if you point most clients to an mp3 file the entire file must be downloaded before it can start playing. The .m3u and .pls files tell an mp3 client to start downloading and buffer the mp3 so that it can play it while it is downloading. The biggest issue with streaming this way is that if the file is encoded at a bitrate that is higher than can be downloaded by (or served to) the client due to bandwidth limits, the file will sound like crap if it plays at all...or the buffer has to be increased so much that you might as well just download the mp3. I have 128kbs upload limit so if I stream files this way I can just barely listen to it without it clicking and breaking off..it also means that only 1 person can listen at a time for 128kbs mp3's. The other problem with this is that you cannot control how many people are downloading this way.. which means that your bandwidth could just dry up and noone would be able to listen. To really address this issue you could write a script (php, perl, asp) that reads the binary file (mp3) from disk, and then streams it thru the http connection. This is commonly done to serve secure images or other documents (such as pdf's) individually where you can have the script check user permissions before serving the file, and in this case, inform listeners that the server is full. The other benefit of playlist files (.m3u, .pls, etc) is that you can specify a list of songs to be played this way instead of just one file at a time..you can also use these to point to your stream. This allows you to include a "welcome" mp3 message if you want :) hope that helps explain it ~Jackstraw ----- Original Message ----- From: "un" <un@king.dom.de> To: <icecast@xiph.org> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 2:29 PM Subject: Re: [icecast] content on demand HOWTO available> Big Al: > > > > A tutorial on successful use of Icecast Static streaming (on demand) is > > available here: > > > > http://www.modernamericanmusic.com/IcecastStaticHOWTO.html > > > > maybe silly question, but where's the difference in pointing > directly to the mp3-file instead to a *.m3u ? > besides, my netscape/linux seems to have problems with the suffix .m3u, > mime-type is set, but rather nothing happens. m3u is handled by plugger3.2 > any idea? > thx, uno > > > > > > > Asymmetric wrote: > > > > > At 10:30 3/22/2001 +0000, you wrote: > > > >Hi, > > > > > > > >Does Icecast support streaming on demand as Shoutcast does? i.e. ifI> > > >have some MP3 files in a directory, can these be streamed if I linkto> > > >them on a web page. > > > > > > Yes, and the info on how to do that is all in the documentation/readmeand> > > the comment blurbs in the config file. > > > > > --- >8 ---- > List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ > icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ > To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to'icecast-request@xiph.org'> containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. > Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
A tutorial on successful use of Icecast Static streaming (on demand) is available here: http://www.modernamericanmusic.com/IcecastStaticHOWTO.html Asymmetric wrote:> At 10:30 3/22/2001 +0000, you wrote: > >Hi, > > > >Does Icecast support streaming on demand as Shoutcast does? i.e. if I > >have some MP3 files in a directory, can these be streamed if I link to > >them on a web page. > > Yes, and the info on how to do that is all in the documentation/readme and > the comment blurbs in the config file. > > -------signature file------- > PGP Key Fingerprint: > 446B 7718 B219 9F1E 43DD 8E4A 6BE9 D739 CCC5 7FD7 > > "I don't think [Linux] will be very successful in the long run." > "My experience and some of my friends' experience is that Linux is quite > unreliable. Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse." > -Ken Thompson, Interview May 1999. > > http://www.freebsd.org > FreeBSD - The Power to Serve > > http://www.rfnj.org > Radio Free New Jersey - 493 streams - 40kbps @ 22khz Stereo > > http://namespace.org -- http://name.space > Resist the ICANN! Support name.space! > > --- >8 ---- > List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ > icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ > To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' > containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. > Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Big Al:> > A tutorial on successful use of Icecast Static streaming (on demand) is > available here: > > http://www.modernamericanmusic.com/IcecastStaticHOWTO.html >maybe silly question, but where's the difference in pointing directly to the mp3-file instead to a *.m3u ? besides, my netscape/linux seems to have problems with the suffix .m3u, mime-type is set, but rather nothing happens. m3u is handled by plugger3.2 any idea? thx, uno> > Asymmetric wrote: > > > At 10:30 3/22/2001 +0000, you wrote: > > >Hi, > > > > > >Does Icecast support streaming on demand as Shoutcast does? i.e. if I > > >have some MP3 files in a directory, can these be streamed if I link to > > >them on a web page. > > > > Yes, and the info on how to do that is all in the documentation/readme and > > the comment blurbs in the config file. > >--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
>maybe silly question, but where's the difference in pointing >directly to the mp3-file instead to a *.m3u ?Valid question. The .m3u file is known to the browser and player as a playlist file, a text file of about a hundred bytes containing the address of the actual .mp3 file to stream, ex: #EXTM3U #EXTINF:-1,song.mp3 http://www.modernamericanmusic.com:8000/file/song.mp3 You could type in this whole URL as above, but the .m3u file handles this automatically. Usually, sending the .mp3 file causes the browser / player to download the whole 3-5 Meg file, when we really want to start a stream.>besides, my netscape/linux seems to have problems with the suffix .m3u, >mime-type is set, but rather nothing happens. m3u is handled by plugger3.2Yes, you may have to educate your browser to politely handle .m3u or even .mp3 files I wrote up a little tutorial on this at: http://www.modernamericanmusic.com/techtips.html -Big Al un wrote:> Big Al: > > > > A tutorial on successful use of Icecast Static streaming (on demand) is > > available here: > > > > http://www.modernamericanmusic.com/IcecastStaticHOWTO.html > > > > maybe silly question, but where's the difference in pointing > directly to the mp3-file instead to a *.m3u ? > besides, my netscape/linux seems to have problems with the suffix .m3u, > mime-type is set, but rather nothing happens. m3u is handled by plugger3.2 > any idea? > thx, uno > > > > > Asymmetric wrote: > > > > > At 10:30 3/22/2001 +0000, you wrote: > > > >Hi, > > > > > > > >Does Icecast support streaming on demand as Shoutcast does? i.e. if I > > > >have some MP3 files in a directory, can these be streamed if I link to > > > >them on a web page. > > > > > > Yes, and the info on how to do that is all in the documentation/readme and > > > the comment blurbs in the config file. > > > > > --- >8 ---- > List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ > icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ > To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' > containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. > Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.