sTreaming 31
Using a PC Player to Listen
We will use the Windows Media Player 11 for our first test with the Steamcast server configured as above. Open the player, right click, go to the File menu and select Open URL.... This window will appear:
Enter the IP and port, then the stream name. Because the player is running on the same machine as the server in this case, ‘localhost’ is entered as the IP number. Were you to be listening on a another machine, you would enter the server’s IP number, like this: http://198.168.1.107:9800/stream1.mp3. The stream name is the one that was configured in the steamcast.conf file. Click OK .
After some buffering time, you should have audio. Note that the player is showing ‘Radio’ as the stream name, as we expected it would. This is the Livewire text name being promulgated through the iPort to the server, and then on to the player.
Normally, a user would not have to enter the URL. Rather, this would be a link embedded in a web page.
We have tested MP3 streams with the WM player, Winamp, VLC player, Foobar, and iTunes. AAC streams will work on the players that support AAC decoding, which are all of the above except WM player.
(We’ve noticed that Winamp seems to have a bug playing ‘localhost’ URLs, but it works fine on a remote machine.)
Hardware Players
You can also play the streams on a variety of hardware devices. We’ve tested with the Log- itech ‘Slimplayer’ and a few others. The device needs to support the codec you have chosen. MP3 has universal support, with AAC decoding being available on only a subset of devices.
Most hardware players are unable to open URLs directly. They need an intermediate server that drives the program listing on the device and translates the audio stream format, if necessary. The Logitech needs ‘Slimserver’ and many others need a server that conforms to the UPnP standard. This software could run on the same machine as the streaming server.