1. pdxuser's Avatar
    UPDATE: The list of streams has moved to berryfm. That's a temporary site (and a temporary name) until I find a better solution. Please don't spread that link beyond this forum for now. The list grew too large and had too many links for the forum to handle. Post any corrections or suggestions to this thread, and let me know if any of the music stations have more than a minute of commercials/interruption. If you need instructions on how to make streaming work, see the next post.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-17-09 at 06:33 PM.
    02-19-09 01:46 PM
  2. pdxuser's Avatar
    UPDATE: I've tried to merge and edit several instructional posts into a single, updated how-to. Let me know if it's confusing.

    Did you know that you can play streaming radio in the native BlackBerry media player? Any station that provides an MP3 stream will work. If the station you want isn't listed at the temporary site linked to in the previous post, you may be able to find the right stream link yourself. Once you've found it, you can just bookmark the station and play it anytime.

    First, make sure you have either an unlimited data plan, or a WiFi connection with your data plan disabled. This is very important, else you could owe a fortune in metered data charges.

    Next, you need to find an MP3 stream. Windows Media, Real Media, and AAC streams don't work. Go to a station's website on your computer and find the link to "Listen Live," "Listen Now," "Live Stream," etc. If the station has an MP3 stream, it most likely appear as a link to an M3U or PLS file. These are plain-text "playlists" that give media players the URL to the MP3 stream. You need that MP3 stream URL, not the playlist file. Often M3U or PLS files will be listed as being for iTunes or WinAmp, general MP3 players, or occasionally for other media players. Too see what filetype a link is, hover over the link and look in the status bar, or right-click the link either to view its properties or to copy-and-paste the URL to somewhere where you can see it. If you can't find an M3U or PLS file, there are more instructions later.

    Once you find an M3U or PLS file, copy the link and open it in a simple text editor like Notepad in Windows. You'll see a block of text, and somewhere inside you'll find one or more URLs. Occasionally, the first URL is an ad and the second URL is the stream. Often, there are multiple URLs for the same stream repeated throughout the playlist. You just need one. Typical URLs for MP3 streams may look like one of these:

    http://123.456.78.90:80/
    http://123.456.78.90:8000/
    http://123.456.78.90:8000/foo
    http://foobar.baz.com/
    http://foobar.baz.com:8000/
    http://foo.bar.baz.com:8000/
    http://foo.bar.com/baz
    http://foo.bar.com/baz/qux
    http://foo.bar.com/baz/qux.mp3
    http://foo.bar.com:8000/baz.mp3
    http://www.live365.com/play/foo
    http://scfire-dtc-aa01.stream.aol.com:80/stream/0000

    There are more variations, but you get the idea. However, if you see .asx, .wma, .ram, .rm, .aac, .flac, etc., it may not be an MP3 stream. Even without those, it may not be an MP3 stream.

    Once you have a URL, you can either paste it into a media player to test it and make sure it's an MP3 stream (check out the properties in your media player), or you can enter it straight into your BlackBerry browser. When you enter it into your BlackBerry, be sure that you don't include the "www" unless it's in the URL. Your BB adds the "www" for you, which can trip you up. Once you've entered the URL into your BlackBerry browser, choose "Open," and, depending on your OS version, click play to bypass a long buffering period. If everything went right, you're listening to your stream! You can bookmark your stream to easily access it anytime. If it's not working, please post to tell us what stream you're trying, and what went wrong. I'll try to come up with a troubleshooting guide from your feedback.

    If you can't find an M3U or PLS file, it may not exist, or if it does, you'll have to go hunting for it. The quickest way to hunt for an MP3 stream is to try a web search for the name of the station plus a term like "M3U," "PLS," or "MP3 stream." If that doesn't turn up anything, see if the station's parent company offers MP3 streams for any of its other stations. If so, check the root directory of one of these streams to see if it provides a list of all the company's streams. For example, I was looking for an MP3 stream for CBC Radio One news. The CBC didn't list an MP3 stream of it, and a web search turned up nothing. But there were MP3 streams for the CBC's music stations. When I looked at the root directory of those streams, icy1.abacast.com, I found a long list of streams, including one for CBC Radio One. If the root directory doesn't turn up anything, see if you can find a pattern or logic in the filenames and addresses of other streams from the station's parent company. For example, CBS Radio doesn't list an MP3 stream for its New York news flagship WCBS-AM. But I noticed CBS Radio does have MP3 streams for some of its other stations, with PLS files in the format of provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/xxxxyy.pls, where xxxxyy are the call letters plus AM/FM. And sure enough, for every CBS radio station I've tried, I can just plug in something like wcbsam into that template and get an MP3 stream.

