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Kevin_Quick
Participant
July 21, 2006
Question

Flash 9 audio problem

  • July 21, 2006
  • 11 replies
  • 515 views
Over the last few years we have developed a Flash based videoconferencing tool which uses the flashmedia server. Recently clients using this have complained of problems with audio, and this would appear to be specifically related to people who have installed the Flash 9 player.

The people listening with a flash 9 player to a live broadcast hear the audio as broken/bubbly/interupted (difficult to exactly explain the effect), However people in the same meeting, listening to the same audio stream, but with Flash 8 players don't have this problem. Further evidence of this being a problem with the Flash 9 player is that the flv files recorded on the flash media server are ok and don't have any breaks etc.

We have experimented with Mac and PC with Flash 9 players installed and the problem seems to apply to both platforms.

We have also tried other audio/ video flash programs that use the flash media server (some which use the pre-built Flash components for such applications) and the problem seems to be the same when using these i.e. clients connected with a Flash player 8 are OK, those with Flash Player 9 have audio problems - again implying the problem is with the latest flash player

Also we have tried similar applications on other flash media servers, so eliminating a server specific problem, and once again people connecting with Flash Player 9 have problems with the audio.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems with audio for people playing live audio with Flash Player 9 and if so is there a solution/work-around for this.

With our application about to be used by a much greater client base this is a problem we need to solve.
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    11 replies

    Anonymous
    August 3, 2006
    I tried the suggestion of setting the buffer time for the netstream object, and that didn't solve it. After a lot of digging and tweaking of settings, it appears that it is a problem with the hardware in relation to Flash.

    The sound card is the SoundMax Integrated Audio (included in most Dells). What makes it tricky is that it is a particular revision of the card. When looking at the device details (Device Manger->Sound, video and game controllers->SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio->Details), the device version is VEN_8086 DEV_24D5 SUBSYS_017A1028. The drivers are the exact same as a similar piece of hardware that has the device version VEN_8086 DEV_24D5 SUBSYS_01511028. The only difference between the two is 017A vs 0151.

    The problem that exhibitted itself is a slowdown of the recording stream by a factor of 6. So a 5 second clip becomes 30 seconds. Interestingly, with Flash 7, if the buffer is set, it doesn't have this problem. However, if the buffer isn't set, the problem arises. In Flash 9, however, the problem always occurs, regardless of the buffer being set.

    Furthermore, in Flash 7, the NetStream.silenceTimeout is 2000, but in Flash 9, it is undefined. I know this is a hardware related problem, but I'm hoping there is something I can do in the software to work around this problem.

    I also played around with Breeze a little bit. With both Flash 7 and Flash 9 using my hardware, if I have two instances of Flash running (two browsers open), if I press the talk button immediately after enabling the microphone it slows down by a factor of two. Once I release the talk button and the re-click it, it works fine. This leads me to believe that Breeze is doing some microphone calibration or something.

    Hope all this information helps, as this is quite a sticky problem.
    Steve_Wolkoff
    Participating Frequently
    August 4, 2006
    Eric -

    Can you PM me your contact info so I can send it to our support team?

    thanks,

    -steve.
    jade-sniper
    Participant
    August 4, 2006
    Steve, please help us as well. We have the exact same issue with our chat. We have been using FlashCom MX 1.5 for almost 4 years now and its worked like a charm until flash 9. Can you please contact us, we are desperate for answers and also have important clues that may help you determine the problems.

    please contact me albert@seemeplayme.com
    Steve_Wolkoff
    Participating Frequently
    July 21, 2006
    Hi Kevin -

    Can provide any more info on how we can replicate this issue? A URL where we can see this issue would be ideal. Also, if you could provide:
    - audio encoding settings
    - browsers being used
    - FMS version/build number

    This is only with LIVE audio, correct?

    thanks,

    -steve.
    Kevin_QuickAuthor
    Participant
    July 21, 2006
    Hi Steve

    Thanks for the quick response.

    I'll try to answer your specific questions, but I am home at present so I'll try to provide what information I can from here

    1) The audio in our application is set to a 11 KHz sample rate (i.e. mic setting) trying to debug this problem we have also tried 8KHz and 22KHz and swapping between them, but all to no avail.

    2) Browsers being used are Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows XP and Safari on Mac (OS-X 10.4.7)

    3) Flash Media Server version - currently our main server is actually Flash Communications Server MX 1.5.2 r138(hopefully we will be upgrading to the latest Flash Media server in the very near future)

    4) This problem only occurs for clients connected to a live audio or audio/video stream.

    From our tests, where we have tried to eliminate possible sources, all our tests seem to point to the problem lying with the latest version (i.e. 9) of the flash player as this problem only exists for clients using this specific flash player (also the problem occurs when we have tried other flashcom apps - and have tried other flash comm servers - although I think these are all version 1.5.2).

    You can try this for yourself by going to our web site www.flashmeeting.com and clicking on the "demo" link at the top right hand side of the web page. This allows you to try our videoconferencing app. (you get 5 minutes at a time in the demo).

    I hope that helps - if you need more specific information let me know and I'll try to provide it

    Kevin
    Anonymous
    July 25, 2006
    Our company is having a similar problem with an audioconferencing/recording tool. We were experiencing very intermittent problems with the earlier versions of Flash player, but nothing reproducable. With Flash 9, however, every attempt results in what we refer to as "monster sounds."

    Some additional points that may be of use in tracking down the problem:
    1) User A can hear user B, but user B hears user A as garbled.
    2) User A's audio continues playing after the stream should have ended (which makes me think it's a rate problem).

    Any insight into this issue would be of immense help.
    Steve_Wolkoff
    Participating Frequently
    July 21, 2006
    Edited to remove double post
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