MinimStreamer stops working after update

[Alhifi]

Hello experts,

today my minimserver-web-gui shows me the update of MinimServer and also MinimStreamer, i've updated both using the buttons on the site.

After installation (and also after multiple restarts) MinimStreamer is still not working like before! I'm using this software to get my old Roku Soundbrigdes alive, which was working fine since this morning, but after the update I get no connection to the different stream urls, whats wrong?

This is a part of my m3u-file with the configuration:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,[01;mp3] 100.5-das Hitradio
https://stream.dashitradio.de/dashitradi...stream.mp3
#EXTINF:-1,[02;mp3] 100.5-in the Mix
https://stream.dashitradio.de/in_the_mix/mp3-128
#EXTINF:-1,[03;mp3] Antenne AC
http://mp3.antenneac.c.nmdn.net/ps-anten...stream.mp3
#EXTINF:-1,[04;mp3] Radio Rur
http://stream.lokalradio.nrw/444z7wm
#EXTINF:-1,[05;mp3] Radio Arabella Bayern
https://edge85.stream.radioarabella.de/r...stream/mp3
#EXTINF:-1,[06;mp3] Radio Paradiso
https://streams.paradiso.de/Berlin/mp3-128/Web/
#EXTINF:-1,[07;mp3] Radio Bob!
http://streams.radiobob.de/bob-national/mp3-192
#EXTINF:-1,[08;mp3] InTheMixRadio
http://stream.laut.fm/inthemixradio

I did not change this for so many weeks and months, only when an url has changed, it works this morning and stopped after update!

Any hints?

kind regards
Alhifi

[simoncn]

Thanks for letting me know about this and for posting your playlist. I have found the cause of the problem and I will publish a new version of MinimStreamer with a fix for this problem tomorrow.

[simoncn]

This problem is fixed in MinimStreamer 2.1.4, now available. It affected MP3 streams sent using HTTP chunked encoding and I have verified that the fix works with all the streams on the playlist that you posted. My apologies for the inconvenience caused.

[Alhifi]

Hello simoncn,

thanks a lot, looks good!

Anther question: Somewhere in the documentation it says that you filter out Icecast information, but I can't find the passage right now. My wife keeps asking me, ‘Why can't I see the title for some stations?’ Explaining it to her makes little sense! ;-)

So, simply put: Why is that?

kind regards
Alhifi

[simoncn]

The information about Icecast is in this section.

Here are a few reasons why MinimStreamer removes Icecast data:

1) Some players don't support Icecast. MinimStreamer doesn't know what player is being used, so it streams audio in a form that is guaranteed to work with all players.

2) Supporting Icecast is not just a matter of not removing Icecast data from the stream. It would require MinimStreamer to send correct Icecast HTTP headers to the player and it isn't easy to find a specification of what these headers should be.

3) The transcoding engine requires a pure audio data stream. Adding Icecast decoding to the transcoding engine would be a lot of work. Filtering out Icecast data before the transcoding stage avoids this issue.

4) MinimStreamer can make recordings of radio streams. Icecast data would need to be removed from these recordings as a) it is very unlikely that any player would support playing a recorded file containing Icecast data and b) seeking/scrubbing in the recorded file would require removal of embedded Icecast data. It is possible to listen in real time to a stream that is being recorded, which requires the listening stream and the recorded stream to be identical.

If you have a direct URL to the radio stream, you can access the stream using a playlist entry that doesn't include a stream ID. For example, the first stream in your list could be defined like this:

#EXTINF:-1, 100.5-das Hitradio
http://stream.dashitradio.de/dashitradio/mp3-128/stream.mp3

If you do this, MinimStreamer will not be used and the player will receive an unmodified stream from the radio station streaming server including any Icecast data.

[Alhifi]

Hello Simon,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I understand some of it, but it raises new questions in my case.

In my case, I use the MinimStreamer exclusively for radio streams with my Roku Soundbridge, which, as is well known, does not support https. With the MinimStreamer, however, I can do this and the Soundbridge can receive the stream after redirection via your server, but without the additional information. I can understand that such information may be disruptive when recording, but I'm not sure.

I also understand the stream ID, but I can't use it like this:

#EXTINF:-1, 100.5-das Hitradio
http://stream.dashitradio.de/dashitradio...stream.mp3

In my case, the entries previously had an ID, but this is displayed in the list on the Soundbridge. If I omit the ID, the Soundbridge does not play the stream without information about what type it is, so for me it only works like this

#EXTINF:-1,[;mp3] 100.5-das Hitradio
http://stream.dashitradio.de/dashitradio...stream.mp3

I also tried the variation with the + in the ID, but then I have two entries for the same station, which doesn't make sense either.

So if you filter out the Icecast information when the stream runs via MinimStreamer, how about another variant, e.g. with a - instead of + in the ID, which forwards the stream 1:1 from the Internet to the player, but via http and not https! This means that the stream on the internet is only accessible via https, which is handled by the MinimServer, but it forwards it to the player via http... along with all the information that comes with the stream, without any format conversion. This option would extend the life of much older hardware such as the Soundbridge (I have 6 of them) by years... and surely bring you some subscribers for the streamer! ;-)

[simoncn]

The simplest solution is to use playlist entries like this:

#EXTINF:-1,[;mp3] 100.5-das Hitradio
http://stream.dashitradio.de/dashitradio/mp3-128/stream.mp3

with http as the protocol. I tried changing https to http on the stream URLs that you posted and they all work with http.

If there are other streams that only work with https, you should be able to use a local reverse proxy to stream them to your player as http.