Icecast Streaming Media Server

[Anonymous]

Hi.

I'm migrating my current server to new hardware and have decided to switch from running FreeBSD on the bare metal, to a Linux base with VMware server, and multiple FreeBSD systems within. For most services this pose no problem, since timing isn't required to be 100% correct. Services just aim to work as fast as they can, and that's a good thing.

The virtual machine timing issues are small, but a slight clock drift in the virtual machines is unavoidable, to the best of my knowledge. VMware tries to compensate for lost time by running the VM faster, but this does not always work, and can not be relied upon.

Thus, my only real issue is currently with the ices client. I've tried to match the virtual speed as close to reality as possible, but just a fraction of a percent makes the listener client either start stutter-buffering when the initial burst of data runs out, or it gets overwhelmed by too much data. Winamp shuts down the stream if this happens, and moves on to the next in your playlist.

I want to avoid running the ices0 client on my host system if at all possible. So I was thinking, maybe there is some way to synch ices, or some other client, with an external source. To somehow regulate the rate at which data is being sent, and not rely on "internal" time only.

So say you have a very small application running on the host, or some way to interface with VMware through VMware tools. You might then be able to determine how much time has actually passed, a few times per second. Not too much.

Would there be much work involved in making an addition such as this? Is it perhaps possible, even, to have this kind of functionality built into your own module? I have not yet explored the module capabilities myself.


/Zxinn