Stream becomes inactive regularly

[G8NZR]

I've been having an ongoing problem with the new streaming system. Every few days the stream becomes 'Inactive' and I have to re-start the stream. Hitting stop/start is enough to get it going again.

The streaming PC at this end is the same as it's been for the last 3 years, but every other day it seems to stop streaming. On the old web system, it only ever stopped after an unsheduled Windows update and needed to be re-started - probably twice a year. On the new streamer, it seems to stop every two to three days and need a restart.

Anyone else with this problem or are there any updates I have need to make it stream reliably 24/7 on the new BATC website? Suggestions

73 Kay
G8NZR/GB3YT

[G1BVI]

Hi Kay
I stream on to the Portsdown and it occasionally seems to drop out on that.
Restarting the stream sorts it.
I do sometimes run the PC concurrently to try and hear the audio.
I will pay more attention and see if that too stops but I had not noticed.
With the PC I do seem to have to allow flash player every time I start a stream.
Had some friends over last weekend and was showing them the shack.
Their 8 year old daughter asked why there was a naked man on my little screen !!
Dont know what was going on so i shut stream off.
It did make me think about callsigns.
I have noticed there is often no audio on the streams and when displayed on the Portsdown unless the callsign is visible in the stream there is no way of telling who is transmitting the stream.
On the PC this can be seen in the top right hand corner.
I wonder if this could be super imposed on the stream to be seen on the portsdown

Hope you sort yours out soon

73

Nick

[G8GKQ]

Hi Nick and Kay

A number of issues here:

1. We will investigate the stream dropouts. It could be a server issue.

2. You can set your browser to always trust flash content from https:/batc.org.uk/live and then you should not need to allow it every time that you start a stream. See https://wiki.batc.org.uk/Watching_the_new_streamer

3. Please pm me about the inappropriate content on the stream.

4. I have not observed any problem with audio on the Portsdown stream viewer. Please could you provide details of how I might reproduce the problem?

5. The Portsdown stream viewer displays exactly the same image as the PC (browser) view. The callsign, if displayed, is embedded in the stream video and inseparable from it.

6. The Portsdown does not overlay a callsign (caption) on composite video input streams as most repeaters already have the callsign on their video (as required for their transmitted video). It does display a callsign/caption (if enabled) on Pi Camera streams.

Hope that helps to explain some of the observations.

Dave, G8GKQ

[g8vpg]

Dave,
We have had the ZZ stream from a Portsdown stop on two occasions. Several other repeaters seemed to have the problem at the same time. It requires a complete shut down and restart to reconnect, which is a problem when its at the repeater. I thought the Portsdown streamer rebooted itself every 12 hours?
73 Shaun.

[G8GKQ]

Hi Shaun

Yes, the streamer application restarts every 12 hours, but the RPi should not reboot.

As you know, there is another bug that hangs the RPi during a reboot, and I think that this is the problem with 'ZZ. If it for some reason reboots, it then locks up during the reboot. I have spent the last couple of days trying to track this one down, but without much success. I have now "asked the internet" https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 8&t=220281 with no response but will continue to try to find the problem.

Dave

[G8NZR]

Hi Dave

The streaming stopped again this morning, and in the log it had stopped at 'Bad Name'.

However, the name is fine and correct and if you hit 'Stop' and then 'Start', it logs on and continues to run fine. You don't have to re-start the application at this end, just hit 'Start' and off it goes again for a few more days!

The streaming PC is a dedicated one just for that purpose. As I said in my opening post, this streaming PC worked fine previously on the old system, but with this new system, it fails after a few days of sending the stream to the BATC server site. The only time it ever stopped before was during a windows update.

Kay

[G8GKQ]

Hi Kay

Thanks for the information. We're looking into the problem, but our streamer expert is having a busy time at the moment!

Dave

[G8NZR]

Hi Dave

For your information it just stopped again (second time in one day). Same problem of 'Bad Name' although it restarted no problem... The log times were at 0916 and 1440 BST today (Fri 17/8).

73s Kay

[G8NZR]

Just an update - The GB3YT streaming feed to the BATC web still keep stopping although it did run for about a week without any problem. It stopped again on Monday with 'Bad Name', although just hitting stop and then start it runs again. Most times it only runs for a couple of days and then stops.

Am I the only one having this regular problem? Anyone else besides those mentioned in this post?

[g8vpg]

We have the same problem at GB3ZZ. It will run for up to two weeks, but always stops and then requires a site visit to reboot it. We are shortly implementing a work around involving two timers operating in sequence. The first operates the shut down button, the second then cycles the power to cause the Pi to reboot. The system thus reboots every 24 hours and thus any stream down time is limited to this period at maximum.
73 Shaun G8VPG.