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Simplest Ogg Streaming Clients for non-Unix Users?
Dr. Smeegee asks: "I recently set up an .ogg stream for beta testing, on a website chronicling my hometown's music scene in the 80's. I stream nothing but independent bands from the Evansville area. I chose IceCast using Ogg Vorbis for obvious reasons. The only problem is, I've been using ogg123 on BSD for so long, I didn't realize that streaming Ogg support is sketchy at best on the Windows and Mac platforms. Can anyone suggest good players? Or am I going to have to downgrade my sound and stream in .mp3?"
"I have provided my potential users links to these applications that claim to play .ogg streams:
Zinf
VLC for Windows
OggDS plugin for Windows Media Player
Winamp 2.81
Whamb
MacAmp Lite, and the
Quicktime Plug-In
However, am still getting complaints of flaky behaviour not linked to the stream itself. One Mac OS X user in particular, using MacAmp, could play the stream, but the system kept a download dialog up the whole time! Most, however, complain that the applications flat won't play streams."
Zinf
VLC for Windows
OggDS plugin for Windows Media Player
Winamp 2.81
Whamb
MacAmp Lite, and the
Quicktime Plug-In
However, am still getting complaints of flaky behaviour not linked to the stream itself. One Mac OS X user in particular, using MacAmp, could play the stream, but the system kept a download dialog up the whole time! Most, however, complain that the applications flat won't play streams."
Winamp 5.05 plays ogg streams just fine..
My email addy? should be easy enough.
I use WinAmp 2.81 to play OGG streams.
The important thing with this one is to ensure you get the full version, not the lite one. The lite one doesn't have the necessary features.
Try JOrbis, the pure java Ogg Vorbis decoder as an applet.
If you MUST be different, try AAC, its lossless unlike ogg and gives better than cd quality by eliminating jitter.
Not only that, my good man! It is well known that AAC decodes to pointier ones and rounder zeros than OGG, for a richer, smoother and creamier digital playback experience. True audiophiles use nothing less.
http://foobar2000.org
Simple. Works.
The author is the original author of the Winamp Vorbis support...
Why not ask both the people who listen to your stream what format they'd like the music in?
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I support spreading santorum
Any /. reader could figure out how to get their computer to play any streaming format ever made, but that doesn't do anything for folks not as "enlightened" / "have more of a life" than us. While OGG is certainly a very nice format, if the basic premise of the streaming is to provide a service of interest to mainly non-technical folks -- like those *primarily* into 80's music -- then you might have to consider the possibility of not using the *coolest* format and opt instead for the most *available* format.