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PWT & My Playlist website issues

#1

Maybe it’s just my PWT, an older one but with current firmware (1.22). My issues happen irrespective of f/w version, though. PWT is connected to my network via Ethernet cable, NOT wi-fi. I have tried other cabling, moving the PWT right next to the router, etc. We have no connectivity issues with any other device in the house, including my PWD/DS (except the Bridge chokes on some 24/192 FLAC material, sound gets jittery and seems to skip around).

Has anyone else experienced any of the following?

  1. This one is just since the new PS website launch last spring. If I play a disc for the first time that isn’t recognized automatically and then I go to My Playlist to enter tracks and cover art, the website seems to save this info on its own even though there’s no save to library button any more. I never get confirmation that the cover art has been updated, just that it has been uploaded. There used to be a button that would force the update. I have to press F5 to refresh the web page and then the cover art shows up on My Playlist. So now when I play that disc again, in about 15-20 seconds my PWT downloads the text info I entered at My Playlist but it never gets the cover art. The display says “downloading album art” for about 2 minutes then goes to “OK” but the art never gets written to the PWT screen or SD card. Yes, I’ve tried other SD cards. And I have to power cycle the PWT at that point to get it to try looking up anything else.

  2. With the new website. if I play a new disc that is automatically recognized my PWT gets the text data and cover art, usually both within 1-2 minutes or so of playing. As another symptom check, I still need to change the art for one of those recognized discs at My Playlist and after I do that see if the changed cover art and updated file gets to the PWT.

  3. This one is specific to discs saved into my library BEFORE the new website. If I delete one of those disc’s TXT and BMP files from my SD card then play the disc, both the text and BMP files get to my PWD and SD card again.

  4. It seems the PWT rewrites cover art files when the screen changes. I have experienced what some others have where the cover art file rewrite might get interrupted/corrupted and the PWT crashes, requiring a power cycle. If I play the same disc again while that corrupt BMP file is on the SD card, the PWT crashes again. So I have to find that corrupt BMP file on my SD card and delete it. Sounds simple, except I have over 6000 BMP files on the SD card and the PWT does not put a current date stamp on the file, so I can’t just find the newest one. I have to search the text within the text files on the SD card to triangulate by song or title what the filename is. I’m not certain, but it seems to happen most often when you touch multiple screen functions too quickly. Somewhat similar to the DS/Bridge - if I try to change volume before the screen has been rewritten it seems to corrupt the file write, too.

I think that’s it - am I all alone with these issues? Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.

#2

You are not alone with issues regarding the PWTs ability to connect and download text and artwork. I have to say that I am impressed with the patience and perseverance you’ve demonstrated with this problem. When the website changed my old My Playlist stuff went away, I just gave up on it. Sorry I haven’t any suggestions to offer, but I am curious to see if anyone else does.

-Pb

#3

I hope PS has not abandoned the PWT’s firmware development, officially or unofficially. I’d sure appreciate having at least one more revision that fixes known issues.

#4

+1

#5

+2. I know it should be all about the music, but I really like having the cover art and track titles on the PWT display. I have the same issue as 1) in the initial post and it bugs me that this aspect of the PWT is so “buggy.” It seems that I have some type of Playlist issue with about half of the discs I play for the first time.

#6

Welcome, pesgas!

Perfectly reasonable thinking.

#7

I put in a new CD tonight by Sarah McLachlan, and the cover art is nowhere near the cover of the album. It almost looks Chinese. Plus names of the tracks are all gibberish, like they are in Latin or Swahili or something. Maybe something is wrong with the PSAudio servers?

#8

you are not the first

Have send at least 10 mails about this issue,with no resultpulling-hair_gif

#9

If you have not received a response to emails (very odd), just give PS Audio a call.

#10

I haven’t received a response to a recent email either (which I agree is unusual), and I was thinking I would call, but then I thought that this thread seems to show that this is not an isolated issue – which in turn made me think that a forum response might be forthcoming that would be helpful or informative to others. I’ll call later today – as soon as I figure out my other issues with updating firmware – and let others know what I learn.

#11

Where are you sending your email questions to? What email address is it that we’re not responding to? That’s not like us and I haven’t anything open on my plate …

#12

I sent the email to sales@psaudio.com. I included attachments with the actual cover art of the album I was trying to load onto the PWT and the “chinese” cover art that was generated. It is possible that the email was rejected because of the attachments? I did not get any indication that it was rejected.

