END-user listening to stream Questions.

[RadioCzech]

Howdy,

I have successfully setup the latest shoutcast with sc_trans(/w mp3 encoding license) on Linux centOS and now I'm successfully streaming via playlist on server or via Winamp from my local PC.

Question1:
As END-user - the way I can connect to the stream is http//<IP>:8000/liste.pls?sid=1 . I'm guessing that this is the only way and per my tests the PLS format is recognized with most browsers?

Question2:
What are you guys doing out there on your websites to allow for best user experience? Do your users have to 'CLICK' on the .pls link in order to play your station? Is there some type of 'auto' play that can also be programmed directly INTO the www site?

Question3:
Now that I have streaming from playlist - I need a way to 'update' the playlist in random times with some type of 5min news broadcast or advertisement. I was going to simply record mp3 and position it within the playlist - but by doing this, I believe I will have to 'restart' and start with song#1 again? Is there better way.

Question4: what is the best way to interject yourself into the stream , pause playlist and start broadcasting live at any given moment all while resuming regular broadcast/playlist after?

Thank you for your feedback.

This has been fun thus far.
-J

[jaromanda]

Question4: what is the best way to interject yourself into the stream , pause playlist and start broadcasting live at any given moment all while resuming regular broadcast/playlist after?

sc_trans v2 will do that ... look at DJport

oh ... wait ... you're using DJ port already ... nevermind

[RadioCzech]

Checking out DJport inside sc_trans V2: for Q4 - thank you! Hmm, I'm hoping that I will not find a nice front-end GUI tomorrow for all of this...

[neoncoyote]

Question 1: I have no idea what you're getting at, but if you were to launch the pls file by itself, then it wouldn't stream. If you want to use an embedded player, then do it as such:

<Embed type="application/x-mplayer2"
pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/"
src="http://www.blahblah.co.yo.mama:[port]/[whatever you designated this stream to be]"
Name=MediaPlayer
AutoStart=1
Volume=75
Width=[enter value]
Height=[enter value]
ShowControls=1
</embed>

Oh, wait... that answers question 2 as well. lol

Question 3: You can read up on the calendar.xml to see if you can interrupt the broadcast with adverts as you please. I suggest compiling all of the music you want to do for that day into one file and play it back as such. Otherwise, list each song individually in the playlist.lst in sequential order with the advert stuck in there every few songs or whatever.

[RadioCzech]

Hi,
First - thank you for your reply.

For #1 - I'm basically trying to figure out what the best way is for user to 'click' on something on my WWW and allow the user to start listening to the radio from his PC using his/her installed listening applications. Right now in order for me to listen to the stream I'm broadcasting, I point my URL: http://blahblah.com:8000/listen.pls?sid=1. Then it asks me to pick an application to open it with. Then I open it up with RealPlayer or Winamp - and it plays.

What my hope for the above was: have it 'automatically' open up the app and start playing for the end-user. I would like to eliminate the manual process of picking applications. If at all possible - one click for any end-user ONLY.

The above code makes sense - do you think I will have to basically display 2 or more ICONs on the website: ex: winamp/RealPlayer/iTunes ? Allow the user to pick ?

[jaromanda]

What my hope for the above was: have it 'automatically' open up the app and start playing for the end-user. I would like to eliminate the manual process of picking applications. If at all possible - one click for any end-user ONLY.

That's up to the end user to configure ... when I click on a listen.pls link, it asks if I want to open it with winamp, I confirm ... I COULD make it automatically open with winamp, but I choose not to

you can not take that choice away