    If you still can't find an MP3 stream, your options include Moodio or URLSnooper.

    For the Moodio option, you'll need OS 4.5 or later. Go to moodio.fm on your computer, create an account, search for and add the station you want. It will convert the station's Windows, Real, or other stream to a low-quality, BB-friendly stream. Then go to m.moodio.fm on your BlackBerry, sign in, and select your station. If you need to upgrade to OS 4.5, see the instructions here: BlackBerry 101: How to Install or Upgrade to a New RIM BlackBerry Operating System (OS) | CrackBerry.com.

    The URLSnooper option is a little more geeky. It will only work if the station has a Flash player, and only then if the Flash player is actually playing an MP3 stream, which you won't know until you look. Get URLSnoopper (Windows only) here: URL Snooper - Mouser - Software - DonationCoder.com. Once you get it running, start scanning and open your station's Flash player. Once you hear the audio of the stream (and not just pre-stream advertisements), stop scanning. Then, just above the list of URLs, click on "Protocol" to sort by URL type. The entry you want will likely be coded as "GET," "GET AudioMedia file," or "http." If the station isn't using an MP3 file, you'll likely see "GET RealMedia file," "RealMedia http file," "GET WindowsMedia file," "WindowsMedia http file," or "GET FlashMedia file," though that last one may refer to an ad or some other element of the Flash player rather than to the stream itself. There may be more possible protocols to look for, I'll add them as I learn of them. When you find a URL that looks promising, copy it and paste it into a media player to see.

    If you're still unable to find the stream you want, you can ask about it and I'll see if I can help.

    Occasionally, you may come across a PLS or M3U on your Berry and not want to use your computer to find the URL inside. Here's how you can do that: just click the PLS or M3U link in your BlackBerry browser, and choose to save it. See if you can change the .pls or .m3u to .txt . Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. If not, that's ok. Once you've saved the file somewhere where you can find it, go to your media player and get to the first (blue) screen. In the menu, choose Explore. Now find where you saved that file. If you need to rename it to a .txt, do that through the menu. Now click on the text file and you'll see the text. Choose Select Mode from the menu, and Select and Copy your URL. Go back to your browser and paste it in there, and you should be able to open and play the stream.

    Whatever way you get your stream playing, you won't be able to visit any other site without interrupting the stream. Opera Mini comes in handy here. If your device is wifi-only, you can go into Opera Mini's permissions from the Options > Advanced > Applications menu and disable Carrier Internet and Company Network. That made it work for me, and I've never had a data plan.

    ---

    Troubleshooting:

    OS 4.3, possibly earlier: "The file is of an unsupported format." If you open your stream, the media player opens, and you see that your stream says "Buffering...," then you press play but get a notice that the file is of an unsupported format, just select "refresh" from the menu and keep trying until it works. However, if it doesn't say "Buffering..." first, and you don't have to press play, and it instead just goes straight to an error message about the format, don't bother refreshing, it really is of an unsupported format and will not work. I don't know why the first scenario happens. Let me know if the first scenario ever happens to you, or if it never happens to you, because it's possible that this is just specific to my phone. Since I've upgraded to OS 4.5, it hasn't happened again, though I've had other quirks with 4.5.

    Please let me know of any problems you're having so I can improve this section!
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-20-09 at 01:45 AM.
    03-03-09 03:01 AM
  3. dhs's Avatar
    Hi. Thanks for your thorough posts! I still can't get my preferred station work - BBC 6Music. When you click on Listen Live you get a Real Player window with a .shtml url. I've tried opening the station in Screamer Radio and you can locate the url mms://wmlive.bbc.net.uk/wms/bbc_ami/6music/6music_bb_live_int_eq1_sl0?BBC-UID=34297b3792ded429df62ac1480907ff9033c987150b071 b4c46ff977cc627a21&SSO2-UID=
    but that doesn't work in my Blackberry 8130. Is there any other way to get it?

