Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-09 07:10:02

Just put the finishing touches on a new feature, take a look:

With this, you can stream to anyone with just the push of a button. Without any downloads or installing and configuring programs. No more tears, only streams.

And as a reminder, while you need an account to broadcast, you DO NOT need an account to listen in, as long as the broadcaster has their profile set to allow anyone to listen. If you want to live stream to anyone, anywhere, you can. The choice is yours.

One on one streaming is also possible, if you tick the box to hide your streaming status from public lists. The only people who will be able to listen in are the ones who have the link to your streaming page. And again, only the streamer needs an account. The listener is fine without one as long as you tick the box for it.

In the future I hope to add things like bass boosting or anti-noise filters to help focus on the heartbeats but for now we’ve got a solid streaming service that works however and wherever you want to use it. Enjoy!

daitod · 2017-05-09 16:26:17

Neat.

I note that the do-it-yourself shoutcast / icecast method also still works, which is good.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-09 16:36:49

Yeah, one of my main requirements with all the features on the site is that they MUST fall back if at all possible. Like the chat for example. You can use the web chat on here, or connect with a dedicated IRC client of your own if you like. There's a few QoL improvements on the site if you use javascript, like the BBCode buttons or quoting and <3ing without reloading the page, but those last two at least work just fine even without javascript enabled.

daitod · 2017-05-10 01:58:36

What are the IRC details?

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-10 02:06:53

heart2h.com is the server, running on port 6667 or 6697 if you like SSL. Channel is #h2h

HBrhody · 2017-05-10 18:12:53

I tried using Butt, but I couldn't get Butt to connect.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-10 19:12:22

What are your settings looking like? They should vaguely resemble this.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-13 00:43:12

Heads up, this does not work on the Avast SafeZone Browser. It supports enough of the features needed to convince the site it works, but in reality those features are a bit broken. I'm currently looking into whether or not this can be fixed at all.

To go into a bit more detail, the way this works is that the site records the audio, then feeds it into an audio processor. The audio processor wakes up and does things when its buffer is filled with audio data, then goes back to sleep until it fills again. When it wakes up, it does some processing on the audio, broadcasts it, and waits for more. Problem is, it never wakes up. It's not clear if it's because the buffer never fills up or if it just doesn't wake up for some other reason.

Other browsers such as Firefox (recommended) or Chrome work fine.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-13 06:30:14

Small update, there's now a magic streaming button that streams to HBP. It's accessible to non-members as well as members. Requesting feedback on whether or not that's literally the worst idea anyone has ever had ever.

HBrhody · 2017-05-13 11:40:37

ChiraBeats wrote:

Small update, there's now a magic streaming button that streams to HBP. It's accessible to non-members as well as members. Requesting feedback on whether or not that's literally the worst idea anyone has ever had ever.

I don't find it to be a bad idea at all. How does this magic stream work? I'm not very stream educated. I'm not even sure how it works here to be honest with ya.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-13 12:15:14

HBrhody wrote:

ChiraBeats wrote:
Small update, there's now a magic streaming button that streams to HBP. It's accessible to non-members as well as members. Requesting feedback on whether or not that's literally the worst idea anyone has ever had ever.
I don't find it to be a bad idea at all. How does this magic stream work? I'm not very stream educated. I'm not even sure how it works here to be honest with ya.

I'd be happy to explain, let me know if anything doesn't make sense or if you'd like to know more about something.

So how a stream normally works is that butt or Mixxx or whatever records your microphone, converts the data to MP3, and uploads it to the streaming server, which then sends it to everyone listening and bam: broadcast.

This actually works basically the same, except it's built with web technologies, some of which are surprisingly new. WebSockets, WebRTC, WebAudio, and lamejs are the big buzzword names to know. And on a basic level it does work the same way as your desktop streaming applications. WebRTC records raw audio, feeds it into WebAudio which does some processing, and then it's fed into lamejs which converts that raw audio to the MP3 format we all know and love. WebSockets are the massive pain in the butt that have been getting in the way of making this work.

