[mythtv-users] Mythstream Tips Tricks

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sat Jun 11 16:55:34 UTC 2005


Phill Edwards wrote:

>I'm finding MythStream extremely difficult to get working. I don't
>know whether it's me or the user interface but I still haven't had one
>successful stream yet. I took your advice and pasted some URLs from
>shoutcast.com into my streams.res file as follows:
>
>[item]
>Phills Radio
>Club 977 - 80s
>http://shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=1694&file=filename.pls
>[emptystring]
>[emptystring]
>
>[item]
>Phills Radio
>Club 977 - Top 40
>http://shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=3281&file=filename.pls
>[emptystring]
>[emptystring]
>
>[item]
>Phills Radio
>Vocal Trance
>http://shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=1986&file=filename.pls
>[emptystring]
>[emptystring]
>
>When I go into MythStream I use right arrow to go to the tab called
>"Phills Radio", press Enter on one of the radio stations which then
>shows me a tab called "harvest" with a list of http URLs with IP
>addresses:
>http://64.236.34.4:80/stream/1040
>http://64.236.34.67:80/stream/1040
>http://64.236.34.97:80/stream/1040
>http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1040
>http://205.188.234.66:8010
>  
>
Which means it successfully got the playlist from SHOUTcast.

>When I navigate to one of these and press Enter the top of the screen
>shows "no stream" in yellow writing and then "no data received" and
>then idle".
>
>Surely I must be doing something wrong here - it can't be this hard!?!
>If someone could please post their streams.res file, or even just an
>extract that they know works, that would be a big help.
>  
>
Great!  That means it's working.

Unfortunately, though, the URL you chose isn't broadcasting.  This 
happens sometimes--it seems some 'net radio stations don't like users 
accessing their streams without using Microsoft Windows/Internet 
Explorer/Windows Media Player (so they can force the user to download 
ads), so they seem to switch up URL's/ports and it takes a while for 
whomever posts the info to SHOUTcast to figure it out...

Note, also, if you chose a low-bitrate stream, since MPlayer has a large 
cache (8MB by default), it may take a while for the stream to start 
playing (up to a minute).  If this is the case, MythStream won't tell 
you that there's no stream--it will just sit there for a while saying 
"buffering".

So, best bet is to try again and choose a different station/different 
URL for the same station.  BTW, to verify that the station isn't 
broadcasting, you can use MPlayer and/or xmms (with xmms, I think you 
have to use the GUI to select Play Location):

mplayer http://64.236.34.97:80/stream/1040

Mike


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