    thanks a lot!
    03-10-09 10:42 PM
  4. dhs's Avatar
    Hi again. I used URL snooper and got bbc.co.uk/6music/ram/6music_hi. asx
    so it looks like it's a Windows Media Player format. When i go to that url in my browser, it starts to load it and open it in the media player, but then says Error- file is in an unsupported format.
    Any suggestions from here?

    thanks

    sorry, had to add the spaces so the board would allow a url.
    03-10-09 11:08 PM
  5. pdxuser's Avatar
    Thanks for the feedback! I, too, have wanted to listen to BBC radio beyond the World Service, but the BBC only offers streams in proprietary formats, which has caused controversy, but apparently not enough to force a change. You can, however, listen to MP3 podcasts of several 6 Music shows, so that could work out for you. Here's a link: BBC - 6 Music - How To Listen

    Good work on using URL Snooper, I thought I may be the only one geeky enough for that. One tip, though it doesn't apply in this situation, is that many stream URLs won't be automatically recognized by URL Snooper as media URLs, since they can just be a bunch of numbers. So if you don't see anything in the filtered results, that may be why.

    Anyway, in this case, your "unsupported format" error was legitimate, but can anyone else provide feedback on whether they get those false "unsupported format" errors that can be fixed with a refresh? I also got one "device media processor busy" error, which leads me to believe the errors may have less to do with the stream than with the phone.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-09-09 at 07:50 PM.
    03-11-09 09:31 PM
  6. dhs's Avatar
    thanks for trying. I was really hoping to get that one station. I did find the downloadable files too, but there's not much there. Maybe they'll make it easier some day.
    03-11-09 11:05 PM
  7. dhs's Avatar
    rtsp://wmlive.bbc.net.uk:554/wms/bbc_ami/6music/6music_bb_live_int_eq1_sl0

    hey friend. I'm still playing around with this - if I open that feed as a windows media player and then try URL snooper I get this. Is this type useful at all?

    thanks again
    03-15-09 06:00 PM
  8. pdxuser's Avatar
    UPDATE: Don't bother with this, whether you're inside or outside the UK. The BBC has hermetically sealed their new streams, and you won't be able to get them to work on your BlackBerry.

    What you're seeing can also be found by opening up that original ASX link in a simple text editor: BBC Radio 6 Music. ASX files are just a type of playlist used for Windows Media Player. You'll see a list of different addresses for the same stream. They all begin with "mms://", which is a proprietary Microsoft streaming protocol. And if you open any of them in Windows Media Player and go to File > Properties, you'll see that the audio codec (coding/decoding software) is Windows Media Audio. There's just no way to squeeze an MP3 out of Windows Media (or Real Media) formats. I've done quite a lot of searching for BBC radio streams for my own purposes, so I feel fairly comfortable saying that there aren't any MP3 streams of Radio 1-7, unfortunately.

    But there is one possibility. This will probably result in a dead end, but if you're really dedicated, the BBC has just recently made its radio streams available in AAC, which is designed to be the successor to MP3. However, only people in the UK can access these streams, or at least they're only showing the links to them to their UK audience. I'm in the US. Try going here: BBC iPlayer - Labs. Click the pink button, then turn on URLSnooper and go here: BBC iPlayer - Listen live - BBC 6 Music. If it works, you should see a Flash player rather than the usual embedded RealPlayer. Once the music starts, search your URLSnooper log for an AAC, M4A or SDP file, or for a numeric IP address. Let me know what you find and I'll try to figure out where to go from there. I should warn you, though, that while BB supports AAC, I'm thinking it probably won't support streaming AAC, for reasons that are kind of technical. But we'll see.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 05-02-09 at 11:12 PM.
    03-15-09 08:28 PM
  9. pdxuser's Avatar
    Actually, it appears you can record streaming AAC files (as well as MP3s) by simply choosing to save rather than open them. So if you just want to listen to a particular program, you can record the AAC stream at the time it airs. When the program ends, you'll have to turn your Internet connection off to stop downloading. (You can turn it back on right away.) It's also possible to play the audio while it's still downloading, but the memory required for that overloads my phone after a few minutes. You're also only able to play the portion that was downloaded at the time you started playing, so it won't play indefinitely like with an MP3 stream. But at least you can quickly play the first couple of minutes to make sure you're recording the right thing.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    03-17-09 03:03 AM
  10. kingjafi's Avatar
    I desperately need help. I am so close yet it isn't working. I keep getting the unsupported message when I go directly to the URL:

