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[Z0001]

I am trying to get a my web radio stations into theatre view. I have managed to get the URL into connected media under audio in the standard view, but cannot get them into a separate root level which I have called Radio Stations. Any pointers?

Thanks

[Z0001]

I have been looking at this thread to achieve this

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=63679.0

But can't get it to work.  Not sure if I understand all the parentheses in the set rule for file display formula, is there a screen shot of the dialogue box someone. Ould share please?

Also not sure if this is what's causing the radio stations not to drag and drop into the view or if I need the split view, either way I just have a child view under Audio.

Many thanks for any help!

[Z0001]

tried some more but cant get any radio station web sites to populate the view - they wont drag and drop.  Quite confused now!  Attached a screen shot of my view and what I have put in the rule expression.

Appreciate any ideas what I am doing wrong here.

[marko]

Not sure if it will help or not, but 90% of my web radio urls begin "MMS:\\".

If yours are the same, then the search rule you are using would exclude them all.

If you cannot drag and drop, try playing a station, then go to playing now, right click the station and choose "import into library"

I posted my "Web Radio" Theater View setup in this thread last year: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=62174.0 if it helps.

-marko

[Z0001]

Thanks for this I will investigate.  So in your set up what file display rule dou you use? Are there any specific settings I would need to achieve a theatre view set up eg can I have this radio view nested in Audio?

Many thanks

[marko]

Some people struggle with this, but it's the only way I know how to explain what I do, so here goes...

• I don't really use the "Web Media" section under "Audio" at all. My choice radio streams have all been been sourced directly (frowned upon by most stream owners, but hey-ho)...
• Once I have the stream url, I start it by using the "File > Open url" option, then once playing, I right click the stream and add it to my library.
  
• Now that the streams are in the library, they get treated like any other "audio" file in the library, so can end up selected by smartlists and other search results, where you don't really want them.
• The solution is to settle on a way to identify them all. I use a custom field I called "Type" and for all those web streams, I have set [Type] to "Online Radio".
• Next, I right click on the main "Audio" node in the tree and choose "customise", and under "Set rules for file display" I add the rule "Type | Is Not | Online radio" Which as you can imagine, excludes the streams from all audio views.
• Next, I add a view to Audio called "Online Radio", and in the "Customise" dialogue, "Use parent scheme rules" is unchecked, and under "set rules for file display", just one rule is required, namely, "Type | Is | Online Radio". This view will now only display the internet streams.
  
• You just need to remember to include the "Online Radio" exclusion in any audio smartlist you create in the playlists tree, and that's you sorted in standard view.

I have "Radio" in my theater view root with a secondary roller. Under Radio, I have set up direct play of an automatic "Play Doctor" list, access to saved "Play Doctor" playcharts, and access to the online streams. (see attached image).

You could set up an "Internet Streams" view under "Audio" in theater view, but you would need to apply the same logic as in standard view using the theater view setup in options.

• The main "Audio" node would be as it is, ie. "include all audio"
• All the other audio views would need the "Online Radio" exclusion added to their "Files to Display" rules
• Your "Web Radio" view would need to exclude all other audio ([type]=[Online radio]) without the brackets.

And that should be you all set.
Once all the rules are in place, any future streams you add and tag as Online Radio will automatically appear in your web radio views and be excluded from all others.
I set mine up this way years ago and the system still works today. Less than 30 minutes of setting it up, followed by years of enjoyment seems like a fair investment to me.

The only drawback is if the stream url changes, you have to go hunt down the new one. I am not saying this is the ultimate way to handle these, it just works well for me, and has done for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure how others do theirs. If you need any further help, just shout...

-marko.

[Z0001]

Thanks Marko, that seemed to work. How did you get the URL that you have for bbc 1 to 7? The urls I have for some of my stations are http? How should I go about finding the correct URL and then importing those stations?

Its great to have radio by the way!

Many thanks!

[marko]

Really pleased to hear you got it all working, excellent stuff.

Finding the urls is not easy. "View page source" in your browser sometimes reveals the correct address, but the source is often long winded and difficult to parse and contains many links... still, with a little detective work, you can often narrow things down to the correct part of the source and then try the links in there. I have found many urls this way.

