Announcement stuck in loop

[The Listener]

FINALLY committed to the Sonos PI (vs script library) and it does a great job of link and unlink. I'm having a problem with using SpeakEx with a filename getting stuck in a loop. Doing just as the doc suggests (sending a filename to SpeakEx using the proxy port number), but it keeps replaying the same file in an endless loop. I can go to the running Sonos Desktop and Stop the loop to get out of it. Any ideas? The link group home zone doesn't have repeat on or anything. Thanks!

PS (general interest):
Why do I have to start the Sonos Desktop before HS2 gets to the SonosPI discovery part of the startup script?

[dcorsus]

FINALLY committed to the Sonos PI (vs script library) and it does a great job of link and unlink. I'm having a problem with using SpeakEx with a filename getting stuck in a loop. Doing just as the doc suggests (sending a filename to SpeakEx using the proxy port number), but it keeps replaying the same file in an endless loop. I can go to the running Sonos Desktop and Stop the loop to get out of it. Any ideas? The link group home zone doesn't have repeat on or anything. Thanks!

Are you running the latest beta posted here (http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...45&postcount=1)? The updater is slightly outdated I need to bring that one up to date. The problem of repeating announcements -- I had it a few months back, thought I figured out what was causing it (in fact one of my players that was part of the link group was set to repeat), but when I played with it, it went away and never came back. It was actually very strange because the PI has specific code to set the player by default to non-repeat but I noted that the Sonos player did the opposite. Version .92 & .95 has some changes that might solve it.

If you are on the latest version, do me a favor, check all players participating, is any of them set to repeat, if so, turning it off does that make a difference.

Assuming it has nothing to do with this and perhaps just a setup issue, can you turn the debug flag of the PI on and post the log file.

PS (general interest):
Why do I have to start the Sonos Desktop before HS2 gets to the SonosPI discovery part of the startup script?

Not sure I understand the question, perhaps you can elaborate and add some screenshots or debug logs.

Thanks

Dirk

[The Listener]

Re: Announcement stuck in loop

Yep, I was back reved on the software. But the Beta didn't help. Here is the log of Non Debug mode with the loop happening:

10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - Event - Event Trigger "SonosPI Announce All Zones SpeakEx"
10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - Event - Running script and waiting: &hs.speakex 60 , "E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3"
10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - SonosController - SpeakIn called for Device = 60, Text = E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3, Wait=False, Host =
10/25/2012 6:59:36 PM - SonosController - DoCheckAnnouncementQueue activated with HostName = Text = E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3 and LinkgroupName = AllZones

PM me if you want a Debug Flag log (it is long). BTW, I broomed out the Announcements directory, but it didn't help. Thanks for being responsive!

[dcorsus]

Yep, I was back reved on the software. But the Beta didn't help. Here is the log of Non Debug mode with the loop happening:

10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - Event - Event Trigger "SonosPI Announce All Zones SpeakEx"
10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - Event - Running script and waiting: &hs.speakex 60 , "E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3"
10/25/2012 6:59:32 PM - SonosController - SpeakIn called for Device = 60, Text = E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3, Wait=False, Host =
10/25/2012 6:59:36 PM - SonosController - DoCheckAnnouncementQueue activated with HostName = Text = E:\Shared Documents\My Music\Soundtrack\One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest\Medication Time Nurse Rachet.mp3 and LinkgroupName = AllZones

PM me if you want a Debug Flag log (it is long). BTW, I broomed out the Announcements directory, but it didn't help. Thanks for being responsive!

I looked at the log file you sent me, it appears that the Sonos player is choking on something, I noted a "restart" indication, not sure this means the player restarted or it restarted the track, but from a plugin point of view, I actually see nothing wrong.

Here are a few things I would like you to try and answer:

1) set the max announcement duration back from 20 seconds to let's say 100 seconds. When the announcement is repeating itself, look at the Sonos Controller itself, what does it show? Does it show errors?

2) Try it with another mp3 file? I see it takes quite a bit for the player to buffer the file, so either the file is somewhat large or the HS PC this is running on, is somewhat slower (or HS is slow). What PC and OS is HS running on? Is HS running as a service? Could you answer these questions.

