Icecast - May 2006 - No re-encoding?

Hi,

Just a check for something I can't quite clarify from the docs...

I have a directory of ogg files, quality level 5, that are fed to icecast
by ices (all just installed, so whatever the current versions are).  I
have no quality/encoding specifications in the configs and so expect the
files to pass through in the same format.  But when I look at the status
page, I see "quality 3.0".  Does that mean things are being re-encoded
down to ogg level 3?

If so, presumably I have to specify that I want level 5 quality
explicitly?  Will that re-encode or just leave things as they are?  I'd
prefer to just pass things straight through if at all possible (this is
for a local network, so there's not a lot of pressure to heep data rates
low).

I'm hoping this "3.0" is not the same as ogg's quality levels,
but simply
means "no re-encoding", but couldn't find confirmation anywhere. 
Apologies if I've overlooked something obvious.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hmmm.  Specifying a quality in the ices config:
- changed what was displayed on the status page
- didn't seem to change the bit rate displayed in xmms
- did seem to improve the sound quality

Is it possible to get ices to stream data without re-encoding?  Does
specifying the same parameters used to generate the original file do so,
or does ices re-encode at the same setting (which may be a bad idea with a
lossy codec)?

Should I be asking these questions elsewhere?

Andrew

> Hi,
>
> Just a check for something I can't quite clarify from the docs...
>
> I have a directory of ogg files, quality level 5, that are fed to icecast
> by ices (all just installed, so whatever the current versions are).  I
> have no quality/encoding specifications in the configs and so expect the
> files to pass through in the same format.  But when I look at the status
> page, I see "quality 3.0".  Does that mean things are being
re-encoded
> down to ogg level 3?
>
> If so, presumably I have to specify that I want level 5 quality
> explicitly?  Will that re-encode or just leave things as they are?  I'd
> prefer to just pass things straight through if at all possible (this is
> for a local network, so there's not a lot of pressure to heep data
rates
> low).
>
> I'm hoping this "3.0" is not the same as ogg's quality
levels, but simply
> means "no re-encoding", but couldn't find confirmation
anywhere.
> Apologies if I've overlooked something obvious.
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew
>
>
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