Performance and Limitations

Streaming Media

Sound Mill allows adding streaming media URIs (Web links) which can allow you to play Web radio, podcasts, music and other Internet content. Be aware that some Internet sites implement connection barriers to prevent their content from being streamed by non-approved media players.

Driver Support for HTTP/HTTPS Web Links

• Media Player driver - Supports HTTP (Non-secure http) but NOT HTTPS (Secure http).
• Windows Audio driver - Supports both HTTP and HTTPS.

Connection Not Guaranteed

There is no guarantee that Web streams will operate exactly the same as hard-drive based media. Network bandwidth and connection stability can be a factor. Suffice to say that Internet communications and data transfer introduce some extra complexities beyond that of local hard-drive access. You may find some streams that take two or three attempts to connect or will not connect at all. More on that below.

Limited Sound Mill Features Function

Streaming media is limited in terms of program features that will work. If the stream is well behaved (see Streaming Media Consistency section below), these Play Control buttons should work: Play, Stop, Pause, Resume . There are additional features in the Play Modifiers that may work depending on the media format. And some features such as Pause / Resume may behave differently based on the stream format.

Pause/Resume Behavior Consistency

Stream behavior and functionality can be very much hit or miss. Not all stream formats are created equal. That means that Stop/Pause/Resume may not behave the same way for different formats. Some stream formats will pause the stream feed and resume at the point it was pause -- not dropping any content. Other formats may simply drop any content that streams by while the program is paused.

In fact we found one test stream that did not even respond to the Stop button -- that Stream was stopped by Actions > Halt All Sounds. Apple formats were more prone to ill-behavior in our testing -- not surprizing since our media drivers are Windows based.

Load Times

Load time will depend on multiple factors: Your computer's Internet bandwidth; The streaming media server's current user load (number of people hitting their server at a given time); media server's speed; and more. We also found some streams took two or three attempts to load -- by clicking Stop , then Play again.

Media Length

There is a subtle difference between media files (ie MP3) that reside on a server and streamed content such as live Web Radio broadcasts. The MP3 file has an inherent length (time duration), where as the Web Radio stream length is theoretically infinity (no beginning or end). So program features that depend on having a known time length for the media may not work (ex. position scrubber bar) for the Web Radio stream.

Automation Issues

You can make a playlist (Automation script) of Web based audio files and it should play fine. But avoid Script Steps that play Web Radio stream content (see Media Length section above). Those type of streams will not report end of media has been reached, so your script will continue to wait for an end of media signal indefinitely. Any subsequent steps in your script will not get executed.

Notable Feature Limitations

Key feature limitations of streaming media.
• Play Position Scrubber Track bar - The scrubber bar does not work for all streams (see Media Length section above).
• Play Modifiers - Only some of the Sound Item Play Modifiers will work with streams. And the ones that do work depend on how well behaved the stream is. These Play Modifiers worked in our testing: Fade Markers, Pre-Delay, Start-At Marker, End-At Marker. You'll just have to test to see if a Play Modifier will work for a given stream.
• Internet Radio Links - Some Internet streaming sites do not want you streaming thier content with your own player. They may hide their streaming Web links making them difficult to find. They may use redirects or dynamic Web links that change on some regular basis. And they may encode their stream with DRM encryption. Also read their terms of service and copyright notice.