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1) Your Server Information (Server Specifications): Space - First and foremost when deciding on creating a ShockBox Server (SBS), you need a place for your files to reside. Remember that Shockwave or MPEG Layer III audio files can fill a hard drive or server very quickly. Internet Connection - Logistically you would need your server to have an Internet connection of at least T1 or greater. It is possible that many ShockBox users may access your site at the same time. If your SBS resides on a connection slower than a T1, it is possible that users connecting or connected to your server could be disconnected due to the collective large use of bandwidth. Access - Your server can be accessed by either website or FTP address. If you use a FTP address you must make sure that a password and login are not required when ShockBox attempts to access your SBS preference files. Password protected ftp sites will not be accepted into the SB Server window because of the involved security risks. Acceptible Audio Formats - ShockBox Web playback abilities allow you play the following formats off of the Web via a ShockBox Server
Show your server in the ShockBox server window
2) Preference Files Server Preference File An example of 2 entries in your "server_prefs.txt" text file: The first line contains the descriptive name of the album or CD that is shown in the volume field of the selection window of SB. The second line contains the directory location and the file name of the track preference file. The directory location and the track information file must be separated with a forward-slash character. NOTE: In the second line of each album entry, the text must have no extra spaces and it must be accurate. You may not have any non-web ascii characters, blank or extra lines present in your preference file. The Server Preference file must have the file name "server_prefs.txt".
3) Shockwave/MP3 Preparation Suggested audio software for creating Shockwave audio: Suggested free audio software for creating MPEG Layer III & II audio: Understanding Shockwave Compression Quality Shockwave Audio compresses sounds using advanced methods that are quite different from most other sound compression schemes. Some of the techniques you currently use to make sounds smaller may be inappropriate for use with Shockwave Audio. There is often no advantage to reducing the sampling rate of source sounds before compressing with Shockwave Audio. Reducing the sampling rate degrades the quality of the final compressed sound and makes no difference in its size. Set the amount of compression for Shockwave Audio by choosing a bit rate setting in any of the Shockwave Audio Xtras. The bit rate specifies the number of bits per second Shockwave Audio uses to render the sound, regardless of the source material. One second of any type of sound compressed to 16 Kbps = 16,000 bits = 2 K bytes. The bit rate does not specify the compression ratio or the sampling rate. For example, 10 seconds of 16 bit audio sampled at 22 Megahertz would be 440K in the AIFF format. Compressed at 16 Kbps by Shockwave Audio, the same sound would end up being 20 K. (Do not confuse Kilo bits per seconds (Kbps) with Kilobytes (K). A byte is eight bits. Kilo bits per second is commonly used to indicate the speed of data transmission; Kilobytes is used for file sizes. This is, unfortunately, the accepted industry terminology.) Although Shockwave Audio uses advanced compression technology that alters original sounds as little as possible, the more a sound is compressed the more it is changed. Try compressing the same sound at several different bit rates to see how the sound changes and how much compression is achieved. Choose the bit rate appropriate for the intended delivery system (modems, ISDN, CD-ROM, hard disk, and so on). A voice-over, for example, may not need to be as high quality as music. Test the sound on several systems to find the right balance between quality and performance. The more compressed a sound is, the better it streams. If you choose to use a high bit stream rate, a slow delivery system may not be able to send the data fast enough. This causes gaps during playback. Most developers choose 16 Kbps for the best results for streaming over the internet with 28.8 modems. For smaller internal sounds, choose 64 Kbps for the best balance of size and quality. The table below suggests some general guidelines for setting the bit rate for different delivery systems. It also provides a rough estimate of perceived quality for different rates of compression.
NOTE: Any sound compressed at less than 48 Kbps is converted to mono. Preferred Settings for Compression of Internet Audio Extract your audio tracks from CD with your software of choice. Save your audio as 44 mHz, AIFF or WAV files. Your audio compression settings will determine much about how many people will visit your server. If your compression is set too low, your audio file will sound awesome, but it's size will be enormous and typical users on a 56 kbps modem will not be able to pull the audio file down fast enough to enjoy it. The settings below will allow the optimum amount of people to access your audio while maintaining excellent audio quality.
Example Copyright Info field: For the copyright info field, please use this format for a consistent look and feel to each SB Server. File Naming
4) CD/Album Covers (optional) Image Settings CD Width and Height Dimensions:
Formats Accepted and Size Restrictions Example of "advert.txt": Advertisements can be of three different file types:
Ad Width and Height Dimensions:
Content
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