STV Import: Simple Web Radio V1.2

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Dirk, try it after you set "Display Video on Menus=Always and Video Menu Style=Background

Sorry Michael, but I kind'a remembered your setup and already had these options set ... Maybe your Sage machine is somehow 'possessed' ?

Dirk

[mkanet]

Yeah, its really weird. Your sleep timer stops webradio perfectly... .its just the darn liveTV starts up as soon as SageTV is sleeping. I know Chris added code related to starting and stoping the SageTV media player when sageTV goes to sleep. I guess only Chris would know..

[mkanet]

I think I figured out the problem. It's NOT my machine! This happens only *IF* Sleep timer puts sageTV to sleep while webradio is playing AND there is a TV show being recorded in the background.

This was tough for me to NOT make happen since SageTV records TV 24/7 for me... especially when its bed time.

Is there anyway to fix this? I am able to consistently reproduce this behavior, explicitly depending on if there are TV shows being recorded or not.

Dirk? Chris? Please??? I'm soooooo close!!!

Originally Posted by flachbar

Sorry Michael, but I kind'a remembered your setup and already had these options set ... Maybe your Sage machine is somehow 'possessed' ?

Dirk

[Madcoder]

Hi. This works great for Shoutcast streams, BUT...
If you are like me and can't stand the lower bitrates, you might have a subscription to something like Sky.fm. These streams open up a URL like this:

http://username:password@160.79.128.22:8600

This import can not play these! Is there any way to get support added for this? FYI, you can buy just a 24 hours pass, etc. from Sky.fm or DI.fm. I would be willing to Paypal donate a few days of development login time, if that would help!

[tsokeefe]

Originally Posted by Jason

As it stands right now, this will not work with the MVP... It uses the jlgui (http://www.javazoom.com/jlgui/jlgui.html) jave player on the actual client. As the MVP does not utilize the applet that this stv/plugin uses, it does not work on the MVP.

If it (or another alternative...) were to send the mp3/stream to Sage's internal player, then it would work with the MVP.

-Jason

Just a thought on the simple web radio and the MVP. It seems consensus is that the web radio will not work through SAGE on the MVP. The Hauppauge software for the MVP inherently has the ability to play shoutcast stations through its MVP GUI. I would not pretend to know how it all works, but perhaps those with brains might consider this a clue - i hope - because I really would like this plugin for my MVP.
http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/manuals/m-mediamvp.pdf

From the manual about shoutcast... I hope this sparks something...

Radio menu
MediaMVP allows you to listen to Internet Radio stations through your TV set. MediaMVP
accomplishes this by opening a special link on your PC to the Internet radio station, and
then “streams” the Internet audio over your home network to the MediaMVP, where the
audio is output to the TV set. Note: your PC must be able to access the Internet.
To play an Internet radio station through the MediaMVP, the Internet radio station must do
two things:
- it must transmit audio in either MP3 or in WMA formats. Some radio stations transmit
using Real audio, which the MediaMVP cannot currently play.
- the Internet radio station must be accessable via a direct Internet link. In other words,
you need to be able to put a URL in Internet Explorer and reach the Internet radio station
directly without going through any levels of indirection. An example of a website
which has direct links to Internet radio stations is Shoutcast.
Here is how you can listen to Internet radio using MediaMVP:
Step 1: Create a link to an Internet radio station on your PC
Open Internet Explorer and go to a page with Internet Radio stations. Shoutcast is one
example: http://www.shoutcast.com
Remember: you must be selecting Internet radio stations which can be directly
accessed by your browser (and not via a redirected URL). There are many Internet
radio stations which do not allow a direct link to the station. These Internet radio stations
cannot be played by MediaMVP.
Choose an Internet Radio station or program and use your RIGHT mouse button to click
on the button which allows you to listen to a station (for example, the Tune In button in
Shoutcast). When you click your RIGHT mouse button, a Pop-Up Menu will appear.
Choose Add to MVP
Favorite Radio Stations.
A window will pop up entitled
MVP Radio Station. You will
be asked to enter Radio station
name. You can do so if
you like, or leave the default.
You can also place the radio
station in a category (you will
see these categories on your
TV set via the MediaMVP).
When you are finished naming
your radio station, click
OK.
Step 2: Add radio stations
to the MediaMVP
media list
Now we need to add the
Internet Radio station directory
to the MediaMVP media list so that the
MediaMVP can "see" them.
On your Windows screen, click Start /
Programs /HauppaugeMediaMP then Search
for Media. (this program also can be found
in Program Files/Hauppauge
MediaMVP directory)
Under Media Type:
choose Radio Stations
and click on Search. After a
few moments, you will see
a list of directories on your
local hard disks which have
MediaMVP links to Internet
Radio stations. Click on
those directories you would
like to have MediaMVP list
on your TV set, click Add
and then click on Save.
Step 3: Playing an Internet radio station on the MediaMVP
Click the Go button on the MediaMVP remote. Click on the Radio button. If you have set up
the directories (the paragraph above), you will see a MyRadio listing. Go to this directory.
In the directory, you will see a list of Internet radio stations you have made links to.
To start playing an Internet radio station, use your remote control to select the station
and then click the Play button.
Note: If you click on a radio station
and the audio does not
start within a few seconds,
the radio station cannot be accessed
by the MediaMVP. One reason for
this is that this station cannot be
accessed directly (it uses redirection
to get to the station). Another reson
might be that the radio station does
not transmit audio in one of the formats
MediaMVP can play (currently
MP3 and WMA).
How the Internet radio stations are named, stored and played by the
MediaMVP:
When you are browsing Internet radio stations while in Internet Explorer, and you right click
on a link to an Internet radio station, the MediaMVP application running on the PC makes a
note of the URL the link is pointing to. The MVP Radio Station pop up menu then is run,
allowing you to name the link and also put the link into a category (for example: Jazz), and
then a file is created in the My Radio directory with that name. The file extension is .MVP,
and within the file is the URL of the radio station.
When you want to play a radio station, the MediaMVP application running on the PC opens
that file, goes to the URL within the file and then streams the audio over your network to
the MediaMVP, where the audio is then played out to your TV set.
If the file holds a link which is not valid (a link which does not directly point to an Internet
radio station), then the MediaMVP radio software waits for about 1 minute before it senses
that it cannot open the URL and find a radio station. MediaMPV will then return to the Radio
menu.