I spoke today to Alex in technical support, and he indicated that there was some type of server issue a few weeks ago at PS Audio, which is about when I started having problems with obtaining track info and artwork from new CD’s I bought. So perhaps that has something to do with it? All of the CD’s I had loaded previous to a few weeks ago load the tracks and artwork without any problem. It is just new CD’s that I have tried to load in the past couple of weeks that have been causing problems.

Alex suggested that maybe I should try reformatting the SD card and starting over. That’s fine with me, although I’m having no problems with all of the albums loaded more than a couple of weeks ago, so I would hate to lose those too. Thoughts?

#13

I would give it a try. The the cover art for the previously played albums will quickly reappear as you play them.

#14

Reformatting the SD card really did not help. In fact, it seems worse. Some album tracks and cover art come up. But most do not. A number of CD’s for which I have previously not had a problem do not give me tracks or cover art. It just says “internet ok.” If I turn off the PWT by the back switch, sometimes I get cover art and tracks, and sometimes I get just cover art, and sometimes I just get tracks. But it seems you have to turn off the unit each time, or else it doesn’t read hardly anything.

Something surely seems amiss somewhere.

#15

What happens when you go to your control page on the website? Do the albums show up there? One way to check is through the website control page. Every time you play a CD and are connected to the internet, you should be able to go see that CD on the page - the original idea was to allow you to then edit the tracks or add/change cover art in case our system didn’t have it. It’s sometimes helpful to check there and see if it’s communicating properly or not.

You might call Alex about the SD card. We’ve seen these units get picky about the way they’re formatted.

#16

Paul, all of the albums and tracks appear on my Playlist on the control page. No problems there (except for one album that I reported a couple of months ago that won’t allow you to add the tracks). But all the other albums either appear on my control page by themselves with cover art and tracks, or else I can add the tracks or the album art for the CD’s that are missing it. It just seems to be a problem getting what is on the control page to the PWD.

I’ll give Alex a call to see what he suggests.

#17

Thanks, it sounds to me like an SD card issue since the system is apparently working.

#18

I really don’t think it is an SD card issue. And I don’t think it is a problem with my PWD. Here is what I did and the results:

  1. Put in new blank 2 GB SD card.

  2. Inserted CD into PWD that I loaded onto Playlist a couple of months ago. Tracks and album art loaded fine.

  3. Inserted another CD into PWD that I loaded onto Playlist a couple of months ago. Tracks and album art loaded fine.

  4. Inserted a CD that I loaded onto Playlist within the past couple of weeks when I first started having problems. The album cover and tracks appear on my playlist. The tracks appear on my PWD, but it after it says “downloading album art,” it eventually says “internet ok,” and “memory ok,” but there is no album cover.

  5. Inserted another CD that I loaded onto Playlist within the past couple of weeks. No tracks or album cover appear on the PWD. It pretty quickly goes to “internet ok” and “memory ok.”

  6. Inserted CD into PWD that I loaded onto Playlist a coupe of months ago. No tracks or cover art appears, and PWD reads “internet ok,” and “memory ok.”

  7. Turn off PWD with rear switch. Reload CD (first loaded a couple of months ago) that I used in step 5. This time tracks and album cover appear.

I am not a computer or software expert by any means, but it seems to me that there might be something wrong at PS Audio’s end, perhaps with the servers at PS Audio, and that CD’s loaded onto the Playlist within the past few weeks are causing a problem somehow. I concede that this might be a very ignorant statement, but my preliminary tests seem to reveal that (a) CD’s I loaded prior to a few weeks ago work fine on both SD cards, (b) none of the CD’s I"ve loaded in the past few weeks will load properly with tracks and album art, © whenever I load a CD that I’ve loaded in past few weeks, it seems to cause problems with all CD’s, and (d) changing the SD card does not help.

#19

I also plugged the SD card into my computer to see what is on the card. The album covers and tracks from the CD’s I loaded a few months ago are on the card – downloaded “anew” onto the new SD card I used. The album covers and tracks from the CD’s that I loaded in the past couple of weeks are not on the card. But they are on my Playlist on the website. Doesn’t this also indicate that the problem is on PS Audio servers, or something like that? Doesn’t it indicate that newer material put on the Playlist in the last few weeks is not able to be downloaded from the servers to the SD card?

#20

I don’t claim to know the answer, it was just a guess. There may indeed be something wrong on our end.