macromedia flash/shoutcast

[Nebulus]

For a flash app that can play streams, check out
http://www.nebulus.org/nebuplayer/new
The interface you see there is VERY basic and for testing only, but it's skinnable and has a simple API. Of course, you'd need a flash development app like Flash MX, and at the very least, Swish to build a front end for it.

Since soutcast uses IP addresses for the address, you might still put the crossdomain.xml on the site with *.latinspot.com in the file. That should work.

[gfx_sikander]

hey tried the above code by putting this code in flash movie

onClipEvent (load) {mysound=new Sound(this);mysound.loadSound("http://172.16.20.7:8000/",true);
}

my shoutcast server is on lan and i want the flash file to play it on other computer 's on lan be it a standalone application.
but it doesnt works for me...

[Nebulus]

If it'll be a standalone app, I can't see it as not working, but streams can be picky in Flash - even the standalone apps. I'll mess with it and see it I can get it going.

One thing to check is that the stream is there. I pasted that URL into WinAmp and it timed out. I'd try with an MP3 first, then turn on the shoutcast server (sorry, no idea what I'm doing at this point) and then add the IP of the stream into the flash app.

Hope that helps!

By the way, when you want to make a nice standalone, get a hold of me. I've got Flash Studio Pro, and it makes some awesome desktop apps from Flash (www.multidmedia.com)

[gfx_sikander]

Thx nebulus,
but i doubt u can listen to my server as i am behind a firewall, so not able to broadcast on the internet. People on my lan can access the streams. If u want to try playing the stream u put some url looking at any internet radio station from winamp media library.

And for flash apps i'll definitely look at u but first get this running....

[Nebulus]

I think you're right. I tried loading several streams and nothing will play. I did try the getBytesLoaded function to see if anything was loading, and each and every stream stops at 157 bytes.

What this means is that either Flash has changed in the way it loads sound, or the shoutcast format has changed?

Interestingly enough, Flash used to be able to load ShoutCast streams, so I'm wondering what ShoutCast has done to kill the ability to stream in anything except WinAmp - it would be in their best interest

[Nebulus]

Ok, this is very strange. I get very mixed results from a random sampling of streams. On some I can play it, others I can't.

[Vchat20]

i dont know, but last time i played around with this, flash had a limitation where it couldnt load any external resources (ie. shoutcast) from servers other than its own.

this was only with players embedded on a website mind you. in the standalone player it works fine.

[evilmango]

I've got streaming working successfully to flash from icecast, however I've found a problem - if i leave the stream running for a long time, flash uses more and more memory until it crashes the browser. Is there a solution to this problem?

[Nebulus]

I think that's a bug in the Flash player, so there isnt' a fix until they update the player.

[gfx_sikander]

Originally posted by Vchat20
i dont know, but last time i played around with this, flash had a limitation where it couldnt load any external resources (ie. shoutcast) from servers other than its own.

this was only with players embedded on a website mind you. in the standalone player it works fine.

i tried it in a standalone applicattion..but it did'nt worked.
can u send me any example code which does this in standalone
app.? it will be a great help to me.

[Vchat20]

any smple flash mp3 layer should be able to handle this in standalone form.just need to do http://yourip:yourport is all.

[Nebulus]

Typically yes, a standalone projector will be able to handle the streams. What I've found out of a pretty big sampling of shoutcast streams though is that they're coming in a little strange, so Flash can't play them.

If I use the flash method:

my_sound.loadSound("yourIP",true) that'll try and load the stream. In the next frame, I can have a watcher that'll report the data being loaded. For Shoutcast streams, the result of getBytesTotal() should be -1. I've been seeing anything but that. In ever case where it does return -1, I get audio playback.

So you're a little hit and miss with it.

NOTE: standalone projectors can play the audio, but most of the executables you get with SWF-2-EXE programs, SWF Studio, Jugglor, FSP won't play audio with streams.

[Heva]

Hi, anyone see what´s worng in this code?
I try to make send SHOUTcast in som flashmove/paler!
The code is taken from:
http://forums.winamp.com/attachment....postid=1018692
I culdn´t understand wat i must change!
thanx 4 help!

[Nebulus]

Here you go - this should fix it completely. Very nice code this guy has!
http://www.pixelplay.org/jeff/test3/

[X-Net Chew]

Nebulus, I'm a php / mysql coder by nature, not a flash programmer I tried reading over the code provided, however I'm lost as to what exactly I need to do.

Any chance you could guide me in the ways of the flash, just so I can get even a basic player working... then I can have someone skin it?

I need the flash based player to start when the page is loaded, and i need it to stream http://69.93.195.82:8000 along with preferably displaying the steram title, as well as the song name.

How exactly would I go about acomplishing something of this magnitude?

Thanks in advance,
Chew

[Nebulus]

Well, I haven't actually implemented that particular chunk of code, but I plan to in the very near future - tt'll be a nice addition to my current code for my player.

Right now, I'm finishing the playlist retrieval code (for access/sql server) and the voting scripts. I'll get back on the player asap.

[X-Net Chew]

Wait you're working on a sql backend for voting / song requests? Do you have any plans on making that bit of code open source? I'm currently running sc_trans with it on random, are you talking about feeding a transcoder with a playlist and using the flash player to stream it?

