NSV – Setting up shoutcast for video streaming

First Note

In this short tutorial I will go quickly over setting up shoutcast for streaming NSV.
This tutorial will be for windows, but some of it can apply for Linux/Unix too.

If you have already set up your shoutcast for streaming audio/radio, then you’ve already set it up for Video too, and you can skip this tutorial.

Shoutcast, wazzat, where?
If you don’t know what shoutcast is, I recommend you go an read up on it quickly before continuing. But in short: It’s the server which you stream your video to, and it then takes that video and streams it to everyone connected. This way you can either stream everything from your own computer, or stream it to a server that does it for you.

You can download shoutcast from shoutcast.com under download at the top. You should come to a page with three icons:
Be a Listener(Gives you winamp)
Be a DJ(Gives you winamp plugin fir audio/radio)
be a Server(The shoutcast server)

We of-course want the server, so we click there, and we come to yet another weird page.
You can just find the link “[PROCEED TO LICENSE AGREEMENT TO DOWNLOAD SHOUTCAST DNAS]” and it will take you to a list of text you’ll “have” to read trough, no one realy does tho. We just proceed to downloading, and you’ll want the top download(windows).

After you’ve downloaded it and started the installer, you will get a screen with “Copyright blah blah blah” that you can skip by clicking next.

The next screen has some choice’s for you, you can choose whether to install GUI version or console version. The Console version is text only, not that the GUI as much more to offer, but we choose the GUI just to keep it simple. You’ll most likely want the config files too, so leave that checked.

At the next screen you will be asked where to install shoutcast. In this tutorial i leave it at default(C:\Program Files\SHOUTcast) C: will be the driver where you installed windows(D: in my case)
Then you just click Install, and it will quickly install the server and then close itself(Don’t be alarmed by that!).

You will now find an entry on your start menu called “SHOUTcast DNAS” in which you can find a shortcut to the configuration file and the GUI.
we’ll go ahead and open the configuration file by clicking “Edit SHOUTcast DNAS Configuration file”.

What you will get when it opens, is a really long text file with a lot of stuff you might or might not understand, but I recommend you to stay away from most settings unless you know what you’re doing. Most settings have an explanation over them, so it should be easy enough to grasp what you need.
For now we’ll look at the following entries:
MaxUser: This is the number of users you’ll allow to connect at the same time. You should limit this according to the bitrate you set, and your upload bandwidth(See Speedtest.net to find you upload, and radiotoolbox.com to find max users)
Password: This is the password used to stream to the server, and you should REALLY change the password!!!
PortBase: Set this to the port the server should listen to, the port HAS to be open to the Internet if you want other to connect to it. You can check if a port is open HERE.

You shouldn’t touch the settings other than those three unless you know what you’re doing!
Remember, in most cases your home bandwidth is not enough to support more than a few users at the same time, and all ports are usually closed. Unless you are able to open the port you need, it is recommended that you shoutcast hosting from a host.

Go Go gadg…erm… Server!

Now that we have configured our server, you can save and close the configuration file. Next we go to our start menu, and start the GUI version of shoutcast.

You will be presented with a dull grey window, with some text on it. The text will log anything that happens, anyone that connects to your server and anyone that disconnects. It will also show any errors or warnings. If you get anny errors, you can check the sticky topics at the official NSV forums, and if it doesn’t help, ask for help there.

After you’ve opened the GUI, there’s really nothing more to it. The server is now running, and waiting for you to start streaming to it(Covered in tutorial 3) and for listeners to connect to it.
There are some buttons at the top:

1. Kill server – This is the only way to shut down the server, pressing X will not shut it down.
2. Hide monitor – This will hide the window in the tray bar at the bottom right(usually) of you task bar, the same as if you press the X button. Double clicking the icon will bring back up the editor.
3. Edit Log -This will open up a txt file with everything that has been written to the log so far.
4. Edit Config – This will open up the Configuration file we edited earlier. Be warned: Saving the configuration file while running the server will not make the settings take place. You’ll have to restart the server to do so.

This concludes the tutorial on setting up Shoutcast. Anny comments, suggestions or questions can be sent to me either by commenting on the field below, or by sending me an E-mail. Good luck 😀

Links
Official shoutcast homepage
Official shoutcast forums