3) The plugin will make a copy of the original file and store it in a HS controlled subdirectory so that the HS built in web server can serve the file to the Sonos player. It is stored in the <hsroot>\html\SonosController/Announcements/Ann_MeditationZone_0.mp3 directory. Can you use Windows Media Player or some other mp3 player and play the file. Does it give errors of any kind? Again, what is the size of the file? How long is this announcement in seconds?

The log shows that it takes the Sonos player 5 seconds to buffer which is something I've only seen on internet radio content, never on local LAN stored content but I might have not been paying enough attention to that. Then after about 3 seconds into playing, the player autonomously reports that it is "playing" (again) and there is some "restart" indication set to true.

So if this announcement is about 3 seconds, the player might have some problem with the end of the file and start all over. If the file is much longer then 3 seconds, I guess some error after a few seconds triggers it to start playing again.

Last question, are your players running the latest Sonos SW?

Thanks

Dirk

[The Listener]

> 1) set the max announce...Does it show errors?

I set the max announce to 200 seconds and played a longer (49 sec) mp3 file. Looking at the Sonos Desktop Controller, it shows "Station: HomeSeeer Announcement, On Now". It shows "Information: Starting" at the beginning of each loop. No errors in the HS log (debugging off). No errors indicated in the Desktop Controller.

> 2) Try in with another mp3...

I did (see above). My About Me in my HS Forum profile has info about HW and SW versions. HS is not running as a service.

> 3) The plugin will make a copy...

Yes, I can play the announcment file with WMP. No errors. 1.2 megs. 49 secs long. The original mp3 was about 2 secs long, but the new test one is longer, but still loops. Note, that with the 2 sec file, it only gets to play 3 times within a 30 sec max file window. There is obviously a lot of stuff happening during that 30 seconds.

Yes, running latest Sonos 3.8 across iPhones, Windows Desktop Controllers, Zone Players, and handheld controllers.

[dcorsus]

> 1) set the max announce...Does it show errors?

I set the max announce to 200 seconds and played a longer (49 sec) mp3 file. Looking at the Sonos Desktop Controller, it shows "Station: HomeSeeer Announcement, On Now". It shows "Information: Starting" at the beginning of each loop. No errors in the HS log (debugging off). No errors indicated in the Desktop Controller.

> 2) Try in with another mp3...

I did (see above). My About Me in my HS Forum profile has info about HW and SW versions. HS is not running as a service.

> 3) The plugin will make a copy...

Yes, I can play the announcment file with WMP. No errors. 1.2 megs. 49 secs long. The original mp3 was about 2 secs long, but the new test one is longer, but still loops. Note, that with the 2 sec file, it only gets to play 3 times within a 30 sec max file window. There is obviously a lot of stuff happening during that 30 seconds.

Yes, running latest Sonos 3.8 across iPhones, Windows Desktop Controllers, Zone Players, and handheld controllers.

Not sure what changed over the years, but I had to change my code to make this work again. Long time ago, when I began testing .mp3 files, I (for a reason I've forgotten ) picked a specific playing mode on the Sonos, actually tricking it that it is playing .mp3 files from a internet radio source. What seems to happen is that as soon as the announcement ends, Sonos tries to re-establish connection with the source and starts to play again. I suspect something they added somewhat more recently.

Anyway, I changed the mechanism and tried it out and now it should work like any other .wav files that I use for announcements.

Download the newest beta here (http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...45&postcount=1) and let me know it now works.

Sorry for all your effort.

Dirk

[The Listener]

Re: Announcement suck in loop

version .99 fixed the looping problem! Thanks!

But if I do something like "The Front End|filename|the back end" for speakEx, the first "The" is cut off. Whatever is waiting for the zones to link needed another second.

[dcorsus]

version .99 fixed the looping problem! Thanks!

But if I do something like "The Front End|filename|the back end" for speakEx, the first "The" is cut off. Whatever is waiting for the zones to link needed another second.

It has been tricky over the years to add just enough delay and not too much to delay the overall responsiveness.

You can add a SAPI delay command which looks like this <silence msec="500"/> or "<silence msec="500"/>The Front End|filename|the back end"

Dirk