I've managed to get Flash Player 6 with some help with PHP (massaging icy headers for various browsers) to connect to streaming Icecast streams. Since it's a true stream it doesn't download in cache. The problem is there isn't much control on the mp3 stream via the Sound object in Flash Player 6, 7, and 8. Thus, eventually you run out of RAM since Flash doesn't dispose of the stream incrementally like WinAMP and other media players do.
Hopefully someone else can give a more thorough answer regarding connecting the new binary socket to a ByteArray. This would allow you to have a Flash Player 8.5 SWF connect to your server have it's own ability to manage the sound load. What I don't know is if it's possible to connect a binary Socket's stream to a Sound object in Flash Player 8.5. Finally, Flash Media Server (formerly Flash Communication Server) has the ability to do true streaming to the Flash Player in a supported, and scaleable fashion. Originally created for streaming FLV's for enterprise level video solutions rivaling that of Real & Windows Media Server, it also supports MP3's. This would fit well with your existing, previously recorded mixes because you can stream it to the client from a Flashcom server, and it's never cached. It's been rumored there was going to be an FLV to mp3 conversion tool up on the labs, but no official dates were mentioned. The reason this is relevant is because you could then more easily do live broadcasts via Flashcom (FMS / Flash Media Server, Flashcom is the slang term) and then conver the recorded FLV's to mp3 via a server tool. If you are recording & publishing live, you wouldn't need this. I know this isn't exactly sounding like it's itegrated well with ShoutCast, but I'm sure when the above tool is uploaded to the labs (labs.macromedia.com), then it might possibly do more or integrate... who knows. You could also head on over to the Flashcom list since some of the Flashcom developers are actually there and ask them: chattyfig.figleaf.com, join Flashcom. Hope that helps! ----- Original Message ----- From: "JEpoch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 3:11 PM Subject: [flexcoders] Streaming Audio / Cache / Question from a Radio Station Owner Hello, I got referred to this list by my friend at Macromedia to ask a question I have about streaming audio in Flash and the upcoming Flex update. I run a radio station called Proton Radio (www.protonradio.com) and currently we broadcast in Shoutcast and Icecast to our users. We'd like to add the ability to stream in Flash. We're able to do so with Icecast, and thats not my question. My question comes from our desire to offer our various shows on demand to our users. We're succefully doing this now by opening an authenticated mp3 stream to the user. I want to also do this in Flash, but I'm concerned about just serving an mp3 as-is-- I'd like it to actually stream. If we serve an mp3 normally in Flash, Flash downloads the whole file and saves it into the cache. As our "Shows" are DJmixes and tend to be over an hour long, I'd prefer if we did NOT do this, and instead, provided an actual stream of the audio. Can Flash do this on its own, or is Media Server needed? Maybe I'm asking the wrong questions, and as I'm not a Flash developer myself I may be off base. I would appreciate any help or guidance, thanks for your time. I'm very excited about the possibilities Flex is going to offer, and want to be able to provide a Flex player for our site. Jason Wohlstadter Radio & Label Manager www.protonradio.com -- Flexcoders Mailing List FAQ: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/files/flexcodersFAQ.txt Search Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com Yahoo! Groups Links -- Flexcoders Mailing List FAQ: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/files/flexcodersFAQ.txt Search Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
