DRM Reception Project Forums  

Go Back   DRM Reception Project Forums > DRM Reception Project > General Topics
User Name
Password
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 2020-08-17, 03:46   #1
zfyoung
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: BaiSe, P.R. China @E106°36′ N23°55′
Posts: 278
How often does Dream start to crash when decoding xHE-AAC?

Hi, I'd like to know your experience with Dream decoding xHE-AAC codec. How often does it start to crash(10min? 30min? ...)and under what circumstance that is most likely to happen?

I have tried to debug this problem but since this is a intermittent phenomenon, it is really difficult to verify even if it is solved

I've intentionally tried my version over bad SNR conditions for a hour but did not observe the problem.
Attached Images
File Type: png DreamCrashTest.png (544.8 KB, 252 views)
__________________
Any kind of audio drop-out is worse than any kind of low quality audio: No audio, No log report.

My Rx location: GuangXi Province @ E106°36′ N23°55′
zfyoung is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-17, 14:20   #2
AF4MP
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roswell, Georgia, USA
Posts: 11,673
Quote:
Originally Posted by zfyoung
Hi, I'd like to know your experience with Dream decoding xHE-AAC codec. How often does it start to crash(10min? 30min? ...)and under what circumstance that is most likely to happen?

My only experience using xHE-AAC decoding is with Radio Marti.

If the propagation conditions are very stable, particularly with low Doppler rates, then Dream will not crash for up to four hours (this can be seen on the Radio Marti logs). Otherwise, even with a strong signal, the Dream crashes may occur every few minutes.

Interestingly, KiwiSDR appears to have made xHE-AAC work well as I have not experienced any crashes while monitoring Radio Marti.
__________________
73,

-Zyg- AF4MP
Roswell, Georgia, USA
34°02' N, 84°24' W
EM74ta
AF4MP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-18, 01:50   #3
zfyoung
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: BaiSe, P.R. China @E106°36′ N23°55′
Posts: 278
Quote:
Otherwise, even with a strong signal, the Dream crashes may occur every few minutes.

If possible, can you record the DRM IF signal that will almost surely crash the Dream software? That will be great to repeat the experiment and help to verify the result. Otherwise, my effort is just a wild-goose chase! Thanks in advance .
__________________
Any kind of audio drop-out is worse than any kind of low quality audio: No audio, No log report.

My Rx location: GuangXi Province @ E106°36′ N23°55′
zfyoung is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-18, 03:31   #4
AF4MP
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roswell, Georgia, USA
Posts: 11,673
I will be pleased to do that.

Allow me a day or two as I need to be present for the recording (most of my logging is auto and unattended).
__________________
73,

-Zyg- AF4MP
Roswell, Georgia, USA
34°02' N, 84°24' W
EM74ta
AF4MP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-18, 09:17   #5
Digger
Registered User
 
Digger's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Shizuoka City, Japan
Posts: 10,097
On 17770 kHz I logged xHE-AAC with the following results:

2020-06-10, 0 min
2020-06-10, 1 min
2020-06-10, 0 min
2020-06-10, 2 min
2020-06-10, 1 min
2020-06-10, 1 min
2020-06-10, 5 min
2020-06-10, 1 min
2020-06-10, 18 min
2020-07-19, 33 min
2020-07-29, 9 min
__________________
Regards,
Terje

https://hobbyradio.se/drm/webplotter.index.html
Digger is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-21, 17:28   #6
AF4MP
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roswell, Georgia, USA
Posts: 11,673
Quote:
Originally Posted by zfyoung
If possible, can you record the DRM IF signal that will almost surely crash the Dream software?

Last night I recorded 45 mins (476.4 MB WAV format) worth of the Radio Marti xHE-AAC IF signal from the IQ output of my KiwiSDR.

As my xHE-AAC decoding is via the Linux compiled DReaM 2.2.1 I use a
Linux computer running Ubuntu 18.04 for monitoring Radio Marti. I was never able to get the Windows version of DReaM 2.2.1 to work.

It took a while to figure out the best way to record the signal (using Virtual Sink and Audio Recorder). To make sure that the IF signal was correctly recorded I monitored the replay via VLC Media player with DReaM 2.2.1.

