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STL IP Encoding

C

ChiefEngineer

Leaving products aside, (however I note use of WMA encoding (and Ogg encoding) on 2 separate computers with dedicated cable modem feeds (and barix decoding), what is the most reliable encoding/decoding format for IP use?

I have read the barix discussions but I note that there haven't been a lot of discussions on the subject of service over a wide area.

I have a broadband cable service provider (Comcast this week).

I have a computer with Ogg Vorbis, another with WMA. Feeding an FM and an AM with a backup STL feed. The FM is over 150 miles away.

The WMA feed seems more reliable and the barix decodes this well. Have been using this for 3 years. (128k)

The Ogg Vorbis feed locks up from time to time. However, when working the 128k feed of mp3 sounds better than the WMA feed. Have had this 6 months. This is the highest rate I can encode and it will drop bit rate if traffic requires then ramp back up.

I also have an instreamer I haven't hooked up.

I want to provide a feed to shoutatme which the instreamer supports. I can then deliver multiple feeds to other stations and direct listeners. Private and Public shoutatme.

Looking for reliable FM quality feed while understanding the pitfalls of jumping service providers.

Has anyone else had experience with a wide area feed and what seems to be most reliable along with quality audio?
 
Barix

Some might say I'm biased but I did work WITH Barix products for quite a while before I worked FOR Barix!

The MPEG-2 encoder in the Instreamer works pretty darn well. Try it with a sampling of 24 K and a quality level of 5. I think you'll be impressed!

PS: 128K for an STL is pretty marginal, especially for FM stereo. For AM it's probably okay.
 
Re: Barix

Shout at me? Do you mean Shoutcast? That works with MP3 streams and yes, the Instreamer natively produces Shoutcast and/or Icecast streams (and other types at the same time).

What you do is push your stream to a Shoutcast Server (usually hosted by a data center). They re-distribute the stream for you.

Costs average about .30-1.00 per slot per listener per month, depending upon quality. Usually there's no limit on bandwidth
 
I didn't know the barix units decode Ogg Vorbis, but I have an Exstreamer digital. Does that just do MP3 or will it play other formats? (I know it doesn't do WMA because of the chipset).
 
gunterm said:
I didn't know the barix units decode Ogg Vorbis, but I have an Exstreamer digital. Does that just do MP3 or will it play other formats? (I know it doesn't do WMA because of the chipset).
Click to expand...

They don't decode it now, but might in the future if the interest is there. Right now they decode MP3, non compatible MPEG-2 and WMA.
 
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