Monday, July 20, 2009

Streamtuner Shoutcast Plugin Oddity

I have to really wonder if the continuing Shoutcast problem in Streamtuner is in fact caused by the Ubuntu kernel.
I ask this question out loud after installing Vector Linux which is based on Slackware using Linux Kernel version 2.6.27.12

After I installed Vector Linux on an older 1 Ghz computer I saw that Streamtuner was preinstalled. Curious as to whether it would work properly or not I fired it up.
To my surprise, not only did the Shoutcast tab work perfectly but Punkcast and basic.ch plugins were installed and working properly.

Now it is possible that the good people involved with Vector Linux may have patched the plugin or it may be the latest Streamtuner release works as it should in Vector while still causing problems in Ubuntu.

I've also read that other distros don't have problems with the Streamtuner Shoutcast plugin that was recently released.
Yet it seems most Ubuntu users are still having problems with it.

I plan to take a look at the Vector install and the plugin they are using in an attempt to put this to rest once and for all.
I like Streamtuner and have not found anything that compares to it. So I'm not going to give up the fight to get this fixed properly.

TaZ

8 comments:

hhh said...

Tazman, I found a much, much better alternative. Apparently Exaile (based on Amarok but built for Gnome) has been booming (it sucked 2 years ago when I tried it last). I had a bitch of a time learning to configure it, but it's all there... all the Shoutcast streams, Streamripper built in, bitrates if you add that tab, album art for your hard drive tunes, minimize 2 tray, a cool plugin to put album art on your desktop, everything but Autoplay, and that's coming (it works already in the dev version). Get it from Synaptic, that's the version that is acting stable 4 me, "exaile". I'm absolutely loving it, hope it works 4 u 2.

Peace!

TaZMAn said...

Thanks for the info hhh!
I will try it out.
That's what I like about the open source community, it evolves faster then you can keep up with it and the community will share info and opinions about the software.

The amount of software titles are growing and getting better every day. I'm loving it! :-)

Right now I'm testing DVDStyler and will have a new article on it shortly.

Thanks again and glad you stopped by.

hhh said...

No problem. I had to tell someone! It has it's flaws but it's still a pretty great music player in general and front-end for streamripper specifically. Note the depressed Record button in the screenshot...
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/985/screenshotnsm.png

TaZMAn said...

Hi hhh,
Tell the world!
If you don't, I will. LOL!
I have tried it. Yes, it does have a few flaws but once you enable the Shoutcast plugin it does as advertised.
I recorded a few songs from a radio stream. All the categories showed up and I was able to tune most of the stations in.

I do have to look into what other 3rd party plugins may be available for it. Don't see a xiph plugin.

Other then that it is a great find.
Thanks again and kudos for the share.

hhh said...

Xiph is working for me if I install Streamtuner via Synaptic and then set the "listen to a stream/m3u" options to exaile %q. Tune in via Streamtuner, Exaile opens, hit the Record button. Let me know if there's a better way.

rokytnji said...

I have streamtuner preinstalled in AntiX also Taz. It worked out of the box also. I was so impressed with it I used synaptic in my Gnome/Ubuntu box to install it. Boy was I disappointed.Practically useless in Ubuntu. I am gonna check out this Exaile comment I read here and see if it works better in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

TaZMAn said...

Hi hhh,

Yep, I could do the Streamtuner with Exaile as the player but that is redundant as I can just listen and record xiph right from Streamtuner.

What I was hoping to find was a native Xiph plugin for Exaile. That way I could uninstall Streamtuner.

I like keeping my system lean. LOL!
Other then the plugin, Exaile is a keeper so far.
Thanks again for posting about Exaile!

TaZMAn said...

Hi Rok!
How's it going? Wasting away your summer? LOL!

I'm trying to figure out why so many other versions of Linux have no problems with Streamtuner yet Ubuntu has so much trouble with it.

Exaile is a good substitute Rok.
It works very well in 9.04
Should have no problems with 8.10 or 8.04 LTS.

The only problems I can foresee is how the Ubuntu repos work. You may only have access to an older version of Exaile which may not work as well as the newer version.

May need to grab the source and compile it yourself. But be ready to upgrade a bunch of libraries.

Glad you stopped in and hope everything is running flawless for you.

I'm looking to build a new A/V computer all based on Linux.
Full Quad Core with 2+ Tb's of storage and a tuner card. Haven't decided on which tuner card though.

Catch you later.