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[EddStewart]

Hi,

I own a licensed copy of MC10 but have recently installed MC11 trial (v11.0.297) as I'm interested in the library server transcoding options for streaming high quality MP3s to my workplace.

Unfortunately I can't seem to get it to work!

On the work PC I have selected MP3 Encoder under Tools->Options->Library and (to test) set the bitrate to ABR 96kbps. But still when playing 256kbps + MP3s from home it will stop and start. I have played about with various bitrates/settings, opened/closed everything a few times but now give in. Can anyone please advise?

Cheers, E

[Alex B]

What you mean by "it will stop and start"? Do you mean that you were able to connect (download the server library), but playback is not stable?

Can you test the client/server connection inside a single LAN segment? If that works the problem is in your WAN connection.

[EddStewart]

The connection from the server to the internet is 2048/256 (down/up) ADSL and my connection at work (to which I'm streaming) is 1024/128 Cable.

If I play a MP3 with bitrate 192kbps or less it plays fine as there's enough bandwidth. If, however, I play one with a higher bitrate e.g. 320kbps Media Center will pause after ~30 secs, re-fill the buffer and carry on.

When reading about the transcoding options I took it to mean that the server would transcode to a lower bitrate before streaming across the network. This doesn't appear to be happening.

I hope this makes the situation more clear!

Thanks, E

[Alex B]

You select the conversion options on the client and the server does the transcoding before streaming. It works on my LAN.

Have you installed the MP3 encoder on your server? You must once go to the server's MP3 options for triggering the download.

You could try Ogg Vorbis instead. It should have better quality at low bitrates too.

[EddStewart]

Naively I had presumed that it was pre-installed (as it's listed under Plugins->Encoder). Although having installed it correctly on the server, selecting MP3 encoder still doesn't work ? Ogg Vorbis on the other hand works beautifully! 

Thanks for the help.

Edd

[JimH]

I believe that one of the options is "always convert".  Please try that.

Also try changing just the bitrate to 128 and nothing else.

It's also possible that the PC at home isn't keeping up with the decoding and re-encoding.

And, nominal bandwidth is not a reliable indicator of real bandwidth.

[John Gateley]

Conversion between bitrates but keeping the same format is a work in progress at the moment. I don't think there's any way to force this conversion.
Try using a different format on the client.

j

[Alex B]

Conversion between bitrates but keeping the same format is a work in progress at the moment. I don't think there's any way to force this conversion.

I think it would be difficult to determine which files are going to be converted if the files are VBR. Even if the average bitrate of a certain file is below a defined bitrate the file can contain long passes of higher bitrates.

Could MC have an user definable flag that would tell the server if the file will be included in the conversion? MC could have an "include in the server conversions" field, similar like ratings, but with only one button. The user could select all files that need to be converted and tick the button. There could be one more conversion option for taking that field into account.