Serving Streaming Audio With Open Source? 10
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?"
I think I read somewhere... (Score:1)
Have you tried emailing Real Networks?
David.
who uses Real*Audio* any more? (Score:5)
There is no reason to use proprietary software to send out an audio-only stream. Icecast [icecast.org] 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".)
This aughtta be an FAQ (Score:2)
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.
Re:who uses Real*Audio* any more? (Score:1)
I believe you're still obligated to serving quicktime media, but at least you can serve from FreeBSD, Solaris, linux, and NT. (Uh, no mention of OS9 or OSX). It's Apple's APSL license, fwiw.
I've been using an earlier version for a while as a technology verification on NT. (Non-windows portion is behind schedule). I can confirm it streams.
Re:who uses Real*Audio* any more? (Score:1)
What can you do with FFMpeg ?
Re:This aughtta be an FAQ (Score:1)
And if you're on a multicast network... (Score:1)
ps. Why don't all /. articles go on the front page? Most readers probably don't even know that non-front-page articles (like this one) even exist.
Re:This aughtta be an FAQ (Score:2)
u.
QuickTime (Darwin Streaming Server) IS open source (Score:2)
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.
Quictkime streaming server management (Score:1)