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Serving Streaming Audio With Open Source?

Posted by Cliff on from the i-want-my-MP3-streams dept.

z7209 asks: "I'm reading this article on Salon about audio streaming (MS v RealNetworks!), and happened to be asked last week to advise my company to make a recommendation for Webcasting and audio streaming server software. I dutifully researched MS, RealNetworks, QuickTime and other even more propietary software. None of these are great for one reason or another. But it now occurs to me that I don't even know how to implement the above on my favorite OS (nope, not Linux) FreeBSD. Where is OSS streaming server software? Is Icecast.org the answer? Shouldn't we focus on providing an alternative to these ugly propietary systems, esp. for such an important purpose?"

4 of 10 comments (clear)

  1. who uses Real*Audio* any more? by Jamie+Zawinski · · Score: 5


    There is no reason to use proprietary software to send out an audio-only stream. Icecast is all you need.

    Video is a different matter: for Video, you get to choose between: RealVideo (cross-platform, but very, very expensive); Microsoft (Windows-only, but "free"); and QuickTime (Windows and Mac only, but "free".)

  2. This aughtta be an FAQ by acroyear · · Score: 2
    I asked this question earlier (I had at least discovered Icecast + xmms). See this discussion...

    Basically, for a streaming radio station, you want icecast, and either set up playlists directly or use xmms + liveice. That discussion covers stream on demand, like my.mp3.com does.

    --
    "But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
    -- Joe
    1. Re:This aughtta be an FAQ by ndfa · · Score: 2

      yeah.... seems to be missing... just when i had something to maybe replace shout! BUT IceCast rocks, a very stable mp3 streamer!
      u.

      --
      Non-Deterministic Finite Automata
  3. QuickTime (Darwin Streaming Server) IS open source by stevek · · Score: 2

    The darwin streaming server is a free, open source, standards compliant RTP/RTSP server. You can use it with the QuickTime players (free as in beer, but not as in speech), or any other RTP/RTSP clients. The pieces necessary to make free RTP and RTSP clients are all there, we just need to put them together to make a useful free player.

    The pieces would be a usable RTP stack (see vic/vat, rat, or other h.323 programs), which include useful codecs, and then some RTSP and GUI glue to put them together.

    Put something like that together, use it with the Darwin Streaming Server, and you end up with a first-class streaming media solution which is free (as in speech and beer) from end-to-end.

    It's also possible to put together a player with the JMF classes in Java. Then, it becomes accessable to any java-enabled browser, with no plugins or software downloads.

    The highest quality codecs are still a difficult issue, but usable unencumbered codecs are out there, and if the community puts this kind of infrastructure together, the codecs will come (either from, eg. the Ogg Vorbis group, or even commercial entities wanting to get their technology into this). I wouldn't be surprised if IBM had something like this up their sleeve they might be willing to donate to such a cause.