Phone correctly remained on the Hi-Phone Desktop USB for more than 24 hours. I then rebooted and restarted HomeSeer. At that point HS Phone worked for a few calls (5 or 10 minutes) and then became silent once again. Several more reboots, restarts, and re-selection of default devices still didn't make the setting stick beyond a short while.

By opening the volume mixer and looking at the applications bound to each device, I could see HomeSeer (HS Phone) and hsrecord both active on the AMD HDMI Output instead of the Hi-Phone Desktop USB. Speaker.exe remained correctly planted on the Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)

I finally gave up and watched a Blue-ray movie for a couple of hours using PowerDVD with audio sent to the AMD HDMI Output device. Ironically this seemed to keep HS Phone planted on the Hi-Phone Desktop USB during the movie and for the rest of the night.

Questions
1) Is there a way to enable logging in HS Phone so that it will report to the HS log whenever it changes audio endpoints during run-time and why? I'm wondering if it's encountering a Hi-phone device error or something else and attempting to recover. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...(v=vs.85).aspx

2) I'd really like to know more about how HS Phone is using the Windows audio API and managing streams. For example, how does it identify the Hi-Phone Desktop USB device? Is it attempting exclusive mode or shared mode streams and can we impact the behavior by changing the "Exclusive Mode" options under the Advanced Properties tab of the device(s).

There is some useful documentation on the Core Audio APIs on MSDN, but it would be a lot more useful in understanding the issues I'm seeing with visibility into the HS Phone implementation:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...(v=vs.85).aspx

EDIT: Here's an interesting paper describing how Win7 does default audio endpoint selection. It leverages time stamps (most recently user selected default device / communication device) followed by more involved heuristics if no time-stamped audio endpoint is found:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wind.../gg463052.aspx

Thanks,
Don

[dschoppe]

Just a quick update:

I continue to struggle with HSPhone switching from the Way2Call to the wrong sound card during runtime for no apparent reason. After a reboot, it usually speaks via the Way2Call correctly, but then jumps to the AMD HDMI sound device, sometimes within minutes, sometimes hours. Incoming callers then hear no TTS. It is driving me crazy and is making HS useless as an answering machine.

The only kludge that "seems" to work is to keep the AMD HDMI sound device busy for example by having PowerDVD continuously render music to that device.

I haven't tried removing/reinistalling the Way2Call drivers nor deleting/recreating the default phone line in HSPhone as I don't suspect it will make a difference. If anybody thinks otherwise, please let me know and I'll go through the exercise.

It would be really helpful if somebody (HST) could provide some insight into how HSPhone locates the Way2Call, whether or not it is written to access the card in "exclusive" mode, and whether some logging could be enabled to show when/why HSPhone is releasing the Way2Call in favor of another device.

Thanks,
Don

[danielbo]

Looking for help

I just bought a way2call off ebay, which I thought was a pretty good deal. My old one seemed to be having a little bit of problems. Well, thinking I would just swap the units out, I was surprised. I found out the new one was a serial port, and not usb like what I had. I had a serial port to usb plug, so I hooked it up and now I am getting this error and have no idea on what or where it is reffering to.
Error in Hi-Phone InitVR: Wave device is invalid: -2
I have done searches for help and this is where I ended up, but I did not find a posting on this problem.
Does anyone have a idea on what the problem could be, or a solution.
Thank you and Merry Christmas,
Danielbo

[dschoppe]

I just bought a way2call off ebay, which I thought was a pretty good deal. My old one seemed to be having a little bit of problems. Well, thinking I would just swap the units out, I was surprised. I found out the new one was a serial port, and not usb like what I had. I had a serial port to usb plug, so I hooked it up and now I am getting this error and have no idea on what or where it is reffering to.
Error in Hi-Phone InitVR: Wave device is invalid: -2
I have done searches for help and this is where I ended up, but I did not find a posting on this problem.
Does anyone have a idea on what the problem could be, or a solution.
Thank you and Merry Christmas,
Danielbo

Danielbo,

I'm not 100% sure about this, so hopefully somebody else will also confirm, but I don't think you can use a serial Way2Call with HomeSeer even if connected via a USB-Serial converter.

Best,
Don

[danielbo]

Could anyone Confirm this?

Did I make a mistake by getting a serial way2call? I am using a converter to change it to a usb. But no luck. It was mentioned by dschoppe that it would not work with homeseer. Must be why I thought I got such a good deal. If someone could confirm this, I will see about sending this one back. I wondered way they was not being snached up. So if someone could tell me if they do or do not work for sure, I would appreciate it.
Merry Christmas,

[Rupp]

Did I make a mistake by getting a serial way2call? I am using a converter to change it to a usb. But no luck. It was mentioned by dschoppe that it would not work with homeseer. Must be why I thought I got such a good deal. If someone could confirm this, I will see about sending this one back. I wondered way they was not being snached up. So if someone could tell me if they do or do not work for sure, I would appreciate it.
Merry Christmas,

The serial Way2Calls will not work with HSPhone. Only these modes will work :
http://store.homeseer.com/store/Tele...ation-C46.aspx

[enigmatheatre]

HI,

I may be wrong but my setup has the way2call as the default communication device in both recording and playback. If you right click on the way2call in the sound recording and playback and set them to the default communication device so they have a little phone next to them. This should not affect the other speaker setup. I am running windows 7 32bit and all works fine here.

I hope this helps

Greig.