[icecast] IceCast Questions.... ("id3 tags, mp3, Ogg, etc)

[Ethan]

Hello, I'm a long time user of Icecast. We currently run 12 streams on
Icecast 1.x (Mp3). I plan to expand this to 20 streems soon. They are all
low bitrate community service.

Recently some friends and myself came across the thought of actually
generating our own content. Music, talk, etc.

I've been running the ideas of the automation setup that would be required
to do such a thing. I used to have a low power FM station (until the FCC
said stop) so I have some knowldge of doing real audio. Plus someone
involved on the project has commercial station experience.

Here are some of the issues I am trying to contemplate, and how to solve
them with Icecast:

First:

Ogg/Vorbis. I've always avoided it because it is still non standard. I
know the mp3 capable Icecast is depreciated. Is Ogg/Vorbis supported in
Windows Media Player 7-8 or newer? By this, I mean either it immediately
works or automatically downloads the codec. Most internet users won't ever
bother to manually download and install codecs. I realize the later Winamp
would support it. RealPlayer? The Apple QuickTime player?

Second:

Trying to cut back and forth between local playlists of MP3s, local live
content and remote fed content seems like a challenge. My current thought
is to have one system that plays audio that is linked to one or more
computers that encode the audio. This way when switching between local
content and remote content, the stream isn't interrupted and the listeners
aren't dumped?

But then comes the issue of the id3 tags. Is there any ways to trigger the
darkice encoder to "update" the text on the player on the fly?

If I had 1 icecast server acting as a relay, connecting to a 2nd one,
could I switch between "2nd ones" and not interrupt the listener?

OOOOOO

Wait. Maybe if we could trick it into hitting a "file" in the playlist
that is being written real time, that could work.....

<p>Anyone have experience trying to push Icecast to do all of this?

<p><p><p><p>--- >8 ----
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