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The New BroadcastURBAN Player  Below are some commonly asked questions regarding the new player
Solving Playback Problems
Question:
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Click OK to change and Save your new settings. Close and restart your browser and try to listen to the station.
If you are getting the error SOURCE FILTER cannot be found, this is related to the upgrade to Windows Media Player 9.
For some listeners changing IE to your default browser fixes this problem. If that doesn't work, see next paragraph.
We are working with Microsoft to address the issue. The only current fix that we know of is to roll back to your previous version of Windows Media Player. To roll back, go into control panels and then add remove programs then remove Windows Media Player 9. This will roll your system back to the previous version.
We are trying to find a solution to this.
The 'Cannot Open' error can be the result of many different issues.
The most common is a personal firewall, corporate firewall or privacy software. If you have a personal firewall or privacy software, try disabling it temporarily to see if it works.
The second most common issue is that your temporary Internet files (cache) is full. Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer may not have deleted enough cache to start playing the stream. To open Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the menu bar and select Internet Options... In the middle section under Temporary Internet Files, click on Delete Files...
If none of the above solve your problem, note that it is possible that the station is down or there is a problem between the station and the stream provider. There is nothing that the listener can do to resolve this. The majority of the time the stream provider is aware of the situation and is working to resolve it. It you receive this error for more than 24 hours let us know and we will look into it.
Due to the new laws regarding stream radio stations over the net we have to replace the commercials that are played over the Internet with Internet Safe Ads. NT was never designed to be a multimedia platform, and the software we originally designed for NT users provided a terrible listening experience. In many cases there was a severe volume difference between the ads and the stream, and often the radio station's original ad was not replaced with an Internet -safe ad. With new broadcasting laws being enforced, a listener hearing a radio ad on the Internet costs the station a lot of money. At this point we have no plans on supporting NT 3.5 and 4 as both platforms are becoming obsolete. The only thing you can do is to see if your location would upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP Professional
We are currently working on getting Title and Artist information to appear on the player.
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Question:
Why don't you support
MAC computers?
Supporting Macintosh is more complex than simply offering a QuickTime stream or streaming with Windows Media Player for Macintosh. There was a ruling in favor of AFTRA, the actor's union, which states that commercials made for Radio cannot be re-broadcast onto the Internet without payment of huge royalties. Therefore, if you want to stream your radio station on the Internet you need to remove the commercials. Our software enables us to automate the process of removing radio commercials and replacing them with Internet safe ads on Windows platforms. This technology has proven difficult to implement on the Macintosh platform.
At the present time we do suggest that you can purchase PC Clone software for the MAC such as Virtual PC that will give your MAC the ability to use PC software and hence listen to our stations with our new Ad Insertion technology. Please contact your local MAC detail for more information on Virtual PC and similar software packages.
Question:
How do I clear
out my computer's cache?
Answer:
Use the following steps to clear the computer's cache or Temporary
Internet Files folder:
Question:
Why do you not play the stations commercials,
will the station resume it's stream?
BroadcastURBAN is
currently running Public Service Announcements, Internet Only commercials and other spots in place of the commercials
because of a legal issue that prohibits Radio Streaming companies to
play the commercials you hear on the radio played over the Internet.
The Internet Broadcast is approx. <1 minutes behind the actual Broadcast.
This is due to the encoding process that must be done before you hear
the stream. Whe station is back into programming the stream will return.
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Question:
How do I verify that I
am using the proper and most up-to-date drivers for my sound card or
video card?
Answer:
Follow the steps below. (Follow steps 1 - 3 to confirm that you have
a video card or sound card.)
Question:
How can I use my Windows Media
Player with Netscape?
Answer:
You need to have the Netscape Navigator plug-in that is automatically
installed with the Windows Media Player. The plug-in, Npdsplay.dll,
is copied to the "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player" folder during
setup. If this file is present, the plug-in will have been installed
for all detected NetScape Navigator installations.
If you do not have the plug-in, you can reinstall Windows Media Player from http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/download/default.asp to install the plug-in.
Once the player is installed, you may need to refresh your Web page (which should contain "navigator.plugins.refresh();") to get the plug-in table updated. Alternatively, you can enter "navigator.plugins.refresh();" in the address bar, and then reload the current page.
Note In Netscape Navigator 6.0, you may encounter some problems with streaming media content. The plug-in architecture in Navigator 6 has been completely redesigned, which breaks compatibility with existing plug-ins. We are aware of the issue. No workaround is available at this time. The Windows Media Plug-in remains compatible with earlier versions of Netscape Navigator and other browsers.
Question:
My station won't play.
Answer:
The server may be down, your computer may be locked up, your sound card
may be damaged, or there may be some other problem. If you are using
Netscape Navigator 6.0, you may be experiencing problems due to a redesign
of the plug-in architecture in that browser, which has resulted in some
loss of backwards compatibility. In these situations you can do nothing.
