I'm building an app that streams audio to an icecast server.
This is my current command that actually sends the audio.
nohup ffmpeg -f alsa -ac $CHANNELS -i hw:0 -codec libmp3lame -ab $BITRATE -ar 44100 -nostats -content_type 'audio/mpeg' -f mp3 icecast://$USERNAME:$PASSWORD@$ICECASTSERVER:$ICECASTSERVERPORT/$MOUNTPOINT &> /tmp/stl-app/icecast-source.log &
When I use a source thats 2 channels (ie left and right stereo) the encoder can't keep up. The ffmpeg usage is 100% and the stream stutters badly. I can swap the sound card out for a usb card that is only one channel input, mic, and it works fine.
I realize that it's probably because the pi I'm testing with can't do a stereo live encode to mp3 then streamed. So my questions is, is there something I can do to make this work on a raspberry pi3b+? OR am I just going to be limited to one channel on that device and the for a stereo encode, I'll need to upgrade to something else.
I can record the audio with alsa and then pipe that to ffmpeg but it introduces 4-5 seconds of latency. I'd like to avoid that.
I've tried increasing the bitrate, lowering the sample rate, changing codecs and etc. Kind of at a loss.
Trying to keep the cost down as far as I can but you never know, I may be missing something.
I have a RPi4 I can test with but obv its more expensive. Is there a SBC out there that has the processor power I need?
