Jamcast

Hi Quay,

You're welcome. First, I've extended your trial for you -- simply re-run the Jamcast installer and use your original username/password to activate.

The audio received from Spotify at 320kbps is decompressed (to raw PCM audio) and sent to Windows. It's at this point that Jamcast captures the audio from Windows, and is of identical (lossless) quality to the original 320kbps audio, however its bitrate is more like 1.5Mb/s at this point.

From there, your device is given the choice of the lossless uncompressed PCM audio stream, FLAC, WAV or 320kbps MP3. If the device chooses the MP3 stream, while at 320kbps it's gone thru another decompression so while still close the original it is now lossy. All of the other stream options are lossless.

So, it depends on the choice your device makes. To find out, your device might show you via its UI or you can always look at Jamcast's medialog.txt (located in the Jamcast installation folder) for details on how the audio is handled and streamed by Jamcast for each request made by a device.

Regarding Mog, it would work in exactly the same fashion -- as would any other streaming sources. You've got another 14 days to play around with it, see for yourself.

Hope this answers your questions, let me know if I can assist further.

Thanks!

I have a similar question about the rate at which Jamcast streams audio from a record turntable via my PC soundcard to my TV system.

Here's a piece from the log:

01/25/2012 20:07:10 HTTP/1.1 GET request: /Media/audio/mpeg/CaptureStream Host: 192.168.1.75:58642, transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming, Connection: keep-alive
01/25/2012 20:07:10 Media stream pipeline: Windows Mixer -> ffmpeg.exe -> TV @ 192.168.1.66
01/25/2012 20:07:10 Response: Server: Windows NT/6.1, UPnP/1.0, Jamcast/1.7, Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:07:10 GMT, Content-Type: audio/mpeg, Accept-Ranges: none, transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
01/25/2012 20:07:10 Process started: ffmpeg.exe -ar 44100 -ac 2 -f s16le -i - -ar 44100 -ac 2 -f mp3 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 320k -
01/25/2012 20:07:10 Begin streaming to TV @ 192.168.1.66...
01/25/2012 20:07:10 WaveInDeviceID: 0
01/25/2012 20:36:37 Network services at 192.168.1.75 were stopped.

I wonder if you'd be kind enough to decipher the relevant bit for me?

I'm asking because I have a choice of receiving the audio on a Viera TV, an XBox360, and a WDTV Live and I'm trying to work out which device might receive the highest quality stream.

Thanks.

Hi again Scott

I was originally interested in how to get the best streaming rate to any of my devices that can receive Jamcast streams.

But that question will have to wait because there's a problem...

I have Jamcast Server Manager running on my PC. The service is running quite happily. Jamcast reports: Licensed To: donniemunro, Created On: 29/12/2011, Expires: (does not expire). I also have a confirmation of purchase email from you that says: Description: SPECIAL OFFER - Jamcast Server License w/ Lifetime Updates.

The problem is that all my devices (TV, XBox360 & WDTV) are giving me the message "Jamcast Trial Expired".

It's true that I began with a trial version, but I purchased the full version shortly after. Can you help?

Thanks Scott - you solved the problem. And I apologise for going off-topic.

Hello,

Thanks for your patience on this, I've got some more information for you now as I've had time to evaluate the Panasonic Viera TV now too. First, grab the newest version of Jamcast (1.7.5) just posted today:

http://www.sdstechnologies.com/Downloads.aspx

For the Panasonic Viera, I found the following Jamcast device settings necessary to get the highest quality audio:

MaxFormatOptions = 1
AlwaysProxyInternetMedia = True

For whatever reason (bandwidth?), the Viera prefers the MP3 stream even when an LPCM stream is offered first. MaxFormatOptions ensures that the Panasonic only receive the LPCM (or native) stream option, essentially taking away it's right to choose.

AlwaysProxyInternetMedia ensures that all internet media sources (podcasts, for example) are proxied thru Jamcast to the device. The Viera seemed to have a problem with playing media not on the local network.

I also noticed a bunch of timeouts when receiving the Viera's device description; something odd going on here that can be problematic but seems to be mostly harmless.

Regarding the WDTV device, are you getting solid audio on the MP3 stream? I get lots of reports of studdering on those devices. How about the Jamcast 1.7.5 release, does that change the behavior of the device in any way, including hopefully accepting a LPCM stream?

Regarding the Xbox360 and IsDlnaCompliant, was that not set to True by default? I haven't heard any trouble reports about this yet, does it play the MP3 stream by default or not at all?

Thanks!

Hi Scott

I've downloaded the update but I've not had a chance to play around with it yet, so in the meantime I'll answer a couple of your questions...

The WDTV has worked flawlessly since forcing mp3 in Jamcast - no stuttering at all.

I can't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure that IsDlnaCompliant was set to false by default for the Xbox360.

Regards