Streaming WMA audio

Archived
1

Has anyone had any luck streaming WMA audio? I tried modifying the sample NPR app with several different stations and URLs and have not had any luck.

I started with changing line 12 in Npr.brs to the following:

song = CreateSong("FFH Rock Over Germany","Live WMA Internet Radio Stream","Many", "wma", "mms://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels%24rock%24livestream.wma","http://media.npr.org/chrome/news/nprlogo_138x46.gif")

I guessed that the MMS protocol wouldn’t work, but thought I’d try. I got the following message in the debugger:

*** ERROR: Invalid or missing PHY in path "mms://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels%24rock%2
4livestream.wma"

I changed “mms” to “http” in the URL and tried again. Nothing. I went into AudioPlayer.brs and uncommented lines 100 and 103 (below)

print "In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=" ; escape
print "Got msg = "; type(msg)

saving, zipping, and uploading gives the following in the debugger:

picture at:http://media.npr.org/chrome/news/nprlogo_138x46.gif
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
starting song: 0
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roAudioPlayerEvent
AudioPlayer Status Event - startup progress
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = Invalid
In audioPlayer get selection - Waiting for msg escape=roSpringboardScreenEvent
Got msg = roSpringboardScreenEvent

If I execute the following command on a Linux box:

lynx -dump -head http://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels%24rock%24livestream.wma

I get the following:

HTTP/1.1 501 Not Implemented
Server: Cougar/9.01.01.5001
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:20:03 GMT
Public: GET, POST, OPTIONS
Pragma: no-cache
Supported: com.microsoft.wm.srvppair, com.microsoft.wm.sswitch, com.microsoft.w
m.predstrm, com.microsoft.wm.fastcache, com.microsoft.wm.startupprofile
Connection: close

I get similar results for other stations and URLs (many of those start off with an ASX extension in the URL. Parsing the output of that yields URLs with WMA)

Entering the URL into Windows Media Player generates audio. I’m assuming that the Media Player is reading the “Supported:” portion of the header and asking for a different resource.

(I take the HTTP response code of 501 as a really bad sign for being able to use any of these URLs with the Roku video player)

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks!

Thomas

2

I’ve had similar experiences. The AudioPlayer sends a couple of “startup progress” events and then just stalls. In some cases, that stall locks up my entire box forcing a power cycle. I have yet to successfully play any WMA stream and I’ve had this problem with quite a few MP3 streams as well. The URLs are correct, they point to actual streams (as opposed to playlist files), they play in VLC and on my SoundBridge. I’m at a loss.

3

The URL http://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels%24rock%24livestream.wma does not seem to point to a WMA file, but some kind of text file, maybe a playlist. If anyone has examples of real WMA files that fail to play, I’d be interested.

–Mark

4

Mark,

The URL http://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels%24rock%24livestream.wma does not seem to point to a WMA file, but some kind of text file, maybe a playlist. If anyone has examples of real WMA files that fail to play, I’d be interested.
Thomas and nowhereman are not talking of files, but streams.

http://62.27.47.7/ffhchannels$rock$livestream.wma is the address of a continuous stream served by Windows Media Services version 9.01.01.5001 presumably running on a Windows Small Business Server 2008.

Greetings
dupondt

5

Hi Mark,

The previous posts are correct - I’m trying to capture a stream, not a file.

Looking at the Developer Guide again this morning, I see that it says

We only support .wma and .mp3 files in the audio player.

I guess seeing that MP3 streams could be captured gave me hope that some of the Microsoft audio streams could be captured. Overall, my thought is:

It would be really nice if the same audio streams that can be captured with the SoundBridge could be captured with the Digital Video Player (i.e. one appliance that captures both video and audio)

As a final bit of troubleshooting, when I open the Roku Radio Snooper and enter the http URL into Windows Media Player, I don’t see any supported URLs. When I enter the MMS URL, it (eventually) shows up as ‘supported’.

