Internet Radio Receiver - Can I play a Playlist from my PC?

TVeblen said:

Yes, you understand my madness!
As you correctly pointed out, this is an older receiver and does not do DNLA or anything easy like that. I'm attempting to marry new systems to old tech.

Click to expand...

And that's the key. And why I mentioned network capabilities of some receivers

Wanted to add, you and @badrobot seem to be on the same page so...

TVeblen said:

This pic below may help visualize the problem:
All the internet radio stations #2 - #7 work. You can see how I enter their addresses in the settings of the receiver.
Station #8 - Alara Playlist - is the one I'm experimenting with.
I created a shared folder on C: , named 1Playlist , and created a test playlist file in it.
Now I just need to pont the reciever to the shared folder and playlist file, using a url syntax.
The local network address for the PC is 192.168.60.106

View attachment 55598

Click to expand...

I think #8 should be listed like this:

Providing of course that the "1playlist" is an actual folder that the playlists test.pls is in. So, is in "1playlist" a folder on the root of c:? also by using the c$ share the receiver will need admin rights to access...I suspect that is your biggest problem.

Another way would be to make the folder "1playlist" an actual share name with rights that everyone can access and I think it might work. If you do this then your url would like this: http://192.168.60.106/1playlist/test.pls

Anyway, hope it helps.

Thank you play2mefish. That is helpful.
I did not consider that creating the shared folder on C: would run into administrative rights issues. Good point. I'm going to first create a new shared folder on another drive.

I did try http://192.168.60.106/c$/1playlist/test.pls already. No joy. But I will re-test all the various addresses I've already tried again after moving the shared folder.

I looked into creating a Mapped Network Drive last night (doing that would allow me to use http://192.168.60.106/1playlist/test.pls ) but saw what could be another problem.
After enabling Network Discovery in Public & Guest Networks, I did not see any of my shares in the Mapping window.
Note: All of these shares are visible to other PCs on my network, the Shield, Kodi, all networked devices.
So I am obviously on the learning curve here.

Question: in creating the shared folder I am allowing read only rights, not writing. Do you think that would throw up a problem?

An update:
I was able to map 1Playlist today. No idea what happened last night, but today all my shares just showed up in the mapping window.
I created a new folder on G: and shared it with EVERYONE and gave all permissions.
I went into Network Settings and turned on all Network Discovery and File Sharing on ALL networks. (switched back after test)
I created a new playlist in Winamp and saved it in 1 Playlist. Tested it. It plays.

Entered http://192.168.60.106/1playlist/test.pls in the Pioneer - "Connection NG".
The receiver throws up the "Connection NG" message anytime you can't connect to an internet radio station. Not all stations work.

I've noticed that if you enter an address that the receiver does not recognize as a real address it immediately goes to "Connection NG". Instantly.
This happens with modern internet radio stations on secure websites. Absolutely NO stations who's address begins with https:// will work on this receiver - it fails instantly. It's like it's saying: "That's not a real address"! Only http:// stations will work.

But when I enter http://192.168.60.106/ it searches for 10 seconds or so before failing, meaning it does think that is a real address.

Tunein etc can play the OPML stream -- but remember some free Internet radio stations such as BBC are changing their streaming system later this year so things like shoutcast streams won't work for some later on.

For example BBC Radio :


Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo - what is an OPML Stream?

Hi there
Another way - only works though for "shoutcast streams" is to install the Logitech media server -- then the "Squeezeplay app" and then it's all "Alles in "Ordnung" as you can then play what the radio has.

Set up logitech media server - then Squeezeplay !!









Cheers
jimbo

TVeblen said:

Hey Jimbo - what is an OPML Stream?

Click to expand...

Hi there
It's the " Direct Url" of the transmitting streaming station.

Cheers
jimbo

Gotcha.

There are many other options available to me. And one day I may just upgrade my systems. But for now, in this thread, I'm just looking into seeing if I can solve this one specific problem.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
It's the " Direct Url" of the transmitting streaming station.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

BTW this is better than using a browser --especially on a phone -- as the service runs in the background so you can close browser etc while still having music etc played.

Cheers
jimbo

Not a free solution but if your computer has Bluetooth this should work. It can be used as a receiver or transmitter. I use it with my headphones. It works great. I no longer have to occasionally re-pair my headphones and I can go as far as the field accross the street and still listen to my music. https://www.amazon.com/Miccus-Bluet...r&qid=1679160255&sprefix=miccus,aps,96&sr=8-3

jimbo45 said:

BTW this is better than using a browser --especially on a phone -- as the service runs in the background so you can close browser etc while still having music etc played.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Understood. One of the best things about internet radio is that once I have the stations programed in then you can listen with just the receiver on. Each station is like a preset. And you can 'tune in' to any one of them at any time without other equipment running - other than the router and modem.

TVeblen said:

Understood. One of the best things about internet radio is that once I have the stations programed in then you can listen with just the receiver on. Each station is like a preset. And you can 'tune in' to any one of them at any time without other equipment running - other than the router and modem.

Click to expand...

@TVeblen

I don't like using browsers for playing live music streams -- you usually want the music playing while you can do other tasks on a computer -- and if you close the browser then the music stops.

This method also is good if you set up a music server which can be accessed on a mobile phone - and using blu tooth route the output to speakers say in a car, other room etc etc. Logitech media server is still good for this plus squeezeplay on the client computer and also works on mobile phones (at least on android) although things like Radio Garden are fine on those now.

Example of an opml stream file as a playlist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="1.0">
<head title="Info Browser">
<expansionState></expansionState>
</head>
<body>
<outline URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml" text="BBC News World" />
<outline URL="http://news.com.com/2547-1_3-0-5.xml" text="CNET News.com" />
<outline URL="http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/HomePage.xml" text="New York Times" />
<outline URL="http://www.rollingstone.com/rssxml/music_news.xml" text="RollingStone.com Music News" />
<outline URL="http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot" text="Slashdot" />
<outline URL="http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/business" text="Yahoo! Business" />
</body>
</opml>

Simply get your Internet Radio app to play your opml playlist.





cheers
jimbo

I'll have to give that a try sometime.

An update:

I have exhausted every option for solving the problem - as specifically posted in the thread title - to no avail. I am now satisfied that I have not left anything on the table. I conclude the receiver is too old and can't deal with modern networking protocol. (That gets me off the hook - doesn't it?).

I want to thank those who gave suggestions.
Based on the suggestions to give it up and try a different method I did find a new method to use.

The Nvidia Shield streamer is an Android device. As such, it has Chromecast built in. I am now using VLC Media Player to cast the audio playlist to the Shield and from there to the Home Theater speakers. It works(*)
I still need/want to create the playlists in Winamp. As long as I save the playlist in .m3u format then VLC can load it and play it.

VLC can also make playlists but has one glaring shortfall: no "Randomize" sort option.
Typically I create playlists by going through my music files collection and choosing songs to add, usually 2 or 3 per artist or album. Then I want to randomize the list so no 2 songs by the same artist play back to back. Yes you can do that manually but that is tedious and slow.

So now I can create my custom playlists, save them on my PC, and play them on the big speakers at will. And without buying any new equipment. That's a win!

(*) Not happy with the audio volume on the big speakers. Kinda wimpy. But I may start a new thread on that in Apps forum.