Tunein Radio "Stuttering"

Hi Mark,

We'd like to see some diagnostic data from your system. This should help us identify the cause of the audio stuttering. Please reply here with the confirmation number: How to submit diagnostics.

Jeff,

Many thanks for the response. The next time this occurs I will submit diagnostics and update this post.

Again, thanks
Mark

I get this issue very often but only when lstening to BBC 6 music. All other radio stations are fine, I haven't tried other BBC stations.
Submitted diagnistics: 4634051.

Please advise, as it's really annoying

I get this issue very often but only when lstening to BBC 6 music. All other radio stations are fine, I haven't tried other BBC stations.
Submitted diagnistics: 4634051.

Please advise, as it's really annoying


Hi Peter,

While BBC through TuneIn radio is undergoing maintenance, which may be the cause of the audio stutters, I do notice that your Sonos system has been online for 150+ days. Many times it can help to reboot the Sonos system. This causes the Sonos system and your router to update network information, including DNS settings, which your system uses to find and connect to servers on the internet. Please remove power to your Sonos unit for about ten seconds then plug it back in. Let me know if this does not help.

I get this issue very often but only when lstening to BBC 6 music. All other radio stations are fine, I haven't tried other BBC stations.
Submitted diagnistics: 4634051.

Please advise, as it's really annoying


Hi, thanks for reply. I rebooted it and haven't really used it much since. Today, BBC 6 has been on for about an hour and now it's stuttering again.
Submitted logs: 4655771.
Please advise.
Thanks

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
Hi Clinton,

Can you send us a diagnostic report and reply with the confirmation number? We'll take a look for you. Here's how to submit reports.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
Thanks Jeff. Confirmation number 4712972.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
Hi Clinton,

There are some communication errors between your Sonos components which may be caused by wireless interference. Try changing the Sonos wireless channel to 11, then to 6 if 11 doesn't help. Here's how to change the Sonos channel.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
OK, I'll give that a go. Thanks.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
The problem persists on all 3 available WiFi channels. Again, I'd like to stress that this problem only happens with tunein radio, and not when streaming from spotify, Amazon, soundcloud, 22 tracks or from a home NAS. So I don't think this is a LAN or Sonosnet problem. If it was, surely it would happen regardless of the musi source.

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
Hi Clinton,

Do you get stuttering on all TuneIn channels or just certain ones?

I'm getting the same problem. Stopping the stream and restarting it provides a temporary (20 minutes or so) solution. Never used to happen on the old BBC streams, but they've stopped those and now we're forced to use tunein.
Hi Jeff.

I've been listening to a different station - BBC radio 2 - for the last half hour with no problems, so looks like it is a 6 music thing maybe. Thanks for your help so far. Do you think there is any way of sorting it out or is it something 6 music need to look at?

At the risk of sounding like a "me too", I'm also having the same, regular issues with Radio 2.  Max of about an hour then stuttering starts.

As mentioned above, 'pausing' then restarting offers a temporary reprieve, but it's a consistent issue - which is annoying given it's typically the main thing we listen to using it.  Spotify or NAS-based music does not have the same problem - it's only TuneIn radio via BBC Radio 2 that's the problem.

Happy to submit a diagnostic report if it helps anyone.

Cheers.

I know a few people with Sonos, everyone of us has this issue. Apparently BBC have changed their streaming technology and TuneIn/Sonos haven't worked out how to make it stable yet.
Why Sonos can't just say this is beyond me. Better to admit a fault than have everyone think you are either ignoring it or incompetent. It's a great way to lose the goodwill of customers.

The original poster didn't mention BBC.  Sonos has discussed the subject extensively just not in this thread

https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/bbc-radio-no-longer-provides-this-service-in-the-windows-media-fo...

https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/sonos-should-offer-a-bbc-iplayer-radio-app-in-the-controller

In summary as you are new on this.   BBC last year changed their method of streaming to what is called HLS.  It is a way of streaming developed by apple that is not a full standard but developing.  It is a way to stream in chunks (actually more developed for video vs audio).  At that time they shut down all the older streams except some basic mp3 streams that are riddled with issues.