Thanks!

Thomas

6

“nowhereman” wrote:
I have yet to successfully play any WMA stream and I’ve had this problem with quite a few MP3 streams as well.
Maybe these MP3 streams are delivered by WMS. Could you post some of the URLs?

Greetings
dupondt

7

“dupondt” wrote:

“nowhereman” wrote:
I have yet to successfully play any WMA stream and I’ve had this problem with quite a few MP3 streams as well.
Maybe these MP3 streams are delivered by WMS. Could you post some of the URLs?

Greetings
dupondt

A couple MP3 streams that I can’t get to play. I did notice that a HEAD request on theses looks a bit suspicious even though they’re valid streams…

http://208.80.54.79:80/KOOLFMCMP3
HTTP/1.0 501 Not Implemented
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 115

http://stream.laut.fm:80/indiegoestohollywood
HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: text/html

Whereas, a HEAD request on a stream that does play on the box returns nothing…

http://sro-streaming.net:4215/
curl: (52) Empty reply from server

8

“nowhereman” wrote:
http://208.80.54.79:80/KOOLFMCMP3
That looks like StreamTheWorld, but it doesn’t work in any of my players. Do other streams from StreamTheWorld play on the DVP?

http://stream.laut.fm:80/indiegoestohollywood
That’s coming from an IceCast server. What happens if you add .m3u to the URL?

http://sro-streaming.net:4215/
Shoutcast servers ususally don’t cause any problems.

Greetings
dupondt

9

“dupondt” wrote:

“nowhereman” wrote:
http://208.80.54.79:80/KOOLFMCMP3
That looks like StreamTheWorld, but it doesn’t work in any of my players. Do other streams from StreamTheWorld play on the DVP?

I have tested at least one that does:

http://radiotime.com/station/s_52490/The_Oasis_1075.aspx

It links to playlists which have multiple formats, but this one plays on the Roku with a similar URL:

http://208.80.52.118:80/KMVKHD2CMP3
10

“dupondt” wrote:

“nowhereman” wrote:
http://208.80.54.79:80/KOOLFMCMP3
That looks like StreamTheWorld, but it doesn’t work in any of my players. Do other streams from StreamTheWorld play on the DVP?

It works fine in VLC. And no, I’ve found several like it that also fail on the box.

11

“nowhereman” wrote:
It works fine in VLC.
http://208.80.52.118:80/KMVKHD2CMP3 and http://208.80.54.79/KOOLFMCMP3 appear to be CBS stations, so it’s no wonder they don’t play over here in Germany. CBS geo-locked all their stations some weeks ago.

“nowhereman” wrote:
And no, I’ve found several like it that also fail on the box.
Many of these StreamTheWorld URLs now point to HE-AAC streams which might not play on the DVP. Also, STW’s server might not like the idea of directly accessing the streams. If I open http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KMVKHD2.pls with a player it resolves to http://cbs.media.streamtheworld.com/aud … ocking.mp3. Over in the USA it should resolve to at least three URLs similar to the one above.

Furthermore some stations which have STW as their streaming provider are suspected of using blacklists to exclude certain clients or whitelists to allow only certain clients.

With WMA and WMS the situation can even become more complicated. Search for RTSP, MMS, HTTP fallback, multi-bitrate streams, WMA Voice and WMA 10 Professional to see what I mean.

Internet radio is a very complex issue, and sometimes you simply will have to accept that a station won’t play.

Greetings
dupondt

12

“dupondt” wrote:

“nowhereman” wrote:
It works fine in VLC.
http://208.80.52.118:80/KMVKHD2CMP3 and http://208.80.54.79/KOOLFMCMP3 appear to be CBS stations, so it’s no wonder they don’t play over here in Germany. CBS geo-locked all their stations some weeks ago.

I heard about that. I listen to KROQ here in L.A. and the DJs mentioned that CBS was doing this. They also though CBS was being stupid.