I have found that the actual DReaM crashes, on my equipment, come in two forms. One is the hard crash that shuts down the program, and the second is a soft crash that only shuts off the decoded audio, but still shows the constellation and continues logging. This soft crash usually corrects itself after a period of time, or can be corrected by turning the program off and on.

The signal that was recorded produced 12 hard crashes and 2 or possibly 3 soft crashes. There is a good cross-section of signal propagational issues on the recording from fading, high to low SNR, and periods of higher Doppler rates. Not all of the signal problems caused crashes even though they may have lost audio.

Interestingly when replaying the signal the crashes come at different times depending at which point you start the play back. For example the first crash comes at about 8:50 minutes into the recording if play back was started at the very beginning. However if you start the recording at say 7:00 there will no crash at 8:50 as before. Sometimes there maybe a crash just after starting.

This leads me to think that problem might be more to do with the computer/software signal buffer or memory buffers than the actual decoding algorithm. I am not a software engineer nor a programmer so my speculation maybe way off.

@zfyoung please Private Message me your email address so that I can forward the recorded IF signal to you.
__________________
73,

-Zyg- AF4MP
Roswell, Georgia, USA
34°02' N, 84°24' W
EM74ta

Last edited by AF4MP : 2020-08-21 at 17:36. Reason: added "buffer" to text.
AF4MP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-22, 01:58   #7
zfyoung
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: BaiSe, P.R. China @E106°36′ N23°55′
Posts: 278
Hi, Zyg:
I've sent you my email-address via PM. Thanks again to you and everyone for the help here.

As what you've mentioned, I did find some loopholes in the origin version that causes memory leak/corruption. I've made some corrections, but I'm not sure if I have all of them plugged up. I have the Window10-64bit binary, maybe I can post here for everyone to test and report bug? If everything is OK, then I can share the final source code and this issue be settled?
__________________
Any kind of audio drop-out is worse than any kind of low quality audio: No audio, No log report.

My Rx location: GuangXi Province @ E106°36′ N23°55′

Last edited by zfyoung : 2020-08-22 at 04:17.
zfyoung is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-22, 03:53   #8
Owdjim
Sysop
 
Owdjim's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Marahau, Tasman Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 823
I'd be happy for you to post test binaries here. The Forum has plenty of free space, and now accepts large file uploads as attachments. I'd also be happy to test! All I want is a 2.2 version of Dream that is as reliable and stable as my old 2.1.1-svn808!


73 Chris
__________________
Marahau, New Zealand, 41° 00' 22"S 173° 00' 33"E, RE68mx
Elad FDM-DUOr, KiwiSDR, FRG-100/DRM receivers + Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop antenna
My DRM webpage: http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DRM/
Owdjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-22, 04:15   #9
zfyoung
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: BaiSe, P.R. China @E106°36′ N23°55′
Posts: 278
Thanks,Chris.

In the attachment is .exe binary on window10-64bit. Feel free to comment on the test result. But I have to add the following disclaimer:LOL


This software is ONLY meant for valid test purposes, and under the terms of the GPL this does not mean that its use is free of rights of others. The use may infringe third party IP and thus may not be legal in some countries.

P.S. :change *.zip to *.rar and uncompress. Don't know why RAR file is not supported here.


(To reduce confusion Site Admins have repacked the files as proper .rar & .zip archives and added them as the -proper attachements. The .zip is a ZIP archive and the .rar is a RAR archive )
Attached Files
File Type: zip DreamV2-2-x.zip (31.02 MB, 1245 views)
File Type: rar DreamV2.2.x-proper.rar (31.02 MB, 349 views)
File Type: zip DreamV2.2.x-proper.zip (37.10 MB, 462 views)
__________________
Any kind of audio drop-out is worse than any kind of low quality audio: No audio, No log report.

My Rx location: GuangXi Province @ E106°36′ N23°55′

Last edited by Owdjim : 2021-07-27 at 23:23. Reason: Add link to repacked archives
zfyoung is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-22, 05:22   #10
zfyoung
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: BaiSe, P.R. China @E106°36′ N23°55′
Posts: 278
Hi, Zyg. I did the test on your IF over a period of 45min. My revised DReaM did well with xHE decoding and did not notice any anomaly.