Because Sonos units, like most streaming units, did not have full HLS capability, BBC stations for Sonos have had to default to the lower quality, problem ridden, MP3 streams.

Where is it today.  Sonos is working on adding full HLS to all their units so that then the new HLS streams can be utilized.  One competitor just implemented their version in the past few weeks.  Sonos should be getting rather close.  They will not give a timeline and what the final fix will entail other then they have said they want to do it right (some are hoping it means a full iplayer plugin app).

For now you are stuck with the lower quality MP3 streams unless you run some server software on a computer in your house to transcode the BBC streams to Sonos (which will work and allow use of the new streams even in this interim period for full support).

The original poster did mention BBC as did every other unique poster in this thread. But instead of a straight answer from official Sonos staff it's all been about troubleshooting a known issue. Basically wasting our time.
It's been over 6 months since this thread started, they'd better have an awesome solution in the pipeline.

sorry you were not directed to other threads.  They were going through maintenance at one time people were hoping the mp3 would improve.  You seem to be rather irritated I'll leave you with that.

I've been getting stuttering on WNYC streaming via TuneIn for about a week now. Help? Diagnostics # 7916395

Same here is happening while listening to TuneIn radio using Play:1 also on newest 8.0 firm after about 20-30 minutes it starts to skip like some buffer is full, once paused and played it will fix it for about 20 minutes and then again.. Quite annoying. Google Play Music does not have duch bug otherwise I would return it back to shop. But I expected that such bugs would not happen on Sonos and while reading forums it seems that Sonos refuses to fix this bug several years! In case I knew it before I would look for other player..
Diagnostics submitted 7922558

Frequently, this "bug" that you mention is not a real bug, but an issue in the local wifi network. And different streams that come across your Sonos devices have different tolerances for these issues, which is why one will have the problem when another doesn't. Note I said "frequently". But the diagnostic you submitted will certainly help someone from Sonos determine what the issue is that you're experiencing.

I do have a suggestion, that might be of help, while you wait for Sonos to get to your post. Unplug your PLAY:1 (and any other Sonos devices you have) from power. Then reboot your router. Once the router is back up, plug in the first Sonos device you have. Plug in the one that you have connected to the router with an ethernet cable first, if you have such a thing. Once that device is fully booted up, go ahead and move to the next device. Do that for all the Sonos devices you have. This will remove the possibility for now of any duplicate IP addresses for your Sonos stuff, which does happen occasionally when routers get confused and assign an IP address to a device when that address is already in use. Then test TuneIn radio again, and see if you get the skipping.

If you don't, that's great. At that point I'd look in to assigning a reserved IP address for your Sonos equipment, so you don't have this issue again. I tend to recommend reserved IP addresses above what your router normally hands out. Mine starts handing out at .01, so I reserved all of my Sonos stuff starting at .75, just in case I had a lot of people over. Reserving IP addresses can be looked up in the manual for your router, and unfortunately there are lots of different ways to do it, otherwise I'd suspect Sonos would build it in to their software. But then again, if they did, there'd probably be a lot of people who already do it that would be upset that they might be overwriting what had already been set....it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

However, if you're still getting the skipping, I'd suggest going to TuneIn's website on your computer or phone, and try playing from there to see if you're still having this skipping or not. It is always possible that the issue is with the station, and not either TuneIn or Sonos.

It also might be useful to post which station you're listening to when you get the skipping, as being able to duplicate as closely as possible your circumstances would probably be helpful to the tech who's going to be looking at that diagnostic.

For what it's worth, I get the exact same problem when streaming 6 music on the Alexa as does my brother also on an Alexa, so I think it's far more likely to be an issue with Tunein. Also never experienced when streaming via the website