sonos port not working as upnp renderer from foobar2000

Hi @groove_regulator 

Thanks for your post!

Are you using the Port’s Digital Output? If so, you may be affected by an issue we’ve been investigating. Please ensure your Sonos system has the latest update which may fix the issue for you. Please be aware that we are working on this issue with a high priority and hope to have it resolved for all Port owners soon. If your system is fully up-to-date and you still get no audio via the Port’s coaxial output, you can help us by letting us know what make and model of device you have connected to your Port’s output.

In the meantime, the analogue RCE outputs on the Port should be working without issue.

If this issue does not match the issue you are experiencing, however, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

HI @Corry P 

thanks for getting back to me, I am using both the Port’s Digital and Analogue (RCA) outs and neither currently work when I try so send a UPnP stream from foobar2000 to the Port. Foobar isn’t able to start the stream although interestingly it doesn’t throw an error it just pauses. I tried disconnecting the (ARCAM irDAC) from the Coax digtal feed from the Port but that didn’t make any difference.

The Sonos Port is running 15.2 build ..316 H/W version 1.29.1.9-2.2 Series ID A102

Looking forward to a fix, as I say the same PC can stream to the Roam and all devices that I have on my S1 system (Play 5, One SL, Connect).

Hi @groove_regulator 

Well, I am glad to hear you are not being affected by the known issue - it only affects the coaxial digital output, so if you don’t get anything from the analogue outputs either, then it must be something else. Just to be sure, I recommend testing with the analogue outputs for now.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much I can help you with UPnP (the implementation is largely undocumented and unsupported), but I can certainly try.

First, I want to give things the best chance of working without any reconfiguration. Please switch off the PC, the Port and your router. Once the router has been off for at least 30 seconds, turn it back on and wait for WiFi to return before turning on the Port and PC.

Next, please attempt UPnP playback to your Port from foobar2000 and if it still doesn’t work, submit a support diagnostic and reply here with the number given, and I’ll see what I can see.

If you can, please also try playing to the Port from within Windows Media Player - it’ll be good to have another source app to compare results.

Please note that, in general, we recommend setting up Music Library and allowing Sonos to index the music over the use of UPnP - in most instances Music Library will provide a better customer experience.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Edit: I just spotted your earlier report of BubbleUPnP working - you can forget about trying WMP.

HI @Corry P  here’s the diag ref

116911275

I’ve also given a screen grab where you can see Foobar is just “stuck”

HI @Corry P restarted router/switches/wifi etc (full cold restart) - no change, issue persists.

Hi @groove_regulator 

Thanks for the diagnostics! I see no sign in them of the Port receiving any instruction to play anything, nor of a connection being made.

Combine this with the fact that you are able to play to the Port via BubbleUPnP, and I’m tempted to come to the conclusion that foobar2000 is where the problem lies, though I don’t understand why it is still able to play to the Roam. It’s certainly strange. Was there a software update for foobar2000 recently?

Just in case this is down to the network, you could try disconnecting the Port from ethernet - that way, it will be using the same network interface as the Roam, which may, for some reason, perform differently. 

I hope this helps, but please be aware it is really just a guess. Our official answer will always be to add the folder to Sonos’ Music Library and select music to play from within the Sonos app (though if you exceed the limit of ~65,000 tracks, we recommend the use of Plex instead).

HI @Corry P  with ethernet removed I get the same behaviour. I note your point on using Sonos to Index the library unfortunately (as you’re probably aware) there are some issues with Sonos and (presumably) SMB2,3 and large libraries since I regularly get errors thrown that “share has disappeared” as reported by me here 

.

One point to add, although you’re not seeing anything in the logs, there is certainly some reaction from the Port when I start the stream since as I say I can hear the DAC “click” which as I say it does when changing sample rates or inputs. To clarify, with the output in Foobar set to the Port, if I double click around a playlist, choosing tracks at random, I’ll hear the DAC “click” each time but the stream won’t start.

Hi @groove_regulator 

Looking at UPnP playback events is not something I’m used to doing. Could you please initiate playback to the Port via BubbleUPnP, then try via foobar2000, and then submit another support diagnostic for me? I’d like to compare the two. Thanks.

While you do that, I’m going to try to get some assistance (a bit tricky today because of the long weekend), as I am not entirely sure the DAC does click (though I could easily be wrong).

HI @Corry P 

Diagnostics ID whilst successfully using BubbleUPnP 1771870117

HI @Corry P 

Diagnostics ID whilst unsuccessfully using foobar2000 1576535344

Hi @groove_regulator 

Thanks for performing those tests and providing the diagnostics - I’ve had a look and I think I see what the problem is.

So, when the request is sent via BubbleUPnP, I can see the Port accept the prompt to start playing and it does so. With the foobar2000 attempt, however, the Port is immediately crashing and restarting it’s main software - it can recover from this in a mere second or two, but it obviously doesn’t play the requested media (you might even see the Port go offline for a moment in the Sonos app).

