Icecast - Aug 2010 - Icecast2 / edcast Initial Setup Question

Hi,

I have setup Icecast2 and edcast (standalone) on an XPSP3 machine.  The 
basic setup works.  I can speak into a microphone and hear my voice from 
another PC on a LAN.

Now I want to "stream a file" such as an mp3 podcast I made or just a 
song (mp3, acc etc.) or play a CD and don't know what to even search for 
in the mail archives, forum or Google to get help.

I can't seen to get edcast standalone to let me do anything except live 
streaming, via rear mic (or line-in or front mic).  From some research 
(links below), live streaming can be turned off (a big red X), but I 
can't seem to turn it off.  I've already seen import source being a 
CD-Drive etc. vs line-in/microphone.

Can anyone clue me into what to look at next?  Is edcast even the right 
tool for this?


Here are the links I've used to get as far as I am now, along with a PDF 
doc I found (HOWTO_Dedicated_Icecast_Server.pdf)

http://wiki.commedia.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Mp3_streaming_-_how_to_guide

http://www.fastserv.com/kb/article/edcast_standalone_-_stream_live_audio_to_icecast_or_shoutcast/

Thanks,
MikeC

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 05:56:54PM -0400, Michael C. Cambria
wrote:
> I can't seen to get edcast standalone to let me do anything except live
> streaming, via rear mic (or line-in or front mic).  From some research 
> (links below), live streaming can be turned off (a big red X), but I 
> can't seem to turn it off.  I've already seen import source being a
> CD-Drive etc. vs line-in/microphone.
> 
> Can anyone clue me into what to look at next?  Is edcast even the right 
> tool for this?
Yes, all you seem to have is a mixer setting problem.
Check if your system audio mixer allows you to set 'wave mix' or
'loop'
or something along those lines as an input. This is an meta-input which
combines all other inputs into one.

Good luck

Thomas

On Sun, 15 Aug 2010, Michael C. Cambria wrote:
> I can't seen to get edcast standalone to let me do anything except live
> streaming, via rear mic (or line-in or front mic).  From some research
> (links below), live streaming can be turned off (a big red X), but I
> can't seem to turn it off.  I've already seen import source being a
> CD-Drive etc. vs line-in/microphone.
Edcast standalone only does live streaming, and IMHO the presence of the 
live streaming checkbox in the standalone UI is a bug.  Only the plugin 
versions have the option to turn it off.  This is because they can also 
accept input from the associated player, whereas the standalone version 
obviously has no player and hence no other input source.

As has been said here already, you should be able to change your soundcard 
input to accept outpu from other players or from the CD drive.
> Can anyone clue me into what to look at next?  Is edcast even the right
> tool for this?
Tool for what, ultimately?  If you just want to play automation from 
Winamp or Foobar, using the plugin may well be a lot simpler.  But it 
really depends what your ultimate goal is.

Geoff.

On 8/16/2010 5:16 AM, Geoff Shang wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 2010, Michael C. Cambria wrote:
>
>> I can't seen to get edcast standalone to let me do anything except
live
>> streaming, via rear mic (or line-in or front mic).  From some research
>> (links below), live streaming can be turned off (a big red X), but I
>> can't seem to turn it off.  I've already seen import source
being a
>> CD-Drive etc. vs line-in/microphone.
>
> Edcast standalone only does live streaming, and IMHO the presence of 
> the live streaming checkbox in the standalone UI is a bug.  Only the 
> plugin versions have the option to turn it off.  This is because they 
> can also accept input from the associated player, whereas the 
> standalone version obviously has no player and hence no other input 
> source.
>
If that checkbox wasn't there, it would have saved me a lot of time.  I 
was trying to duplicate what I found in the 'howto's' just to ensure
I
was 'getting it'.  As suggested off list, I installed winamp and then 
eccast+winamp plug in and can do exactly what I was looking to do.

> As has been said here already, you should be able to change your 
> soundcard input to accept outpu from other players or from the CD drive.
I'll check my soundcard (built into the intel based motherboard) and see 
if I can get any other options to show up in edcast.
>> Can anyone clue me into what to look at next?  Is edcast even the right
>> tool for this?
>
> Tool for what, ultimately?  If you just want to play automation from 
> Winamp or Foobar, using the plugin may well be a lot simpler.  But it 
> really depends what your ultimate goal is.
It turns out that edcast standalone wasn't what I was looking for to 
play e.g. an mp3, or at least the simple way to do it.

Right now, my goal with icecast is to learn how to set it up and use 
it... learn what I can, pickup the terminology so I know what to ask in 
the future.  I'm the sw geek (will be moving to my FreeBSD systems 
eventually) but have a few DJ friends who gave up the practice and each 
decided to, well, give their ex a free house.  I'm going to help get 
them back 'on the air' so to speak using Icecast.

Something like piping the live output of e.g. mixx (www.mixx.org) into 
edcast is probably the end game... on on one machine ideally.

btw, ultimate goal is to rule the world lol.

Thanks,
MikeC

On 8/16/2010 5:16 AM, Geoff Shang wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 2010, Michael C. Cambria wrote:
>
>> I can't seen to get edcast standalone to let me do anything except
live
>> streaming, via rear mic (or line-in or front mic).  From some research
>> (links below), live streaming can be turned off (a big red X), but I
>> can't seem to turn it off.  I've already seen import source
being a
>> CD-Drive etc. vs line-in/microphone.
>
> Edcast standalone only does live streaming, and IMHO the presence of 
> the live streaming checkbox in the standalone UI is a bug.  Only the 
> plugin versions have the option to turn it off.  This is because they 
> can also accept input from the associated player, whereas the 
> standalone version obviously has no player and hence no other input 
> source.
>
> As has been said here already, you should be able to change your 
> soundcard input to accept outpu from other players or from the CD drive.
Hopefully this will save time for someone else...

Turns out all 5 of my machines don't have this ability in the (Dell) 
Integrated Audio, or at least the Windows drivers can't make use of 
it.    I have Win7 (64bit) and XPSP3 machines.  In most cases I have 
"SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio".  If the HW actually has a
mixer,
I should be able to find out next time I boot FreeBSD or Fedora on one 
of these boxes.

In work (yet another Dell), I was able to enable "stereo mix" and 
anything I play with VLC, WMP etc. can be used by Edcast Standalone for 
Icecast.

Now the question is do I want a PCIe or just PCI sound card?  Win7 64bit 
support a must.  This assumes I have a free slot <g>

Thanks to everyone for all your help getting started.

MikeC