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Author Topic: Web Radio MC problems.  (Read 876 times)

lalittle

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Web Radio MC problems.
« on: February 21, 2004, 03:03:21 am »

There seems to be some glitches in the Web Radio feature of MC.

First, I'm not sure if it's a problem with MC or a problem elsewhere, but using the "speed" box for searches isn't working -- i.e. limiting the seach to certain speeds isn't limiting the results.  I set it to "128" and my search still comes up with sites using ANY speed.

I also notice that almost none of the sites that are supposedly 128kbps are actually displaying this speed in the progress bar -- so far, almost every one I've tried is lower.  After going through dozens, I finally found a couple that had accurate info in the list.  How does MC determine the speed to display in the list?  Is this a problem with the source?  The last time I tried many of the same stations, the speed displayed in the progress bar matched the speed shown in the list, so this struck me as odd tonight.

On a related note, once a station is playing and I switch to another view, how can I tell what station is playing?  Sometimes this info is part of the info in the progress bar, but usually the station name is replaces by the song title right away.  Returning to the "Web Media" doesn't indicate what station is currenlty playing.  Where can I find this info.

Finally, I like to use the "track info/playing now" screen, but it doesn't update when a new song starts.  I have to change the track info display to another mode and back again to see the new song.  The progress bar info updates the song, but not the "track info" screen.  

Thanks,

Larry
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lalittle

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Re:Web Radio MC problems.
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2004, 10:17:44 pm »

Just to add to this, a LOT of the stations that used to work don't work anymore.  I have started to commonly get an error message saying "The specified stream type is not recogized."  Until recently, I had never seen this message, but now I see it all the time with certain sites -- including sites that I used to listen to.  Why would so many stations in the list suddenly stop working?

Larry
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lalittle

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Re:Web Radio MC problems.
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2004, 08:45:22 pm »

One other thing -- some stations automatically bring up the "playing now" screen as if they have video content when in fact they don't.  This is annoying if you're going through a search list and trying stations since you have to redo the search and find the spot you left off.

MC's streaming radio station structure strike me as oddly cumbersome compared to the rest of the program.  It's usually difficult to tell what station you're on, the track info/playing now screen doesn't update when a song changes, you can't easily return to a search list once you leave it, it's hard to find a station that you listened to recently unless you specifically make it a "favorite."  Even when you stay on the web media screen, you can't even tell which station in the list is the one playing.  It seems like this should be obvious like it is when playing mp3s.

All this adds up to what feels very "1st generation" when it comes to listenning to streaming content.  This is strange for a program that does other "music related" tasks so well.  Based on MCs general approach to workflow, I would have expected the Web Media screen to show both "currently playing station" and "recently played station" panels, and I would have expected the playing now screen to display the station, bit rate, city, description, etc., along with an auto-updating track title.

Larry
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