Hi all,

I worte a VMC PlugIn that is using the SHOUTCast stations directory right now.
What you can do with it:

• Browse through the genres (more than 300)
• Get the listing of the Top500 stations
• Get some random stations
• Do search (titel, genres, station names)
• save stations and genres as favorites
• assign a picture (logo to stations and genres)

Some more advanced features are:

• The songs title informations are displayed (which the media player doesn't)
• recording the current listened to station  ( mp3 and also acc,  Id3V2 tag are written to the file)
• some stations streams there content in accp format, so when you intall the accp codec from orban you can also listen to and record those streams too.

What is missing:
An perfect english translation. I think i will get it done until the weekend.

What is in the pipe:
I am writting a  web bases stations directory. So that everyone can enter in stations which are not listed at the SHOUTCast directory. The result should be that everyone can use the entered in stations of someone else.

What do you think of it? What features do you love to see next.
The lastest version is available >here<.

Regards,
Sörnt

Some screens from the german (an english translation is also available) version 3.3.4:

Looks great, been looking for something like this to get radio stations out of playlists the current workaround. 

the workaround you mentioned is less than optimal

There two drawbacks, beside the manuel editing

• you can use only one stream url.
• the streams url may change

Murphy's Law comes to mind - exactly this stream has reached the max. listeners or/and the url has changed.

hi Sörnt, i really like the look of your app and its just the sort of thing im after as i too love shoutcast as a source of streaming audio. i will give this app a go and will no doubt come back with any bugs/feature request i find. obviously for me a priority is to translate it all to english so i can understand what im clicking on :-).

paul.

ok quick feedback :-)

feature reusts
1/ translate installer into english - different installers or option during install german/english??
2/ allow for tripple tap - currently cannot insert letters using the mce remote for searching genres/radio stations/favorites etc
3/ increase number of rows displayed - at the moment you only have the search results show in 2 rows thus not making all the use of the screen, possibly increase this to 3 rows?
4/ sort order - would be nice to order by name and then bitrate/listeners
5/ increase text for summary info for current selected radio station - text displaying info such as bitrate, listeners, genre etc is a bit small to see when using a standard tv, possibly increase this a notch or two?
6/ transparent background - i currently have a custom theme for vmc so it would be nice to see the background by making the background for your app transparent.

so far no bugs to report on, but for a first build i really do love it!!, i hope you carry on the development, and thanks for your hard work so far.

paul.

Hi Paul,

thank you for testing!

1) An english version is half on the way :-)
2) tripple tap in search bar for the remote will be implemented with the next Version
3) I will try my best to increasing the numbers of rows
4) Sorting by bit rate is noted on my todo list.
5) I will increase the Font size for the summery info

I try to get the next version ready by Saturday or Sunday...

Sörnt

Sörnt:

Hi Paul,

thank you for testing!

1) An english version is half on the way :-)
2) tripple tap in search bar for the remote will be implemented with the next Version
3) I will try my best to increasing the numbers of rows
4) Sorting by bit rate is noted on my todo list.
5) I will increase the Font size for the summery info

I try to get the next version ready by Saturday or Sunday...

Sörnt

hi Sörnt just updated my post above to add in a couple more suggestions, thanks for the quick reply :-).

paul

Works very nicely. Thanks!

Hi all,

• the englisch Installer is ready.
• tripple tap support in the search bar
• number of rows at the search result page increased
• reorganized the summery info, and also increased the font size.

1. Please backup your "c:\ProgamData\mcShoutCast\Favorites.xml"
2. Uninstall the old version and install the latest version
3. Restore your saved "favorites.xml" back to "c:\ProgamData\mcShoutCast\".

Since english isn't my native language, I will not be supprised if there are some typos and inaccurate used words. In that case please let me know and I will correct them as soon as possible.

regards,
Sörnt

Sörnt:

Hi all,

• the englisch Installer is ready.
• tripple tap support in the search bar
• number of rows at the search result page increased
• reorganized the summery info, and also increased the font size.

1. Please backup your "c:\ProgamData\mcShoutCast\Favorites.xml"
2. Uninstall the old version and install the latest version
3. Restore your saved "favorites.xml" back to "c:\ProgamData\mcShoutCast\".

