Digital audio problem

[Gunfish]

Hello, I have a problem playing digital audio through my system. I have 6 analog sources that play flawless, but anytime I use the digital audio the playback either pauses,skips,or stops all together. The steps I have taken so far: Re-scanned,re-booted, deleted songs from library down to 50 gigs,swapped router to airport extreme,and tried using a 1 gig flash drive instead of hard drive...Still stops,pauses,etc.... I have not had 1 song play its full length. Anyone have similar problems?

System- 2 HC 300's with external Hard drive,16 channel amp, 2 lcd keypads,POE switch,dimmers,switch's etc....

The rest of the system works flawless, unfortunatly this is the part of control4 I wanted the most. Any help would be appreciated.

[jwhitaker@revit]

i think you have a network issue. what type of router are you using? wrt model? rough estimate is that if you payed less than 100.00 for your router, thats why your dig audio is choppy/scratchy etc.

[bog]

Regardless of the price of the router/switch...

We'd need to know more details of your setup. Give it to us in the most basic setup and eliminate all unnecessary components.

1. HC300 is playing what digital media? MP3? What bitrate? How were they encoded?

2. Where does the media reside? If residing on a Windows network file share, how is the HC300 and the file share connected to the network? WiFi or directly to the same switch?

Have you tried going out from the HC300 directly to a set of speakers or a receiver?

[CFUG]

i think you have a network issue. what type of router are you using? wrt model? rough estimate is that if you payed less than 100.00 for your router, thats why your dig audio is choppy/scratchy etc.

Router? My router has nothing to do WRT playing digital audio well except issuing IPs to the director and the slave controllers. What are you driving at here? He has an AE as the router and a PoE switch. The switch is passing the traffic, not the router.

[Gunfish]

Bog, I think you are on to something. All my files are MP3 but at different bitrates (downloaded,ripped,copied), all my ripped CD's are at 192.How should the files be encoded,and at what bitrates? HC 300 has a HDD (formatted at fat32) connected to it USB,all media is there. Then hardwired into network

Thanks for your time.

[thecodeman]

Bog, I think you are on to something. All my files are MP3 but at different bitrates (downloaded,ripped,copied), all my ripped CD's are at 192.How should the files be encoded,and at what bitrates? HC 300 has a HDD (formatted at fat32) connected to it USB,all media is there. Then hardwired into network

Thanks for your time.

This sounds fine, as long as they are .MP3 and do not exceed 320k in bitrate.

Are you streaming to speakerpoints and other controllers or just the 16 channel amp?

[Gunfish]

Audio out from HC 300 to 16 channel amp.

[sscottroth]

Has anyone experienced a ground fault when hooking up an alarm system to the C4 system. No ground fault before I hook it up. Once I hook it up, I get the ground fault. Any general ways to troubleshoot this? I'm not really on top of what causes this? any advice or knowledge appreciated.

[ILoveC4]

Has anyone experienced a ground fault when hooking up an alarm system to the C4 system. No ground fault before I hook it up. Once I hook it up, I get the ground fault. Any general ways to troubleshoot this? I'm not really on top of what causes this? any advice or knowledge appreciated.

You might have better luck asking that in a more appropriate thread.

[sscottroth]

thanks. new to the system

[RyanE]

Please start a new thread if you're going to post a new topic.

RyanE

[RyanE]

Oops. Too late. Sorry about that.

RyanE

[bog]

gunfish: the MP3s you describe seem fine. I use an HC300 and stream my MP3's from my network file share. Can you try eliminating the USB connection (just to troubleshoot) and store a few MP3s on a network share?

For what you describe there is no network involved. Wired or wireless, you're not streaming any content on the network. The HC300 is reading content from a USB attached drive and sending the out the L/R rca audio jacks. I think the issue might be with your HDD, the USB port or maybe the HC300 itself.

[Gunfish]

Exactly, and I have eliminated the HDD,tried a usb stick and same problem. I am going to move the HDD to the other HC300 and see if that eliminates it. Thanks for all your input.