[Polypro]

Anybody else not getting an artist picture or biography anymore? Was listening last night, and nothing was showing up.

P

[koelec]

Hi,
Working on next version of this plugin. I've written a wrapper around a headless version of Softsqueeze which interfaces with SlimServer as a backend, which means that you can playback the following:
natively: Flac, MP3, WAV and AIFF audio
Ogg Vorbis, WMA and AAC by transcoding in the Slimserver
Access to all internet radio served by slimserver (shoutcast, liveradio681, rtp, ...). and have access to Pandora streams as well.

For this to work you have to setup a slimserver on your machine and create playlists via it's web interface browsing through the lists of available stations, or let it scan for music content on the local disk.

The first version of the plugin which I renamed from Web Radio to Slim Player will have the same interface as the current webradio plugin. Playlists from slimserver will appear as a list on the main screen and you can select one for playback. For both local content, e.g. MP3's from the local file system and Internet streams, Artist Info will be displayed (picture and bio).
Next versions will focus on adding playlist control, browsing for content etc.
You can get a good idea of what is possible with the Slim Server if you download it together with the software player Softsqueeze and try it on a PC.
(see links below).

Unfortunately, again I have to let users of MVP and Placeshifter down, because this plugin will work with neither one. This is because MVP and Placeshifter only playback content streamed by the Sage Media Player. Since the Media Player does not accept input streams it will not work together with the slim server.

I hope this new plugin will be popular and people at SageTV will pick up the idea and add native support for slim server, so everybody could enjoy this incredible piece of software.

More info on slim server and downloads from here:
http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html
softsqueeze download:
http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/download.html

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by Madcoder

Hi. This works great for Shoutcast streams, BUT...
If you are like me and can't stand the lower bitrates, you might have a subscription to something like Sky.fm. These streams open up a URL like this:

http://usernameassword@160.79.128.22:8600

This import can not play these! Is there any way to get support added for this? FYI, you can buy just a 24 hours pass, etc. from Sky.fm or DI.fm. I would be willing to Paypal donate a few days of development login time, if that would help!

See this post:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...227#post172227
Slim Server does support these kinda streams.

-Chris

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by koelec

Unfortunately, again I have to let users of MVP and Sage Client down, because this plugin will work with neither one. This is because MVP and Sage client only playback content streamed by the Sage Media Player. Since the Media Player does not accept input streams it will not work together with the slim server.

Chris,

I assume you meant to say Sage Placeshifter as opposed to Client?

Sounds cool! Guess I'll have to get prepared for some SageMC conversion.

Any chance this will allow the use of the http://xxxxxx.pls format for the shoutcast stations? One thing that limits my shoutcast usage is that the hard IP addresses go stale and I get lazy in looking up the new ones.

Looking forward to it. Now if you could add a QAM decoder for HD....

[koelec]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

I assume you meant to say Sage Placeshifter as opposed to Client?

Yes, I mean Placeshifter. I'll fix this in my previous post. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Morgan111

Any chance this will allow the use of the http://xxxxxx.pls format for the shoutcast stations? One thing that limits my shoutcast usage is that the hard IP addresses go stale and I get lazy in looking up the new ones.

I think SlimServer stores the URL, so no more hard coded IP addresses.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Chris, right on! I can't wait to try it out. This will definately take Internet music on SageTV to a whole new level!

[garyellis]

Chris, I want to ask again the same that Morgan asked. Any way to get stations in the http://xxxxx.pls format to work. One station that I want is not on Shoutcast. I contacted the station and they gave me their *.pls URL...It plays fine as a shortcut on my computer, but would love to make it work through your plugin..

And btw, thanks for the plugin, I really do like it and it makes SAGETV that much better.

