tips for using boomzbox w/ RR DFX4.0 skin

**ramrod** · 07-14-2010, 01:14 AM

got it up and working the supplied software works great. Now I want to control it from my front end.
using Riderunner and DFX4.0.

here are some issues I've run into with the DFX 4.0 HD radio skin and Boomzbox:

had to change "radioport" to "HDradioport" in rr.ini. other wise RR would give an error message saying HD radio port is "0" on startup and would hang when trying to exit. I thought "radioport" was supported in latest?
can only use the tune + and - buttons on the HD radio skin. no other buttons control the tuner (i.e. "band"..etc, "scan" works though)
transparencies are broken with the dimmer is on. so the text is cutoff, i.e. the frequency text for one.
not sure what bottom buttons <<| and |>> are supposed to do (tune + and -?)
signal strength indicators in the skin aren't working
black box in the middle. is this supposed to be for station information?
I'd like to make the blanked out play/pause button just shortcut back to the radio skin once I get this all working. I think I can figure that part out though.
The HD radio skin for DFX 4.0 is kind of a junky layout. Too many buttons imo. could be simplified by having some of the less frequently used buttons on a secondary screen. this will be my longer term goal to simplify this.

so my first objective is to get all the buttons in the skin actually controlling the tuner. anybody got any pointers?

**mitchjs** · 07-14-2010, 10:45 AM

HDRadioPort is OBSOLETE!! dont not use, use radioport and RR version > June 2010
(dont have both in rr.ini, the newest RRconfigs, will correct it anyway)

all the other issues... you should post in the RR Skin forum

use carwings dynamic lite, to eval HD Radio...
i also fear, the dfx4.0 installer overwrites hd radio dlls..
reinstall RIDERUNNER afterwards!!!

also DFX4 will create issues with winamp, if you dont remove the kill winamp stuff

THATS WHY I SAID WAIT FOR DFX5

**ramrod** · 07-15-2010, 01:01 AM

installed june-2010 version of RR, checked to install (plugin?) for HDradio.

DFX skin still doesn't control the tuner properly. i'll post in DFX forum...or I guess wait until DFX 5..ugh.

Also, I'm now getting an odd buzzing sound that is intermittent when the tuner is functioning and the signal sounds choppy. Need to confirm that this is only while using RR. Also need to try carwings skin.

Only spent 10 minutes on it today.
Will play more with it this weekend.

**mitchjs** · 07-15-2010, 08:13 AM

i dont trust the dfx4 installer...
i cant remember if it installed some hdradio components, that where very very old

safe would be to reinstall RR, just run the installer again

and carwings, has a HD Radio designed radio skin

**ramrod** · 07-15-2010, 12:01 PM

I did reinstall RR (latest version, June), I'm assuming this would "undo" anything my old DFX install. I'll spend some more time on it tonight, starting with trying carwings.

**mitchjs** · 07-15-2010, 02:35 PM

NO.. reinstalling RR no matter how many times, NEVER touches user data... that would be poor programming

the problem is in dfx4, that installer, i THINK touches RR program..
i havent looked at it on so long, because of other issues i have with dfx4
its generally a problem child skin, while it is impressive
dfx5 will be better behaved...and looks amazing!

**ramrod** · 07-16-2010, 12:53 AM

Ok, so I messed with it more. used carwings and it seems to control the tuner just fine. went back to DXF 4 and now that skin works too. Guess things were "fixed" after installing newest version of RR and/or flipping back and forth between the skins. Not gonna dig into why at this point or try to make sense out of it.

I now have one outstanding problem and I'm sure it's RR related. I get some extreme static and the radio tuning skips in and out randomly. going back to "music" the annoying static and high pitched buzzing remains. Sometimes the static comes on while playing music not necessarily while listening to the radio. As soon as I exit RR, it stops. Also, as soon as I remove the tuner from the USB port it stops. (this usually causes RR to hang though as it won't exit). Using the Boomzbox supplied software I don't have this problem at all. The static only comes on when RR is active and the tuner is plugged in and there is no event that seems to trigger it consistently. I'm guessing it's RR screwing up the audio mixing or something? I've really done my best to rule out a hardware issue or signal interference issue to my amp. I'm pretty convinced it's none of these and that RR is the culprit.
Here are some things I've tried:

RRconfig: Radio tab: set to HD Radio and checked "auto", also "boomzbox"
Radio tab: checked and unchecked the line-in plugin on this tab.
Music tab: checked and unchecked the "single instance" box
Changed the tuner to another com port in device manager.

I'm really just shooting in the dark here. what else can I try? should I uninstall and delete RR, reinstall fresh and see what happens?

...should probably post this in the RR forum at this point..

Also, I understand user data isn't touched during an install, but you seemed to imply that DFX installer messes with the program data, so if that's what could be causing issues I assumed re-installing RR program would set that all straight.
Anyway, I realize this isn't really your domain, but I'm sure somebody has used this with RR just fine and might have a tip.

**ramrod** · 07-16-2010, 02:42 PM

Well, I uninstalled, deleted the RR folder in Program files and reinstalled July-2010 RR (I said June in previous post, meant July).
I'm still getting the annoying buzzing/static that comes on unexpectedly while listening to mp3 or the tuner. This is frustrating. Like I said before doesn't do this when listening to tuner using boomzbox software alone, only with RR. I'm using Carwings skin.
Wondering if should I reinstall winamp?

**ramrod** · 07-16-2010, 02:50 PM

Mitch, can you explain this:

Originally Posted by mitchjs

also DFX4 will create issues with winamp, if you dont remove the kill winamp stuff

I'm wondering if this is a setting I should mess with.

If I wiped my RR install by uninstalling, deleting the RR folder in program files and reinstalled july-2010 would this have "undone" this 'kill winamp" stuff that DFX4 configures, or does DFX4 do something to the winamp install?
If it doesn't undo this, then I'd like to learn how so that I can try this.
The random background static is preventing me from using this in RR.
If not using DFX 4 (i.e. carwings) then this doesn't matter? I'm getting the same issue with carwings.

should continue this thread here:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/road...ng-static.html

**mitchjs** · 07-16-2010, 08:52 PM

FYI, RR does NOTHING with the audio!!

the Radio Module, in this case the HDRadio module, captures audio
im 99% sure the code is the same audio capture code as in the boomzbox hd

without hearing the noise...

but...

RR.ini

Radioline=0

with the boomzbox HD, since u dont want RR to unmute any lines when using this
also..