Icecast Streaming Media Server

[jaddle]

I have a system that streams low-bandwidth streams - 32kbit, generally. I often switch bitrates in one stream though - one track might be 64 or even 128 kbit, and then it drops back down to 32kbit afterwards.

This generally works just fine, and all the audio works. However, the latency changes dramatically depending on the bitrate. If I tune in during a 128kb stretch, it's usually about 5 seconds or less, but if I tune in when it's 32, it can be over 20 seconds! I've been testing using mplayer -nocache, so I'm fairly certain that everything I'm seeing is coming from icecast's end. I should mention that I already have burst-on-connect turned off.

I gather icecast has some sort of buffer that works with a fixed amount of data, rather than a duration of audio. Is there any chance of adjusting something to keep the latency lower? Or at least to keep it stable? If there's no other solution, I guess I'll just have to encode everything so that it maintains a constant bit rate, but I'd really rather not!

If there's anything else that can adjust latency in any way, I'd be really interested in hearing it. Thanks!

[karlH]

burst-size is the setting within icecast and it is fixed by the xml however you can change it with a reload of the xml (HUP signal). It has not been a requested feature to allow dynamic changes to burst size as changes to bitrate tend to mess up many players although mplayer and the OS drivers are probably ok for that.

karl.