DDAR streaming, my thoughts

["Graham Howe" <graham@xxxxxxx>]

I've been thinking about streaming and I believe that I might have a
possible solution. When the Dell server software loads up playlists, it is
simply loading a list of file paths. So if a file appearing in the playlist
is altered after the list is loaded, then the receiver will be none the
wiser.

My idea is this, you create a playlist of say 10 tracks that are simply
named 01.mp3, 02.mp3,....10.mp3. You load the playlist into the server
software where it becomes available to your receiver. You can then start
replacing the files with any other mp3 files and they will continue to play
in playlist order.

So for example, lets say that your receiver is playing file 03.mp3 in the
playlist, if you copy a new file with the name 04.mp3 into the directory,
replacing the original 04.mp3 file then it will be the next one played. By
playing the playlist on a repeat, then the 01.mp3 file will always be
played
after 10.mp3 and so on.

Now there are a few problems to be ironed out here, for a start I don't
know
what might happen if you tried to overwrite a file that was being played,
and anyway it would be useful to know what track was being played so that
you could work out which file to replace. Also these problems would be
complicated further if there are several receivers hanging off the server,
though I think the best solution would be to have separate playlists (and
numbered files) for each receiver.

But there could be some nice bonuses too, it would be pretty simple to
build
a web interface for manipulating the playlist on the server, for example
ASP
can easily be used to move files around on the server (I like the idea of
using an ePOD to remote control the playlist of a DDAR). Other than the
interface there would be no need for any changes to the existing server or
receiver software. The receiver should show all the tag information in the
normal way as this is not held in the playlist and so must be loaded on the
fly from the mp3 files, so for example the track title will be displayed
rather than the dummy file name.

This does not allow the receiver to receive actual streamed music, but it
does allow remote control to a certain extent.

What do you guys think out there, in particular does anyone have any idea
how to identify what file is being played at a particular time. I can see
two possible ways of identifying this, one is to get the information out of
the receiver, the other is to find out from the operating system that a
file
is in use. Unfortunately I don't know how to do either of these things.

Graham


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