Check to see that you have the most recent version of the browser you
are using Internet Explorer or Netscape. Upgrading your browser may
correct your problem. Check to see if you have the most updated Windows
Media Player (version 9 is the current player) you can download the
new player at www.windowsmedia.com.
Your problem may also be due to your companies decision to block our software that allows us to stream the radio station and replace commercials. If this is the case there is nothing you can do.
Question:
I can play content from some
sites but not others.
Answer:
Most likely you are behind a firewall that has not had the appropriate
ports opened for use with Netshow Services. However, if a server has
HTTP streaming enabled, the Windows Media Player can take advantage
of its protocol rollover capabilities and receive the file via HTTP
rather than the normal (and optimal) streaming protocols. This is why
you can receive content from some sites but not others. For best quality
and consistent results, encourage your administrator to open the appropriate
ports on the firewall to allow streaming.
Question:
Content plays, but there
are a lot of pauses and the player says "buffering."
Answer:
The player is most likely experiencing network congestion, meaning there
is not enough available bandwidth to stream the selected file. When
using a TCP connection, the data in the player's buffer will be used
to supplement the stream until the buffer is depleted. Once the buffered
data is gone, the player will pause, replenish the buffer, and resume
playing, using this new buffer to supplement the playback stream bandwidth.
This cycle will continue until network conditions improve. Try again
when the network is less congested, or select content that is authored
for lower bandwidths.
Raise buffer to
30 seconds instead of 5 seconds.
In the Media Player click on "Tools", click "options"
and go to performance, in the middle is buffer, highlight the 5 and
replace it with 30 this will help reduce the buffer. It will take longer
to buffer but it will also take longer to unbuffer, therefore reducing
the cut outs.
Another option is to use UDP as your protocol by ensuring that it is the only protocol option selected in the advanced properties. This will reduce the amount of buffering but will have the adverse effect of dropping data in cases of high congestion or insufficient bandwidth. If you are located behind a firewall, you may not be able to use UDP as your protocol.
Question:
Content plays,
but the quality is poor.
Answer:
Content served by Windows Media Technologies is created for specific
bandwidth ranges. If the content is created for a 28.8 Kbps or 56 Kbps
connection but Internet traffic is heavy, the NetShow Services server
will start to drop the frame rate (frames per second) to compensate
for increase of network congestion, causing the video to be jerky and
uneven. Try again when the connection is better, or be sure to select
content that's targeted for the bandwidth you have available.
The quality of the audio or video may also be poor because of the content creator's compression choices. In order to compress content for play over constrained bandwidth networks such as the Internet, mathematical algorithms called codecs are applied to the content. The content creator's codec selection greatly influences the quality the user sees or hears. For example, if the content creator prioritized audio quality over video quality or frame rate, you may enjoy the audio but be frustrated by the video.
Question:
I cannot hear the audio
on some clips, but on other clips I can.
Answer:
This could quite easily involve a number of issues, very few of which
can be corrected on the player side. To verify that the problem you
are seeing is indeed not a player problem, do the following:
Question:
I can hear audio, but it
hisses, pops, sounds scratchy, or sometimes drops in and out.
Answer:
Verify that you are using the proper and most up-to-date drivers for
your sound card (see
instructions). NetShow Services uses standard Windows compression
codecs to compress and decompress the audio. Poorly implemented or incorrect
sound card drivers may cause problems with compressed audio. Many users
unknowingly live with bad drivers for a long time because all of the
system sounds included with the Windows operating systems are uncompressed
audio files which will often play correctly even with bad or mismatched
drivers. This problem is not unique to NetShow Services; virtually any
multimedia program that uses Windows sound codecs and compressed audio
files would exhibit similar behavior.
Answer:
The only way to listen is through the BroadcastURBAN tuner. There was
a ruling in favor of AFTRA, the actor's union, which states that commercials
made for radio cannot be re-broadcast onto the Internet without payment
of huge royalties. Therefore, if you want to stream your radio station
on the Internet you need to remove the commercials. Our software enables
us to automate the process of removing radio commercials and replacing
them with Internet safe ads. If you were allowed to listen with Windows
Media Player directly the ads would not get replaced and the radio stations
would be in violation of the AFTRA ruling.
Question:
Everything
is playing too fast. It sounds like the chipmunks. What can I do?
Answer:
This is caused by out of date software. Most commonly, old sound card
drivers. Visit your sound card manufacture's web site, download and
install the latest drivers. Before trying to listen again, make sure
that you are up-to-date with your Internet Browser. (Link to top of
page)
Question:
My
player window hangs at "Buffering 0:00"
Please follow these directions very carefully so you don't inadvertently change a setting that will affect the usefulness of your player. This change will not affect the performance of any other media that you want to play, so once the change is complete, you do not need to adjust it again. To change the transport method in Windows Media Player:
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| © Copyright 2008 BroadcastURBAN.com Washington, DC |
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