References to the on-demand content folder

[kilucas]

I have recently set up on-demand streaming and found there were a few points that I hadn't understood from the FAQs. So I thought I'd post them here partly so any errors in my understanding can be corrected and partly for the benefit of anyone else setting up on-demand.

There seem to be three places where the on-demand content location is referenced and it is tempting to assume that a change to one implies they must all be changed. But I was wrong ...

The first reference is in the DNAS ini file contains a Content reference called ContentDir(commented out as standard) and it is well documented that, if you use this explicitly by uncommenting it, then the path must end in a slash. I put my tracks in C:\music so I set ContentDir=C:\music\

The second reference is via the start menu shortut. It is also well documented that the DNAS must start in the right folder via the start menu shortcut. From what I've read this shortcut only affects the reliablity of on-demand streaming (rather than live streaming) and is set to the parent folder (ending in a '/') of the content folder. I therefore set mine to C:\ since this is the parent of c:\music\. (Am I correct that this Start In folder will not adversely affect any other aspect of Shoutcast?)

The third reference arises when you want to listen to the on-demand streams. I initially assumed that I'd connect to http://<server name>:<port number>/music/track1.pls from my browser to stream a file held physically at c:\music\track1.mp3 but the URL ALWAYS refers to the content folder as 'content'. For my track1 the browser URL is therefore still http://<server name>:<port number>/content/track1.pls.

If you have sub-folders within your content folder then these are referred to as sub-folders in the URL. So a track held physically in c:\music\band3\album7\track2.mp3 would be listened to via the URL http://<server name>:<port number>/content/band3/album7/track2.pls (again note the reference to 'content' not 'music' and of course the URL ends in .pls).

I had guessed that shoutcast would dynamically produced playlists (.pls) for all tracks in the content folder whereas it only appears to produce them one track at a time when they are demanded. However I've posted a separate query about on-demand streaming of multi-track playlists elsewhere in this forum.

Kevin Lucas