I Have a question can anybody tell how in the living hell do set up shoutcast to stream? because i need help i will greatly appreciate it?
Thanks
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mram1500says
How Far Along Are You? Well, first you need to download and install both the ShoutCast PLUGIN and the ShoutCast SERVER.
You can run both on the same PC.
If you are using an outside HOSTING service, you don’t need the ShoutCast SERVER, just the PLUGIN.
If you are using ZARA keep in mind that ZARA versions 1.6 and newer do not support plugins. Some get around this by using two PC’s or a software audio program that lets you route the audio from one app (ZARA) to another (ShoutCast.)
Have you gotten that far?
Carl Blaresays
More Tips Another piece of the puzzle is to use Winamp, unless as MRAM said you are using Zara for your playlist.
The plugin MRAM referred to is a Winamp plugin. That plugin translates the Winamp audio into a stream and allows it to be sent over the Shoutcast server.
There are two versions of the Shoutcast serving software, V1 and V2.
Many of us including me are still running the old version because the new version is harder to setup. For this the Plugin has a checkmark for “Legacy Server” which must be checked.
There are very helpful forums available via the Winamp website which address the Shoutcast questions.
mram1500says
Along Those Lines… I had the Winamp Player before I started using ShoutCast. So, I’m wondering-Do you need WinAmp Player in order for the PLUGIN to work with ZARA? I’ve never tried to install the PLUGIN on a machine that didn’t have WinAmp Player on it.
I’ll have to try that sometime…
Curious Minds Want To Know
RFBsays
Still In It’s Infancy “There are two versions of the Shoutcast serving software, V1 and V2.
Many of us including me are still running the old version because the new version is harder to setup.”
The V2 Shoutcast server system is still in its refinement stages and more or less a beta.
The Shoutcast forum contains plenty of documented cases of on-going issues with the V2.
Also keep in mind that AOL, which owns Shoutcast and Winamp, has pretty much abandoned the Shoutcast side of things and took away many of the coders that were the developers of V1 Shoutcast. The current version V1 (1.92) is several years old but still used by thousands as it is a proven and rock stable streaming system.
RFB
ABMedia1says
i got the plugin i got the plugin
rock95sevensays
Older and mostly better I am able to use the older version of ZaraRadio with the Shoutcast DSP plugin. I am using the original plugin as well. Zararadio is actually built around the same structure as Winamp so yes you can use shoutcast dsp plugin alone with zararadio by bringing it up in the plugin menu.
Edcast works nicely with Zararadio as well.
Edit: no you don’t have to have Winamp installed, Zararadio is basically Winamp in a clever disguise.
ArtisanRadiosays
The old version of Zara The old version of Zara (1.4.4) that supports plug-ins (rather tenuously, I’ve found) does not run on Vista – not sure about Windows 7, but I doubt it. It runs fine on Windows XP and 2000.
I had to upgrade to the last free version of Zara (1.6.2, I believe) to get it to run properly under Vista.
WILCOM LABSsays
Zara on XP All versions of Zara runs flawlessly on XP and XP Pro,several years here. Also good on Win98.
ABMedia1says
im still having trouble im still having trouble though
Carl Blaresays
Port Forwarding Thinking back to my start with Shoutcast streaming I remembered something that kept me from streaming for a month until I figured it out. That is the need for “PORT FORWARDING” from your computer.
The Shoutcast server at your computer communicates to the YP (Yellow Page listings) at shoutcast.com via Port 8000, Then it listens for a return link on Port 8001.
If you have a router or firewall you will find instructions for your particular router for opening the two ports.
mram1500says
Where Do We Begin… OK, you have the PLUGIN. I’ll assume you have a HOSTING service that you will send the stream to. They inturn broadcast it to your listeners.
When you open the PLUGIN, you have to set the IP ADDRESS to the server and a PASSWORD to access it. I’ll assume the HOSTING service is using the ShoutCast SERVER to work with the ShoutCast PLUGIN you have. You’ll also have to tell ShoutCast which encoder setting you are using. You can have up to 5 different settings. These items are set in the OUTPUT tab.
Next, goto the ENCODER tab and setup the encoder paramaters. Here you simply set the sample rate, bit rate and mono or stereo. Also the encoding format, MP3 or ACC. If the program is TALK you can use a lower bit/sample rate, mono stream. I’m using 56kb, 22 kHz stereo.
