SL music playback quality

[L0opZ]

Hi everyone,

 

So i have been told recently that SL was playing the music back at 128kbps maximum. So basically it doesn't matter if you stream your stuff at 320, listeners will never hear it at this quality.

 

I tried to verify that information but with not much luck. Anyone knows about this? And i mean just not "know" but has an actual proof?

 

Thanks!

[Tactical UwU]

If you merely heard it by word of mouth, chances are its a rumor or a blatant lie.

If I recall, the viewer connects directly to the stream the same way a music player would. There's really no benefit to limiting the maximum bandwidth unless you're on DSL or 56k. If you have this question in regards to a specific viewer, try contacting the developers of said viewer.

 

Edit: Also, there's really no point in streaming over 192kbps. The difference in quality is nearly inaudible.

[Kenbro Utu]

All streaming is done through Quicktime.  SL just passes the stream through to the installed Quicktime on the client computer.  So I would say whatever the stream source is, that is what the listener gets.  

[KarenMichelle Lane]

OK, here is how Music Streaming works.....

1) The DJ or Music Radio Station uses encoders in their software to compress and broadcast Music Programs using one of many available methods... MP3, OGG, ACC etc. This is called a feed.

2) These source "feeds" are fed to Relay Services that buffer the feed and rebroadcast them as streams  to "attached" listeners. These services usually rebroadcast the feed as a stream using the same encoding method.

3) In SL, you become an "Attached" listener to a Radio Stations or DJs stream by entering a parcel that has the "Stream" IP & Port address set to the Relay Service.

4) Your FMOD software included in your SecondLife Software is called to decode these streams and it feeds the music to your PC's audio processor.

Note: The stream kbps is not the absolute indicator of quality. Case in point. A Station sending an ACC encoded Stream at 96 kbps can sound every bit as good as a MP3 encoded Stream being sent at 192 kbps. The encoding method is what determines how compactly the music is packaged. The FMOD module simply uses industry standard decoders [codecs] to expand the music for you to hear via your PC's sound system.

If you don't like what you hear using the SL FMOD player, you can always listen to the stream externally using a 3rd party media product like VLC or iTunes or Windows Media Player or Winamp  etc.

SL doesn't stream anything! All SL does is make the IP address & port information available to your local PC session.

 

P.S. As a DJ, I can stream at 192kbps ACC or MP3. I usually don;t stream at this rate because many of those listening to my stream in clubs still don;t have high speed internet connections and the stream will be choppy to them as their PC strives to determine what IP packets to pass on to SL.

P.S.S. - QuickTime is only used for streaming Media such as Movies and other related related streams.  I don;t use QT or iTunes on my PCs.  The FMOD player within SL plays the Music.

Proof Hum? - I've done a test using the FMOD Player for my audio and streaming using my SAM Software MP3(Lame) encoder at 32 - 64 - 96 - 128 - 192 kbps.  The music is muddiest at 32 - 64; It's passable at 96, has nice dynamic range starting at 128 and was very close to playing direct at 192. My music is Ripped from my CD sources at MP3 / 320 for the most part. My audience is happy when I encode and maintain the feed as a MP3 128 kbps stream for them.

More information about the FMOD System and Developer Library can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMOD

 

 

[Alicia Sautereau]

Untill you play the stream in an external player that you start noticing that there actually is a quality difference
I stoped playing in the viewer and only use it to "sample" if i want to listen to the dj or hop to the next place to grab the stream for winamp

[Cerise Sorbet]

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Kenbro Utu wrote:

All streaming is done through Quicktime.  SL just passes the stream through to the installed Quicktime on the client computer.  So I would say whatever the stream source is, that is what the listener gets.  

---

QuickTime is used in most viewers (with Linux a notable exception) for video playback, but not for parcel music.

Parcel music instead uses FMOD for audio, although a few have used OpenAL as a replacement if they were trying hard to use open source libraries. The library in use will show up as "audio driver" in the viewer's Help>About panel.

Anyway, the 128k limit is for sound clips that are uploaded as assets. In that case, they are converted to ogg vorbis and monaural too. None of that happens with music stream playback.

[L0opZ]

Thanks all for your answers. I figured as much but i wanted to be sure.

 

Just to be clear, not that it really matters, i took 320 as the extreme example, but i always stream in 192. However, unlike Alicia said, i never heard a difference in quality between external and SL, and i play on a fairly big sound system.

 

Anyway, it clears my doubts, thank you

[Maryanne Solo]

Just remember that if you want supreme audio quality, forget SL altogether.

Even 320kbps is lossy and can be determined to be so using pro studio hardware.

A sad day indeed when peeps know know different.

We owe all this to rotten Apple mostly as it was they who prostituted the fraunhoffer format purely for profiting from the gullible/fashion concious.