I have a few related questions.
I'm using the following Debian packages:
Ices2 (2.0.1-4)
Icecast2 (2.3.1-2)
Here's the input section of my ices-playlist.xml:
<input>
<module>playlist</module>
<param name="type">basic</param>
<param name="file">/etc/icecast2/playlist.txt</param>
<param name="random">1</param>
<param name="restart-after-reread">0</param>
<param name="once">0</param>
</input>
Here's my questions:
1. Despite the 0 setting for my "restart-after-reread" parameter,
anytime I
manually update my playlist file, my playlist starts over again. Though
"random", I know this is happening because I soon hear tracks again
that
I've recently heard. Is there something I can do to prevent this from
happening?
2. The "random" parameter doesn't seem to produce particularly
random
selections, meaning that ices2 seems to work its way down my playlist in a
somewhat predictable fashion. Each time I restart ices2 I hear (more or
less) the same general sequence of tracks played. Is this to be expected?
3. Does anyone know if there's a command line, MySQL-based playlist manager
for ices2? I'd love to be able to manage my playlists and ID3 tag info using
a database interface. I'd also like to be able to easily serve up customized
playlist's through ices2 in a manner similar to what I currently use NetJuke
for, but to do this requires a database. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the help. Cheers!
-----Original Message-----
From: icecast-bounces@xiph.org [mailto:icecast-bounces@xiph.org] On Behalf
Of Michael Smith
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:21 AM
To: Rob Campbell
Cc: icecast@xiph.org
Subject: Re: [Icecast] Dynamic Playlist
On 4/12/06, Rob Campbell <rob@rob-campbell.com>
wrote:> I have a playlist that is updated every 5min with any new files to a
> directory. Do I need to restart icecast/ices to have the new files
played?
No.
Assuming you're using IceS2, if the playlist file changes it'll get
automatically re-read.
If you're using IceS 0.x, that might be true as well, or possibly you need
to send it SIGHUP, I don't remember.
Mike
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> > 1. Despite the 0 setting for my "restart-after-reread" parameter, anytime I > manually update my playlist file, my playlist starts over again. Though > "random", I know this is happening because I soon hear tracks again that > I've recently heard. Is there something I can do to prevent this from > happening?First up: random is misnamed, as it's not intended to be truly random. Instead, it shuffles the list: this means that normally, you can't hear the same thing until it has reached the end of the shuffled list. However, when the list is re-read, it's also re-shuffled. restart-after-reread is correctly used, but does roughly nothing in this case.> > 2. The "random" parameter doesn't seem to produce particularly random > selections, meaning that ices2 seems to work its way down my playlist in a > somewhat predictable fashion. Each time I restart ices2 I hear (more or > less) the same general sequence of tracks played. Is this to be expected?The shuffle should be completely random. If it isn't... there's a bug somewhere. Perhaps your system does have a very random rand() function? Perhaps we should use a better RNG in ices.> > 3. Does anyone know if there's a command line, MySQL-based playlist manager > for ices2? I'd love to be able to manage my playlists and ID3 tag info using > a database interface. I'd also like to be able to easily serve up customized > playlist's through ices2 in a manner similar to what I currently use NetJuke > for, but to do this requires a database. Any thoughts? >You can hook this into IceS2 using the 'script' playlist module, but I don't know if anyone has written an appropriate script to speak to mysql. I haven't, personally. Mike
Thanks Mike, I'll look into the random/shuffle thing some more. It's not a big deal for my NetJuke listeners, because for the most part they're defining their own playlists. But for my peercast listeners, who don't have control over the playlist they hear, it is a big deal. Every time I update/add to my broadcast playlist (which is daily), the stream basically starts over. The consequence of this is that no one ever gets very far into the playlist and they get bored hearing the same stuff over again. Mark -----Original Message----- From: mlrsmith@gmail.com [mailto:mlrsmith@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Michael Smith Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 8:09 AM To: Mark Trimble Cc: Rob Campbell; icecast@xiph.org Subject: Re: [Icecast] Dynamic Playlist> > 1. Despite the 0 setting for my "restart-after-reread" parameter, > anytime I manually update my playlist file, my playlist starts over > again. Though "random", I know this is happening because I soon hear > tracks again that I've recently heard. Is there something I can do to > prevent this from happening?First up: random is misnamed, as it's not intended to be truly random. Instead, it shuffles the list: this means that normally, you can't hear the same thing until it has reached the end of the shuffled list. However, when the list is re-read, it's also re-shuffled. restart-after-reread is correctly used, but does roughly nothing in this case.> > 2. The "random" parameter doesn't seem to produce particularly random > selections, meaning that ices2 seems to work its way down my playlist > in a somewhat predictable fashion. Each time I restart ices2 I hear > (more or > less) the same general sequence of tracks played. Is this to be expected?The shuffle should be completely random. If it isn't... there's a bug somewhere. Perhaps your system does have a very random rand() function? Perhaps we should use a better RNG in ices.> > 3. Does anyone know if there's a command line, MySQL-based playlist > manager for ices2? I'd love to be able to manage my playlists and ID3 > tag info using a database interface. I'd also like to be able to > easily serve up customized playlist's through ices2 in a manner > similar to what I currently use NetJuke for, but to do this requires adatabase. Any thoughts?>You can hook this into IceS2 using the 'script' playlist module, but I don't know if anyone has written an appropriate script to speak to mysql. I haven't, personally. Mike