On Mon, 1 Jan 2001, Howard Schwartz wrote:
> 1) What is the minimal speed processor and amount of RAM needed to
> hear real time radio?
As long as the bitrate is < 20kbps or so, my wife's 486DX-66
can decode mp3s. More than that, and it starts breaking up.
RAM is a trickier question. My wife's machine is running W'95
on 20MB of RAM, but obviously you can get away with much less
than that if you use DOS.
> Do I need a PCI bus?
Nope.
> Any other hardware ``musts'' I should know about?
Streaming audio generally loads you up a buffer of about
32K or so. Then your player starts playing, and hopefully
the buffer will be refilled fast enough to prevent dropouts.
Basically, you need a minimum of a 28.8kbps modem for your
basic AM quality sound. If you want higher fidelity "FM quality"
you'll need a faster modem.
> 2) I believe there are several formats used to stream radio to the
> PC, realaudio being one of them, but not the only.
The biggest one is *.mp3. Up and coming is the Open Source
*.ogg format with tighter compression and better sound. It uses
a variable bitrate throughout the stream, tailored to the content
of the music, whereas *mp3 uses a constant bit rate... So given
an average bit rate of *.ogg that's equal to the constant bitrate
of *mp3, (equal file sizes, iow) the ogg file will sound better.
> What audio data readers are required to maximize the number of
> radio shows I can receive?
In Windows, WinAmp (freeware) will play *.mod, *wav, *au,
*mp3, and *.ogg.
> 3) Is the software for hearing radio ported to Linux, or must I use
> windows? I take it dos is hopeless in this regard?
For Linux, the biggie is xmms, which plays all the formats
listed above for WinAmp, and probably a couple more.
> 4) Will arachne every be capable of receiving radio -- or does this
> turn on the details of its Linus port?
I'm pretty sure it's already possible, but I just went to a
Shoutcast server, http://205.188.245.132:8036, which is streaming
audio, and it says it requires WinAmp... which is obviously false
because I use xmms in Linux to listen there.
I'll have to leave the definitive answer to one of the DOS
gurus on that one.
--
Steve Ackman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Glass Host, Arts & Crafts http://www.delphi.com/crafts
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