Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Transcoding while streaming to iTunes?

["Craig S. Kaplan" <csk cgl uwaterloo ca>]

> > Is it not possible to transcode to disk and then stream from there?
> > Obviously, I wouldn't mind all my clients keeping around a small
> > working set of transcoded files as overhead on top of 50GB of music.
> > Actually, I wouldn't really mind doing that in memory either.  I
> > just stuck in an extra 512MB -- I have to use it for something.
>
> That's one option, and I think Banshee does that for transcoded-for-ipod
> files. Calling them "._ORGININAL_NAME.mp3" or something.

That seems fine, as long as the hidden transcoded files don't lie
around forever.  And the user should probably be able to store them in
a different filesystem than the music library.

Here's another random idea that's possibly more modular.  Would it
be possible to write a standalone "transcoding daemon"?  This would
be a program that finds daap shares on the local network, and offers
identical shares with all the music transcoded.  When a client
requests a song, the daemon requests the song from the original
source, transcodes it, and sends it along.

Is this practical, or would it simply double traffic on the local
network?  Perhaps this is overkill, and I should simply use mt-daapd
to share with iTunes...

--
Craig S. Kaplan                         If civilization is to survive,
University of Waterloo                   it must live on the interest,
Cheriton School of Computer Science        not the capital, of nature.
http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/                     -- Ronald Wright