I've spent too much time on this already, so I'd like your opinions.

I want to play a song in Winamp on my PC, and stream it to the xbox at the other end of the house so the music is the same in every room.

Simple, you say. Just create a shoutcast server! Done. In fact, this works perfectly for all of the other computers in the house(all of us, including the xbox, are behind the same router). This should work with XBMC as well, since it supports stations from shoutcast.com. Unfortunately, I can't find a way to directly connect to a shoutcast stream without using the shoutcast.com integration.

I've tried all sorts of xbmc bookmarks, like:
http://mylocalIP:8000 <-works like a champ on the other computers
http://mylocalIP:8000/listen.pls
shout://mylocalIP:8000
etc...

In all of those cases, the xbox connects to my shoutcast server and identifies itself(I see it in the shoutcast logs), but then logs off. I'm thinking of spoofing shoutcast.com's icy directory server, but I don't really have time for that. By the way, I can't actually use the shoutcast directory since you can't spoof your IP address(i'm behind a router, remember) and I don't want to create a public stream anyway.

--------------------------
By the way, I considered using iTunes, but playback with that doesn't sync with other computers and you can't change playlists on the fly(an xbox reboot is required).

[Edited on July 15, 2006 at 10:58 PM. Reason : in other words, iTunes sharing works on the xbox, but it just plain sucks]

7/15/2006 10:57:16 PM

add a favorite stream

7/16/2006 5:43:54 AM

please post an answer if you find it Pyro... i want to be able to do this, too.

7/16/2006 11:11:49 AM

Alright, here's the 411.

Download and install the shoutcast server.
Download the shoutcast source plugin for winamp.

Run the server.
Run winamp and choose the source plugin under preferences->DSP/Effect
Under the Output tab put localhost for address, port 8000, password is changeme. Select the mp3 encoder you want and then click Connect.

To verify it's all running point a webbrowser to localhost:8000/7.html. You should see the track info.
--------------------------------------
Now create a text file called somename.strm. In the text file type:

Quote :

"http://yourlocalipaddress:8000"

FTP the file to the xbox hard drive.

Go to My Music under XBMC, find the file you uploaded, and run it.
-----------------------------------
You'll notice some nasty buffering lag. To reduce that in XBMC, go to Settings, System, Cache and turn down the bottom "Unknown Internet" cache to 1.(0 will let XBMC pick the cache size)

You can also reduce caching in winamp by screwing with the MP3 decoder input plugin. As far as I know, there's no way to reduce the inherent buffering that occurs with the shoutcast server.

I'm down to about a 5 second lag. Not perfect, but it's close to what I wanted.

7/16/2006 3:06:34 PM

you mean smoothcrim's detailed instructions weren't enough to help you solve your problem?

Why, that's so unlike his normal posts.

7/16/2006 3:07:53 PM

Here's another tip. Mute winamp and then open iTunes or something on your own system. Play your stream at localhost:8000. You can play with the itunes buffer size. I've got it to within a 1/2 second lag.

-------------------
If you're more of a winamp type of guy, you can open a new winamp instance by pressing Ctrl-Alt-N

[Edited on July 16, 2006 at 3:19 PM. Reason : .]

7/16/2006 3:14:10 PM

you can add a static favorite stream in the xml file

7/16/2006 5:47:12 PM

How? Give me syntax.

As I said before, the following doesn't work:

<bookmark>
            <name>My Shoutcast Server</name>
            <!-- only use an IP address here !-->
            <path>shout://192.168.0.2:8000</path>
</bookmark>

<bookmark>
            <name>My Shoutcast Server</name>
            <!-- only use an IP address here !-->
            <path>http://192.168.0.2:8000</path>
</bookmark>

7/16/2006 10:20:01 PM

I just put in \\mydesktop\sharename\blah.m3u and in blah.m3u is my server's shoutcast station. I did this in a long time ago and remember having trouble with a direct link. I thought it was done simply but then looked in my xml file and remembered it was a bitch figuring out how to do it

7/17/2006 2:06:54 AM