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[leeufontien]

Hi Guys

I know you guys can help.  Therre are 3 radio stations I would really like to be able to record, but haven't had any luck in doing so.

www.capetalk.co.za
www.capitalfm.co.uk
www.5fm.co.za

I can get it to play fine on the PC, but I am unable to find the feed to input it into Media Center.  Your help would be greatly appreciated as I am going grey trying.

Kind regards

Dave Thomas

[mhakman]

I can get it to play fine on the PC, but I am unable to find the feed to input it into Media Center.

Do you mean that you can listen to streams in your browser but you don’t know how to do it in MC or do you want to actually record streams on files as they are broadcast so you can listen to programs at some latter time?

[jkrzok]

You're really asking two questions here. The first is how to get the URL of the stream you want to listen to/record. In the pop up Java window that opens when you click on 'listen now' (or words to that effect), right-click in the part of the window that looks like a player. (You can't right click on what looks like an add for example.) In the right click menu select 'properties' and you'll see the URL you need under 'Location". For the Capital stream you'll get

http://mediaweb.musicradio.com/playlist.asx?streamid=1

Note: I get these URLs in Opera. I don't know if this method will work in Firefox or IE.

The second question is about getting MC to record the stream. Take that URL and go to MC. Under File choose 'Open URL'. When MC is playing the stream, choose Tools>>Advanced Tools>>Record Sound and you should be all set. The Recorder window will open and you can set your options there.

Alternatively, you can schedule MC to record the stream. In the left tree go to Services and Plugins and select Scheduler. Just add a task, enter a name and the URL, set the duration and recording frequency and away you go. The stream will be saved to the location set in MC's options (Tools>>Options>>File Location>>Output File Location).

Sadly there's no real easy way to do these streams. These stations really want you to NOT record but you can work around their hurdles. Now if you lauch a Shoutcast stream from within MC, you'll be asked if you want to record the stream in a little window. I wish everything was that easy...

[mhakman]

If you have a sound card/chip/driver that allows you to access its output channel (my SoundMAX does) then you can record whatever you want whether broadcaster wishes you to or not. Provided it is legal in your country of course (it is in mine). Simply run Audacity and choose “Wave Out Mix” or equivalent as recording source. Then press “Start Recoding” button. It will record whatever is currently playing from whatever application/player in whatever format and whatever encryption. As long as you can hear it you can record it.

[lise]

If you have a sound card/chip/driver that allows you to access its output channel (my SoundMAX does) then you can record whatever you want whether broadcaster wishes you to or not. Provided it is legal in your country of course (it is in mine). Simply run Audacity and choose “Wave Out Mix” or equivalent as recording source. Then press “Start Recoding” button. It will record whatever is currently playing from whatever application/player in whatever format and whatever encryption. As long as you can hear it you can record it.

I can get this to work if I use the Recorder, but not with the "Schedule recording of streams now for x minutes" option that appears when I select a station in Shoutcast, for example.

When I try this option, I end up with a 'file' that doesn't play. I was seeing the 'file' appear in Recently imported with an odd icon, and it doesn't play. So I went to the MyMusic folder where they are saved, and there they are; 'files' with this icon , and the files properties say they are Metadata handlers. I don't know what this is.

What am I doing wrong?

[mhakman]

I don’t know the application you are using for recording. I was talking about recording the bits that go out to your sound card – then you know for sure you are recording audio. I don’t think you are doing anything wrong, I think the application you use to schedule recording is doing wrong. What you get recorded in your files is not the audio stream itself but information about it (metadata), I think. Links to streams, whether on a webpage or otherwise are often pointers (links) to information about a stream which in turn contain links to stream it. This indirection can continue for a number of levels in the worst case. An application that allows you to select a link for recording should resolve these intermediary links until it gets to the real stream. This may not to be as simple as it may appear – the application needs to understand the format of all these intermediary links. Furthermore, in some cases, the “last” link is an encoded or an encrypted link or data which is used by a software that you are supposed to have downloaded to your computer. This special software uses this special data in order to communicate with some kind of server and get (encrypted) audio stream. Amazing, how much they do in order to prevent you to hear what they want you to hear! Oh yes, you don’t want to hear it now; you want to hear it later – that’s strictly FORBIDDEN your criminal!

Did you try software called HDownload? It can handle a lot of link formats but of course not all.