Streaming Radio Workaround ;)

[softappz]

Finally!

Great looking program, works perfectly. Just bought it yesterday to play radiostreams without the need to turn on the tv.
That's a bit of a disappointment, and with only 15 minutes for a refund, before i figured out it wasn't working i was to late.

After playing around a bit and get everything else to work i got an idea.

WORK AROUND FOR STREAMING RADIO

Create a playlist file

Radio.wpl (or whatever the title)

Place this file in the playlist folder (can't find the playlist folder? create a playlist in WMC and do a search trough your library to lacate the folder.

Open the newly created Radio.wpl with notepad and place the following inside and hit save:

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
    <head>
        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.7600.16667"/>
        <meta name="ItemCount" content="1"/>
        <meta name="IsFavorite"/>
        <meta name="ContentPartnerListID"/>
        <meta name="ContentPartnerNameType"/>
        <meta name="ContentPartnerName"/>
        <meta name="Subtitle"/>
        <author/>
        <title>Radio Stream</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <seq>
            <media src="http://82.201.100.9:8000/radio538.m3u"/>
        </seq>
    </body>
</smil>


As an example i used a dutch station (Radio 538) and it works.
You'll have to create a new playlist file for every station, otherwise only the last station in the list plays.
Wait a bit have a cup of coffee or a beer and let WMC find the playlist.
On your phone scroll to playlist and enjoy (don't forget to turn of the TV)

[lopez1_de]

Hi, thanks for sharing this nice workaround!

The next release (1.5.4) is related to movies. But after it's released I'll start implementing streaming radio into MCC.

[SOS_DK]

I hope you consider using the "built-in-radio" feature for it, as that would enable FM radio support as well.

[lopez1_de]

I hope you consider using the "built-in-radio" feature for it, as that would enable FM radio support as well.

It's very strange, but I can't find the online media thing in my german Version of WMC7. 
I'm missing the menu entry "Online Media" from this article: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Listen-to-radio-in-Windows-Media-Center

I have found several post how to fix this problem. I will have a look.

[SOS_DK]

Did you try to create the directories I suggested in my other post describing how to add internet radio stations?

If I remember correctly that made the Radio pop-up with a friend of mine which doesn't even have an FM tuner installed. I never saw this "official" post before, and never tried it.

[lopez1_de]

Did you try to create the directories I suggested in my other post describing how to add internet radio stations?

If I remember correctly that made the Radio pop-up with a friend of mine which doesn't even have an FM tuner installed. I never saw this "official" post before, and never tried it.

This works. But I have to read the files (like WMC does) to get the radio stations. It's one more directory to watch for stations. 

The problem is, where to start and which radio source should I implement? Every user has it's own way to listen to radio and manage radio stations. I don't know where to start. There are so many sources to get radio stations from (FM Tuner/Scripts/mcShoutcast/moreRadio/Playlist).

The easiest way would be to implement FM radio and an own interface for managing streaming radio in MCC. Start playing streaming radio from an URL is really easy in WMC.

Code: [Select]

MediaCenter.PlayMedia(1, "http://www.dr.dk/netradio/Metafiler/asx/dr_world_128.asx" );But will the user enter all the radio stations again into MCC? I'm not sure.

[SOS_DK]

OK, I assumed that since the solution I used pops up in the normal FM radio interface (I dont use FM radio, only streaming) that there was a way for you to pull out the list from the Media Center itself. I used to have an iPhone and there is an application called vmcMote, and that was able to read out the streaming radio stations which I added in the way I described to you. If you find a way to do that, then you would support FM radio and streaming in one hit.

I know that there are people whom use the "big streaming services" with hundreds and hundreds of streams, but when I look at my friends, usually people have 5-20 streaming stations maximum they use. Entering them into an extra file is not a lot of work (at least not from my point of view).

You could start by coding the interface from the phone side and make a simple xml file for adding radio stations, then you can always build later on adding more "features" from the server side (support for FM in WMC, the solution I gave, shoutcast and all that), but your work on the phone side would not be wasted?