Icecast Streaming Media Server

Anonymous · Guest

A few months ago we switched our stream from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis. A lot of listeners claim that they cannot listen to the stream any more. Should there be a reason why Ogg Vorbis cannot be streamed when MP3 works even though the right player is being used?

A listener claims that he can listen to this Ogg V. stream: http://media.hiof.no/streams/m3u/nrk-p1-172.ogg.m3u

but not our stream:
http://kara.fast-serv.com:7000/MetalExpressRadio.ogg.m3u

Do any of you see any difference? Help is highly appreciated!

Thanx,
Stig

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

The link seems to work ok here. Nothing seems wrong at the time I checked. Can you tell us the players having trouble, what is the nature of the problem they are having?, does it play and then stall later or not connect or keeps prebuffering?

karl

Guest · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:35 pm Post subject:

Thanx for the prompt reply Karl!

The problem is that the stream just won't connect. It is weird that there is a difference between the two streams. I have had him tried both with the latest Winamp and Foobar2000 by "adding location/url"

I know several listeners having the same problem at work after we switched. It seems like most other streams work well for them though..

Strange, isn't it?

Stig

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

If a player has trouble with establishing a connection then I guess their browser is unable to access the /status.xsl page as well correct ? If so you'll have to check the network settings, firewall/NAT, bind address if set etc

karl.

Guest · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject:

I'll check regarding the status page. Good tip!

I think a lot of the guys are listening from work and that they cannot do anything with firewall they're behind. Still they can listen to other streams! Before we shut down the MP3 stream a lot of people couldn't listen to Ogg Vorbis only the MP3. Haven't any of you ever experienced any differences like this between MP3/Ogg Vorbis streams?

Stig

karlH · Code Warrior Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 5476 Location: UK

Generally, if an mp3 stream can get to the listener then an ogg stream can as well, there may be a possible block if a content-checking proxy is in-between but you don't really want proxies involved with streaming.

Anonymous · Guest

Some people that cannot tune in to our stream can listen to this:
http://www.krcl.org/ogghigh.pls

Our address is: http://kara.fast-serv.com:7000/MetalExpressRadio.ogg.m3u

Why does one address end with .pls and the other .m3u? What is the difference?

Stig

MikeS · Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 1:37 pm Post subject:

The obvious differences between these two are:
1) the m3u/pls difference
2) the port

"pls" is a different playlist format. Icecast automatically generates m3u files, but not pls files - but you can manually write a pls file (it's simple, just use that one as a sample if you want), and icecast will happily serve it. However, I doubt this is the cause of your users' problems.

The port is also different - you're running on port 7000, the other stream is on the default port (80). Some stupidly configured firewalls won't allow http through on non-default ports, it's possible you're running into this issue. If you don't have anything running on port 80 already, you could tell icecast to listen (either exclusively, or just as a second port) on port 80, and see if that helps the people that are having problems.