Next, goto the INPUT tab and if you are using ZARA, set it for SOUNDCARD INPUT. If you use WINAMP, you have to be very careful about about sample/bitrate of the audio files you play. If they don’t match, the stream will sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Back to the OUTPUT tab, there are also settings for YELLOW PAGES. This is where you put in a name for your stream and other items.
If you decide to HOST the stream yourself using the ShoutCast SERVER, you have some setup in the SERVER CONFIG file regarding PORT and PASSWORD settings. And you have to open the PORT number pair in either your PC FIREWALL or if using a router, open the PORT pair there. There are a pair of ports; one for the ShoutCast PLUGIN to talk to the SERVER and one for listeners to access the SERVER.
I’m sure there is something else. It’s been a while since I set mine up. I have two separate PC’s each running ShoutCast streaming and each has two streams running. One steam I host myself, the other is hosted by a free service called Listen2MyRadio. If you’d like to compare them here are the addresses:
My hosted stream link is for WINAMP. The LISTEN TO MY RADIO stream uses an embedded player on their webpage.
RFBsays
Triple Trouble “im still having trouble”
Have you tried the shoutcast forum for advice? There are resident code engineers there that wrote the thing and might result in faster resolutions.
RFB
ABMedia1says
im gonna try im gonna try and do that, plus bob from MRAM AM 1500, and a local techie here in town are helping me with this, so sooner or later we’ll get it eventually.
Carl Blaresays
Shoutcast is Drunk After being stable for many weeks, today around 3 PM CDT Shoutcast began staggering around. It started giving me “naks” and disconnections and attempted reconnections. Since I hadn’t been doing anything by way of changing settings or anything I reason that the problem is at the Shoutcast end. Several times there has been a message saying “Internal Error – Unable to Acquire Data.”
Even though the problem is likely not on my side, I changed plugins, from the Sam Plugin to the Shoutcast V2 plugin with “Legacy” checked for V1, and I changed my port numbers, but the results did not change.
Is anyone else having Shoutcast trouble?
mram1500says
Status Quo Here… All my streams are up and show up on the ShoutCast website when searched.
Carl Blaresays
Things Are Back On Thanks MRAM for your report. My trouble persisted from 3 PM to 6:30 PM CDT, then all at once everything went to normal and I was online with regular “touched” messages coming back.
I noticed in today’s forums at Shoutcast there were a lot of trouble reports and the webmaster was acknowledging them but was afraid the repair wouldn’t come until the middle of the week, but maybe they found something easy to fix.
The number of stations listed on Shoutcast during the trouble was only 624 and the number of listeners was at 5,792.
Now Shoutcast has 47,892 stations and 368,009 listeners. That’s a pretty big clue.
mram1500says
Don’t Touch Me There… Well, I suppose an outage on their end affected only the ShoutCast search engine as the Plugin and Server don’t really care if ShoutCast is “touching” for status checks.
I run a ShoutCast stream at work to our Intranet and it’s behind a great firewall. As such there’s no touching going on there but the stream goes out to the coworkers just fine.
Out of curiosity I have checked the server log file and found that on 10/29/11 from 14:48 to 19:44 local time there was a loss of “touching”. But, there were still ooooodles of listeners so the NAK’s didn’t stop the streaming.
Carl Blaresays
Opinions or Theories Invited I am investigating why my shoutcast stream sometimes disconnects, the source plugin (Winamp) actually shows “Reconnecting” and then it reconnects.
I think some source material is sometimes to blame and at other times I think changes between one source file and another cause a problem.
The stream is running at 24kbps, 22.050kHz, mono.
My personally made soundfiles are always made at 56kbps, 44.1kHz, mono, and the software does a great job of running them in most cases.
One home made file that always has a source disconnect was made with the Audacity Clik Track effect.
Some files from outside sources are in stereo, but my Winamp is set for “Force Mono.”
The most recent “source disconnect” happened during a station break consisting of 5 short audio clips, each one at a different rate.
What is your experience?
mram1500says
ShoutCast “INPUT” Differences I don’t recall an instance where a particular file played caused a disconnect.
Speaking of mixed file sample/bit rates, if in the ShoutCast DSP plugin I select WinAmp for the “INPUT”, the streamed audio playback speed will be wrong depending on the file sample/bit rate. This happens when using the plugin with ZaraRadio. For that reason I always use “soundcard input” for the input source. Then, it doesn’t matter what the file attributes are.