Google is also your friend. There are pages out there dedicated to tracking down the direct urls of more popular radio stations, such as "ripcaster".

[Z0001]

Great! This is way cool! These bbc stations seem to be http? So may be a dumb question, but how do you import them or other new ones I find? When I add a web address to the connected media list under Audio and it is playing a station it does not show up in Playing Now. However after importing your playlist those stations do appear in playing now. So I am stuck on how to import URLs. Any help?

Ps tis good to hear radio 4 again even if the Today program is now in the evening here in Oz!

[marko]

Hmmm, was a long time ago now, but if I remember correctly, the http links to an asx file, and I entered the url into a download manager to get that asx file on my hard drive. Then, open that asx file in a text editor to get at the links it contains.

The radio 4 asx file contains some of this:

Code: [Select]

<ASX version="3.0">
<ABSTRACT>http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/</ABSTRACT>
<TITLE>BBC Radio 4</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>BBC</AUTHOR>
<COPYRIGHT>(c) British Broadcasting Corporation</COPYRIGHT>
<MOREINFO HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/" />
<PARAM NAME="HTMLView" VALUE="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/" />
<PARAM NAME="GEO" VALUE="UK" />

<Entry>
<ref href="mms://wmlive-acl.bbc.co.uk/wms/bbc_ami/radio4/radio4_bb_live_ep1_sl0?BBC-UID=b5f061dfb14327aad0a226a231eaad30422df97a4ee863b903f5faddaeeb0a08&amp;SSO2-UID=" />
</Entry>
<Entry>
<ref href="mms://wmlive-acl.bbc.co.uk/wms/bbc_ami/radio4/radio4_bb_live_eq1_sl0?BBC-UID=b5f061dfb14327aad0a226a231eaad30422df97a4ee863b903f5faddaeeb0a08&amp;SSO2-UID=" />
</Entry>
So, the url to feed into MC is everything from mms up to, but not including, the question mark. Get it playing, import it. Job done. It's not meant to be easy as they don't want us to do it.

When I add a web address to the connected media list under Audio and it is playing a station it does not show up in Playing Now. However after importing your playlist those stations do appear in playing now. So I am stuck on how to import URLs. Any help?

This didn't seem right to me, so, just for you, I tried it here:

So, still working with the Radio 4 http link, in MC, go, file > open url and you should get this:


Check the "Show options" box (shown above) and then continue:


Choose the options as shown, and when you continue, the url should be added to "My Connected Media", and also start playing. Now, when I did this, there were about 40 lines added to playing now, which come from all the entries in the asx file. I stopped playback, cleared playing now and restarted using the link in "My Connected Media", and all was good. The mms stream is displayed in playing now. I notice that it also has the "?UID*****" part of the stream address, which I wouldn't be comfortable with. The stream works fine without it, so if I were you, I would remove it. Of course, I am not you, so the choice is all yours. The point is, you should see the stream in playing now when it is playing...

* marko is listeng to: 'BBC Radio 4' by '(Unassigned)' from the album '(Unassigned)' [Duration:  | 128 kbps asf (353 bytes) | rated ? stars/5 | played once ~ last played 24:31 ago  (29/09/12)

-marko

[Z0001]

Thanks Marko, you've been a great help!  I found on the bbc iplayer website downloads for their streaming radio

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_radio_progs/real_wma_streams

When imported as playlists it gives something like 4 identical URLs. I found the same with abc here in oz. i had a commercial station web player that ave the option to play through iTunes or wmp. With iTunes it defaulted to MC and so I was able to import the URL. I'll try you method too. Now just to find some reasonably large hi res logos!

Again thanks, Marko!
Zeno

[Z0001]

What's the issue with that UID portion? Some risk?

[marko]

Truthfully, I don't know!

It's labelled "UID" suggesting each listener gets a unique number. What do they use that for? It could be as simple as popularity, counting unique listeners, or perhaps a token that might expire causing the stream to stop working at some point in the future. I've no idea.

As the stream works fine without a UID token, that's how I prefer to listen.

-marko