Icecast - Aug 2004 - OT: whats your opinion of ODDSOCK streamTranscoder?

This is all happening on a box with:

Win 2k SP3
512K RAM
1.2 GHZ Celeron

The PC has noother  load...all its doing is downsampling an MP3 stream to
lower bitrates.

I'm using the LAME_ENC.DLL with streamTranscoder. There is no version number
tagged on the lame_enc.dll, but the file is dates July 2002.

When I refer to  "skipped and popped and dropped" I am referring to
your
listening experience. Maybe skipped is a bad description. Your chosen mp3
player will experience a frequent buffer underruns. So when you listening
after 30 minutes or so, the music will stop, your player rebuffers for a
send or two, then the music starts again. This will repeat 2 - 3 times an
hour. And each time a track changes you miss the first 1/2 second or so. In
between those buffer underruns its not uncommon to hear some "clicks"
in the
music..who knows why. Its almost as if streamTranscoder isn't sending out
the bytes quite fast enough. You knwo what its almost sounds like? When you
play a MP3's on a weak PC...thats what the stream sounds liek when you tune
in.

This doesn't happen when I use SHOUTcast DSP. I've switch back and forth
between the two tools and listen hour after hour and compared.

I kept track of the CPU utlilization. shoutCAST DSP keeps a around a stead
50% CPU utilization with 3 output streams. streamTranscaster cycles from
almost 0% up to 100%  evbery few seconds.

So, since I'm the only one haiving these problems, its got to be my
computer. Anything jump out at you?

I'll just keep messing around with it...I haven't given up yet. I really
want to use streamTranscoder. It irritates me that I have to leave winamp
running just to transcode a stream.

<p>----- Original Message -----
From: "oddsock" <oddsock@oddsock.org>
To: <icecast@xiph.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 9:59 PM
Subject: Re: [icecast] OT: whats your opinion of ODDSOCK streamTranscoder?

<p>> At 07:27 PM 3/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >I tried it on Windows 2000 and then compared it against shoutCAST DSP
> >plugin. It sucked. It skipped and popped and cut off the first 1/2
second
of
> >each track and dropped. It sucked, while shoutCast DSP was flawless.
>
> this is the first I've heard of this problem....and there are alot of
> people that I know that are using it...none so far have reported this as a
> problem...maybe if you provided some information that actually could be
> used to reproduce or debug the problem..otherwise, based on your statement
> "skipped and popped and dropped" is not terribly specific....
>
>
> >are there any other transcoders out there? Many of you probably run
your
own
> >radio stations so maybe someone has a little info for me. Short of
writing
> >my own is there something I can use that can transcode streams and not
> >require the use of an mp3 player and soundcard?
>
> nope, there aren't..which is actually why I wrote it...
>
> oddsock
>
>
> --- >8 ----
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OK guys. Thanks so for taking the time to talk to me even though this was
off topic.

And Oddsock, especially thanks for insisting that no one had this problem.
It got me thinking......your transcoder is at the mercy of several external
components..one of them being lame_enc.dll

So..I went and found several versions of the lame_enc.dll, and experimented.
I'm not sure how I should compile lame on windows so I just found several
applications that ship with the binary version of lame_enc.dll

I found the one that comes with the latest Zlurp! to work the best. It is
dates Dec 29 2001. And guess what...it doesn;t hog the CPU....it floats
between 30% and 50% with some spikes up to 80%. That must have been the
source of my problem before..the CPU was pegged out at 100% for too long and
other processes suffered for it. And guess what else? The stream sounds soo
much cleaner too..and I haven't heard a the first bit of a track get cut off
either!

I've only been playing with it for an hour so it may be too soon to
tell..but I don't think so..its like night and day.

Oddsock, how come you don't include the most compatable  lame_enc.dll  with
the windows streamTranscoder  binary?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brandon" <bcasci@runbox.com>
To: <icecast@xiph.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: [icecast] OT: whats your opinion of ODDSOCK streamTranscoder?

<p>> This is all happening on a box with:
>
> Win 2k SP3
> 512K RAM
> 1.2 GHZ Celeron
>
> The PC has noother  load...all its doing is downsampling an MP3 stream to
> lower bitrates.
>
> I'm using the LAME_ENC.DLL with streamTranscoder. There is no version
number
> tagged on the lame_enc.dll, but the file is dates July 2002.
>
> When I refer to  "skipped and popped and dropped" I am referring
to your
> listening experience. Maybe skipped is a bad description. Your chosen mp3
> player will experience a frequent buffer underruns. So when you listening
> after 30 minutes or so, the music will stop, your player rebuffers for a
> send or two, then the music starts again. This will repeat 2 - 3 times an
> hour. And each time a track changes you miss the first 1/2 second or so.
In
> between those buffer underruns its not uncommon to hear some
"clicks" in
the
> music..who knows why. Its almost as if streamTranscoder isn't sending
out
> the bytes quite fast enough. You knwo what its almost sounds like? When
you
> play a MP3's on a weak PC...thats what the stream sounds liek when you
tune
> in.
>
> This doesn't happen when I use SHOUTcast DSP. I've switch back and
forth
> between the two tools and listen hour after hour and compared.
>
> I kept track of the CPU utlilization. shoutCAST DSP keeps a around a stead
> 50% CPU utilization with 3 output streams. streamTranscaster cycles from
> almost 0% up to 100%  evbery few seconds.
>
> So, since I'm the only one haiving these problems, its got to be my
> computer. Anything jump out at you?
>
> I'll just keep messing around with it...I haven't given up yet. I
really
> want to use streamTranscoder. It irritates me that I have to leave winamp
> running just to transcode a stream.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "oddsock" <oddsock@oddsock.org>
> To: <icecast@xiph.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 9:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [icecast] OT: whats your opinion of ODDSOCK streamTranscoder?
>
>
> > At 07:27 PM 3/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> > >I tried it on Windows 2000 and then compared it against shoutCAST
DSP
> > >plugin. It sucked. It skipped and popped and cut off the first 1/2
second
> of
> > >each track and dropped. It sucked, while shoutCast DSP was
flawless.
> >
> > this is the first I've heard of this problem....and there are alot
of
> > people that I know that are using it...none so far have reported this
as
a
> > problem...maybe if you provided some information that actually could
be
> > used to reproduce or debug the problem..otherwise, based on your
statement
> > "skipped and popped and dropped" is not terribly
specific....
> >
> >
> > >are there any other transcoders out there? Many of you probably
run
your
> own
> > >radio stations so maybe someone has a little info for me. Short of
> writing
> > >my own is there something I can use that can transcode streams and
not
> > >require the use of an mp3 player and soundcard?
> >
> > nope, there aren't..which is actually why I wrote it...
> >
> > oddsock
> >
> >
> > --- >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 ----
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I'm sorry...I haven't been doind this for too long. What does a solid
stream
mean?

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Hi:

This might be a stupid question but ... the stream you're transcoding is
solid?

Geoff.

<p>
-- 
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At 01:02 AM 3/13/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Oddsock, how come you don't include the most compatable  lame_enc.dll 
with
>the windows streamTranscoder  binary?
because legally I cannot.  Distribution of a mp3 encoder requires license 
fees to appropriate patent holders....one of the truly great things about 
ogg vorbis......no license fees :)

oddsock

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