I do see the occasional “NAK” error. I likend that to minor network interruptions.
Wait, there was a problem when playing “The Kevin Smith Show” stream and rebroadcasting it. His show is subject to lots of HACKS whereby someone knocks the show off line. When that happens, it used to stop my ShoutCast stream. Sometimes I’d have to reboot the PC to get things going again. Apparently the HACK’s have been more specific as of late, knocking his stream down while not shutting mine down.
Carl Blaresays
Getting a Glimpse Since first posting my question I’ve been logging and am now convinced that the disconnects, in some cases, may be related to sample rates. In fact, it may be caused by the switching from one sample rate to another that Winamp must adapt to as the playlist moves through a batch of files. My two most recent “naks” happened right at the junction where rates changed during program changes.
9:59 AM Station ID 56kbps 22.05kHz mono
10 AM Free Talk Live 48kbps 32kHz mono – nak Unable to aquire data.
10:05 Reconnected
Carl Blaresays
Bit Rate & Sample Rate Conversion When streaming mp3 audio on the internet, the Winamp Player in conjunction with the Shoutcast DNAS Source Plugin, does an astounding job of converting the bit-rate and sample-rate of each mp3 file to the bit-rate and sample-rate of the streaming encoder. It is surprising how little is written or discussed about this central function of the player/encoder/streamer.
Yesterday I suspected and then became convinced that wild bit-rate/sample-rate differences from one mp3 file to another, rushing through the playlist at real time, can cause disconnections with the Shoutcast YP (Yellow Pages) Directory, which then reconnects itself.
One file that causes the stream to de-rail is the daily Free Talk Live Show, downloaded as 48kbps with sample-rate 32kHz. My stream runs with a sample rate of 22.05kHz, so the conversion from 32kHz would appear to cause a disruption to the flow. When I use Audacity to convert the sample rate to either 22.050kHz or 44.1kHz the disruption is avoided.
It seems to be true that 44.1kHz converts to 1/2, which is 22.050kHz, with enough speed and efficiency to make it through without disconnecting the stream.
Changes in bit-rate-per-second also can disrupt the steady flow, and unusual numbers seem to be the most likely to cause problems, such as 79kbps on Shortwave Report and 90kbps on some other program. I am guessing that exact multiples probably convert more efficiently, such as 48kbps, converting to 24kbps.
All this minute detail increases the file handling workload for the station, but keeps the station streaming smoothly.
How Far Along Are You?
Well, first you need to download and install both the ShoutCast PLUGIN and the ShoutCast SERVER.
You can run both on the same PC.
If you are using an outside HOSTING service, you don’t need the ShoutCast SERVER, just the PLUGIN.
If you are using ZARA keep in mind that ZARA versions 1.6 and newer do not support plugins. Some get around this by using two PC’s or a software audio program that lets you route the audio from one app (ZARA) to another (ShoutCast.)
Have you gotten that far?
More Tips
Another piece of the puzzle is to use Winamp, unless as MRAM said you are using Zara for your playlist.
The plugin MRAM referred to is a Winamp plugin. That plugin translates the Winamp audio into a stream and allows it to be sent over the Shoutcast server.
There are two versions of the Shoutcast serving software, V1 and V2.
Many of us including me are still running the old version because the new version is harder to setup. For this the Plugin has a checkmark for “Legacy Server” which must be checked.
There are very helpful forums available via the Winamp website which address the Shoutcast questions.
Along Those Lines…
I had the Winamp Player before I started using ShoutCast. So, I’m wondering-Do you need WinAmp Player in order for the PLUGIN to work with ZARA? I’ve never tried to install the PLUGIN on a machine that didn’t have WinAmp Player on it.
I’ll have to try that sometime…
Curious Minds Want To Know
Still In It’s Infancy
“There are two versions of the Shoutcast serving software, V1 and V2.
Many of us including me are still running the old version because the new version is harder to setup.”
The V2 Shoutcast server system is still in its refinement stages and more or less a beta.
The Shoutcast forum contains plenty of documented cases of on-going issues with the V2.
Also keep in mind that AOL, which owns Shoutcast and Winamp, has pretty much abandoned the Shoutcast side of things and took away many of the coders that were the developers of V1 Shoutcast. The current version V1 (1.92) is several years old but still used by thousands as it is a proven and rock stable streaming system.
