Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

jaem · 2009-02-13 04:15:48

A friend and I are tossing around some ideas for a project, which would be a music-activated RGB lights controller. We have an ARM board with network connectivity, running Linux. What we want to be able to do is to stream audio from a laptop/desktop computer to the device, for processing. I'm not sure what software to use on the computer, for streaming, as well as client software on the embedded board. Here are my primary constraints:
1) The streaming software has to run on at least Windows/Linux (although Mac would be a plus), and has to either be part of, or be pluggable into, a music app that's suitable for using playlists and managing large libraries (e.g. something like Songbird, rather than VLC).
2) The client software needs to have as little overhead as possible, due to the limitations of the embedded board, and it needs to be CLI
3) We really don't care about the quality of the audio, so long as the waveforms look enough like the originals that the lights can actually correspond to something meaningful in the audio
4) Service discovery would be a plus, as we'd eventually like to just plug in the controller and go, without having to mess with IP addresses and such

Any suggestions?

SamC · 2009-02-13 04:38:28

This seems like a pretty good place for mpd and mpc, I suppose.

skottish · 2009-02-13 04:40:45

SamC wrote:

This seems like a pretty good place for mpd and mpc, I suppose.

Definitely. mpd to handle the collection and stream, mpc as the command line client, and avahi for service discovery.

jaem · 2009-02-13 06:24:38

Thanks, that sounds pretty good. However, the one issue is that the music needs to play on a Windows machine. My setup is fine, as it's all Linux, but my friend has a Windows desktop (and a Linux server with no sound card). I know I could make it work, for example, run NX to remote MythTV, which is running on the server, which is connected to mpd, which is playing music from a samba share on the Windows desktop, and then run VLC on the desktop to receive the stream. However, that's bordering on absurdity, or at least, overkill. I'll still consider it, but is there anything more cross-platform?

litemotiv · 2009-02-13 09:10:20

for a more generic approach -- since mpd requires you to put the media on the server and only plays certain defined filed types -- pulseaudio might be interesting, or even dlna/upnp? that last one for sure would be the most cross-platform solution. then each client could decide for itself which kind of audio to pass to the hub, be it mpd, radio, youtube etc.

interesing experiment you're doing here btw, i think more people will be interested in using a single small device that routes all their network audio to a stereo.

p.s., in case you want to stick to the classic mpd setup, there are windows clients available incluing a handy firefox plugin:

http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Windows_Compatibility
http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients

skottish · 2009-02-13 15:33:35

If you wanted to go the MPD route, there are instructions on how to build it on Windows here:

http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Windows_Compatibility

It's tagged as experimental, so how easy it would be is in question.

zenlord · 2009-02-16 16:30:41

coherence is to video what mpd is to audio:
https://coherence.beebits.net/

They seem to be focussing on A/V-devices, like lightning bridges etc. I don't know how relevant it is, but you might check it out...

Zl.

jaem · 2009-02-20 19:45:14

I appreciate all the responses, but none of them quite work for what I want. The thing is, I want to be able to play local music files on local speakers, but also simultaenously send a low-quality stream of what I'm playing to the embedded board for audio analysis. The solutions suggested so far all focus on playing the music on the remote machine, but it won't have controls or speakers. Ideally what I need is just a cross-platform media player/plugin (or even different ones for Win/Lin) that can stream what's currently being played, and a lightweight command line client that can pipe the stream into an app that we'll probably end up writing ourselves. I haven't had much time to look into it, which is why I don't yet have any ideas myself. Thanks for the help. though.

SamC · 2009-02-20 22:58:38

mpd + icecast + netcat? I'm not really sure what the easiest way to download a stream continuously is.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-13 04:15:48

Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#2 2009-02-13 04:38:28

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#3 2009-02-13 04:40:45

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#4 2009-02-13 06:24:38

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#5 2009-02-13 09:10:20

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#6 2009-02-13 15:33:35

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#7 2009-02-16 16:30:41

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#8 2009-02-20 19:45:14

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

#9 2009-02-20 22:58:38

Re: Streaming audio to an embedded Linux device

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