The interface...nah I wont go there! But anyway, I tried some different radio stations with mostly different errors returned.
1. I thought MC had native support for real media? A few stations wanted me to install Real player...NO WAY IN H*** (self censored)
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I agree the interface could be improved. MC supports Real formats by using the Real playback engine. Real keeps playing with it, hiding it sometimes. In the FAQ, there is a link to a RealPlayer that works pretty well, but it is a moving target (as is Microsoft).
2. Some other stations added a bunch of (i suppose) streams to my playing now and browsed them automatically. All well, except:
I don't understand.
2A. one stream played in half the tempo
Don't know. Streaming is interesting.
2B. Got several "Media Center encountered errors while trying to play the last several files. Please make sure that the path in the Media Jukebox library points to the right location".
Could be a bug. Please provide a link.
3. Some stations just started the playing now, with whatever was in playing now before I clicked the station.
Sure.
Conclusion: I don't know if it's just me, but I don't believe the experience was intended to be like this. I'm sorry to be this rude, but the Web Media do not remotely stand up to the quality proven in other areas of MC. I guess what makes me sad is that streaming radio is so common that MC really should be able to handle it in a more mature way...or?
If you will provide specifics, we'll check.
Streaming is, in general, unreliable. I think the main reason may be that Microsoft and Real are competing to make each other look bad.
We know it's a problem. We don't know what to do about it. Suggestions are welcome.