hi fi Streaming Audio

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Compression Standards

The MP3 standard only supports certain rates and certain combinations of rates. Also Flash can only play three of the sample rates correctly (the standard has about 8). Also if we go above bitrate 192kbs (which sounds nearly like wav quality) then the maximum playtime gets too short so we should stop at 192. Also LAME does not do every rate (but most of them). Hi Fi Audio Stream is set up for all of them for you.

Bitrates :

8,16,24,32,40,48,56,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,192 kbs


Channels:

1 - Mono

2 - Stereo

Sample rates:

11025, 22050, 44100 Hz

Then you should validate:

11025 can only be used with 8 to 64 inclusive

22050 can only be used with 8 to 160 inclusive

44100 can only be used with 32 upwards

Yes it will only convert up to 16000 frames, anything after that will be omitted. 16000 frames at 1 frame a second is 4 hours 26 mins long. The 16000 limit is a Flash limit.

How to reduce controllers (buttons)

When you first load your program it will set up a folder called controllers. Many people will not use all the different controllers so you can set up another folder called unused controllers and move all the controllers you do not use into this folder.

If you want to use them in the future then just move them back into the original folder.  This means when you use the options and the controller choice for your project then only the controllers you have left in the controller folder will be able to be selected. Similarly if you download the additional controllers just unzip them into your controllers folder.

Adjusting the size of controllers (buttons)

The html created by HiFi Audio Stream contains the sizes of the Flash movies. The sizes are there twice, once for Internet Explorer and once for Netscape and other browsers. You can change these parameters to resize the buttons.

Sample

   Sample Normal

width=80 height=27

   Sample at 75% 

width=60 height=20.25

 This is a controller with the sizes doubled.

  Bagdad Bogie

width=260 height=64

Renaming the files

Here is how you rename files so they work. You must leave the extension on the end.

My three files were

hifias10.htm

hifias10d.swf

hifias10s.swf

I reanmed them to

test.htm

testd.swf

tests.swf

Notice I left the s and the d on the end as these tell how the controller etc works. You will also need to change the names inside the htm file to correspond with your file name changes.

Extra Controllers

Standard set:

This set is supplied with the program. Quite a varied selection. Click the link below to check them out. Note there are 47 of them and the page might take a while to download. You would probably not normally have this many audio tracks on a page, but it is possible.

Preview standard set.

Extra set 1:

This includes some nice pastel shaded dished buttons (requested by one of our customers), and a kind of show case button that spins in 3D when it is playing.

 Preview extra set 1.
Opens in a new window

Download extra set 1 (105K under 1min with 56K modem).

Extra set 2:

This set has a controller that was written by one of our customers. The programs help gives some instructions on how to do this (for the adventurous). This set also has some buttons with speaker pictures on them, designed by one of our customers.

Preview extra set 2.
Opens in a new window


Download extra set 2 (14K under 1min with 56K modem).

Extra set 3:

This group of controllers (buttons) are mainly found on business and marketing sites. They are square pastel buttons with a play pause and stop button.

Preview extra set 3.
Opens in a new window


Download extra set 3 (14K under 1min with 56K modem).

How to install:

Simply unzip all contents of the file into the programs "Controllers" folder.

IE Update Fix

Here is a video to show you how to allow the media to work without having to use two clicks to authorize delivery of the content. I am not adding it to any of our software as many businesses have requested us not to as their clients want to choose whether to allow it or not.

Video Tutorial Runs as a popup.

Create a new javascript file called, say. ieupdate.js containing the 4 lines of code at the end of this post or use this one. Here is your ieupdate.js if you just want to download it.

Then, at the bottom of any page containing Flash (or Shockwave, Quicktime etc) add a reference to this file:
<script type="text/javascript" src="ieupdate.js"></script>

And that is it!

It works simply by replacing the contents of the object tag with itself. This external rewritting of the tag is enough for IE accept that your code doesn't require user activation. The outerHTML feature only works in IE, but as IE is the only affected browser that is OK.

You could test for IE using your favorite method (document.all, etc), and instead of adding it to the bottom of the page you could add the code to a window.onload function, depending whatever is best for your site.

If users have JavaScript turned off then your site will work as before.

Hope some people find this useful.

Useful links:
Adobe: Active Content Developer Center
MS: Activating ActiveX Controls

Attach Code

theObjects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < theObjects.length; i++) {
	theObjects[i].outerHTML = theObjects[i].outerHTML;
}
 Here is your ieupdate.js if you just want to download it.
PS if you want to get it off your computer for browsing sites then use this.
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> 
Check "Show Updates" box -> Windows XP (KB912945) -> Remove