PROBLEM:
When streaming Radio Paradise blocks via HTTP using FFPlay, the buffer
would cycle between 0KB and ~130KB approximately once per second, causing
audio dropouts and interruptions. VLC worked fine, but FFPlay was sensitive
to the burst transmission pattern.
ROOT CAUSE:
In StreamingFlacSink::broadcast_flac_stream(), the broadcaster was reading
8KB (8192 bytes) at a time from the FLAC encoder and sending the entire
chunk at once to all HTTP clients. This created a "burst" pattern:
- Read 8KB from encoder
- Send entire 8KB chunk to all clients
- Sleep if ahead of real-time pacing
- Repeat
FFPlay's buffer would fill rapidly with each 8KB burst, then drain completely
before the next burst arrived, causing the observed cycling behavior.
SOLUTION:
Reduced the HTTP broadcast buffer size from 8KB to 512 bytes in
StreamingFlacSink::broadcast_flac_stream(). This creates a much smoother,
more continuous data flow that FFPlay can handle without buffer cycling.
The 512-byte buffer size is:
- Small enough to prevent burst transmission
- Large enough to avoid excessive overhead
- Sufficient for smooth streaming with real-time pacing
CHANGES:
- Restore stream_block.rs example from git history
- Restore StreamingFlacSink and StreamingOggFlacSink from git history
- Add "streaming" feature to pmoaudio-ext
- Reduce broadcast buffer from 8192 to 512 bytes
- Update pmoparadise to use pmoaudio-ext streaming feature
TESTING:
Test with FFPlay to verify smooth buffering:
```bash
cargo run --example stream_block --features full -- 0
# In another terminal:
ffplay http://localhost:8080/test/stream
```
Watch the "aq=" value in FFPlay output. It should now remain stable
instead of cycling between 0KB and 130KB.
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