IDEA: ShoutcastConcierge/ helpful tool to show some shoutcast stream titles

[brotherS]

Hi,

since the day I virtually completely stopped listening to mp3 files and started to listen to live streams only I'm searching for a tool like this! Reason why: I'm listening to about 7 streams - and while most of them DO have a schedule it happens that a live show is delayed or canceled or another show comes up unexpected - so I have to stop listening to the stream I'm listening to, only to check what the other streams are playing... This is what Shoutcast Overview (just a suggestion for a name that would give good Google results) should do and look like:

• a tiny window with no menues on the desktop
• the window would show the shoutcast titles for a number of chosen streams
• in the window, there would be an on/off switch for every visible entry
• right-clicking the window or the tray icon will give you a menu for options/quit/etc.
• there should be an option to turn off the taskbar 'icon' (so that you'll only have the tray icon)
• in the options you would set the interval of the title updates, like: a) wait X seconds before checking next stream and b) wait Y seconds before start with the first active stream again
• the options should allow to import single (not all!) entries from a Winamp playlist (ASCII)
• in the options, there would be a show/not-show switch to change the visibility of the entries in the desktop window

You see that I gave it quite a thought already Would be really, really great if someone would code it!

If there should be any questions about how to code the shoutcast part of the tool, I bet there are folks willing to help available in the Winamp forum.

Also, since there are millions of shoutcast and Winamp users, this could also mean quite some attention for DonationCoder.com if you list the tool in places like http://fileforum.betanews.com/ and tell some popular freeware/shareware news sites about it.

Thoughts and feedback please!

[skrommel]

I've got a working script here, but I'm not shure if I should post it.

Wouldn't this totally break the Shoutcast network? Even now it's sometimes a problem to get into certain streams, and you can't update the radio and tv list more than once every minute. What's needed is a Now Playing-site, or that a song's title is presented in the ShoutCaste header, and not buried inside the stream.

Any thoughts?

Skrommel

[brotherS]

I've got a working script here, but I'm not sure if I should post it.

Wouldn't this totally break the Shoutcast network?

Right, I was not clear about that 

• in the options you would set the interval of the title updates, like: a) wait X seconds before checking next stream and b) wait Y seconds before start with the first active stream again - minimum would be 60 seconds

Should be no problem... especially since I only listen to streams that NEVER reach there maximum listener capacity

[brotherS]

I thought again about it... I think the code should not pause it for 60 seconds but make sure that one entry/stream URL isn't checked more than once a minute. That way one could set a) and b) to 20 seconds - for five streams it would mean >60 seconds delay for each stream.

[brotherS]

Please, dear skrommel, let us have this

[skrommel]

I'd almost forgot.

I'm still not shure about this, but give me a few hours and I'll see if I can wrap it up.

My StreamCastTitle reads from WinAmp's bookmarks, and shows the title and more in a listview.

Any suggestions for improvements?

Here's a screenshot of the current version:



Skrommel

[brotherS]

I'm still not shure about this, but give me a few hours and I'll see if I can wrap it up.

My StreamCastTitle reads from WinAmp's bookmarks, and shows the title and more in a listview.

Any suggestions for improvements?

After thinking about it a bit, here they are:

a) allow the user to resize the window with the mouse
b) in the GUI, allow to choose which columns are to be displayed (I'm most interested in the "Now playing" column and a tiny window)
c) allow to "import #[insert number here] from playlist" or - even better - "import what's playing now" (if possible) - the playlist is text only, should work
d) insert a checkmark column as the first column, where you could easily enable/disable a source from being updated (some streams are not interesting all of the time)
e) just thinking out loud for this one (probably hard to add): add a "update interval" column where one could set how often that stream needs to be updated. For example, streams that play single titles would need an update every 60 seconds, streams that only play longer live shows maybe only every 300 seconds.

If you can't or don't like to add all that right now just get it out in the wild ASAP or let me beta test it first.

Thanks! 

[mouser]

this sure sounds like its going to be passing the boundries of the size of app that should be written in autohotkey..

[brotherS]

I don't think so, AutoHotkey is very powerful. But maybe it would be easier in C? No idea...

[skrommel]

A bit further down the line...



