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[geraldsmallbear]

I've been playing around with it for a week or so now and finally figured out a way to play sites like 8tracks.com and sbs chill through Media Centre.

For those new users like me who might also be interested - Go into Tools>Options>Theatre View>Add>Webpage> the rest is self-explanatory. You can now listen to streaming media from any website within media centre.

What I'd like some help with, if possible is this: when I hit the back button playback stops. Just like it would in a normal browser. So if I exit theatre view playback stops, meaning I can't use any other apps or browse the web while I stream these sites through Media Centre.

This only happens with webpages, not with internet radio streams where I can paste the exact stream url into a playlist, like somafm streams.

Is there any way around this?

Being able to use MC for streams like this is excellent, in principle, and means I can take advantage of all the features of MC, but it's not much good if I can't keep the streams playing in the background.

[fitbrit]

You don't have to exit theatre view to use other applications. Just use alt-tab or ctrl-tab in Win7.

[geraldsmallbear]

Thanks, that's an irritating, but sufficient workaround.

If there were a way to extract the stream url from a webpage and put that in a playlist this wouldn't even be necessary.

Do you know how to do that?

[MrC]

It does not appear this site streams a single music stream, rather it uses script to play a given set of music tracks.

You can see this with a program such as URL Snooper.  Download and run it, and then start playing a playlist of your choice.  You'll then see links in URL Snopper such as:

   http://8tracks.s3.amazonaws.com/tf/003/676/264/22995.mp3

which is a particular track in a given playlist.

You'll probably also notice that such files could be downloaded to your computer and played directly.

[geraldsmallbear]

It does not appear this site streams a single music stream, rather it uses script to play a given set of music tracks.

You can see this with a program such as URL Snooper.  Download and run it, and then start playing a playlist of your choice.  You'll then see links in URL Snopper such as:

   http://8tracks.s3.amazonaws.com/tf/003/676/264/22995.mp3

which is a particular track in a given playlist.

You'll probably also notice that such files could be downloaded to your computer and played directly.

I had a feeling someone might mention something like this. I do appreciate the replies thus far, but the point has been lost, and it's this: MC has this excellent feature - I can play audio from within a website inside it, BUT, the only way to do this is to go into Theatre Mode, and use the method described above. And silly me, yes I can use alt+tab to switch apps, but as soon as I hit the back button in MC (cos I want to look at a playlist or a photo) I lose the playing webpage.

THAT'S the issue I'm trying to resolve.

8tracks is just a side-issue, the same holds true for sbs chill which is a single stream. But perhaps I could use that snooper program to extract that particular stream and add it to a playlist.

But that still wouldn't solve the problem that a webpage will not stay open in the background.

I would rather be able to open a webpage in a tab in the standard view and have it stay open, but I can't seem to do this - I get the error message, which I also get when I open the page in Theatre View, but only for a second before the page loads anyway - this indicates some kind of inherent flaw/bug to me.

Theatre View is the current workaround to get streaming sites to work, and alt+tab is a workaround for that, and then using snooper would be a further workaround, when I can just pin 8tracks as an app tab in Firefox and it works fine.

[MrC]

I understood what the issue was.  Some streaming stations have a single stream you can use as a playlist, and therefore the URL is useful.

Here's a way to do what you want.

Create a link in Standard view by right clicking the one of the existing links just below the Search area, and select Manage Links.  Click the Add button and enter the following:

Display Name: 8 Tracks
Base URL:     http://8tracks.com/
Search URL:  http:////8tracks.com

and set the action to Open in a new tab.

Save the new link with OK.

Now, just click the link to open a new tab, and select your playlist from 8tracks.  Now, use *other* tabs to navigate around MC.  Go back to the 8 Tracks tab when you want to do other things.

I was able to go into other areas of MC, other views including Theater View and the stream continued to play.

[geraldsmallbear]

Thanks, it was the search string I didn't understand, leaving it blank resulted in an error. Cheers.

But there is still the fact that I can't switch back and forth from theatre view. I've grown to like it, and I can either play the streams in standard view or in theatre view. If I play in standard view, I can switch to theatre and do things in there (but the music is playing in the background and not directly accessible).... But, if I play in theatre view, I cannot switch back to standard, as the sound is cut.

If you could find a way to fix this it would be good. If switching to Theatre View was just like going fullscreen in Firefox it would be much easier to use.

[rick.ca]

Being able to use MC for streams like this is excellent, in principle, and means I can take advantage of all the features of MC, but it's not much good if I can't keep the streams playing in the background.

All you're doing is playing music via the embedded web browser. That's something quite different than MC ability to play streams. What's happening is exactly the same as if you used an external browser. The browser plays the stream using the normal Windows audio resources. It's not using the MC audio engine, and you're not "taking advantage of all the features of MC." For things like the 8track site, this is the best your going to get. It's not offering a stream of a playlist—as a typical Internet radio site does. There's really no stream to play—as MrC has explained. If you want features, access sites like this using a regular browser instead of a stripped-down embedded one. The sound will be identical, you'll have all the usual features of the browser, and you won't have the problems you've been having.

The continuous streams of Internet radio sites that don't go to extraordinary lengths to hide them, can be added to MC as "Connected Media." Understand there are not many sites that want you to do this. For obvious reasons, they prefer you to use their website. But if the streams can be added to MC, then they can be included in your library like any other media, and played using MC's audio engine.

