I want the SB to stream anything I can play on my PC

[Sona]

I've had the Squeezebox less than a week. I purchased it to use instead of the FM transmitter I have been using to listen to music throughout my house. Most of the time the FM transmitter sounds decent, although it does introduce white noise (which can easily be drowned out by cranking the volume) and is sometimes subject to more annoying interference. The great thing about my FM transmitter is that anything I can play or stream on my PC can be transmitted throughout my house to any device with an FM tuner.

I certainly think the SB is a cool device with some nice features. It does a good job of playing music on my hard drive, and it can be nice to have the song info displayed or watch the RSS feeds. However, some of the radio stations I stream do not seem to work on the SB. For instance http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html. Also, I listen to CBC Radio 3 from their website. I can access an MP3 stream of theirs through Icecast with satisfactory results. However, I would like to be able to stream from the website http://radio3.cbc.ca/ directly because then I can play songs by artist or custom playlist.

Additionally, I am not a Rhapsody subscriber. I use Yahoo Music Engine and would like to continue to listen to their Launchcast stations and my custom playlists using the Squeezebox. I found an old thread detailing how to use Shoutcast/Winamp/Slimserver to send the local stream to the Squeezebox albeit without track info. http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=15862

I tried this solution but the signal to the SB was very weak, such that when I had the volume dialed up on the SB and speakers to the max I can only hear the signal very faintly and it is mostly drowned out by the ensuing white noise. Can anyone advise me on how to get a better signal this way?

Otherwise, I wonder if I should give up on the SB and go back to FM transmitting, buy and connect a wireless laptop directly to a stereo system, or buy or build an ultraquiet audio PC for this purpose.

Any input you can give me to help me use the SB3 to meet my needs would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sona

[azinck3]

I've had the Squeezebox less than a week. I purchased it to use instead of the FM transmitter I have been using to listen to music throughout my house. Most of the time the FM transmitter sounds decent, although it does introduce white noise (which can easily be drowned out by cranking the volume) and is sometimes subject to more annoying interference. The great thing about my FM transmitter is that anything I can play or stream on my PC can be transmitted throughout my house to any device with an FM tuner.

I certainly think the SB is a cool device with some nice features. It does a good job of playing music on my hard drive, and it can be nice to have the song info displayed or watch the RSS feeds. However, some of the radio stations I stream do not seem to work on the SB. For instance http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html. Also, I listen to CBC Radio 3 from their website. I can access an MP3 stream of theirs through Icecast with satisfactory results. However, I would like to be able to stream from the website http://radio3.cbc.ca/ directly because then I can play songs by artist or custom playlist.

Additionally, I am not a Rhapsody subscriber. I use Yahoo Music Engine and would like to continue to listen to their Launchcast stations and my custom playlists using the Squeezebox. I found an old thread detailing how to use Shoutcast/Winamp/Slimserver to send the local stream to the Squeezebox albeit without track info. http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=15862

I tried this solution but the signal to the SB was very weak, such that when I had the volume dialed up on the SB and speakers to the max I can only hear the signal very faintly and it is mostly drowned out by the ensuing white noise. Can anyone advise me on how to get a better signal this way?

Otherwise, I wonder if I should give up on the SB and go back to FM transmitting, buy and connect a wireless laptop directly to a stereo system, or buy or build an ultraquiet audio PC for this purpose.

Any input you can give me to help me use the SB3 to meet my needs would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sona

Some of your problems could probably be solved via some troubleshooting, but, in general, it sounds like your desired use-cases aren't well suited to the SB's architecture and you could probably spend a lot less money on a different solution that will suit your needs better. You might look into the Logitech wireless DJ.

[Sona]

Okay please offer some suggestions for alternatives then. What I think the SB does offer over my FM transmitter on the content which it can play is better audio quality. Perhaps I didn't make that explicit in my first post because of course I could just settle with what I have!

Plus I don't want to give up and I will devote some more time to studying Shoutcast forums or checking out Icecast. Someone knows how to make the SB put out! Clue me in!

