Icecast Streaming Media Server

[john91919]

Hi,

Some other media players are working fine so, I know it's something that I'm doing wrong.

Ezstream/icecast2 stream is so slow that the buffering in my software causes the audio and video to stagger a lot. It's strange to me that the icecast2 stream alone without using ezstream is very fast and causes no buffering problem in my software.

Does anyone have any idea why ezstream -> icecast2 would be so much slower than using icecast2 alone? I'm only using a cat <filename> in the ezstream config file.


Thanks

[karlH]

Your question is not clear. Ezstream is a source client, so the feed should be regulated to realtime playback, icecast itself is not a source client so does not regulate playback content. Icecast could do time regulated content for ogg files for instance but not for other types of files so we went for consistency first.

karl.

[john91919]

Okay, I hope this is explained better.

I'm using Ogg.

Icecast2 streams the Ogg file from the directory specified in the config file, when a client connects to the mount point. I have no problem processing the Ogg stream when using icecast2 and a regular Ogg file as the source. So, when I wanted a real-time stream I used ezstream to send icecast2 an Ogg stream and the media player reads the stream using the mount point in the ezstream config file.

Totem media player buffers the real-time stream quickly and plays the video. When I read the real-time Ogg stream it's very slow and causes the a/v playback to stagger a lot. I expected to be able to buffer the stream just as quick as I do when reading a regular Ogg file from icecast2.

The Ogg stream from icecast2 using an Ogg file as the source is not real-time and I read that fine, but when the source is Ezstream I have a problem with the stream being too slow. I know I'm during something wrong because the other media player works fine.

Could it be the way I'm requesting the live stream after I connect to the server? I'm using a http GET request. Is there an http GET request parameter that works with a non real-time stream and causes problems with the a real-time stream?

mplayer seems to have a problem with the real-time stream also.

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks

[karlH]

If you are saying that another media player handles the stream fine then it won't be ezstream. If you can download the content to disk and play that saved file without issue then it won't be the content itself.

Without more specifics it's hard to say. No url to try, no version numbers of icecast/ezstream/libshout, no configuration settings posted.

karl.

[JimJim]

Ezstream uses Shout and delays the stream by calling shout_sync(shout); to assist in syncing the a/v.

If the program uses the icecast2 stream fine and slows down when when using Ezstream/icecast2 , it could be that the handling of the a/v streams in the application is trying to sync the a/v and causing extra delays in addition to what Shout does. If this is the case changing things around in the a/v sync or buffering strategy would find the problem.


Regards,
Jim Smith