[geraldsmallbear]

Oh, that is disappointing, why can't MC use it's own settings to play media on webpages?

What then is the point of an embedded browser? And why integrate sites like Youtube, etc.. if there is absolutely no technical advantage in doing so? ie: one can't use WASAPI settings or speaker settings configured inside MC, surely this would be the sole motivation to develop such a feature?

Is it just a gimmick, or do you have plans to make it work properly and have access to MC's features in future releases?

And, I don't need to be told to do what I'm already doing. I was under the misapprehension that MC could do it better, I see that I was sadly wrong.

[rick.ca]

What then is the point of an embedded browser?

An embedded browser is a browser. That's what it's for. Browsing. It does what browsers do. Including playing music and videos.

And why integrate sites like Youtube, etc.

Youtube IS integrated so the media can be played by MC and NOT the embedded browser. When you select MEDIA (which your 8tracks playlists are not) to play from a web page, you should get a dialog offering the option to "Play the file inside the player." If you select that and it works, then the file or stream you selected will play inside the player. Youtube in Theatre View is a special case where the media is presented directly in the interface (not in a browser) and always played "inside the player."

Is it just a gimmick, or do you have plans to make it work properly and have access to MC's features in future releases?

I, nor others who have tried to explain things to you have any such plans. We're just users like you. But I encourage you to set aside preconceptions of how things should work, and try to learn how things do work. It's a huge, highly sophisticated program. You'll be surprised at what it can do, and how much of that it does better than anything else.

[geraldsmallbear]

An embedded browser is a browser. That's what it's for. Browsing. It does what browsers do. Including playing music and videos.

Youtube IS integrated so the media can be played by MC and NOT the embedded browser. When you select MEDIA (which your 8tracks playlists are not) to play from a web page, you should get a dialog offering the option to "Play the file inside the player." If you select that and it works, then the file or stream you selected will play inside the player. Youtube in Theatre View is a special case where the media is presented directly in the interface (not in a browser) and always played "inside the player."

I, nor others who have tried to explain things to you have any such plans. We're just users like you. But I encourage you to set aside preconceptions of how things should work, and try to learn how things do work. It's a huge, highly sophisticated program. You'll be surprised at what it can do, and how much of that it does better than anything else.

Well I can only hope that a dev sees this, or in their own time decides to fix this and the many other poorly implemented but noble ideas in MC. I sincerely hope they're not expecting all their paying customers to follow your sagely advice. But like I said it's the least worst for now. Not that that means much by the standards of media players.

But anyway I can see MC's in constant development and there is much to be fixed, so perhaps there's hope yet, and I've had enough patronising for now.

[JimH]

When MC accesses a site with its internal browser, there are limits in what MC can do with the content.  It is frankly quite a challenge sometimes to get it to work well.  So we concentrate on popular sites like Netflix and Hulu.

I think you got excellent advice above.  And patient, too.

I do work for JRiver.

[imugli]

Go into Tools>Options>Theatre View>Add>Webpage>

So your adding a webpage. MC opens a web page in Theatre View using either ie9 or Chromium browser engine.

when I hit the back button playback stops. Just like it would in a normal browser

That's because you are accessing it from a normal browser. It's simply a normal browser embedded in MC.

Have you tried watching flash video from, say, sesamestreet.org, in MC? You can WATCH it, but you can't control it with a remote in the same way you would control youtube video played from Theatre View. Pause, Stop etc don't work from your remote.

Why? Because MC doesn't actually have control of the browser. It's simply displaying what you have told it to - a website, in a browser.

This isn't 'poorly implemented' and nor does it need fixing.

Another way of doing things may be to, instead of launching it as a webpage IN Theatre View, launch the site as an external program. I use Firefox and can do this by pointing the program section to the firefox.exe file, then in the argument field enter "www.yourdesiredwebsite.com" (including the quotation marks). Then you can Alt-Tab back to MC do whatever you want in it.

[geraldsmallbear]

When MC accesses a site with its internal browser, there are limits in what MC can do with the content.  It is frankly quite a challenge sometimes to get it to work well.  So we concentrate on popular sites like Netflix and Hulu.

I think you got excellent advice above.  And patient, too.

I do work for JRiver.

Then we'll have to agree to disagree. But if you do decide to make the browser properly integrated and functional, you have my full support. I'm not a programmer, but every week I get a newsletter from KVR where people solve problems like this and post apps and plugins that fix these types of problems. I see you've managed to capitalise on many of these plugins. Perhaps you'll find one that solves this particular problem, like some variant of Virtual Audio Cables. It shouldn't be much of a step to integrate a browser properly and route the audio of that browser through media centre using such a plugin.

And it shouldn't be too difficult to keep audio playing when flipping around in theatre mode, just like streams keep playing. I guess if you fix the routing problem you fix both problems. Or maybe one of the open source projects will get there first.

Either way, integration is inevitable, and as cloud music becomes better in quality I think more audiophiles will get into it and consequently demand more of your product. Just like me. Patience won't stop progress, and I find that a comforting thought.

Perhaps I'll post an ad over at KVR and offer a small prize to anyone who can fix this, that could make things interesting. yourmaninindia for software patches.

On the other hand selective feature limiting can lead to godhood:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/macheads/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed

So you might be onto something. Give with the right hand, take with the left. Ingenious.