Due to another recent thread here on the community which strikes me as similar, in a way, I suspect a possible reason for this happening might be if the file foobar2000 is trying to play is extremely short - as in, a second or two long. Could you please confirm if this is the case or not? Thanks.

This is of course not expected or wanted behaviour, but if I can verify that the length of the track is the issue, I can at least say we’ve seen this behaviour before and are investigating.

I suspect that the person on this thread was also using UPnP to initiate playback, but the tiny audio file crashed my Amp via Music Library playback, so I don’t think the issue was do to the UPnP method.

Edit: from your first post, it doesn’t actually look like it being a short file is the answer, but I’ll wait for you to confirm.

Hi @Corry P thanks for getting back to me, I can confirm that I’ve tried numerous tracks of varying lengths and bitrates, all exhibit the same behaviour. Your feedback makes sense in that “something” happens at the Port end when trying to start the stream from Foobar, albeit it ends with a crash ( that probably explains why the DAC gives the “click.” )

Looking forward to a resolution, let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.

Tony

Hi @groove_regulator 

Ah yes - the “click”. I asked, and Port has no mechanical parts, so the click must be coming from your amplifier - which is totally normal behaviour (especially since the Port is rebooting) and not a concern in any way.

Given that the issue is not related to the length of the file, however, and that UPnP playback is possible but not supported, I’m afraid the best advice I can give you at the moment is to not use foobar200 and use BubbleUPnP instead, if possible.

We did tighten some security recently, so it could be that BubbleUPnP is adhering to the increased security requirements more than foobar2000 is, but please be aware that this is just a guess and should not be taken as definite.

I hope you find a workaround that suits your usage needs.

thanks @Corry P I appreciate the feedback however it is disappointing that this doesn’t work. What I find confusing is that it happily works with the Roam. Would it be worth me doing a test where I stream to the Roam from Foobar2000 and send you the Diagnostics Id?

I have to admit I’m getting fairly disappointed with my S2 system, I’ve had it less than a year (i think) and it’s given me a number of significant issues ( this one here being the most critical → 

 ). I’d started using foobar2000 more often as a result of the S2 NAS Music Library issue, and now foobar2000 as you’ve seen is broken too.

The S1 platform just works better, I don’t recall any significant issue with S1 in the decade I’ve had it.

Hi @groove_regulator 

My colleague is currently looking into this issue, as although UPnP is unsupported, our products shouldn’t be crashing, so yes please - a diagnsotic of Roam playing successfully will be helpful as all data points will be useful, I think.

The Music Library indexing problem only seems to exist for some NAS drives, though I certainly appreciate how annoying all this must be for you. One option would be to have your library stored on a computer instead, though if you don’t already have a computer powered on 24/7 I can see why this wouldn’t be ideal. I personally have my S2 system linking to a Raspberry Pi with a Samba share and experience no issues, though I admit I don’t need to connect a S1 system to it too (though I do have an Android SMB app that needs SMBv1).

My colleague is currently trying to reproduce your issue with a macOS version of foobar2000 without success (as in, it works). Could you please provide us with the software version of foobar2000 that you’re running and, if possible, a sample file (via Dropbox or Google Drive or similar) of what you’re trying to play? He’s about to start trying on Windows now. Thanks.

Hi @groove_regulator 

In addition, it looks like a plugin is needed to get foobar2000 playing over UPnP - could you please provide details of which plugin you used? Thanks.

This does of course beg the question of whether or not you still encounter the issue if you use a different plugin?

HI @Corry P as always I appreciate your continued support, so Diagnostics ID with foobar2000 successfully sending the stream to the Roam → 1701381231

Foobar version v1.6.11

Foobar has the default foo_out_upnp component installed v1.3.2

I wouldn’t get too hung up on the file I’m trying to stream, I’ve not managed to get it to “break” using the Roam no matter what I send (I had it streaming to the Roam from foobar2000 for about 5 hours on the weekend with no issues).

Let me know if I can do anything else.

Tony

HI @Corry P just updated foobar2000 to v1.6.16 along with upnp component to 1.4

Unfortunately the issue persists

Hi @groove_regulator 

Thanks for all those details - I’ve passed them to a colleague, and I will get back to you once he’s done some testing.

Hi @groove_regulator 

One more question for you - what version of Windows is your foobar2000 installed on? We’ve been testing on Windows 11 up to this point.

HI @Corry P 

I wonder if my Port simply has a H/W fault…. will leave it to you guys :)

Hi @groove_regulator 

Thanks for that!

I’m pretty sure this is a software issue - with hardware issues, things tend to either work or not work, and they don’t get so weirdly specific.

My colleague has had to order himself a Port (we’re mostly all working from home, so don’t have immediate access to all models) to test properly - so far, he’s been testing on an Amp and has been unable to reproduce the behaviour. I’ll get back to you in a day or three.

thanks @Corry P fingers crossed we get to the bottom of it, I’m able to reproduce it with 2 different PCs btw (both Windows 10). One using an ethernet connection to the LAN, the other PC using Wifi (not sure that would be material but worth knowing all the same)