shoutcast protocol description?

kbi · 10th January 2001, 06:42

Hi guys!

I can't find anywhere shoutcast rfc, which is , as many
people i hope know, description on how shoutcast transmitts
the sound, what is its format, what should client send to
server to receive data and so on. i tried altavista,yahoo,
google, and even polish searchers (i'm from poland

) ...
but nothing. can please somebody help me ?

engineering · 10th January 2001, 10:56

I have a draught 'Reverse Engineered' explanation of the protocol, it was worked out by sniffing packets at the client, and server.

I will not post it, until you tell me what you propose to do with this information. If it is acceptable I may, providing nobody objects.

Regards,

Rash.

P.S - I am only cautious as I, like many others would not like this information to be abused.

kbi · 10th January 2001, 12:22

I'd like to use the whole protocol to write a player like
winamp, but dedicated one .. you know, something like
radio player . it would be cool.

engineering · 10th January 2001, 12:31

On the way to your inbox!

jonclegg · 12th January 2001, 21:16

Quote:

Originally posted by engineering
I have a draught 'Reverse Engineered' explanation of the protocol, it was worked out by sniffing packets at the client, and server.

I will not post it, until you tell me what you propose to do with this information. If it is acceptable I may, providing nobody objects.

Regards,

Rash.

P.S - I am only cautious as I, like many others would not like this information to be abused.

damm i can't belive someone would just tell you, as if it's a secret. blaa!

my best advice is to look a dump of whats going on, get a sniffer. it's REALLY obvious, the only thing that isn't is the meta-data (title streaming), thats a little weird. also check out the source for some programs that know how to read it. freeamp, xmms come to mind. icecast/shout had a program called listen that did that, and my own self plug, streamripper (*link removed) also does this.

anyway, here's the skinny.

it's HTTP.

1: connect to the stream you want
2: send GET /path, usully it's just GET /
3: you'll get back a HTTP header with a bunch of "ICY" tags, these are completly self descriptive, such as "icy-name: Monkey Radio", and "icy-bitrate: 128". this is followed by 2 CRLF's, then it's strait MP3. feed it into your decoder and blast out the PCM data to your speakers and your good to go.

the meta data is set as "icy-metaint: 8192", 8192 would be the "interval" between meta data, or title info, look at a dump of whats going on and you'll see, also an early version of streamripper (like 6.5) has a pretty clean decoding of it, (it's only about 600 lines of code). you might want to check that out.

-Jon

engineering · 17th January 2001, 11:47

ok ok ok

I don't know much about proggy stuff, but some people are abusing this information to..., you know who you are!

I have found out that what I have is on the net anyway....

http://www.rfnj.org/techdocs/icy_proto.shtml

There!

http://transmission.mistral.co.uk:8000/listen.pls

jonclegg · 17th January 2001, 14:22

Quote:

Originally posted by engineering
ok ok ok

I don't know much about proggy stuff, but some people are abusing this information to..., you know who you are!

I have found out that what I have is on the net anyway....

http://www.rfnj.org/techdocs/icy_proto.shtml

There!

http://transmission.mistral.co.uk:8000/listen.pls

First, that link discusses the source to server protocol, maybe thats what he wanted, but it's not usefull for making an mp3 player, it's usefull for making a shoutcast server dsp.

secoundly, if people can find holes in this protocol GOOD! It means that the nullsoft guys need to make it secure! Keeping something secrect is no way to make it safe, you have to design it safe from the start. As far as i know Gnutella's been explioted, yp.shoutcast.com has been explioted, and from reading that spec on the DSP->SC_SERVER it looks like that can be explioted too. The Nullsoft crew have a tendany to make VERY simple designs (which i REALLY like), but are open to slew security attacks

-Jon

engineering · 24th March 2001, 11:17

I suppose so....

Heh, .yp is being spammed again now!

theinsanecoder · 4th January 2005, 18:04

I'd like to try my own hand at making my own standalone Shoutcast software that will look like a mixer and you can say which tracks to stream, which other to hear on your speakers at the same time etc...

