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[AlanDistro]

From the description on the wiki, it sounds like it's the place to program the buttons I see in the Playing Now screen. But I drug a couple of my smart playlists to the Car Radio section and then navigate back to Playing Now... the buttons were no different than default. Navigated back to Car Radio and the playlists were gone?

[CountryBumkin]

Try this: In Standard View >Audio>Files, highlight a bunch of tracks and then right click on them and "Add to Playing Now". Then go to the radio buttons (at top of window) and hold the button down for 2 seconds. A dialog box pops up where you add the name of that playlist (i.e. the name for the Radio button).

Does that work for you?

[AlanDistro]

Yup! That works perfectly, but I was hoping I could make that playlist a smart one, so I can keep a playlist of "all 5 star rated tracks" to shuffle. That only works if the playlist updates every time I add a new five star rating. I see that holding the radio button creates a static playlist. I'm assuming that's the only option? (outside of using Play Doctor to guess other similar tracks?)

[AlanDistro]

Nevermind, figured it out. Create a new smart playlist and give it a number "02.", "03." etc at the beginning of the playlist name and it will assign the smart playlist to that button. That's why my other smart playlists were just disappearing, the name didn't fit. Thanks!

[This2ShallPass]

I've just read this, and it's helpful. Always wanted a way to add buttons to MC, increases the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF).

It'd be even BETTER, I think if it could (or if I could find a way) to add my Connected Media links to a button! Can that be done? I think I listen to standard radio stations (just 2-3 that I adore) that I stream through MC. My wife would like that too. Navigating the tree (esp. when they could just be buttons?!?!) is a pain.

Can it be done? Can someone tell me how? This would also be great to have on Gizmo!!!

[JimH]

You can play a stream, right click on it, and save it to a playlist.  You can save a playlist as a Car Radio button.  I'm not sure it will work, but it's worth a try.

[This2ShallPass]

I have to say, I need screenshots. I have played with Car Radio many times, trying all kinds of clicking, right-clicking, clicking and dragging, clicking and holding, and I've NEVER seen a "button" and I don't understand the concept.

I'm working at my Win10 desktop on MC22, and I don't know what people are talking about. A search in the forums does not lead me to a tutorial. I can add Playlists, I cannot see any "buttons" anywhere. Would love some help. I think this would be useful to me.

[RoderickGI]

I've NEVER seen a "button"

First you have to have the MC Feature turned on. Go to "Tools>Options>General>Features" and tick the box next to "Car Radio".

Then you will see the "buttons" as per the attached image. They are the 1, 2, 3, ... 12 between the horizontal panes. You can see "1" is highlighted, and there is a message about how to use it.

[Zhillsguy]

The "buttons" actually look more like folder tabs. Just imagine a button works like an old fashioned car radio.... you push it, it plays the selected station, in this case playlist. When you hold it, whatever playlist is playing can be saved. Right-click on the car radio buttons, and you can display more or less buttons.

One easy way to build lists.... in Tools>Options>General select "Add to Playing Now (play now)" for "Double-click".

Start playing an internet radio or other list, and name it by holding down a radio button. Find another station you like, double-click to play, then in Playing now hold the button down to overwrite/save the button playlist. You can always add songs or playlists to the button this way, and export the playlist under Car Radio in the left pane like any other. Attached is one of my Internet Radio playlists.... they are fun to build.

If you have random play activated the Car Radio playlists will be random played every time they are started. You can navigate to and play any of the Car Radio playlists/tracks from Gizmo and JRemote.

[This2ShallPass]

"First you have to have the MC Feature turned on. Go to "Tools>Options>General>Features" and tick the box next to "Car Radio"." BRILLIANT!

Thank you!

As I imagine transitioning to a headless scenario with Id, I can't wait to experiment with how this will appear in JRemote for Android. Closing my eyes and visualizing...