Since english isn't my native language, I will not be supprised if there are some typos and inaccurate used words. In that case please let me know and I will correct them as soon as possible.

regards,
Sörnt

wow thats quick work! :-), ive just uninstall and installed the new ver via rdp so i will check out the changes when i get home tonight and try and leave you some feedback.

only things ive spotted so far, not sure if this is an rdp bug but during the install wizard for the english edition i noticed that the instruction text would disapear after a few seconds, for example the text at the end of the wizard telling you to click on finish to complete the install, seems to vanish for some wierd reason!, not a major problem but def wierd.

also i did notice that when the wizard starts it shows a german text button, it only appears very briefly but i think it was to do with cancelling the install (couldnt get it it to do it again, the process was too quick for me to spot the text), its at the very start of the installation process, again this maybe rdp playing up, but might be worth a look.

once again thanks for the quick work, much appreciated!.

paul.

I installed Yougle for Vista the other day so I could watch You Tube videos in VMC. That also has Shoutcast under the audio section, it's pretty good as they have loads of 80's music radio stations which I like.

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

Hi Stuart,

I just intalled "Yougle for Vista" and had a look at the ShoutCast section audio.

Some things I would like to mention:

• Yougle displays only 18 Genres - ShoutCast provides more 330.
  
• It doesn't indicating none mp3 streams (aac or accp streams). So when you try to tune in you get an error. mcShoutCast supports such streams if you install the Orban/Coding Technologies ACCP codec. If it isn't installed you will see a little symbol indicating that situation.
  
• It doesn't display/update the title informations - so you never know to which song do you listen to. Some station does sends only a static information like "for the playlist vist our web site". But most of them update these informations. And that isn't that simple to get, because the Media Player/Media Center doesn't provide you (as a developer) that informations. You have to analyse and to pull out that informations yourself.
  
• It looks like that Yougle only use the first Url that is provide at the ".pls" file. That means if the stations server didn't response at that url (max. number of listeners reached or some technical problem) you can't hear that station. mcShoutCast uses very stream if it is needed.
  
• ShoutCast provides basically four interfaces to use it (the genre, the top500 stations, the random stations view and a search options), as far as I have seen Yougle uses the genre view (while it miss ~300 genres) and a search option. mcShoutCast uses every interface that ShoutCast provided.
  
• You can't record the songs. mcShoutCast even write the mp3V2 tags to your recored songs.
  

While "Yougle for Vista" is in generall a greate application - it falls a little bit to short with the ShoutCast support.

Regards,
Sörnt

 

Sörnt:

Hi Stuart,

I just intalled "Yougle for Vista" and had a look at the ShoutCast section audio.

Some things I would like to mention:

• Yougle displays only 18 Genres - ShoutCast provides more 330.
  
• It doesn't indicating none mp3 streams (aac or accp streams). So when you try to tune in you get an error. mcShoutCast supports such streams if you install the Orban/Coding Technologies ACCP codec. If it isn't installed you will see a little symbol indicating that situation.
  
• It doesn't display/update the title informations - so you never know to which song do you listen to. Some station does sends only a static information like "for the playlist vist our web site". But most of them update these informations. And that isn't that simple to get, because the Media Player/Media Center doesn't provide you (as a developer) that informations. You have to analyse and to pull out that informations yourself.
  
• It looks like that Yougle only use the first Url that is provide at the ".pls" file. That means if the stations server didn't response at that url (max. number of listeners reached or some technical problem) you can't hear that station. mcShoutCast uses very stream if it is needed.
  
• ShoutCast provides basically four interfaces to use it (the genre, the top500 stations, the random stations view and a search options), as far as I have seen Yougle uses the genre view (while it miss ~300 genres) and a search option. mcShoutCast uses every interface that ShoutCast provided.
  
• You can't record the songs. mcShoutCast even write the mp3V2 tags to your recored songs.
  

While "Yougle for Vista" is in generall a greate application - it falls a little bit to short with the ShoutCast support.

Regards,
Sörnt

Hi Sornt

Wow wasn't expecting such a detailed response, I just thought I'd throw the Yougle / ShoutCast option out there to you all. I may have to install your plugin and try it out!

I mainly listen to shoutcast on my Sony PSP, as the Internet Radio feature was recently added on a PSP update. However a decent VMC plugin that works on extenders would be cool as well!

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

I must admit I don't know a lot about Internet radio, what is XM Radio ? I've seen a plugin for VMC on here some where. Is XM Radio just another source of Internet radio like Shoutcast ?

What is the best overall Internet Radio plug-in for VMC ?

Cheers

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

yeah i can confirm what Sörnt said, yougle is ok but the mcshoutcast plugin is superior for shoutcast streaming, and seeing as mcshoutcast is only in its infancy, its very good!, i would def recommend giving it a go stuart if you like streaming radio :-).

Sörnt - one thing i was meaning to ask, im assuming your plugin does work with an extender? (xbox 360).

paul.