RFB
i got the plugin
i got the plugin
Older and mostly better
I am able to use the older version of ZaraRadio with the Shoutcast DSP plugin. I am using the original plugin as well. Zararadio is actually built around the same structure as Winamp so yes you can use shoutcast dsp plugin alone with zararadio by bringing it up in the plugin menu.
Edcast works nicely with Zararadio as well.
Edit: no you don’t have to have Winamp installed, Zararadio is basically Winamp in a clever disguise.
The old version of Zara
The old version of Zara (1.4.4) that supports plug-ins (rather tenuously, I’ve found) does not run on Vista – not sure about Windows 7, but I doubt it. It runs fine on Windows XP and 2000.
I had to upgrade to the last free version of Zara (1.6.2, I believe) to get it to run properly under Vista.
Zara on XP
All versions of Zara runs flawlessly on XP and XP Pro,several years here. Also good on Win98.
im still having trouble
im still having trouble though
Port Forwarding
Thinking back to my start with Shoutcast streaming I remembered something that kept me from streaming for a month until I figured it out. That is the need for “PORT FORWARDING” from your computer.
The Shoutcast server at your computer communicates to the YP (Yellow Page listings) at shoutcast.com via Port 8000, Then it listens for a return link on Port 8001.
You can learn a lot at this website
http://www.portforward.com
If you have a router or firewall you will find instructions for your particular router for opening the two ports.
Where Do We Begin…
OK, you have the PLUGIN. I’ll assume you have a HOSTING service that you will send the stream to. They inturn broadcast it to your listeners.
When you open the PLUGIN, you have to set the IP ADDRESS to the server and a PASSWORD to access it. I’ll assume the HOSTING service is using the ShoutCast SERVER to work with the ShoutCast PLUGIN you have. You’ll also have to tell ShoutCast which encoder setting you are using. You can have up to 5 different settings. These items are set in the OUTPUT tab.
Next, goto the ENCODER tab and setup the encoder paramaters. Here you simply set the sample rate, bit rate and mono or stereo. Also the encoding format, MP3 or ACC. If the program is TALK you can use a lower bit/sample rate, mono stream. I’m using 56kb, 22 kHz stereo.
Next, goto the INPUT tab and if you are using ZARA, set it for SOUNDCARD INPUT. If you use WINAMP, you have to be very careful about about sample/bitrate of the audio files you play. If they don’t match, the stream will sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Back to the OUTPUT tab, there are also settings for YELLOW PAGES. This is where you put in a name for your stream and other items.
If you decide to HOST the stream yourself using the ShoutCast SERVER, you have some setup in the SERVER CONFIG file regarding PORT and PASSWORD settings. And you have to open the PORT number pair in either your PC FIREWALL or if using a router, open the PORT pair there. There are a pair of ports; one for the ShoutCast PLUGIN to talk to the SERVER and one for listeners to access the SERVER.
I’m sure there is something else. It’s been a while since I set mine up. I have two separate PC’s each running ShoutCast streaming and each has two streams running. One steam I host myself, the other is hosted by a free service called Listen2MyRadio. If you’d like to compare them here are the addresses:
SELF HOSTED and this one LISTEN TO MY RADIO
My hosted stream link is for WINAMP. The LISTEN TO MY RADIO stream uses an embedded player on their webpage.
Triple Trouble
“im still having trouble”
Have you tried the shoutcast forum for advice? There are resident code engineers there that wrote the thing and might result in faster resolutions.
RFB
im gonna try
im gonna try and do that, plus bob from MRAM AM 1500, and a local techie here in town are helping me with this, so sooner or later we’ll get it eventually.
Shoutcast is Drunk
After being stable for many weeks, today around 3 PM CDT Shoutcast began staggering around. It started giving me “naks” and disconnections and attempted reconnections. Since I hadn’t been doing anything by way of changing settings or anything I reason that the problem is at the Shoutcast end. Several times there has been a message saying “Internal Error – Unable to Acquire Data.”
Even though the problem is likely not on my side, I changed plugins, from the Sam Plugin to the Shoutcast V2 plugin with “Legacy” checked for V1, and I changed my port numbers, but the results did not change.
Is anyone else having Shoutcast trouble?
Status Quo Here…
All my streams are up and show up on the ShoutCast website when searched.
Things Are Back On
Thanks MRAM for your report. My trouble persisted from 3 PM to 6:30 PM CDT, then all at once everything went to normal and I was online with regular “touched” messages coming back.