Attached is the log file. Please disregard the timing.
Note: the *.doc is actually *.csv
Attached Files
File Type: txt DreamLog.txt (1.8 KB, 182 views)
File Type: doc DreamLogLong.doc (267.3 KB, 169 views)
__________________
Any kind of audio drop-out is worse than any kind of low quality audio: No audio, No log report.

My Rx location: GuangXi Province @ E106°36′ N23°55′
zfyoung is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-22, 12:36   #11
AF4MP
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roswell, Georgia, USA
Posts: 11,673
Quote:
Originally Posted by zfyoung
Hi, Zyg. I did the test on your IF over a period of 45min. My revised DReaM did well with xHE decoding and did not notice any anomaly.

That is excellent!

Now I have to get your Dream version to work on my Windows 10!
__________________
73,

-Zyg- AF4MP
Roswell, Georgia, USA
34°02' N, 84°24' W
EM74ta
AF4MP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-23, 01:06   #12
Owdjim
Sysop
 
Owdjim's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Marahau, Tasman Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 823
.rar is now a supported attachment type. The previous administrators had not added it.


73 Chris
__________________
Marahau, New Zealand, 41° 00' 22"S 173° 00' 33"E, RE68mx
Elad FDM-DUOr, KiwiSDR, FRG-100/DRM receivers + Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop antenna
My DRM webpage: http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DRM/
Owdjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-23, 03:50   #13
Owdjim
Sysop
 
Owdjim's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Marahau, Tasman Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 823
This is definitely the best v2.2 build for Windows 10 I've tried so far. I can do things without instant crashes, and the non xHE-AAC decoded audio is listenable.


Signals at home are very weak today, but I've been decoding the IQ stream from the NZRDXL's Northland KiwiSDR.


xHE-AAC on CNR 17770 kHz decoded partly before getting too weak.


Currently I'm listening to the AAC on 13825 without any issues.


I miss the receiver CAT control for my own receiver though.


Well done!


73 Chris
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Image2.jpg (30.3 KB, 205 views)
File Type: png 17770-200823-0213-0232-Owdjim.png (41.8 KB, 185 views)
File Type: png 13825-200823-0233-0247-Owdjim.png (41.0 KB, 172 views)
Attached Files
File Type: wav DreamOut.wav (13.77 MB, 167 views)
__________________
Marahau, New Zealand, 41° 00' 22"S 173° 00' 33"E, RE68mx
Elad FDM-DUOr, KiwiSDR, FRG-100/DRM receivers + Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop antenna
My DRM webpage: http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DRM/
Owdjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-23, 04:13   #14
AF4MP
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roswell, Georgia, USA
Posts: 11,673
Thumbs up

I totally agree! Check out today's Radio Marti xHE-AAC reception logs.

Zfyoung's DReaM V22x super software did not crash or falter in any way. The KiwiSDR receiver inadvertently locked up once half way through the 9-hour period, but the decoding software continued without any problems.

Zfyoung, thank you for all the hard work that you have put in to this program, and thank you for sharing the results of your effort with us. It is most appreciated!
__________________
73,

-Zyg- AF4MP
Roswell, Georgia, USA
34°02' N, 84°24' W
EM74ta
AF4MP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2020-08-23, 04:38   #15
Owdjim
Sysop
 
Owdjim's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Marahau, Tasman Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 823
Another small thing I discovered: this build doesn't seem to accept 'https:' encrypted URLs for the "DRM URL" schedule parameter in Dream.ini


V2.1 & the Zefie V2.2 build do. I guess different network libraries being used?


73 Chris
__________________
Marahau, New Zealand, 41° 00' 22"S 173° 00' 33"E, RE68mx
Elad FDM-DUOr, KiwiSDR, FRG-100/DRM receivers + Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop antenna
My DRM webpage: http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DRM/
Owdjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is On
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:30.


Powered by vBulletin Version 3.5.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Forum contents ©2003-2024 DRM Reception Project participants