Ethernet streaming and occasional white noise on Windows

[Pecarosh]

AFAIK this is a step up....now they are "feverishly" trying to reach a solution, last year when I opened a ticket about white noise and dropouts problem, they were only "dedicated"  
Well...maybe we can help them...some nice TLA for this problem for sure will help, let's all agree on WNP (white noise problem). Now they can -start finding a solution- (SFS) for WNP. Even better sounds: SFS for WNP

[Dr Tone]

AFAIK this is a step up....now they are "feverishly" trying to reach a solution, last year when I opened a ticket about white noise and dropouts problem, they were only "dedicated"  
Well...maybe we can help them...some nice TLA for this problem for sure will help, let's all agree on WNP (white noise problem). Now they can -start finding a solution- (SFS) for WNP. Even better sounds: SFS for WNP  

Next year it will be Frantically.
The following year it will be Desperately.
...
...

[Hifi_swlon]

AFAIK this is a step up....now they are "feverishly" trying to reach a solution, last year when I opened a ticket about white noise and dropouts problem, they were only "dedicated"  
Well...maybe we can help them...some nice TLA for this problem for sure will help, let's all agree on WNP (white noise problem). Now they can -start finding a solution- (SFS) for WNP. Even better sounds: SFS for WNP  

Next year it will be Frantically.
The following year it will be Desperately.
...
...

Well, assuming they're not lying to us (OK, OK, try and keep it together ) they're 'on the verge' of releasing the fruits of two years worth of 'feverishly dedicated' labour culminating in 'AIR3'.

If 'AIR3' doesn't work, there's pretty much no point worrying about next year or the year after.... at that point - if we didn't know already - we could safely conclude my thirteen year old cat would have a better chance of writing a functional Mac/Windows audio transport. They'll probably have an opening too...

Out of interest has anyone here been asked to beta test this new miracle? Do they even have beta testers?

[Cylob]

Hopefully they won't dump it on their site,
calling it beta 3.0 and make us the betatesters again
for another year or so like they did last time...

[Zappydev]

Hopefully they won't dump it on their site,
calling it beta 3.0 and make us the betatesters again
for another year or so like they did last time...

To be honest, I don't mind testing - as long as they have genuinely tried to come up with a working product which they have tested internally first. Let's see . . . .

[Confused]

AFAIK this is a step up....now they are "feverishly" trying to reach a solution, last year when I opened a ticket about white noise and dropouts problem, they were only "dedicated"  
Well...maybe we can help them...some nice TLA for this problem for sure will help, let's all agree on WNP (white noise problem). Now they can -start finding a solution- (SFS) for WNP. Even better sounds: SFS for WNP  

Next year it will be Frantically.
The following year it will be Desperately.
...
...

Well, assuming they're not lying to us (OK, OK, try and keep it together ) they're 'on the verge' of releasing the fruits of two years worth of 'feverishly dedicated' labour culminating in 'AIR3'.

If 'AIR3' doesn't work, there's pretty much no point worrying about next year or the year after....  at that point - if we didn't know already - we could safely conclude my thirteen year old cat would have a better chance of writing a functional Mac/Windows audio transport. They'll probably have an opening too...

Out of interest has anyone here been asked to beta test this new miracle? Do they even have beta testers?

I believe one or two of us on this forum have done a spot of beta testing.  Although this was more like alpha testing really, basically trying revised versions of AIR, and reporting back how exactly it failed and switched to white noise, then providing screen shots of the various Windows activities etc.  This culminated in the current beta 4, but I am not aware of any beta testing (or anything else happening) over the last year.

[Hifi_swlon]

Next year it will be Frantically.
The following year it will be Desperately.
...
...

Well, assuming they're not lying to us (OK, OK, try and keep it together ) they're 'on the verge' of releasing the fruits of two years worth of 'feverishly dedicated' labour culminating in 'AIR3'.

If 'AIR3' doesn't work, there's pretty much no point worrying about next year or the year after....  at that point - if we didn't know already - we could safely conclude my thirteen year old cat would have a better chance of writing a functional Mac/Windows audio transport. They'll probably have an opening too...

Out of interest has anyone here been asked to beta test this new miracle? Do they even have beta testers?

I believe one or two of us on this forum have done a spot of beta testing.  Although this was more like alpha testing really, basically trying revised versions of AIR, and reporting back how exactly it failed and switched to white noise, then providing screen shots of the various Windows activities etc.  This culminated in the current beta 4, but I am not aware of any beta testing (or anything else happening) over the last year.

Wow, so several years of 'beta testing' resulting in a beta with similar issues. Not surprising as beta testers usually have a very interactive relationship with developers so they can report issues and try new tests.

I wish they'd hire someone in to do it for them. Some of the guys from Roon maybe - not as a Roon product but as a Devialet product. Their take on deveoplment is; they release an alpha internally until it has all the features they need and is reasonably stable in a contained environment, then they go to beta with all their forum team and other friends/helpers etc, and they just keep going until they seem to have ironed out as much as they can and no new bugs are cropping up. This part allegedly takes them about 4-5 frantic weeks. Then they release and wait for all the cases that can only be found with a wider audience and bigger range of network kit, DACs etc, and then they're into rounds of bug fixing trying to clear the issues affecting most people first. I'm sure other good companies follow the same approach and it really is the only way to work.

And where could Devialet find a reasonably large group of knowledgable, technically competent, and helpful Devialet owners to form some sort of beta test group? No idea really...... I'm sure there are some around somewhere....

[IanG-UK]

There has been little mention of AIR1 and its success or otherwise versus AIR2.

Has anyone any way of accessing that version or has the firmware updating precluded its use?

[Antoine]

I still have all firmware and AIR versions released since 5.6 and AIR 1.5 (96/24 max) or so including some beta versions of AIR 2.0.1 and firmware 6.0.7 which I officially beta tested (for Windows) back in June 2013 for Devialet.

AIR 2.0 was a disaster, impossible to get stable. A few beta builds later the issues were solved (at least for me) and at the end of the beta phase they renamed 2.0.1 to 2.1. We all know now the issues have/had not been solved for everyone and little has happened since.

[Confused]

I must admit I am intrigued by IanG's comment about AIR V1. I have never used it, but from what I read it was limited to use with iTunes only but did work perfectly. Could it be re-instated? Would it work with the current range and firmware? I am guessing only Devialet know the answer to this, and I suspect the answer is no anyway. Does anyone know different?

Reading Antoine's comments reminds me of my own early days with AIR. I ran AIR on what was by then a slow and generally clapped out Windows Vista PC (which is now dead, hard disc failure). The thing is, AIR worked perfectly with Windows Vista, no white noise, no stuttering or drop outs, all good. Was this true for all Windows Vista users? I note that the Vista version of AIR is still available. I also note that over on the Roon thread, some folk are using old laptops and similar as Roon 'End Points'. Could you Run Roon as an end point on an old Vista PC? I am not sure of the Roon requirements for an 'End Point', but if so, this might form a reliable way of using Roon with AIR?