AlienBBC
A BBC Radio Stream Plugin
AlienBBC is a plugin for SlimServer/SqueezeCenter,
the software platform used by the Slim Devices
line of networked music players.
It is primarily designed to allow the user to listen to BBC Radio streams but also
adds the ability to listen to any RealAudio stream. Currently, it is capable of
parsing and playing the following resources:
- All the main BBC Radio 'Live' streams
- The BBC 'Listen Again' Audio on Demand content
- All Available BBC Radio 2 Content
- All Available BBC Radio 4 Content
- The BBC7 Audio Archive
- The Available BBC Local Radio Stations
- Radio 5 Live Audio Archive
- Some of the ABC Content (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- A number of other streams, suggested by AlienBBC Users
- For a complete list of stations see here
In addition, the code will also parse any 'AlienBBC Playlists' (formerly
'AlienStream' playlists) available, and provides a more robust environment
for the playing of those streams.
AlienBBC functions on Linux, MacOS/X, and Windows platforms.
Comments and feedback should be posted to:
Slim Devices : Community : Forums - 3rd Party Plugins
AlienBBC Installation Instructions
AlienBBC Downloads
AlienBBC v2.02 Beta1 this release is only compatible with the release version
of SqueezeCenter 7.1, 7.2 or 7.3 beta release.
Installation Notes
- This version no longer support SqueezeCenter 7.0
- This is the first version of Alien to include support for the new BBC iPlayer
web site. The transition to iPlayer has removed several of the listen again feeds
which the old version of Alien supported. These are replaced in this version with
new menus based on iPlayer. If you have previously installed the iPlayer or BBC
XML Alien addons which have been published in the forums, then please delete
these prior to installing Alien to avoid duplicated menus. You may also
need to reset the Alien menus (web settings page for Alien) to remove all old menu
entries and leave new menu supported by Alien. This release also includes an alternative
set of Listen Again menus which are created from XML feeds which the BBC has recently
made available. Please note this menu will only work on 7.2 and 7.3 versions of
SqueezeCenter. It contains less information than the iPlayer based menus, but should
be less susceptible to changes in the BBC site causing loss of menu entries. Please
try this menu if you find the programme you are looking for missing from the main
menus. An experimental version of Alien is included for 7.3 - this supports the
new streaming api in SqueezeCenter 7.3, but should only be used by people beta testing
7.3 and should be considered unstable at present.
- NOTE: The Windows install packs delete the custom types files and the
Alien plugin folder before installing the new release.
What's new in 2.02 Beta1
- Drop support for SC 7.0 - support 7.1 and 7.2 # - Rework parsers for BBC iPlayer:
- This version includes beta parsers for the iPlayer web pages (7.1+) and BBC XML
feeds (SC 7.2)
- Remove alien skip code - only support 7.1 song scanner
- Fix RTSPScanHeaders to send CRLFCRLF at end of header
AlienBBC v2.01 Beta1 this release is only compatible with the release version
of SqueezeCenter 7.0 or 7.1 beta release.
Installation Notes
- Note that this version does not use the new plugin packaging mechanism which is
being trialled with 7.0 - please unzip the zip/gzip file to the Plugins folder in
the usual way. [Please remove any old versions of Alien first].
- This release has been tested with revision 21348 of SqueezeCenter 7.1. As the
7.1 code is under development later versions may not function.
- NOTE: The Windows install packs delete the custom types files and the Alien
plugin folder before installing the new release.
What's new in 2.01 Beta1
- Beta release supporting 7.1 song scanner for streams supporting this
- Fetch stream length from rtsp server
- Work around playing corrupt urls including spaces (radio5)
AlienBBC v2.00 this release is only compatible with the release version of
SqueezeCenter 7.0.
Installation Notes
- Note that this version does not use the new plugin packaging mechanism which is
being trialled with 7.0 - please unzip the zip/gzip file to the Plugins folder in
the usual way. [Please remove any old versions of Alien first].
- This release has been tested with revision 15907 of SqueezeCenter 7.0. As the
7.0 code is under development later versions may not function.
- NOTE: The Windows install packs delete the custom types files and the Alien
plugin folder before installing the new release.
What's new in 2.00 Beta
- Major rewrite to support SqueezeCenter 7.0 and integrate more closely with the
server
- Full support of jive and cli access to Alien menus
- Support of the new favorites system, so menus or stations from Alien can be added
to your favorites from the web interface
- Rewritten parsers to create stations lists (please provide feedback if there stations
found by the old version which this version did not see)
- Internal code now avoids delays fetching station lists for one player impacting
the user interface on other players
What's new in 2.00 Beta2
- Fix problem with skip forward/backwards
- Fix display of Gaelic accented characters
- Add alien icon
- Refresh menus on startup
- Updates to menu structure
What's new in 2.00 Beta3
- Move icon definition to install.xml file to track SC changes
- Move mplayer.sh to Alien/Bin (server svn15843) add searching for expected mplayer
locations on OS X (assuming standard mplayer install)
- New Mac OS X installation instructions: See
Mac OS X
- Removed NPR support except for Prarie Home Companions as that still uses RealAudio
- Added a "Search A-Z" menu to search Radio A-Z for BBC radio 4,5,6 &
7
- Updated the Deutsche Welle URLs
- Update Alien icon to have transparent background
What's new in 2.00 Beta4
- Podcast update to fix title problem and add UK Only warning when necessary.
- Fix bug in search WebUI instance with no clients.
- Maintain timestamps for distribution.
What's new in 2.00 Beta5
- Track server change svn 16256 to make menus appear again.
What's new in 2.00 Final
- Remove GWR stations.
- Release compatible with release version of SqueezeCenter 7.0.
For older versions of AlienBBC click here
Credits
AlienBBC is the result of many people's work. The main code is written by Jules
Taplin, Craig Eales, Triode, Neil Sleightholm and Bryan Alton. The 'alienstream'
helper was originally written by
Peter Heslin. Peter has also contributed bug fixes to the main AlienBBC code.
Thanks Peter!
AlienBBC was hosted by Jules Taplin at
http://www.mrtickle.org/alienbbc.html but as he has been busy recently so
we have moved to our new home to provide updates to the code.
The new method of playing RealAudio streams is to use mplayer. This is © The MPlayer
Project. More details are available here.
Finally... credit is due to the large number of users who've submitted suggestions
and fixes so far. Keep 'em coming, folks.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
Last updated: 23 September 2008