I noticed in today’s forums at Shoutcast there were a lot of trouble reports and the webmaster was acknowledging them but was afraid the repair wouldn’t come until the middle of the week, but maybe they found something easy to fix.
The number of stations listed on Shoutcast during the trouble was only 624 and the number of listeners was at 5,792.
Now Shoutcast has 47,892 stations and 368,009 listeners. That’s a pretty big clue.
Don’t Touch Me There…
Well, I suppose an outage on their end affected only the ShoutCast search engine as the Plugin and Server don’t really care if ShoutCast is “touching” for status checks.
I run a ShoutCast stream at work to our Intranet and it’s behind a great firewall. As such there’s no touching going on there but the stream goes out to the coworkers just fine.
Out of curiosity I have checked the server log file and found that on 10/29/11 from 14:48 to 19:44 local time there was a loss of “touching”. But, there were still ooooodles of listeners so the NAK’s didn’t stop the streaming.
Opinions or Theories Invited
I am investigating why my shoutcast stream sometimes disconnects, the source plugin (Winamp) actually shows “Reconnecting” and then it reconnects.
I think some source material is sometimes to blame and at other times I think changes between one source file and another cause a problem.
The stream is running at 24kbps, 22.050kHz, mono.
My personally made soundfiles are always made at 56kbps, 44.1kHz, mono, and the software does a great job of running them in most cases.
One home made file that always has a source disconnect was made with the Audacity Clik Track effect.
Some files from outside sources are in stereo, but my Winamp is set for “Force Mono.”
The most recent “source disconnect” happened during a station break consisting of 5 short audio clips, each one at a different rate.
What is your experience?
ShoutCast “INPUT” Differences
I don’t recall an instance where a particular file played caused a disconnect.
Speaking of mixed file sample/bit rates, if in the ShoutCast DSP plugin I select WinAmp for the “INPUT”, the streamed audio playback speed will be wrong depending on the file sample/bit rate. This happens when using the plugin with ZaraRadio. For that reason I always use “soundcard input” for the input source. Then, it doesn’t matter what the file attributes are.
I do see the occasional “NAK” error. I likend that to minor network interruptions.
Wait, there was a problem when playing “The Kevin Smith Show” stream and rebroadcasting it. His show is subject to lots of HACKS whereby someone knocks the show off line. When that happens, it used to stop my ShoutCast stream. Sometimes I’d have to reboot the PC to get things going again. Apparently the HACK’s have been more specific as of late, knocking his stream down while not shutting mine down.
Getting a Glimpse
Since first posting my question I’ve been logging and am now convinced that the disconnects, in some cases, may be related to sample rates. In fact, it may be caused by the switching from one sample rate to another that Winamp must adapt to as the playlist moves through a batch of files. My two most recent “naks” happened right at the junction where rates changed during program changes.
9:59 AM Station ID 56kbps 22.05kHz mono
10 AM Free Talk Live 48kbps 32kHz mono – nak Unable to aquire data.
10:05 Reconnected
Bit Rate & Sample Rate Conversion
When streaming mp3 audio on the internet, the Winamp Player in conjunction with the Shoutcast DNAS Source Plugin, does an astounding job of converting the bit-rate and sample-rate of each mp3 file to the bit-rate and sample-rate of the streaming encoder. It is surprising how little is written or discussed about this central function of the player/encoder/streamer.
Yesterday I suspected and then became convinced that wild bit-rate/sample-rate differences from one mp3 file to another, rushing through the playlist at real time, can cause disconnections with the Shoutcast YP (Yellow Pages) Directory, which then reconnects itself.
One file that causes the stream to de-rail is the daily Free Talk Live Show, downloaded as 48kbps with sample-rate 32kHz. My stream runs with a sample rate of 22.05kHz, so the conversion from 32kHz would appear to cause a disruption to the flow. When I use Audacity to convert the sample rate to either 22.050kHz or 44.1kHz the disruption is avoided.
It seems to be true that 44.1kHz converts to 1/2, which is 22.050kHz, with enough speed and efficiency to make it through without disconnecting the stream.
Changes in bit-rate-per-second also can disrupt the steady flow, and unusual numbers seem to be the most likely to cause problems, such as 79kbps on Shortwave Report and 90kbps on some other program. I am guessing that exact multiples probably convert more efficiently, such as 48kbps, converting to 24kbps.
All this minute detail increases the file handling workload for the station, but keeps the station streaming smoothly.