And you can even have it watch for song titles or artist names, and change stream automatically!

Skrommel

[vegas]

Interesting. I too am a shoutcast fan & listen to many casts, just lurking on this thread for now

[brotherS]

And you can even have it watch for song titles or artist names, and change stream automatically!

Great idea!

[vegas]

I'm not sure I completely understand the idea of this, but I think I do.

I too listen to about 6-10 stations on a regular basis.  But it would be fantastico to have something on the desktop that would show what was currently streaming from each.
A really slick implementation would be like Konfabulator widgets, where it can be a set level of transparency, then also be on the desktop, or floating, or immovable, like widgets do.

I know I've tried StationRipper for grabbing streams and mixing my own songs later to what I want to hear, but it would be better to tuch tune in to each when I see a song going that I like or am curious about.

[skrommel]

Do anyone know where I can get in touch with the WinAmp people?

I've posted a petition at WinAmp Forums http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=f318116be2ec7c2898bf6ce883d96a1b&threadid=230454, but yet no contact.

Skrommel

[brotherS]

Do anyone know where I can get in touch with the WinAmp people?

I've posted a petition at WinAmp Forums http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=f318116be2ec7c2898bf6ce883d96a1b&threadid=230454, but yet no contact.

Posted a reply there, maybe a more active thread catches their attention

[jazper]

A little something I been working as well....Still a few things to work out/fix.

When minimized, an "Outlook 2003" style window will pop, showing the latest song playing


Main Window


Add URL by playlist


Parsed Playlist

[mouser]

beautiful..

[brotherS]

Good ideas there, I'd love if you could add the main feature why I want a tool like this: to be able to see what my favorite stations are playing right now with one look at the GUI, listed there.

[jazper]

Thats what it does, it checks the streams every so often to see what is playing. When a song has changed it updates the GUI. If the GUI is minimized to the tray, it'll popup a window showing you that a song has changed for a given stream/url.  What you see in the above screen shots have nothing to do with whats playing in Winamp. Its what ShoutCast streams you've chosen to "monitor".


jazper

[brotherS]

For more ideas see http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1484.new#new - but that would mean taking things to a really different level, meaning multiple coders working on the project to get it out fast.

[jazper]

Ok, here is what I'll call V1.0 Beta.  Have at it, tell me what you like/dislike, or want added or removed.  I have no helpfile for it yet. Once I finalize it, I'll create a help file. Its pretty self explanatory though.  I have had a couple people helping me test, one person who uses WindowsBlind said it crashes on a MouseOver on the Menus. If anyone else experiences that, let me know.


ShoutCast Concierge v1.0 BETA



jazper

[brotherS]

Ok, here is what I'll call V1.0 Beta.  Have at it, tell me what you like/dislike, or want added or removed.

Thanks, I see you really got into it!

Here are my thoughts:
- make the "Load Servers" window resiszable or at least bigger, it now shows only 4.5 streams at once.

- in the "Load Servers" window, hide the "#EXTINF" lines

- add the "enable" checkmarks again?

- running the .exe again while cause to load a second copy :-/

- if you could, make it check if it's exe is already running when it's started: if it's...
  ...already running but minimized to the tray make it open the window
  ...already running but runs in window mode minimize it to the tray
  ...isn't running already start it up in window mode

- add something like skrommel's *great* "watch for song titles or artist names" idea (see above)

- make the main window more customizable:
  - let the user change the size
  - let the user change what kind of info that window should show
  - I would prefer a much smaller window, where I could have just the info most important to me visible,
    I like skrommel's approach here
  - allow the user to give the streams 'nick names', so that one knows *which* stream is "NA" (see #3 in screenshot)
  - allowing 'nick names' would also help to prevend problems with extremely long stream names (see #4 in screenshot)



Hmm, I wonder if we should use a new thread just for dev talk about ShoutcastConcierge?

[jazper]

Great feedback brotherS, I'll work on the features/fixes you're asking for!



jazper

[jazper]

mouser has setup a section of the forums for my software, i started at topic HERE for any bugs or anomolies encountered with this version of ShoutCast  Concierege

Please post in there...thanks!


jazper

[brotherS]

Anyone saw jazper recently?