We are again going to do some experimentation with our Nokia 5800 phone, don’t worry it will mess your phone. I have seen a large number FM transmitters being sold on eBay and Amazon for hefty prices. How would it sound if I actually save all your cost? Of course, it sounds nice. But, how are we going to do it? I believe most of us have WiFi routers installed and even Nokia 5800 has a WiFi and we connect our laptops/PC over WiFi. So, do you see the connection – ‘WiFi’? Yes, we will use WiFi to broadcast our music to our Nokia 5800.

Benefits of using WiFi over FM?

1) The audio quality is purely digital. No possible distortions as in FM transmission.
2) The audio transmission over WiFi is purely secure and no one else can listen to it unless you allow it. However, this depends on your WiFi network security i.e. it is not an open network. Even if it is open, it would be quite difficult to connect as you need the link for the audio stream.

In this guide, the instructions are provided where you will be able to transmit whatever audio you will play on your Winamp player to your Nokia 5800. The audio will automatically play on the Real Player in Nokia 5800.

Before we proceed further with the instructions, there are a few pre-requisites that we need –
Icecast Streaming Server – Download
Edcast Winamp Plug-in – Download
Note: Download the mp3 encoder here , unzip it and place it in “C:\Program Files\Winamp” folder.
Winamp Player v5.56 - Download [This is version that I have tested this on.]
Note: Allow access to these applications when prompted by the Firewall.

1. The very first step is to install the Winamp Player (Skip if you have it already installed). Then install the Icecast Streaming Server. Edcast Winamp plug-in is to be installed the last.

2. Once you have completed the installation, launch the Icecast Streaming Server. Click on the start button.

3. Launch Winamp Player. Go to Winamp Preferences -> Plug-ins -> DSP/Effect -> ‘edcast DSP v3’. As soon as you select it, the Edcast plug-in will get launched.

4. Click on the ADD ENCODER button on the Edcast plug-in interface. This will add a default entry into the encoder settings section.

Right click on the encoder entry and select configure.

5. Right click on the default encoder entry and click on ‘configure’. This will open another window.

6. While on the Basic Settings tab, make the selections as shown in the image below.

7. While on the YP Settings tab, make the selections as shown in the image below.

8. While on the Advanced Settings tab, make the selections as shown in the image below. Click on OK.

9. Now verify that the encoder entry under encoder settings on the Edcast interface shows MP3: 128 kbps/44100Hz/Stereo. Now select the ‘AutoConnect’ checkbox and click on Connect.

10. The Edcast interface should now say ‘/nokia5800blog.mp3’ or 'connected' in the encoder settings (Transfer Rate) section.

Once you start playing on the Winamp Player, the interface will look like this.

11. Play any track on winamp. Our Settings for the PC is done. We will now configure our Nokia 5800.

Configuring our Nokia 5800 Real Player for receiving the audio stream -
1. Go to Applications Menu and launch the Real Player

2. Select Options -> Settings. Select your access point which will be your WiFi connection.

Select the appropriate WiFi access point.

Leave rest of the settings as shown. Do not change the default settings.

3. Now go back to the Real Player Menu and select the Streaming Links option. This is where we will create a link for receiving the streaming audio.

4. Select Options -> New Link. Select Memory Card as the memory for the new link. Key in the name and the URL. What URL to use?
http://<lan_ip_of_the_computer_running _the server>:8000/nokia5800blog.mp3
Example – http://192.168.0.100:8000/nokia5800blog.mp3

5. After you have created the link, simply launch it by clicking play button.

Some loop holes

1. The Real Player needs to be running on your Nokia 5800, the entire time you want the audio to be playing. What I mean is that you cannot send the real player to the background and access any other application and if you do that, it will pause and you will again have to bring it to the active screen and click on the play button.
2. Use your Nokia 5800 well within the range of your WiFi.

Please post your comments and view and if you faced any problems following the instructions above.