[icecast] OddcastDSP/Winamp2

[Ross Levis]

Sorry for the long rave.

I write Windows software for broadcasters (Radio & Internet) and in a
newsletter I send out to my streaming clients I was recommending Ogg
Vorbis/IceCast2 as the streaming solution for the future.  All of my
clients are using Windows and a lot of them are using Winamp2 for their
broadcasting.  Currently they would be forced to use the OddCastDSP.
One client who should know what he is talking about replied with the
following:

"as someone who makes a living from streaming media, I've done quite a
bit of work with Oddcast and in my view it is way too flaky to rely on.
Compared with the Shoutcast plug-in, which unfortunately doesn't do
Vorbis, it's very buggy, temperamental in terms of which systems it will
work with, has some problems associated with saving archived streams
which is important for on demand listening, and this is all off the top
of my head.  I've had several dozen people test it in different
situations.  In my view it is simply unfit for wide scale deployment.
It's a shame because with the right tools, I would look at going Vorbis
for at least some of our streams.  On our Linux server on which we
handle all our streams, we have an Icecast 2 server running. Linux users
are having no problems streaming to it and it looks to me like Icecast2
itself is now very solid indeed.  Like most things in Linux it stays up
for days at a time.  It's a shame Nullsoft won't be coming out with a
stable DSP plug-in for Vorbis streaming.  Hopefully as demand builds
among Windows users, someone will do the job."  --- Director of ACB
Radio (http://www.acbradio.org)

For me personally, I only have a problem with OddCast when using the
SQRSoft crossfading plugin.    I need to use this crossfader as there is
nothing else that works so well and sounds so professional.  I use it
for my LPFM broadcast.  It works fine for most configurations except
when Oddcast is set to 22khz mono which is what I prefer.  Winamp2
crashes immediately.  I have just ordered a DSL connection which I wish
to use for streaming but currently I can't without compromising the
sound quality and going to stereo.

I know that a number of linux users are streaming successfully, however,
like it or not, most people are using Windows and we really need a
streaming client to work reliably.  Oddsock does not appear to have the
time to work on it.  I'm not sure if the source for OddCast is
available.  I couldn't find it.  But if it is, perhaps someone else
could take a look at it.  I would but I don't know C.  I program in
Delphi.

I realise that most open source programming work is done in spare time
and I appreciate all the work that has been done by everyone, including
Oddsock.  I've provided free software myself for the cause (WinVorbis
http://winvorbis.stationplaylist.com).  I can only hope that a more
reliable solution for Windows is not too far away.

By the way, Nullsoft have announced that the next major release of
Winamp will be based on Winamp2 and not Winamp3.
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129085

Regards,
Ross Levis
http://www.StationPlaylist.com
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