BBC Sounds Buffering

[timlongs]

This has been doing my head in for ages, so hopefully someone might have some advice!

I live in France, and have a Google Nest Mini & the BBC Sounds App on my phone. My download speed is 61mb.

When I listen to live radio it constantly cuts out, nothing seems to cause it. Someone no other device is using the internet, just the Google speaker. Sometimes I'm sat on my laptop and it streams fine for 30 mins then randomly cuts out.

The same happens if I use the app.

I have no other issues with anything, Spotify, Netflix, Youtube all work perfectly. It's just BBC.

Any ideas? BBCs own website help isn't very useful.

[rdjohn]

I live in France (Loire valley) and use Sounds in my car and from my iPad to a Bluetooth speaker. Also by Sonos via Tunein.

It has never missed a beat, unless i am out of range in the country in the car. My home Internet is 4G.

I would try a delete / reload.

[timlongs]

rdjohn said:

I live in France (Loire valley) and use Sounds in my car and from my iPad to a Bluetooth speaker. Also by Sonos via Tunein.

It has never missed a beat, unless i am out of range in the country in the car. My home Internet is 4G.

I would try a delete / reload.

Yeah on 4g it is fine for me too, which makes me think it's my wifi, but the download speed is so high, it's a bit odd that it doesn't work! Hopefully someone will have some wifi related advice!

[rdjohn]

I have Bouygues 4G using their Huawei B528 23a, in summer we have guests in the house next door 50m away, via an extender. The system works well and can even stream TV.

If other things stream OK, then i would try reinstalling the Sounds App before anything else. I have driven from here to southern Spain without the App ever missing a beat.

Tunein radio or Sonos seems to have a glitch every day, but its always their app, rather than the router.

[TheInternet]

timlongs said:

Yeah on 4g it is fine for me too, which makes me think it's my wifi, but the download speed is so high, it's a bit odd that it doesn't work! Hopefully someone will have some wifi related advice!

Sounds like your WiFi/broadband connection is suffering an intermittent issue for whatever reason, enough to run the Sounds buffer dry. What are you listening to? I can imagine buffer size being different for live vs the prerecorded content on other services.

[xeny]

timlongs said:

Yeah on 4g it is fine for me too, which makes me think it's my wifi, but the download speed is so high, it's a bit odd that it doesn't work! Hopefully someone will have some wifi related advice!

Easiest starting point, when you get an audio glitch is the download speed still high, or has it fallen to zero?

If you can't download/browse the web when the audio is also failing, it's a problem with your internet connection or wifi which is probably more practical to troubleshoot than a single service failing but everything else being good.

[timlongs]

xeny said:

timlongs said:

Yeah on 4g it is fine for me too, which makes me think it's my wifi, but the download speed is so high, it's a bit odd that it doesn't work! Hopefully someone will have some wifi related advice!

Easiest starting point, when you get an audio glitch is the download speed still high, or has it fallen to zero?

If you can't download/browse the web when the audio is also failing, it's a problem with your internet connection or wifi which is probably more practical to troubleshoot than a single service failing but everything else being good.

Happens when listening to live content (I listen to podcasts etc via Spotify, which never misses a beat).

When the live stream cuts out on my google speaker/phone app, everything else works perfectly online. So don't think my wifi is dropping out.

[StescoG66]

I get this with bbc radio on the Play-Fi app. Every other station streams ok, but constantly get chucked off any bbc stations

[TheInternet]

timlongs said:

Happens when listening to live content (I listen to podcasts etc via Spotify, which never misses a beat).

When the live stream cuts out on my google speaker/phone app, everything else works perfectly online. So don't think my wifi is dropping out.

Looks to me that you've told us it's not the app and not the device, but is the wifi or the broadband. How long is the audio dropout for? What are you basing your 'everything else works perfectly online' claim on?

[timlongs]

TheInternet said:

timlongs said:

Happens when listening to live content (I listen to podcasts etc via Spotify, which never misses a beat).

When the live stream cuts out on my google speaker/phone app, everything else works perfectly online. So don't think my wifi is dropping out.

Looks to me that you've told us it's not the app and not the device, but is the wifi or the broadband. How long is the audio dropout for? What are you basing your 'everything else works perfectly online' claim on?

When it drops out it just stops... if I wait it doesn't come back. I have to ask my google speaker again to start playing the radio.

Well, I can stream netflix, 4OD, etc etc with no issues. No problem streaming music via Spotify.

[rdjohn]

I was listening to Graham Norton on Virgin UK on my mobile today on home WiFi 4G. I had not downloaded the app, just from my browser, i was working outside and when it dropped, it would not restart.

I downloaded the app and it was OK, perhaps the sizes the buffer and auto restart.

I don't have a Smart-speaker, do they download apps, or just work through a virtual Chrome browser? Perhaps that could be the problem.