What is rebuffering?


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My Squeezebox is connected wirelessly to my router. I use Rhapsody for background listening on my Squeezebox. Periodically a song will stop right in the middle of playing for about ten to fifteen seconds and start playing again. That's annoying as hell.....especially when I'm singing along. I check the screen on the Squeezebox and it says that the song is 'rebuffering'. What does that mean? Do you think that if I went wired instead of wireless that the dropouts would stop? My Squeezebox is 50 ft away from the router and I have one of those super double-speed whiz-bang wireless N routers.
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128x128mitch4t

Showing 2 responses by mapman

Sidssp has good recomendations.

Devices like the Squeezebox and Roku Sounbridge have an onboard memory buffer or cache that is used to store bits in advance of the time at which they are needed downstream by the DAC so they do not have to be received in -real time.

Rebuffing means the bits are not arriving over the wireless connection fast enough to keep the music playing.

Its commonly due to a weak wireless connection but not always. Sometimes it can be that the source is not able to put the bits out fast enough due to demand or other technical issues.

Most likely in your case its the wireless connection speed, which is good because you have control over that and not over the Rhapsody source. Try to get the router closer to the Squuezebox if possible and also look to see if there are any solid objects in the line of sight between router and box that might obstruct the signal. REposition to avoid obstructions if possible. Metal ductwork hidden behind drywall, metal appliances and such can be the culprits.
If you have problems with a computer as the source, de-fragment the disk on the computer periodically to keep those bits flowing faster and check to see if there are any programs running in the background that can be stopped so that more resources are available to serve up the music.
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