[bog]

Can you store the MP3s on a network share to test? Keep us posted.

[Gunfish]

Just switched 300's... alot better but still pauses. Scanned 10 times faster and doesn't skip or stop. So,better but not perfect. Network share is next.

[bog]

any update?

[agupta]

Make sure your hdd/usb is using a FAT32 filesystem. I had similar pausing issues with an NTFS hard-drive.

[Gunfish]

All good,except I need a new 300. I switched 300's and not a single pause. Also 80 gigs of music took hours to scan instead of 4 days. I think the USB is bunk on my other 300. Thanks for all of your input.

[thecodeman]

All good,except I need a new 300. I switched 300's and not a single pause. Also 80 gigs of music took hours to scan instead of 4 days. I think the USB is bunk on my other 300. Thanks for all of your input.

Did you try the other usb port on the "bad" controller by chance? Curious.

[Bugsy.12]

Just to let you know "Ground Loops" are a thing that sometimes happens with audio equi[pement, Control4 is a very gogod example. Don't bother looking at your equipement and spending more money. What you need to do is change the electrical plug. Have only on plug on the system with a single ground box were the system connects.

This means that there is no ground at the box only at the electrical panel and you have nothing else connecvted to the brealer at the box., taljk to an electrition, should cost you around 20$ for the box.

As far as music, it's control4 that can not handle a large load of music from a Hard Druive setup, dont try and fix its just the way it is, HC-300 and alot of patiants

good luck

[ILoveC4]

Just to let you know "Ground Loops" are a thing that sometimes happens with audio equi[pement, Control4 is a very gogod example. Don't bother looking at your equipement and spending more money. What you need to do is change the electrical plug. Have only on plug on the system with a single ground box were the system connects.

This means that there is no ground at the box only at the electrical panel and you have nothing else connecvted to the brealer at the box., taljk to an electrition, should cost you around 20$ for the box.

As far as music, it's control4 that can not handle a large load of music from a Hard Druive setup, dont try and fix its just the way it is, HC-300 and alot of patiants

good luck

?????

:/

[DerekWPE]

Just to let you know "Ground Loops" are a thing that sometimes happens with audio equi[pement, Control4 is a very gogod example. Don't bother looking at your equipement and spending more money. What you need to do is change the electrical plug. Have only on plug on the system with a single ground box were the system connects.

This means that there is no ground at the box only at the electrical panel and you have nothing else connecvted to the brealer at the box., taljk to an electrition, should cost you around 20$ for the box.

As far as music, it's control4 that can not handle a large load of music from a Hard Druive setup, dont try and fix its just the way it is, HC-300 and alot of patiants

good luck

It kind of sounds like your talking about a isolated ground system, but the outlet box by code always must be grounded.

What kind of box are you talking about for $20? thats defiantly would not include having some out come out to your home to install

[Bugsy.12]

No that price does not come with the electrician, only the box buit considering the amount a Control4 system can cost, whatis 50.00$ an hour for installation. Also just to let you know this method can be okay with code (depending on were), just talk to an electrician about the code.

All I can say is I had the same problem including an FN hum in the speakers and this took care of it. Now you sould make sure this is installed properly and up to code in your area.

[c4newby]

Just to let you know "Ground Loops" are a thing that sometimes happens with audio equi[pement, Control4 is a very gogod example. Don't bother looking at your equipement and spending more money. What you need to do is change the electrical plug. Have only on plug on the system with a single ground box were the system connects.

This means that there is no ground at the box only at the electrical panel and you have nothing else connecvted to the brealer at the box., taljk to an electrition, should cost you around 20$ for the box.

As far as music, it's control4 that can not handle a large load of music from a Hard Druive setup, dont try and fix its just the way it is, HC-300 and alot of patiants

good luck

wasn't sure what you meant that c4 can't handle a large load of music from a hard drive setup? what constitutes large and what are my other options besides a 'hard drive setup'?

thanks