The problem is that when WebSockets first connects to a server, it insists on saying "hi" in a way that scares most servers off if they're not ready for it. Like if some rando walked up to you and told you he was a nigerian prince and wanted to give you a large sum of money. That's where I've been stuck for a few months, until I heard about this nifty little program called Websockify. It stands between WebSockets and the server on the other end, and it intercepts and silences that annoying introduction. After that it just passes data back and forth between the server and you.

That Websockify is the magic that's making it actually work here. Since HBP and H2H both use what appears to be the same version of Icecast, it was super easy to get it running for both sites.

It's not anything super fancy, HBP could do the exact same thing we did, and we'd be done *needing* third party programs to broadcast. They're still there as an option for someone who wants a little extra control, but if you just want to stream real quick for a few minutes there's no reason it can't be done by clicking just one button now.

Last edited by ChiraBeats (2017-05-13 12:16:40)

HBrhody · 2017-05-14 19:03:40

I tried to stream here and for HBP, but when I clicked on the big red stream box, it said "error" even though the Butt connection was established.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-14 20:07:28

The button saying "Error" is usually a browser error. I made some changes, it should now either say "Error grabbing microphone" or "Error initializing context." Could you tell me which one, which browser you're using, and what version of that browser?

HBrhody · 2017-05-15 12:26:34

I got it to work for here, and it supposedly worked when I tried it for HBP, but I didn't know how to verify if it did. How do I know if it works on HBP?

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-15 12:51:53

If you head on over to HBP your icon in the sidebar should indicate that you're recording. I can't remember off the top of my head what the color is for "broadcasting, not chatting" but bottom line is your icon won't be yellow.

HBrhody · 2017-05-15 18:13:37

It showed up in red saying that I was currently sharing. Excellent, but how would I listen? I clicked on my profile, but there was nothing there about streaming. Also, streaming automatically stopped after a few seconds.

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-16 02:17:04

HBrhody wrote:

It showed up in red saying that I was currently sharing. Excellent, but how would I listen? I clicked on my profile, but there was nothing there about streaming.

On HBP? You'd listen by going in the chat, clicking your name, and hitting Listen. On here? There should be something there about streaming in your profile, and on the streaming page itself.

HBrhody wrote:

Also, streaming automatically stopped after a few seconds.

Well that's definitely not supposed to happen. And you appear to be using the latest version of Chrome, too. Is the stopping automatically specific to HBP or does it happen when streaming to either place?

HBrhody · 2017-05-17 12:20:28

Streaming works fine here. Only in HBP mode did a problem occur. I'm not worried about it. I'll figure it out when I decide to look into it. It works here, so I'm happy.

Medic44 · 2017-05-23 17:01:00

couldn't seem to get any audio when trying to listen in on someone else's stream

ChiraBeats · 2017-05-23 17:39:58

What browser and what version?

Heart2Heart

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Heart2Heart is shutting down after seven years.

#1 2017-05-09 07:10:02

Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#2 2017-05-09 16:26:17

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#3 2017-05-09 16:36:49

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#4 2017-05-10 01:58:36

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#5 2017-05-10 02:06:53

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#6 2017-05-10 18:12:53

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#7 2017-05-10 19:12:22

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#8 2017-05-13 00:43:12

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#9 2017-05-13 06:30:14

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#10 2017-05-13 11:40:37

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#11 2017-05-13 12:15:14

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#12 2017-05-14 19:03:40

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#13 2017-05-14 20:07:28

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#14 2017-05-15 12:26:34

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#15 2017-05-15 12:51:53

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#16 2017-05-15 18:13:37

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#17 2017-05-16 02:17:04

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#18 2017-05-17 12:20:28

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#19 2017-05-23 17:01:00

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

#20 2017-05-23 17:39:58

Re: Streaming, as easy as humanly possible.

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