Strange streaming behavior from Tidal behind corporate firewall

Support
1

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

I7, Windows 10 2004, latest Roon core build 571

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Any audio device

Description Of Issue

I’m running core on my work machine. When I’m using it at home Roon works as expected. When running at work I have strange issues when streaming from Tidal.

My corporate firewall doesn’t allow non HTTPS traffic. So when I’m trying to stream from Tidal I usually don’t succeed in streaming. I checked the logs and I saw that Roon loads FLAC stream from Tidal using regular HTTP:

06/25 16:30:01 Info: [DACport] [zoneplayer] Queueing: http://sp-pr-ak.audio.tidal.com/mediatracks/CAEaKRInYTY3ZmQ3NjExMDVmYTZjMDBjMmY0MmQzZjE0OGRhY2VfNjEubXA0/0.flac

However, I recently discovered that if a song from my local disc is playing, and I queue an album from Tidal, there’s no issue when streaming.

I tried to check the logs but couldn’t find anything different between the two streaming requests, but I didn’t dive in too deep.

Is there a difference between the two requests? Why does one work and the other doesn’t?

Is there a way to stream using HTTPS?

2

This doesn’t always work, though.

4

Hi @maoravni,

Does the issue also occur on your System Output zone when streaming TIDAL content?

5

I use Tidal app at work behind corp firewall. I could never figure this out but Hifi/Master doesn’t work. I can’t see any difference in how it fetches a Hifi track vs. a lower quality track but sure enough… Hifi will always fail. “High” quality works fine.

Try reducing your streaming quality. Maybe we’ve got the same issue.

6

I’m already on Hifi. Master fails because the connection is congested at times.

7

Yes. It’s not related to the zone. Streaming doesn’t start.

It happens with the Tidal’s own app - streaming doesn’t start.

But on Tidal’s own app streaming never starts, while on Roon streaming starts when the tracks are playing after a local track, or when Radio starts.

8

Yes, go lower than Hifi. Hifi didn’t work for me either.

9

Nope. Didn’t work.

Besides, Roon doesn’t play nice with lossy files. It’s not truly gapless, and ogg files skip samples from start/end of files.

@noris?

10

Hey @maoravni,

I’ve requested some feedback from the technical team regarding your use-case here, once I hear back from them, I’ll be sure to let you know!

11

Yes.

Switched to System Output and I got the same behavior.

12

Hi @maoravni,

I appreciate your patience while I had a chance to consult with the team regarding this one.

Our senior technical team have mentioned that TIDAL generates the streaming URLs and we simply fetch them, there is not much that we can do here from our end, this is a decision made by TIDAL.

However, they have noted that it is very strange that you are able to play a local disk and then a TIDAL track, this seems like it could be due to another cause, and not that the traffic is necessarily HTTP.

I would reach out to TIDAL and let them know this, maybe they have further suggestions as well.

13

Thanks, Noris.

I contacted Tidal and opened a case. Crossing my fingers…

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