Chew

[Heva]

I tryed to fixed the code from:
http://www.pixelplay.org/jeff/test3/
in Flash but i culden´t make it in god way
some one how have the code in FLA file? plzzzz
send it to me at:
heva_b@yahoo.com

Thanxxxxx

[Nebulus]

X-Net,
Here's the concept fo the player I'm working on (about 80% done btw):

The player can load and play back these formats:
1) mp3s or other audio converted to SWF (Swift-MP3 SwiftPeg, etc with spectrum bars, etc)

2) mp3s (no visualization - flash doesn't get spectrum values)

3) mp3s streamed to SWF in realtime (OLD Swift-MP3 component, or the one we're working on now)

4) shoutcast/Live365 streams

For formats 1-3, the playlist is loaded as an XML file from any source - static or dynamically generated from a DB with a server side script.

the xml file would contain a fair amount of data - album image link, buy link, vote link, etc. the playe rskin can display as much or as little of the data as the designer wants to. The voting pages would be externally launched, html based windows that would use IP filtering and cookies to track the votes.

For the shoutcast format, it would pull in and parse the pls file with xml.load (it does work!) and then use the code from that link I posted. Now since it's pulling in a pls file, you wouldn't have any voting links - so you'd be kinda screwed there.

So far, I've got the DB designed, the voting scripts almost done, and the player engine complete. I'm revamping the player code to use _global functions and variables for easier implementation in other flash movies.

We're also working on an app that'll convert about 10 different audio formats to SWF and allow tag edit, and spectrum/wave form values. Once everything's converted, it'll generate the xml playlist and allow you to FTP all the converted files with a player skin of choice to your site.

This is a fairly large project, so it won't be open source.

[X-Net Chew]

I wonder if you might be interested in doing a small amount of contract work for me. I've currently got a need for a playlist injector that takes a mysql database, allows users to vote on upcoming songs, allow station admins to schedule station identifiers every X songs, request songs they would like to hear, as well as when no songs are currently requested, that it pulls a random song from the database, during which time it will track that song by artist making sure the artist is not played again for another Y songs.

This project needs to utilize sc_trans, and needs to be completed in php/mysql However file manipulation is not my strong point, and was wondering if you had any insight as to someone who would like to take this on.

It seems like you might already have the mysql backend for it, but as I have not seen your code, I wouldn't know that.

Chew

[Nebulus]

Hey, get a hold of me: pafriedl(at)nebulus.org. I'm dangerous with php, surgical with ASP

The php DB shouldn't be a problem at all. One thing I forgot to mention was that part of the XML playlist is a flag "isAdvertisement". That flag when true locks the player controls so that you only have stop, play, and pause. Evil, yes, but it makes sure that the advertiser gets the air time they paid for.

The rest of the playlist generation would be all server side to manage when/what songs get put in the list. You could have the most voted songs added, and probably throw in some frequency modifiers for when to add a lower rated song, ad, etc.

[Lazmo]

Hello heh... sounds nice stream on website
heh well i tried the flash code... and only problem iw seen so far is this error i get http://proxy.php << cannot open or something in output window of Flash :/

[Nebulus]

I believe that the proxy.php is a script that can open a connection to the shoutcast stream and forward it on to the Flash app.

The reason for that is that Flash apps can't pull data from other domains unless the domain hosting the data has the domain of the flash app in it's crossdomain.xml

To get around that, the flash app calls the proxy.php, the proxy.php pulls the streams, and then feeds them to the flash app. To the flash app, it looks like the data is coming straight off it's own domain.

[Lazmo]

Nice going.. accept still i dont got this thing working
help would be appreciated! i use msn if someone would like to help me in MSN that would be great! my msn laz404@hotmail.com thx in advance!

[Nebulus]

Hey X-Net Chew,H
Sorry, I mixed up my email address in case you were trying to get a hold of me: pfriedl(at)nebulus.org

Sorry about that.

As to supporting that code - I didn't write it, so I don't support it. They do have a forum for the code though. I'm working on implementing it myself into my application, so I'll post any results

[Lazmo]

well ur player works beatufyll! are you gonna release it ? or something ? :/

[Nebulus]

Yes, I'll be releasing pretty soon. The engine code is done, and I'll need to create some skins for it. Other than that...

[Lazmo]

ah great! thank you! im waiting ^^

[Yard]

Hey Nebulus, did you find something for add those code for playing shoucast stream with flash?

[Nebulus]

I did some digging, and hwile you can stream shoutcast, it takes some intermediate php code - which I'm having a hell of a time getting hold of. I'll post any updates

[Heva]

Hi Nebulus
can u send it to me too
heva_b@yahoo.com
thanx

[Yard]

Hi same here if you can send code at yard@fraxion.com that will be nice too

[Lazmo]

Any progress? thx...

[Nebulus]

Nope, not much progress. I'm working on a few projects, so the streamer has to be on the back burner for just a bit...

[Fiasco]

I'm also dying for this one...

E-mail me any info to admin@gcfiasco.com

[Yard]

still no progress? I think you have many people come here every day for check if any progress

[Nebulus]

Sorry - lots of projects are keeping me pretty busy... will post when I get some extra time

[Fiasco]

Please do...we all NEED this

[Nebulus]

If it helps, I'm working on both IE an toolbar and explorer bar (both vertical and horizontal) that'll have embeded flash. How about a streaming IE toolbar?

[Fiasco]

Originally posted by Nebulus
If it helps, I'm working on both IE an toolbar and explorer bar (both vertical and horizontal) that'll have embeded flash. How about a streaming IE toolbar?

That will be nice to give to radio station listeners, however what I am really seeking is something to embed into a web page.