1. Open JRemote
2. Playlists
3. Car Radio... tile-formatted Car Radio Buttons??? Swipe to show more than will fit on screen???
4. Touch to Play

[Spike1000]

Took me 18 months of using MC before I even discovered the Car Radio (buttons) 
I always thought it was something to do with some form a sync that could export files to play on the radio in your car. . . 

They are quite handy, but as I don't usually use the 'Playing Now' view it did take a long time to stumble across them 

I do wish there were some 'getting started' and 'tutorial' videos for MC. . . A picture (well a video) is worth a 1000 words and all that.

Spike

[This2ShallPass]

First you have to have the MC Feature turned on. Go to "Tools>Options>General>Features" and tick the box next to "Car Radio".

Then you will see the "buttons" as per the attached image. They are the 1, 2, 3, ... 12 between the horizontal panes. You can see "1" is highlighted, and there is a message about how to use it.

[RoderickGI]

Are you trying to say I am incorrect This2ShallPass, and prove it with an image?

Well you have the Car Radio group highlighted under Playlists in your image. Car Radio buttons don't appear there.

As above, mentioned several times, and used as the name of my image ("MC Radio Buttons in Playing Now.jpg"), Car Radio buttons appear in the Playing Now view, not in the Playlist view.

Zhillsguy posted a great example. My image showed only the default naming, which is numbers. That's because I was using my test library, not my real library.

Go back and read through the whole thread carefully. All the information you need is there. Zhillsguy even explained how to add more than 12 buttons to the view.

[This2ShallPass]

I don't know what this means: "Start playing an internet radio or other list (I know what that part means), and name it by holding down a radio button."

I can start playing a radio station (Audio -> Connected Media -> Click the station name I set up there). What does "name it" mean? What steps? It doesn't need a name. It has a name. It says, "WTMD Main" and when I click it, it starts playing my local radio station whose URL is http://www.wtmd.org/player/index.html

If I click anywhere else in MC, such as one of the tree items in "Playing Now", the stream stops cold.

Here are two images, one with buttons, one with my radio stream playing.

[RoderickGI]

Ah okay. You're trying to implement Jim's suggestion for a adding a Radio Stream to a Car Radio button.

The bad news is, I tried to do what you want to do, and couldn't get it working for 89.7 FM WTMD radio. Actually, I did get it working, once I found the correct URL.

First the simple bit. The "name it by holding down a radio button" refers to naming the Car Radio button, and not the "Connected Media" item that you have already set up. Those are two different things.

Naming the Car Radio button is done in the Playing Now view, and allows you to attach what is in Playing Now to the button. However, doing what you are doing, there is nothing in Playing Now, because the "Connected Media" item you have set up opens a web page based player that does not send the audio through MC. You can see that while it is playing because the MC Audio Path is empty. Your Connected Media item just plays directly to your default Windows Playback Device. In my case, that was my PC speakers. If you have set up the WDM Driver as your default Playback Device in Windows the discussion gets a little bit more complex. I'm not going to address that.

The URL you have used for your Connected Item, http://www.wtmd.org/player/index.html, opens a WTMD Media Player, designed by Joe Glorioso.

What you actually need is the URL of the stream that is being played, not the WTMD Media Player.

You seem to have deleted the default Connected Media items, but there was one there called "PublicRadioFan" which allowed you to select various streams from radio stations. If MC detects you have opened a stream, it asks what you want to do with it. See the first image.

If you want you can just play the stream, or you can also "Add stream to web media", in which case it saves a reference to the stream in "Audio>Connected Media>My Connected Media". See the second image. Note in particular the URL of the audio being streamed to you. If you play one of those streams, it is played through MC, as shown by the Audio Path.

I think the site "http://tunein.com/radio/WTMD-897-s23199/#" is supposed to provide a stream for WTMD, but it wasn't working for me. There may have been some geographic blocking or something going on.

