bitrate limiting of mp3 with lame/shineenc

[bluegaspode]

I followed these steps to enable transcoding on my sheevaplug: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...or_transcoding

This works fine when transcoding FLACs.

Unfortunately when trying to stream mp3s, Squeezebox-Server is clever tries to start LAME with the --mp3input flag.

As shineenc does not support mp3s as inputfiles this flag is ignored by shineenc and thus it fails to transcode any mp3 stream to a lower bitrate.

Can I force SB-Server to always pass PCM to Lame/ShineEnc, even if the input an mp3?

I'm using 7.5.4 server right now.

[SamS]

Funny. I've done the same thing with my Plug, but since 99.99% of my collection if FLAC, I never bothered to check MP3 sources until I saw your thread here.

Sure enough, it doesn't work :-(

[andyg]

bitrate limiting of mp3 with lame/shineenc

On May 23, 2011, at 4:27 PM, SamS wrote:

>
> Funny. I've done the same thing with my Plug, but since 99.99% of my
> collection if FLAC, I never bothered to check MP3 sources until I saw
> your thread here.
>
> Sure enough, it doesn't work :-(

You'd need to alter the transcoding line to add something before shine that decodes MP3 to PCM/WAV, maybe try mpg123 or madplay?

[SamS]

Yeah, but I don't want Shine to transcode MP3 to something higher... When I use this functionality, I'm streaming to my iPhone via 3G.

[bluegaspode]

You'd need to alter the transcoding line to add something before shine that decodes MP3 to PCM/WAV, maybe try mpg123 or madplay?

What file would that be?
The ominous convert.conf sometimes mentioned in this forum (which I never dared to look at yet) ?
In there I guess will be something similar for FLAC is this gets converted to WAV as well before sending to lame/shine.

[bluegaspode]

ok - it's convert conf indeed.

Entered/replaced the following line

mp3 mp3 transcode *
        [mpg123] -q -s $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -

but doesn't seem to work yet, songs are just skipping.

Is there any log that would help me debug this stuff or where I could see an error message?

Actually with the command above mpg123 will receive a stream from STDIN and route that to STDOUT into lame, working fine on the console.
Or am I not allowed to write [mpg123] ?

[bluegaspode]

Using

madplay -Q --output=pcm:- $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -

I'm still not successful either.
Tracks still skipping very fast.

Using the
madplay -Q --output=pcm:- $FILE$
standalone I get white noise, which shows me, that madplay is called indeed and creates a lot of PCM data.

Any more hints to get me on the right track?

[bluegaspode]

Got it: lame/shine want a wav as input, not pcm
Thanks for watching me find the solution, sometime thinking loud helps a lot

Right now I'm using the following, running fine on my sheeva

mp3 mp3 transcode *
        madplay -Q --output=wave:- $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -

madplay taking 10% CPU
shineenc 70% CPU


Will update the Wiki tomorrow after trying to convince the faster mpg123 to output wav as well.

[JJZolx]

Right now I'm using the following, running fine on my sheeva

mp3 mp3 transcode *
        madplay -Q --output=wave:- $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -

I would think you'd want to keep the second line of the rule that defines $BITRATE$, otherwise your maximum bitrate in complex sections of audio could be as high as 320 kbps. Of course that will depend a lot on how closely shine emulates LAME and whether it supports the '-B <bitrate>' option.

mp3 mp3 transcode *
	# IFB:{BITRATE=-B %B}D:{RESAMPLE=--resample %D}
        madplay -Q --output=wave:- $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -

You might want to play with the encoding level, which could affect CPU usage, audio quality and outgoing bandwidth. The -v is equivalent to -V4, while -B <bitrate> caps the maximum encoding bitrate.

[bluegaspode]

You might want to play with the encoding level, which could affect CPU usage, audio quality and outgoing bandwidth. The -v is equivalent to -V4, while -B <bitrate> caps the maximum encoding bitrate.

shine does not have much parameters - only the desired target bitrate.
So the lame command gets translated into
shinenc -q -b 96 - -

I found a working line for mpg123 now as well:

[mpg123] -q -s -w - $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -q $QUALITY$ -v $BITRATE$ $RESAMPLE - -


wiki has been update now: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...or_transcoding

[Adjunkten]

Problems installing shine on Sheeva (Squeezeplug)

Hi there.

First I would like to thank all of you Linux-wizards for sharing the fruits of your efforts. I'm very pleased with Squeezeplayer on my HTC Desire.

I'm trying to install shine for transcoding on my Sheevaplug, following the instructions in the wiki mentioned above.

I'm just copy-pasting the commands in the wiki into my command shell from webmin.

I'm stuck at step 2. When I enter this command I get the following:

> svn co http://svn.slimdevices.com/repos/sli...or/shine-fixed
svn: 'shine-fixed' already exists and is not a directory

What am I doing wrong?

Kind regards,

[ralphy]

Try removing the file shine-fixed with

rm shine-fixed

before running the svn command again.

Alternatively, you can follow the instructions from this post to download and install a prebuilt debian armel (squeezeplug) shinenc binary and lame script.

[Adjunkten]

I can report that I succesfully installed ralphy's (?) script and I'm now streaming a transcoded flac to 192 kbps mp3 remotely from my Squeezeplug. Sound quality is OK (i understand shine is inferior to lame ?)and no hickups so far.

Also works on my Desire - I guess I'm having my music library in my pocket!

Amazing - thanks ralphy.

[sardaukar]

frustrated

I can't get this to work. Tried calling shineenc directly, tried replacing it with a Ruby script that also writes out the arguments to a tmpfile, but it never gets called!

Please help me, I need this to have 3G streaming of my music...

[bluegaspode]

Did you see the following wiki-page: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...or_transcoding

It summarizes all steps needed.
The posts here on the forum all were about FLAC to mp3 transcoding. If you are having mp3s then additional steps (as described on the wiki) need to be taken.