I'm pretty sure this will be a mighty hard task but i wanna try my hand at it anyway.

Thanx in advance

theinsanecoder

Jay · 4th January 2005, 18:17

pretty lengthy discussion of the protocol can be found at http://forums.radiotoolbox.com/viewtopic.php?t=74

theinsanecoder · 4th January 2005, 18:36

In fact i wonder if anyone would be interrested in creating a standalone tool. Like some kind of cooperative work we could put on sourceforge.

What i'm aiming at is a tool that allows you to mix tracks easily when streaming on a radio. (For smooth transitions)

Independant channels to:
- set volume level
- add effects maybe?
- Select the source of the track sound (Any sound card input, another stream, a MP3 or any other music file)
- select tracks to send to shoutcast
- select info to send when upadting track names and server info
- allow you to preview songs that you are going to play only in your speakers by muting other tracks and only sending info to shoucast

Also a powerfull library management and search tool to match genres of music and more.

If you are interested in such a project just add me to your MSN messenger (theinsanecoder at hotmail dot com) and we'll see that we can do from there.

10th January 2001, 10:56	#2
engineering Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 145	Protocol I have a draught 'Reverse Engineered' explanation of the protocol, it was worked out by sniffing packets at the client, and server. I will not post it, until you tell me what you propose to do with this information. If it is acceptable I may, providing nobody objects. Regards, Rash. P.S - I am only cautious as I, like many others would not like this information to be abused.

4th January 2005, 18:04	#9
theinsanecoder Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3	I'd like to have to RFC too I'd like to try my own hand at making my own standalone Shoutcast software that will look like a mixer and you can say which tracks to stream, which other to hear on your speakers at the same time etc... I'm pretty sure this will be a mighty hard task but i wanna try my hand at it anyway. Thanx in advance theinsanecoder

4th January 2005, 18:17	#10
Jay Moderator Alumni Join Date: May 2000 Location: Next Door Posts: 8,888	pretty lengthy discussion of the protocol can be found at http://forums.radiotoolbox.com/viewtopic.php?t=74 -Jay \| Radio Toolbox.com

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10th January 2001, 06:42	#1
kbi Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Poland Posts: 81	Hi guys! I can't find anywhere shoutcast rfc, which is , as many people i hope know, description on how shoutcast transmitts the sound, what is its format, what should client send to server to receive data and so on. i tried altavista,yahoo, google, and even polish searchers (i'm from poland ) ... but nothing. can please somebody help me ?

10th January 2001, 12:22	#3
kbi Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Poland Posts: 81	I'd like to use the whole protocol to write a player like winamp, but dedicated one .. you know, something like radio player . it would be cool.

10th January 2001, 12:31	#4
engineering Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 145	On the way to your inbox!

17th January 2001, 11:47	#6
engineering Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 145	ok ok ok I don't know much about proggy stuff, but some people are abusing this information to..., you know who you are! I have found out that what I have is on the net anyway.... http://www.rfnj.org/techdocs/icy_proto.shtml There! http://transmission.mistral.co.uk:8000/listen.pls

24th March 2001, 11:17	#8
engineering Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 145	I suppose so.... Heh, .yp is being spammed again now!

4th January 2005, 18:36	#11
theinsanecoder Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3	In fact i wonder if anyone would be interrested in creating a standalone tool. Like some kind of cooperative work we could put on sourceforge. What i'm aiming at is a tool that allows you to mix tracks easily when streaming on a radio. (For smooth transitions) Independant channels to: - set volume level - add effects maybe? - Select the source of the track sound (Any sound card input, another stream, a MP3 or any other music file) - select tracks to send to shoutcast - select info to send when upadting track names and server info - allow you to preview songs that you are going to play only in your speakers by muting other tracks and only sending info to shoucast Also a powerfull library management and search tool to match genres of music and more. If you are interested in such a project just add me to your MSN messenger (theinsanecoder at hotmail dot com) and we'll see that we can do from there.