How to add .m3u8 stream?

[ImerL]

Hi

I'm trying to add the stream https://live-radio.lwc.vrtcdn.be/gro.../playlist.m3u8 to my Winamp v5.666 Build 3561 (x86) playlist in W10, but it doesn't work. When I add it with "Edit playlist entry" and try to play it I see "Error syncing to stream". When adding it with Play -> URL, the existing playlist is erased and nothing plays.
The stream works fine in Potplayer no matter how I add it to the app. Potplayer plays an AAC ~128kbps 48KHz stream.
I got the stream URL by analysing the traffic from the radio website https://radio1.be/.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Kind Regards

Imer

[PeterK.]

This is how my m3u playlist look like:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,Costa Del Mar - Chillout (1.FM)
http://sc-costadelmar.1.fm:10156


You can clearly see the http address, hence winamp knows where to search for the radio station. When I open your m3u8 playlist there is no url at all:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:4
## Created with Unified Streaming Platform(version=1.7.28)

# AUDIO groups
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=AUDIO,GROUP-ID="audio-aach-64",NAME="audio",AUTOSELECT=YES,DEFAULT=YES,CHANNELS="2"
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=AUDIO,GROUP-ID="audio-aacl-128",NAME="audio",AUTOSELECT=YES,DEFAULT=YES,CHANNELS="2"

# variants
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:BANDWIDTH=75000,AVERAGE-BANDWIDTH=68000,CODECS="mp4a.40.5",AUDIO="audio-aach-64"
live-audio=64000.m3u8
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:BANDWIDTH=150000,AVERAGE-BANDWIDTH=136000,CODECS="mp4a.40.2",AUDIO="audio-aacl-128"
live-audio=128000.m3u8

Is this the reason you cannot play it? Try to find a playlist file with a proper url location (http-address).

[ImerL]

PeterK.

Thanks for your feedback. I was afraid I was using bad methods to enter the Url into Winamp.

There is no absolute or full path in the .m3u8 file because it uses a relative format. The playlist file is placed in the same directory as the audio files. My working players (browser and Potplayer) pick up one of the two 'variants', for instance https://live-radio.lwc.vrtcdn.be/gro...io=128000.m3u8
As you can see the "playlist.m3u8" file is replaced by the "live-audio=128000.m3u8" file.
Note that Potplayer shows both variants in a menu and I can switch instantly between both.

I've tried to enter these Urls in Winamp but it can't deal with these variants either.

Meanwhile, I discovered the stream is of the type "HTTP Live Streaming" (HLS). It consists of .ts chunks. that need to be 'concatenated' by the player.

Since the search engine used by this forum couldn't find any posts about HLS, I used an external (non-spying) search engine (https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=winamp+hls) and it found the following thread : "HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Support?" : http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=368215

On 5th August 2013, 16:14 DrO wrote :
"Winamp doesn't have support for HLS and i doubt (if it does get supported) it's going to happen any time soon. as you note, once you finally work through the playlists to get at the raw urls, it's limited to 10sec chunks and then we get into a whole load of messiness of how to determine what to play next, how to get it, etc and that's before even trying to get it integrated into how Winamp works."

I would like to know whether this statement is still valid today - after more than 4 years.

I would like to continue using Winamp as I'm using it for its API. The radio station I want to listen to at specific times during the day had other types of playlists but they do no longer work. I speculate this government subsidised propaganda broadcaster wants to force listeners to use their web/mobile app player for reasons of advertising and tracking purposes.

Kind regards

Imer

[ImerL]

PeterK.

Thanks for your feedback. I was afraid I was using bad methods to enter the Url into Winamp.

There is no absolute or full path in the .m3u8 file because it uses a relative format. The playlist file is placed in the same directory as the audio files. My players (browser and Potplayer) pick up one of the two 'variants', for instance https://live-radio.lwc.vrtcdn.be/gro...io=128000.m3u8
As you can see the "playlist.m3u8" file is replaced by the "live-audio=128000.m3u8" file.
Note that Potplayer shows both variants in a menu and I can switch instantly between both.

I've tried to enter these Urls in Winamp but it can't deal with these variants either.

Meanwhile, I discovered the stream is of the type "HTTP Live Streaming" (HLS). It consists of .ts chunks. that need to be 'concatenated' by the player.

Since the search engine used by this forum couldn't find any posts about HLS, I used an external (non-spying) search engine (https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=winamp+hls) and it found the following thread : "HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Support?" : http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=368215

On 5th August 2013, 16:14 DrO wrote :
"Winamp doesn't have support for HLS and i doubt (if it does get supported) it's going to happen any time soon. as you note, once you finally work through the playlists to get at the raw urls, it's limited to 10sec chunks and then we get into a whole load of messiness of how to determine what to play next, how to get it, etc and that's before even trying to get it integrated into how Winamp works."

I would like to know whether this statement is still valid today - after more than 4 years.

I would like to continue using Winamp as I'm using it for its API. The radio station I want to listen to at specific times during the day had other types of playlists but they do no longer work. I speculate this government subsidised propaganda broadcaster wants to force listeners to use their web/mobile app player for reasons of advertising and tracking purposes.

Kind regards

Imer

[keijo]

ImerL,

You did a helluva job dissecting that stream and getting to the culprit (HLS). For what I know, Winamp STILL doesn't work with this type of streaming, yeah, after more than four years.
It looks like you're gonna hafta work it out with a different player, then pass it on to a virtual sound card (Virtual Audio Cable comes in handy), then pick that up with Winamp using a line-in plugin connected to it, then do what you need to do with the resulting feed. The setup worked for me on a Frankenstein-build of several HLS sources redirected together to a software console where they could be mixed, DSP'd and put back 'in the air', from Winamp itself.

Hope it helps.
keijo.-