Gary Ellis

[koelec]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Chris, I want to ask again the same that Morgan asked. Any way to get stations in the http://xxxxx.pls format to work. One station that I want is not on Shoutcast. I contacted the station and they gave me their *.pls URL...It plays fine as a shortcut on my computer, but would love to make it work through your plugin..

And btw, thanks for the plugin, I really do like it and it makes SAGETV that much better.

Gary Ellis

Gary,
You have to download the .pls file and open it up with notepad, extract the url in there and use that one in the stationlist.txt file. Things will be easier with the upcoming version of this plugin, where you configure your stations by browsing and clicking.

- Chris

[garyellis]

Thanks for the answer Chris. I had already tried that and it does not work..

Here is the PLS file..

[playlist]

NumberOfEntries=1

File1=http://bibleb.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bibleb_english
Title1:http://www.bbnradio.org/bbn/englishaudio.pls

I put the http://bibleb.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bibleb_english
into the stationlist.txt file...It does not play. The other URL's I have loaded play just fine. And this one plays when I click on the PLS file from my desktop.

any ideas?

Thanks,

Gary

[koelec]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Thanks for the answer Chris. I had already tried that and it does not work..

Here is the PLS file..

[playlist]

NumberOfEntries=1

File1=http://bibleb.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bibleb_english
Title1:http://www.bbnradio.org/bbn/englishaudio.pls

I put the http://bibleb.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bibleb_english
into the stationlist.txt file...It does not play. The other URL's I have loaded play just fine. And this one plays when I click on the PLS file from my desktop.

any ideas?

Thanks,

Gary

I've got some good and bad news.
The bad news is it will not work with the current version of the web radio plugin, because somehow the JLGUI player rejects it.
The good news is it will work with the new upcoming version (called Slim Player), which uses slim server.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Chris, maybe I understood this wrong, but does it mean that the next version will require an external app (external to sageTV) called, "Slim Player"? If so, does it have to stay in memory when Web Radio isn't being used?

Thanks..

Originally Posted by koelec

I've got some good and bad news.
The bad news is it will not work with the current version of the web radio plugin, because somehow the JLGUI player rejects it.
The good news is it will work with the new upcoming version (called Slim Player), which uses slim server.

- Chris

[Madcoder]

2 questions.

Will we be able to keep the existing import if we want a simpler plugin?

In the case of yes for the first question, is there some way to increase the buffer length in the existing plugin? I have a few stations that studder using the plugin, but play fine in for example Winamp. This is because in Winamp I am able to increase the buffer size, and then the studdering goes completely away. Is there any way to set something like that for this plugin?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Chris, maybe I understood this wrong, but does it mean that the next version will require an external app (external to sageTV) called, "Slim Player"?

Yes and no. Yes you need an external application. No it is not called slim player.
The extenal application is called slim server, which is open software and is used to stream audio to audio players.
Please take a look here http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_features.html and see what exciting new things will be available through Slim server.
The new plugin will be called "Slim Player import STVI", and consists of an integrated player for playback of the stream coming from the Slim server and STV code to interact with playlists and playback control.
The GUI is very similar to the current web radio GUI and is extended to account for new functionality regarding tracks.

This change in technology was motivated by the limited support for audio formats by the JLGUI library and the many exciting new features offered through the use of Slim Server, i.e. a wide variety of internet radio stream formats, access to iTunes playlists, local audio files playback (wav, ogg, flac, aac, wma, mp3), transparant access to things like pandora music streams (you choose one artist, pandora streams other very similar music), MoodLogic, MusicMagic, and so on.

Because the new plugin supercedes the web radio plugin, they can not coexist in a STV. When you install the Slim Player stvi, the web radio plugin is removed automatically.

Originally Posted by mkanet

If so, does it have to stay in memory when Web Radio isn't being used?
Thanks..

Yes, the Slim Server is an external application that can be used by multiple clients (players), SageTV is just one of them.
It is like a Sage Client and Sage Server. Just like Sage server, you don't want to shutdown the slim server.

- Chris

[Morgan111]

Chris, Will the use of Slim Server allow playback of audio CDs in the drive?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by Madcoder

2 questions.

Will we be able to keep the existing import if we want a simpler plugin?

Yes, of course you can continue to use the web radio plugin if you are satisfied with it. But the Slim Player plugin has so much more to offer (see my previous post).

Originally Posted by Madcoder

In the case of yes for the first question, is there some way to increase the buffer length in the existing plugin? I have a few stations that studder using the plugin, but play fine in for example Winamp. This is because in Winamp I am able to increase the buffer size, and then the studdering goes completely away. Is there any way to set something like that for this plugin?

Ok, I've created a special for you (and any others experiencing stutter on some stations).
Please copy the attached webradio.zip file into the JARS folder in your current SageTV installation folder. Rename webradio.jar to webradio.jar.old and rename webradio.zip to webradio.jar.
This new jar will enable you to set the buffer size if you create a file called webradio.properties (be sure the extension is .properties and not .properties.txt) with the following line in it:

buffer=64000

and put this properties file in the same folder where the stationlist.txt resides.
The current buffersize default value (if you don't set the buffer property) is 16000.
You have to restart Sage for the new setting to become effective.

Hope this solves your problem.

- Chris