Icecast - Sep 2004 - random playing order and forum location question

1. where can I find the web-based forum? I'd like to search the solution,
because I was able to setup Shoutcast2 for streaming only one mp3 file, but
nothing else at all. (I did read the faq, the help 2 times, the logs, I even
checked the Tcp/ip traffic of the port of 8000... not found the solution). I
haven't downloaded the source code, because I was too sleepy. (and angry
:-(  )

2. I'd like to setup any (but I prefer shoutcast) mp3 stream server with
multiple mount-point. Mount points (I like the jukebox channel as the name
of a mount point) are genre-related and music-band related m3u files,
containing some hundreds of items/lines, respectively. From my workplace I'd
like to listen to different channels in RANDOM order from my home server.
(but as one infinite [looping] stream). What is the simpliest way to do
this? (windows 2k) Or should I write my own application to solve my special
personal requirements?

3. Just info: Yesterday night I was so angry (dear shoutcast developers,
please forgive me) after 2 hours writing config file and analyzing the log
and trying to figure out how the h##ck can I configure multiple mount points
correctly based on local m3u files and play in random order in the different
channels. So I've written a socket server that parses a .m3u file and start
to send brutally the mp3 files in random order, infinitively. (constantly
40kbyte/sec speed, this is the max of 320kbit/s. I don't calculate any
bitrate, nothing at all, and as simple as possible.) I don't send headers,
nothing fancy things only the pure bytes. Receiver also exists, but cannot
play at all. Now I'm looking for how can I write winamp plugin to receive my
own mp3 stream bytes and pass to the player. (I would like to not write a
player, probably I even cannot do.) This short project can work fine in
local LAN, but because there could be full of security issues, I'm not brave
enough to use over the internet. (so I still prefer the Icecast2 solution if
there is any.)

4. If there is no this kind of application yet, (windows) i've one more
question: is there any strong reason against the shoutcast format?


All the helps, links, other advises
Thanks in advance,
dusza

Hi:

I'm not sure exactly what it is you want to do.  You say you want several 
genre-based mountpoints, but you then want to randomly switch between them. 
Wouldn't it be easier to just have one stream of files randomly selected 
from the various genres?  Or maybe I'm missing something?

To set up various mountpoints (as you asked), you'll need a source client 
to stream the data to icecast, one instance per mountpoint.  If your files 
are encoded as you want, you could probably use ezstream to do this, as 
it's resource usage is pretty low and it runs on Windows.  Just configure 
multiple ezstream instances, one per genre, and you should be good to go. 
You can get ezstream from http://www.icecast.org/ezstream.php

Geoff.

> I'm not sure exactly what it is you want to do.  You say you want
several
> genre-based mountpoints, but you then want to randomly switch between
them.
> Wouldn't it be easier to just have one stream of files randomly
selected
> from the various genres?  Or maybe I'm missing something?
1. I tried the ezstream with a m3u file and works fine. Worked after 5
seconds, but the icecast didnt. I'm partially happy, but what I would like
to is described in the next point. Thanks to Geoff Shang who advised me the
ezstream.

2. I have a folder (windows 2k) with couple of sub-folders and files like
this:
... genre types...
rock.m3u (about 70 files)
disco.m3u (about 50 files)
metal.m3u (about 250 files)
... and so on ...
and these kind of files:
David Bowie.m3u (22 items)
Mike Oldfield.m3u (97 files)
Sting.m3u (37 files)
Tangerine Dreams.m3u (45 files)
... and so on ...

so (locally) when I would like to listen to disco genre, I start winamp use
the disco.m3u, enables random order and enables looping. Sometimes I feel
that I'd like to listen metal, so use the metal.m3u, enables random order
and enables looping. Sometimes I feel that I'd like to listen only Tangerine
Dreams only, so I use the Tangerine Dreams.m3u, enables random order and
enables looping. This works fine, but I'd like to have the same (I hope
it's
not hard) as streaming also.
So from my workplace if I feel I'd like to listen rock I'd like to use
the
http://mysite.here.is:8000/rock. If I feel that I'd like to listen to Sting,
I'd like to use the http://mysite.here.is:8000/sting. And so on. With
ezstream I succesfully stream one m3u file, but nothing more and the playing
order is sequential and not random.

Thanks in advance,
dusza