intranet radio
The Nokia 770 turned out to be a nice client for internet radio and I got used to using it quite a lot for that purpose. But the joy ended when I moved to a new appartment two weeks ago because since then I am without internet connectivity. In the meantime I have my desktop PC up and running again and it features a small MP3 and OGG collection that I can listen to. So now I would like to get access to that music collection from another room. The internal wireless network is up and running, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get that music to the 770, should it?
The solution I imagine is to turn the desktop PC into an intranet radio station. I had a look at Icecast and it seems suitable for my needs. Provided of course that the standard audio player that ships with the 770 works as an Icecast client. Now let’s assume that this is the case, then how do I get the audio to the Icecast server? I would prefer if I didn’t have to configure an Icecast source like Ices which would require me to deal with playlists. Instead I would like to be able to use the output of my favorite GStreamer based music player (which at the moment is Rhythmbox). Looking at the set of available GStreamer plug-ins it appears that there’s everything I need. shout2send seems to be an Icecast source and perhaps I could even get away without the full-blown streaming server by using one of the RTP modules.
What I haven’t figured out yet is how to put all this together. A quick search on the web gave quite a few hits but noone seems to have published a HOWTO or even just the command-line of a working configuration. So, if you read this and have a hint for me, please let me know about it. Comments are welcome (albeit moderated due to the massive amount of comment spam that started to come in recently).
December 14th, 2005 at 6:39 pm
Hi,
you could just use the VideoLan Client (www.videoland.org) which has superb streaming capabilities. You can stream in nearly any format you want and its very easy, just look here: http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch02.html .The only problem with the VideoLan Client is that you would have to redo your playlists.
Beside that I am also very interested in a gstreamer based solution so it would be cool if you would write a short howto if you find a way to do it with gstreamer.
Cheers,
Physaro
December 14th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
I Sven, maybe you could just use the DAAP sharing in Rhythmbox, and combine that with the recent port of RB to the 770?
December 14th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
I believe the most elegant way would be a 770 player that supports daap. You could browse your “computer library” and play back anything from the drive. Rhythmbox and some other gnome players already broadcast using daap.
December 14th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
Try slimserver. I use it to stream my music to whereever I am.
December 14th, 2005 at 7:56 pm
Bunch of ideas:
a) stream “raw” GStreamer data; set your audiosink using gconftool to be tcpserversink protocol=gdp, then try (in a shell) on the nokia: “gst-launch-0.8 tcpclientsrc host=(your computer) protocol=gdp ! dsppcmsink”. Your rhythmbox should be compiled against gst 0.8 for this to work, and I haven’t tested this myself, don’t have a 770, and too lazy to figure out how to use the work ones
b) run esd on your 770, and use esdsink host=(your computer) as your audiosink in gconf
c) there are some DAAP sharing patches around for rhythmbox
d) if it doesn’t need to be rhythmbox, you could get gst-python 0.8 from CVS, and flumotion, and it has a component that can stream a list of files, mix it nicely as if it were a radio (with overlapping fades) and loudness adjustment, and streams to ogg. you could play that from your nokia 770.
variations on all of the above are possible. Let me know if you need more help if you try one of these
December 15th, 2005 at 1:20 am
Sven, check out Spam Karma 2:
. And I used to get up to a hundred spams per day.
http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
All I can say is that since I have installed it several months ago, I had to manually intervene exactly 3 times
December 15th, 2005 at 2:55 am
I assume the 770 supports basic Unix stuff like NFS? All my music is stored on my HTPC. On my desktop, I mount the directory where it’s stored via NFS, and run any normal music player. Sure, it’s boring and 1970s. Sure, people with Rhythmbox and icecast and other assorted whizziness point at me in the street and laugh. But it works.
December 15th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
RB daap patches were accepted and are in 0.9.2 release. at home i run daapd on my linux desktop and have all my mp3s available for rhythmbox on linux and iTunes on an iBook.
December 15th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
Sven —
I’m single-focus and even though your post is about music, I’m wondering about whether you’ll be able to port GIMP to the 770 now that you have a device. I know that Dr. Ari Jaaksi, who runs Nokia’s open-source software development and 770 development, said the device is not underpowered but that performance issues are a result of memory management (quoted at Internet Table Talk). However the effect is that a big program like Quake runs too slowly to use, and sluggish behavior with just a few apps open has been widely noted.
So is a GIMP port practical? Is there a GIMP lite that would be possible? Even just the basic, most essential features would be incredible on a device with its high resolution and touch screen — you could use a stylus directly on the image without having to pay a thousand or more dollars for special drawing pads.
Anyway, I think GIMP on the 770 would be the killer app that blows people away! I hope you still think it’s possible.
Roger Sperberg
December 15th, 2005 at 10:18 pm
“Nokia plans to issue an update of its Nokia 770 Internet Tablet early next year, adding instant messaging and internet telephony to the device that started shipping late November.”
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2147642/nokia-takes-shot-portable
December 16th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Roger, of course image manipulation is possible on the Nokia and it could and probably should be based on GIMP code. GIMP itself isn’t that resource-hungry. The console-only binary without any GUI is just 1.5MB. I consider a GIMP port practical but I definitely lack the time to do it. I barely have enough time to devote to GIMP development these days. Unless someone wants to hire me for doing such a port, I am afraid I won’t be able to work on it.
December 16th, 2005 at 7:24 pm
Alas.
Anyway, I put a note at the Maemo wiki saying Developer wanted! Or maybe you could suggest it to someone you know?
December 20th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
Hi,
Well, our version for Rhythmbox Maemo released yesterday by Renato Araujo, can do that. We are already working on some brand new UI for the 770, but the good thing with the current one is that you already know everything about it.
So, grab your rhythmbox collection on your pc activate the sharing =) do the same on the 770 ( explained on the readme file on my site )
And rock on with your music! It worked PERFECTLY with my itunes – powerbook as content provider, in linux it sometimes chokes a little little bit. It would be nice to have your impressions and suggestions for what do you think a UI for rbox should be on maemo! I place some requirements : the main buttons ( play, next and previous ) should be big enough to be used with our fingers and it should at a minimum follows the Maemo UI Guidelines !
My best Regards from Brazil
http://www.marceloeduardo.com/blog/up/rhythmbox_0.9.2_arm.deb.zip
http://www.marceloeduardo.com/blog/up/README.zip
January 30th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
I just read your blog entry. My partner and I are planning on setting up a review website – it will live on the home page of our site toshiba tablet pc I am looking for
versatility in tablet pc’s and setup a comparison. If you can help with any insight or direction that would be great.
March 16th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Well it’s looks like I was beat to the punch but I was also gonna recomend looking at Slim Server
http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html