Have your say & ask the experts

After some very helpful advice on here from Mr Duncan and others I downloaded jamcast to my windows laptop & connected my router directly to my amp.  and now I can listen to spotify via my home cinema amp and speakers.  Brilliant.

However Jamcast does appear to have a problem of frequently disconnecting itself.  Sometimes I can listen to 3 or 4 songs before it does.  Sometimes it disconnects 2 or 3 times per song.  Reconnection is simply a matter of going back to the soundcard option on the amp (2 button presses) but it is rather annoying when its doing it continually.  Now I know jamcast is free (just downloaded latest version), and I also know its a beta version and I also know i shouldnt want jam on something (no pun intended) that has cost me nothing, but anyone come across this before, or any ideas of what may be causing it?

What's the exact revision of Jamcast? They brought out a new one mid October then released some Hot Fixes a few days later. I'll check at home tonight which one I'm using, but I haven't had any problems like you describe.

Is it only with Spotify or is it with streaming media from your PC? And with Spotify, does using your PC Speakers fail...next time it fails turn up the volume on your PC and see if it is still playing there. If it has stopped working then it is Spotify or networking rather than jamcast.

The support forums on the Jamcast site are pretty good, they get back to you quite quickly. A quick look on their support forums gives mention of the service needing around 1.5Mb/s to run properly...if your wireless connection drops below that for some reason you might get a glitch. Could you test it using a cabled connection to your network and see if it still has the same problem?

Windows Vista, Orange Livebox Router which is less than 1m from the amp.

I just switched everything off, turned it all back on again and re-ran the hmg set-up.  Thought it had cured it but disconnected again after bout 15 minutes.

As I say i know its beta software and free so if I have to put up with it i will do, but as a yorkshireman I want everything for nothing. :-)

Acciesboy:

What's the exact revision of Jamcast? They brought out a new one mid October then released some Hot Fixes a few days later. I'll check at home tonight which one I'm using, but I haven't had any problems like you describe.

Is it only with Spotify or is it with streaming media from your PC? And with Spotify, does using your PC Speakers fail...next time it fails turn up the volume on your PC and see if it is still playing there. If it has stopped working then it is Spotify or networking rather than jamcast.

The support forums on the Jamcast site are pretty good, they get back to you quite quickly. A quick look on their support forums gives mention of the service needing around 1.5Mb/s to run properly...if your wireless connection drops below that for some reason you might get a glitch. Could you test it using a cabled connection to your network and see if it still has the same problem?

 

 version of jamcast is 0.9.7.43.  I only downloaded it 2 days ago (replaced a previous downloaded version I hardly used).

Not sure how to stream other media from my PC.  Can you elaborate?  Sorry for being thick?

Yes Spotify is still playing on my PC when the connection goes.

Unfortunately atm I only have one ethernet cable and thats plugged into my amp from my router.  Is that what you meant?

I'll have a look on the jamcast support forums as you suggest.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

barnsleydave:

Not sure how to stream other media from my PC.  Can you elaborate?  Sorry for being thick?

No worries, can't remember the tab in jamcast, I think it is "Share" or similar, but you just tell it where to look for media in your file structure. Then go to your Amp's menu and where you go into the Virtual Soundcard through playlists, you should have other options for browsing Artist/Album/Playlists/Random tracks as well.

barnsleydave:

Yes Spotify is still playing on my PC when the connection goes.

Well that pretty much rules out Spotify as the issue.

barnsleydave:

Unfortunately atm I only have one ethernet cable and thats plugged into my amp from my router.  Is that what you meant?

Yes, although if it is only a couple of metres away then it really shouldn't be a performance issue unless there is a load of other traffic on your wireless network at the same time...unlikely. 

Definitely sounds like a Jamcast issue then. There are a million and one settings "under the hood" which you probably never need to conifgure, but something may be causing you an issue. Put in a support request on http://sdstechnologies.com and you'll get more detailed help there.

Cheers buddy I'll do that?

Btw does accies relate to hamilton academicals by any chance?

Acciesboy:

It does indeed...my home town football team, Hamilton Accies. I'm not a big fan though...not been to see them since they moved to their new stadium, but I do remember the old crumbling one. I've only been to about 6 or 7 of their games and they were all years ago. Only once did I see them equalize...I never did see them go in front!

Acciesboy:

Only once did I see them equalize...I never did see them go in front!

Lol.  Thats so funny.  Reminds me of the old footy joke.  What time do Hamilton Academicals kick -off?" Answer. Every 15 minutes.

I shouldnt chuckle. I'm a Barnsley fan.  You do need a sense of humour when you watch Barnsley.  

I'm not allowed to support Man utd as I don't live in Surrey.

Acciesboy:

Only once did I see them equalize...I never did see them go in front!

I'll have you know that it was an overhead kick from the edge of the box by George McCluskey, the ex-Celtic forward, probably around 1992-ish. Cracking goal it was too