This post might be more helpful: https://streamwriter.org/en/forum/faden/821/ and this site: http://wtmd-ice.streamguys1.com/

I just clicked on and opened the link http://wtmd-ice.streamguys1.com/wtmd.m3u from the site above, and with MC open in the background it started to play. In Playing Now the actual URL of the stream for radio station WTMD is shown as http://wtmd-ice.streamguys1.com:8000/wtmd. Once that was playing I clicked and held a Radio Button, it popped up the dialogue for me to name the button, and save it as a Playlist. After that, the button works, and audio is played through MC.

Easy, wasn't it?



More:
http://radio-locator.com/info/WTMD-FM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTMD

[Zhillsguy]

As an example, if you go here:  https://www.internet-radio.com/ and click on the .pls link for a station, it downloads a small .pls file to your Windows default Download folder. Double click it (or execute through the task bar in your internet browser) and it will play through MC..... then you can add it to a Car Radio button (or any playlist by right clicking) through playing now as described in previous posts.

[RoderickGI]

Nice site to look up radio stations.

You can also just open a PLS file from the web location, and then when it is playing in Playing Now, add it to a button.

The PLS format is supposed to be better than the m3u format, apparently. So use that if you can find one.

[This2ShallPass]

I appreciate everyone's help here. As a former software trainer (purely COTS stuff... nothing complex!) for Windows, etc. when it first came out, I completely feel like the dolt looking for the "any key" on the keyboard!

The part a couple days ago about ticking the box in Tools->Options was revelatory, and I was looking for someone to simply say, "Oh, you just didn't do X". That'll fix it.

OK, well, since we've gotten to WDM being mentioned in the thread, this gets to a somewhat high level of technical discussion, I'm pausing to mention that my Id Classic is on its way to me, and wonder if I should pause to make that transition from my Win10 Desktop being the server over to Linux Id (with Win10 as client)? Does that change the calculus?

I realize that I can still maneuver through the other aspects of your thread. Thanks again for the thorough discussion. I feel confident my veil of confusion will ultimately be lifted.

[RoderickGI]

Yeah probably pause the discussion on the WDM until you have converted to the Id.

I only mentioned the WDM because if you were using it, all Windows sound would have been playing through MC, and that would have muddied the waters regarding what was actually playing a radio stream; Windows or MC.

I would say get the Car Radio buttons working in Windows now though. It can't hurt to learn and set them up.

[franswilco]

I don't know what this means: "Start playing an internet radio or other list (I know what that part means), and name it by holding down a radio button."

I can start playing a radio station (Audio -> Connected Media -> Click the station name I set up there). What does "name it" mean? What steps? It doesn't need a name. It has a name. It says, "WTMD Main" and when I click it, it starts playing my local radio station whose URL is http://www.wtmd.org/player/index.html

If I click anywhere else in MC, such as one of the tree items in "Playing Now", the stream stops cold.

Here are two images, one with buttons, one with my radio stream playing.

Totally unrelated: Which skin are you using?

[This2ShallPass]

I'm using the Purity skin.

OK, I've got car radio buttons, and the streams associated! Very exciting, and I appreciate everyone's help. I will say... I would NEVER have known about the difference in the streams, how to find a URL that's not what the actual station is presenting, or that a PLS is better than an M3U... I just want stuff to work! I also struck out trying to find what I want in terms of public radio, aside from the one station in my example: WTMD. Couldn't get a stream for my local station, nor WAMU which I also listen to out of Washington DC. I put back the PublicRadioFan thingy in Connected Media. Just couldn't get what I was looking for.

OK, I'm going to settle, back everything up, and explore installing my new Id!

[RoderickGI]

I know you have settled, but...

I Googled "WAMU Stream PLS" and found their site and this page: http://wamu.org/listen

I searched for "PLS" on that page and found the PLS files for MP3 and AAC+ audio under the "Internet Radios, corporate firewalls, and other listening situations" heading. It seems that the station provides its own live stream, rather than use a third party.

With MC open, I clicked on the AAC+ PLS file link for "WAMU 88.5 (88.5 FM; HD 88.5-1)", opened it directly rather than download it, and it started to play in MC.

There is always a way!