Hi All,

Does a server location and latency have an impact on how good a stream will be?

Also what audio player I.E. Winamp, VLC etc are people using these days. I am looking for a realiable audio player that will pick up a stream and play without crashing, freezing, stopping or buffering. Am finding Winamp crashes a lot.

Any players have any plugins that will restart a stream if it stops for any reason?

Cheers

1- Yes, latency is important.  For lower speeds it doesn't matter as much, but higher speeds (128 kbps and up) it can matter.  If your server is in Europe and you are sending a stream from the US then there is a potential of buffering. 

We had a 192 kbps stream and was sending from California to Germany and the ping time was 250 ms or greater.  At times the stream buffered.

2- I'll let someone else answer the player question.

Thanks Dennis, currently have a server based in Canada and have main audience in Europe, will look at moving I think.

Dennis, has the problem been resolved since moving the locations? Has your stream become more reliable?

I meant the latency is due by the distance from the server to the broadcast PC.  That is the main cause of buffering of the stream for higher bit rates.
 

Yes, our server is based in Canada, we broadcast from UK, with most of listeners based in Europe.

I have been happy with AIMP audio player for years. I think it may have the features you are looking for and I believe was originally based on winamp.
http://www.aimp.ru/

Thanks Grahm

I have seen AIMP will give it a go. I have looked at VLC but plug ins seem a little thin.