Loading a ASX playlist in Winamp

[MattCohn]

Is there a plugin availible or other way to load in an ASX playlist through winamp? It would need to happen through the command line, as in:

c:\program files\winamp\winamp.exe "C:\some\path\file.asx"

Thanks a bunch, love you lots, drinks at my place.

[DJ Egg]

asx search 1 | mms:// search 2

Winamp doesn't support Microsoft's proprietry .asx playlist format, so you'll need to open the asx playlist in notepad to find the actual stream url, then add /.wma to the end of it . . . see search results for further details :/

[MattCohn]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
asx search 1 | mms:// search 2

Winamp doesn't support Microsoft's proprietry .asx playlist format, so you'll need to open the asx playlist in notepad to find the actual stream url, then add /.wma to the end of it . . . see search results for further details :/

It's not the info from the ASX file I need.... it's to be able to play the ASX file. Lemmie give you my situation:

I work on scheduling music at a radio station that uses the Selector music scheduling system. Very popular, very nice, and it has a feature to launch an event in an external music player. It does this by creating a temporary ASX file and launching the player of your choice with that ASX file as a paramater.

Naturally it's designed to work with Windows Media Player, but WMP doesn't like to play the music files recorded on our automation and production system. Winamp has always had the reputation of playing even the most damaged and non-standard files, and has absolutelly no problem with the files (which have an .MTS extension, and are recorded as 44.1k/256kbps/MP2).

So now you see my problem. Is there an input plugin that would be able to parse the file, or is there a solution being worked on to play ASX playlists? Mabey a proxy program that I load the playlist into, and it calls Winamp.exe with a .pls file?

[Nunzio390]

Yeah Egg... I detailed the procedure in my response here for someone else.

@ MattCohn...

Read that but skip the part about TwonkyVision, and instead start reading where I begin with this...

But the main reason I've posted here now is to shed a little more light on what JonnyMac already did for you...

[EDIT]
Okay.. you posted above at the exact moment I was typing my response. Anyway, you said this just now...

It's not the info from the ASX file I need.... it's to be able to play the ASX file.

Well, I do not need to read any further than that, since (as Egg already explained) the proprietary ASX playlist file can NOT be played in Winamp... period.

Now what you can do (if you want) is to isolate the actual file called for in the .asx proprietary playlist file and create a standard .pls or .m3u playlist file containing that info, but that is kinda ludicrous IMHO.

[MattCohn]

Originally posted by Nunzio390
Well, I do not need to read any further than that...

I wish you would, as I explain exactly what I'm using this for and exactly why your solution will not work.

Is there a way to do what I detailed as needing? As in, Selector calls a program with the ASX file, and through some magic that will all be incredibly simple, the media files contained within play in Winamp? Plugin? Third party program?

[Nunzio390]

through some magic that will all be incredibly simple, the media files contained within play in Winamp? Plugin? Third party program?

Looking for magic, huh? Well we do have our captive DrO, who is reputed for his being the Magical Genie of Winamp plugins/ enhancement.

If you ask him nicely, and if he has the time, he may do something like that for you. He's already done something similar to allow the old B4S formatted Winamp3 playlist files to play in Winamp. Perhaps this is along the same "genre" so to speak.

[MattCohn]

Originally posted by Nunzio390
Looking for magic, huh? Well we do have our captive DrO, who is reputed for his being the Magical Genie of Winamp plugins/ enhancement.

If you ask him nicely, and if he has the time, he may do something like that for you. He's already done something similar to allow the old B4S Winamp3 playlist files to play in Winamp. Perhaps this is along the same "genre" so to speak.

I'll go ahead and give him a shout. I'm sure it would get more use than from just me... ASX files are out there, and while it's easy enough to get the info out of them it'd be even easier to have a plugin parse them.

Thanks,
--Matt Cohn

[Nunzio390]

Okay. Give it a whirl. You can point him to this thread if you like.

Good luck!

[DJ Egg]

Selector Music Scheduling System?
Maybe you should ask whoever coded this to make it support exporting to m3u or pls instead of asx?
There's more chance of that than Winamp ever natively supporting asx playlists.
Though sure, you'd think an asx support plugin for winamp wouldn't be too difficult to code, heh :/

[MattCohn]

Eh, I'd say there isn't much hope in Selector being re-written.

http://www.rcsworks.com/

They design their scheduling system to integrate best with their own automation system, and I'm sure that Windows Media Player can play those files just fine.

[DrO]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Though sure, you'd think an asx support plugin for winamp wouldn't be too difficult to code, heh :/

it's not from what i see, it's just getting the time to do it that is as for implementing it, it's on my little ( ) todo list for the b4s playlist loading plugin to handle other formats as well.

-daz

[Nunzio390]

To tell ya the truth Darren, if you DO get the B4S playlist loader to also handle ASX playlists, your fame will grow in leaps and bounds.

Many many many countless posts where people are always asking about this.

So if you do get around to it, I wish that some of the supposedly grateful people who always "verbally" praise you and use your plugins actually donate something to you for a change for all your hard work and effort.

Yes, peeps...

In case nobody ever noticed it, Darren does have a PayPal donation link near the bottom of the main page of his site. ...

I do all of this for fun (yes i am mad) and to make Winamp more suited to my own and other peoples needs. If you like what i do and want to donate anything then you can, just click on the link below

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by MattCohn
Eh, I'd say there isn't much hope in Selector being re-written.

Why not? They've got coders working for them haven't they? More than Winamp has anyway (ie. none). Why can't they add an option to export to universal m3u instead of proprietry asx crap?

[Nunzio390]

Yeah. Really. Looks like the Selector coders are "selecting" to only support Micro$haft crap proprietary formats. They wanna be jerks? Let 'em be jerks then. But then again, who knows? Maybe they get bribes/kickbacks from Bill Gates to keep their stuff proprietary. I would not put that kind of behavior past Microsoft. Hell, what am I talking about? It's already happened before. Microsoft is notorious for always endeavering to corner the market on everything. Cut-throat Capitalism at it's finest.

[MattCohn]

Just checkin' up on the status of this ish, thanks to everyone.

--Matt Cohn

[DrO]

it's looking like i'll be able to get something working for use between christmas and the new year (got almost 2 weeks off work so i'm planning things out for coding during that time now )

-daz

[MattCohn]

Please excuse the bump, my PD's back in town and he's giving me a very hard time about this. Thanks!