Encoders

With Sockso, it's possible to use various different encoders when playing music. You probably want to do this for one of the following reasons...

• Re-encode one format to another (eg. so Ogg files can be played with Sockso's flash player, which only support mp3s)
• Re-encode music at a lower bitrate so it can be listened to on slower connections

The Encoders Panel

The encoders panel in Sockso lists the various file formats that Sockso can handle, and then allows you to specify how Sockso should handle each of these different types. The default is to stream the track unaltered.

Builtin Encoding

These are in the form of settings and/or scripts that come with Sockso that allow you to just select an option from the list and have your music encoded. You will need to have the correct programs installed on your computer though, Sockso just provides the means to use them. So for example if you want to use Lame to re-encode your mp3's at a lower bitrate, you'll need to have it installed and available in your PATH.

Custom Encoding

This option allows you to specify a command to use to re-encode your music. This will probably be in the form of a shell script which does whatever you want to the music before playing it. Whatever program you use, it should take the path of the track as its first argument, and return the audio data to stdout (Sockso will then read it back in and send it to the users music player).

Console

You can also set up encoding through the console by editing Sockso's properties. The properties live under the encoders prefix. Here's an example that will enable builtin Lame encoding for mp3's...

encoders.mp3 BUILTIN
encoders.mp3.name Lame
encoders.mp3.bitrate 128

So first you need to set the type of encoder for the file extension, this type can be either NONE, BUILTIN, or CUSTOM, eg...

encoders.mp3 NONE
encoders.ogg BUILTIN
encoders.flac CUSTOM

NONE

If the value for the file type is set to NONE, then the tracks of this type will be streamed completely unaltered.

encoders.wma NONE

BUILTIN

If set to BUILTIN, you'll then need to specify a name for the builtin encoder that you want to use. Currently the builtin encoders you can choose from are...

• Lame - Re-encodes mp3's to a different bitrate.
• OggDecToLame - Converts Ogg to mp3
• FlacToLame - Convert FLAC to mp3

encoders.ogg BUILTIN
encoders.ogg.name OggDecToLame

CUSTOM

If you want to specify your own script (as explained above) to do the encoding then set this to CUSTOM, and use the command property to give the full command to run your script.

encoders.flac CUSTOM
encoders.flac.command /bin/sh /home/me/re-encode.sh