I'm a graphic designer who knows a very little of actionscripting.
Basically my job is to design web pages, but the company I work for, creates radio stations for internet to different clients, so my boss have asked me to create an original skin for the player for the respective radio station.
So I downloaded from flashkit an old flash radio broadcaster fla file and skinned it. Everything works perfect until the swf gets to the internet explorer and firefox (on opera works perfect though), does anybody has an idea on how can I fix this?
I've also heard that flash is not the best option, but I really need to make an unique design for the radio players, so what you can be the best option then?
Thanks in advance
p.s. I also attached the source file if someone is interested.
Thanks again.
Short answer is that Flash is not a good option for playing mp3 streams unless you are using Flash media server (or compatible server) for the stream.
Flash has two means of playing mp3, one for progressive download, the other for true streaming.
The loadSound() method of the Sound Class, which you are probably using, is intended for playing sounds as they download. The file accumulates in computer memory. This is not a good option for live streams because the file size of a live stream is infinite, but computer memory is not. There also seems to be a problem where Flash for Windows IE does not load mp3 streams from shoutcast server.
The alternative is to play streams from a Flash media server (or compatible server) and use the Netconnection api to manage the stream. True streaming causes Flash to drop data packets after playing them so that the mp3 does not accumulate in computer memory. The problem is that not all streaming radio uses FMS.
I do not know of any alternative for customizing a player interface for live streamed mp3. In my opinion this is a big problem for web audio at the moment. Some people have resorted to developing custom java applets for mp3 streams. Shoutcast or Icecast seem to be much more common streaming media platform for internet radio than FMS, but do not have a customizable interface platform like Flash.
Thank you very much for taking time for responding hp3, everything is clear enough.
I'm aware of the memory problem, and I have thinked of some solutions for that, maybe closing and open again the player, but I have one last question,
Is there any way to solve the Windows IE problem? To add a code or something, or there is no solution for that right now?
Seems like people need to run the stream from the streaming server through to a regular server so the file looks like it comes from http:// instead of another protocol.
You will need to contact the server administrator for more information on how to do this.
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