Icecast - Multimedia Streaming Server

Audio editors, music players, video players, burning software, etc.
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OscarTalks
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Icecast - Multimedia Streaming Server

#1 Post by OscarTalks »

***********************************

VERSION 2.4.2 OF ICECAST SERVER and
VERSION 0.7.1 OF DARKSNOW with DARKICE
Source client compiled with support for all formats.
Builds done in Slacko 5.7 and Dpup Wheezy.
Download from:-
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks

***********************************

Uses include public broadcasting or point-to-point sending of audio feeds over the internet.

The normal ./configure make make install process leaves out some of the needed log files and directories. I resolve this by adding them manually.

There is also a snag that it refuses to run as user "root". I resolve this by editing the .xml config file so it runs as user "nobody"

It does all now seem to work, including optional listing of streams in the Icecast Stream Directory.

After installation you need to do a bit of manual editing of the config file which is found at /etc/icecast.xml

For basic operation this is only a few essential items like passwords, hostname and uncommenting of the little section if you want directory listing(s) of your stream(s).

There is no GUI for Icecast Server. To start it you just enter the following into the terminal:-

Code: Select all

icecast -c /etc/icecast.xml
or

Code: Select all

icecast -b -c /etc/icecast.xml
(to run icecast in the background)

I am also uploading .pet packages of Darksnow with Darkice INCLUDED.
Darkice is a source client which produces the stream for Icecast (others are available). It runs from command line. Darksnow is a GUI front end (with menu entry) for Darkice if you prefer the convenience of that.
Last edited by OscarTalks on Sat 15 Aug 2015, 01:21, edited 3 times in total.
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traderbob
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ogg in Darkice

#2 Post by traderbob »

Is it possible to add ogg and AAC+ in this

regards

Robert

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trapster
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#3 Post by trapster »

Icecast does .ogg
trapster
Maine, USA

Asus eeepc 1005HA PU1X-BK
Frugal install: Slacko
Currently using full install: DebianDog

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OscarTalks
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Location: London, England

#4 Post by OscarTalks »

It has been a while since I used it so I can't remember all the details for sure.
I am fairly certain that the icecast server will stream ogg vorbis and aac plus without any problems. These packages were compiled and used in Slacko 533.

The stream format is determined in the source client. The server then broadcasts whatever you are feeding into it. I think darkice does produce ogg streams but would have to double check. Not sure about aac plus but other source clients are available. I'm sure I have streamed aac plus in the past but it may have been with something else.

It is a shame that ogg vorbis has not been more widely adopted because it gives excellent audio quality even at low bitrates. One of the reasons for using mp3 (even though it doesn't sound as good) used to be that Windows Media Player would not play ogg or aac unless the user installed a plugin. Not sure if this is still the case.

EDIT:-
Just took a quick look at http://icecast.org and it seems that darkice will stream AAC via libfaac. If you want true AAC+ it will do that as well but you may need to add libaacplus because it is not usually included in Puppy. Note that libaacplus will need libfftw as well. Also it would probably be a good idea to compile the latest version (2.4.0) of icecast server.

LATER EDIT:-
I compiled latest icecast, darkice and darksnow and confirm I am able to stream ogg vorbis, aacplus and even opus. I had to add the libaacplus as a shared library, it did not want to link statically into darkice for some reason. The libaacplus does have statically linked fftw though. Some players will not have opus support as it is still quite new. My VLC does so I was also able to verify that this works too.
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OscarTalks
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#5 Post by OscarTalks »

I have uploaded icecast-2.4.0 and darksnow-0.7.1 (which contains darkice-1.2)
Compiled in Slacko 5.7
May be OK in other recent 32bit Slackware 14.0 Pups

http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks

With these two pakages you can broadcast audio streams in the following formats:-

mp3
ogg vorbis
aac
aacplus
opus

Much of the information in the first post still applies. You need to do a bit of editing of /etc/icecast.xml to set up the server. You may also need to set up port forwarding if you are behind a router and make sure any firewall is configured to allow incoming connections to the specified port(s). Start the server with the command icecast -c /etc/icecast.xml or set up a script to start it.

Then you need a little bit of knowledge to configure the settings in darksnow, but once you have done that correctly and made sure your source audio is coming from the right place and set to the right level you just click to start streaming and you are "On The Air".

LATER:-
I have been conducting some (subjective) tests of audio quality of the different formats at a fixed low bitrate of 24kbps. There are several reasons why it is desirable to be able to achieve acceptable quality at the lowest possible bitrate.
To my ears OPUS sounds the best. This is to be expected as it is the newest and has been getting rave reviews. Because it is new, some media players will not have been built with support for OPUS, but if you have a recent Firefox or SeaMonkey you can just play OPUS streams directly in your browser, which for some people may be preferable to having to use a media player anyway.
I am adding another screenshot (hope you can see it) showing the listing of my OPUS test stream in the icecast directory. This is SeaMonkey 2.12.1 and you can see that you get an embedded player for listening to the stream if it is OPUS or Vorbis.
Attachments
icecast-directory.jpg
Directory listing works - OPUS streams play directly in Mozilla browsers
(59.75 KiB) Downloaded 1640 times
darksnow-aacp.jpg
Darksnow encoding and streaming aacPlus
(107.17 KiB) Downloaded 1695 times
darksnow.jpg
Darksnow / darkice / icecast broadcasts audio streams in several formats
(74.16 KiB) Downloaded 1604 times
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greengeek
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#6 Post by greengeek »

Hi OscarTalks,
i have a work colleague who wants to be able to jam along with another member of his band who lives in another part of the city. I suggested the idea of two audio streams - one broadcasting from himself to the other person and one broadcasting from them to him.

Do you think this software is capable of doing what he needs? cheers

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OscarTalks
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#7 Post by OscarTalks »

I'm afraid it isn't really ideal for what you describe. It is designed more for broadcasting or distribution and has high latency to ensure robustness of the stream. Normally there will be several seconds of delay.

I saw the application you mentioned in the other thread, but synchonising audio from remote parties in real time is a physical impossibility over internet as I understand it. So if they need to hear each other and respond to each other I don't think it would ever work.

Even over Skype you have a delay of half a second to a second or so. The audio is good and you can have conversations and play music or other sounds to one another with reasonable quality, but if you have ever heard people try to sing together you notice that the delay does not allow this to work smoothly. The limitation becomes blatantly apparent.

What you can do is add stuff to a mix, so for example a backing track comes to you with several instruments and/or voices and you play something extra or sing something extra and record the combination as a new track.
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OscarTalks
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#8 Post by OscarTalks »

Version 2.4.2 of Icecast Server and version 0.7.1 of Darksnow GUI with version 1.2 of Darkice included (compiled with support for all formats) now uploaded.
See first post.
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#9 Post by greengeek »

What if a user wanted to broadcast across their home network instead of the internet - would that be likely to have the same audio delays? I went to a wedding on the weekend and the celebrant had problems with the wireless mic unable to broadcast 50 metres to the receiver and amp and I wondered if there was some way to use a couple of Puppy PCs to send the audio signal to each other via wifi.

I would like to find a way to do this without requiring internet access.

Any thoughts?
cheers!

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