[Asterisk-Users] What's the best way to stream and/or convert MP3 and WAV files?

[Leo Burd]

Hello everyone,

I'm implementing an audioblog application and have some questions about 
how to best stream and/or convert MP3 and WAV files to be played by 
Asterisk.  Currently, I first copy the files from the server to my 
machine, convert them to Wav and play.  Unfortunately, this process is 
not very efficient at all.  Here are my questions:

a) Is there any way to play MP3 files directly by Asterisk? 

b) What is the best command line to be used to convert MP3 files into 
any format that can be played by Asterisk?  Shall I use sox or anything 
like that?  If so, what would be the proper parameters to pass?

c) Is there any way to stream MP3 files directly into Asterisk and still 
allow users to forward/pause/rewind the file while playing?

d) Does Asterisk play any kind of WAV file?  Do I need to convert Wav 
files before playing them?

Thank you so much for your help,

Leo