[azinck3]

Okay please offer some suggestions for alternatives then. What I think the SB does offer over my FM transmitter on the content which it can play is better audio quality. Perhaps I didn't make that explicit in my first post because of course I could just settle with what I have!

Plus I don't want to give up and I will devote some more time to studying Shoutcast forums or checking out Icecast. Someone knows how to make the SB put out! Clue me in!

Ya, sorry for my unhelpful response. Note that I've edited my original post to add the suggestion to take a look at the Logitech wireless DJ.

[Sam Lowry]

I certainly think the SB is a cool device with some nice features. It does a good job of playing music on my hard drive, and it can be nice to have the song info displayed or watch the RSS feeds. However, some of the radio stations I stream do not seem to work on the SB. For instance http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html. Also, I listen to CBC Radio 3 from their website. I can access an MP3 stream of theirs through Icecast with satisfactory results. However, I would like to be able to stream from the website http://radio3.cbc.ca/ directly because then I can play songs by artist or custom playlist.

Thanks,

Sona

I'm not sure exactly what all you are after, but if you want to stream from radio3 just plug in http://icecast1.cbcradio3.com/r3.m3u in the Radio URL under Internet Radio using your computer. You can then save it as a favorite using your SB to access it easily. Most stations which play MP3s, will also have a .m3u or .pls which you can plug into that spot. I was able to see the track list for Radio3.

And thanks for the heads up on Radio3- didn't know about that one down here in California.

[bpa]

To play http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html
try this url mms://stream4.orf.at/oe1-wort on the SB

[Sona]

I can listen to CBC 3 using the same URL you do. I want to be able to listen directly from the CBC website because there it’s possible to stream artists on demand by clicking play all songs on the artist page. Additionally, people who register and log in can make custom playlists and add songs they like when listening to the regular stream. Metric, Nathan, The Organ, Jill Barber, LAL/Kobayashi, The Wailing Jenny’s, Arcade Fire, etc. have all posted tracks on the site and it’s possible to click play all and enjoy their material.

What I want in short is to listen to the material I am already accustomed to streaming, but use the Squeezebox to send content to my speakers instead of an FM transmitter in order to obtain superior sound. I know there exist many applications which can intercept online audio and rip it or record it; what I want to do is simply listen to these streams using a SB connected to a stereo and FM broadcast the content to the other audio devices in my house until I decide that the SB or other device is a stable enough and versatile enough product to use in lieu of the other secondary devices throughout my home, either in sync when I am home alone or independent of the other units when the kids want to listen to their own audio.

http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html

The Austrian radio station linked above opens a Windows Media Player plugin when you click Webradio Starten. Unfortunately, it will not play either through SlimServer or Squeezenetwork. This is just one of the stations I listen to with which I face the same problem. Let me know if there is a way to make internet stations like these work on the SB. I was also unable to get this station to work:

http://www.cbc.ca//radio2/mediaPlayer.html?EASTERN_HI

BTW, FYI: I’m a true blue American living in the lower 48, I just like the CBC.

The workaround referenced in my early post does send the content to SB, only at such a low volume I can barely hear it. It’d be really nice if I could get it to work.

Thanks for any help you all can offer.

[bpa]

To play http://oe1.orf.at/konsole_live.html
use this url mms://stream4.orf.at/oe1-wort on the SB - it works OK onm my SB3 using Tune in on SS 6.5.1


To get all sound from PC played as a stream which SB can play you can use Windows Media Encoder.
See
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpo...20&postcount=3

[Sona]

The mms URL does play. I just tried it over the Squeeze network. It keeps pausing however. Funny, I tried another mms link for another station which didn't work earlier. It has an asx extension like the CBC2 link, but this one works. Go figure.

[bpa]

mms links should not have an asx extension - ASX is a playlist which contain the url to be played. Try the asx url with http not mms in front.

Regarding orf Once connected - squeezenetwork plays no part in the commsn - your SB is streaming directly from station - pausing is due to network connection or station.

Some people have found using the slimserver's proxy facility in 6.5.2 helps in these "pausing" situations.