    I'm trying to access FAN 960 and the link is http: //38.99.208.186/fan960

    Can someone please help me make this work?

    pdxuser knows what he's talking about, I'm sure he can make it work. Appreciate the help! Thanks!
    03-30-09 11:00 PM
  11. pdxuser's Avatar
    Unfortunately, that's because the stream is in Windows Media format. From the searching I've done, I can't find an MP3 stream of the Fan. The closest I can get is a station called Radio Canada Sports Extra from the CBC, but it's in French. Is there a particular sport or show that you want to hear?
    03-31-09 02:27 AM
  12. kingjafi's Avatar
    Thanks for the feedback. So we can't stream windows media feeds? Thats horrible! Thats the channel I wanted to listen to, because I used to listen to it everyday at work and now they firewalled it. I assume it is some sort of conflict between msft and rim that creates this problem? I gotta find a way to listen to this stream at work.
    04-01-09 08:25 AM
  13. pdxuser's Avatar
    Ok, I found a workaround! This also works for BBC 6Music. Moodio.fm is a website that provides links to audio streams, converted into AAC+ format. And apparently, with BB OS 4.5 for the Pearl (but apparently certain other models don't need higher than 4.3), your Berry can play streaming AAC files. Unfortunately, since I have no data plan, I can't upgrade my OS. UPDATE: Nevermind, follow these instructions on how to upgrade: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-101...ting-system-os

    On your computer, go to moodio.fm, create an account, then "subscribe" to the stations you want on your BB. Then, on your BB, go to m.moodio.fm and select your station.

    Let me know if this works for you!
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-02-09 at 06:00 PM.
    04-01-09 11:50 AM
  14. rogowar's Avatar
    I'm trying to attach to an M3U stream from my local NPR station. When I click the link to the M3U stream, the BB loads to the media player automatically, but I don't hear anything. I can look at the playlist which shows KUNC Public Radio Intro and KUNC Public Radio Stream. I'm wondering if I just am not getting the music to play over my bluetooth headphones (which work fine on calls).

    I've also tried several of the URL's you listed, and I typically get either a connection timed out error, or I get a connection refused error. What wireless networks have you tried this on?
    Last edited by rogowar; 04-01-09 at 04:57 PM. Reason: More information.
    04-01-09 04:39 PM
  15. rogowar's Avatar
    Moodio.fm is working beautifully. Perhaps the streams had bitrates too high? The moodio.fm stream is reencoded to 24-bit stereo, which doesn't sound fantastic but absolutely works.
    04-01-09 05:15 PM
  16. pdxuser's Avatar
    First off, this KUNC link works for me:

    http://pubint.ic.llnwd.net/stream/pubint_kunc2

    Secondly, have you ever gotten any of the streams to work? You asked what wireless networks I've tried this on, and if you're talking data plans from a carrier, I haven't tried it on any, only wifi. I notice your profile says you're using an 8830, which my info says doesn't have wifi connectivity. If you're using your carrier's data plan, it's possible that the reason your connection times out or is refused is because your carrier doesn't support the continuous connection required for streaming. Which, I suppose, means this thread is in the right forum after all!

    But it's quite possible that carriers other than Verizon (what your profile says you have) do allow streaming, so don't everyone just assume this is a wifi function only.

    Also, does anyone happen to know if data plans allow direct access to the Internet as well as access through BIS/BES systems? Because perhaps rogowar's problem is that Verizon's BIS servers are trying to load, reformat and send the stream like it does with webpages, and the stream of course never finishes loading and so is never sent. If there's a way to do an end-run around the BIS system, perhaps it would work then.
    04-01-09 05:19 PM
  17. pdxuser's Avatar
    Glad to see Moodio works for you! It may very well be that it's not the continuous connection that's the problem, but the bitrate. Just as an experiment, try this:

    http://94.75.221.206:9205

    That's KRAL, which is the most popular 28kbps station on Shoutcast, and 28kbps appears to be the lowest bitrate that Shoutcast has a category for.
    04-01-09 05:29 PM
  18. kingjafi's Avatar
    you see i set up moodio.fm before posting on this thread and it didn't work. it still said it was an unsupported media type. thing is, i don't think i have the OS you are saying i should have. how do i upgrade my OS?
    04-02-09 08:22 AM
  19. pdxuser's Avatar
    Thanks for asking, because it made me read this CrackBerry article on the subject, and I discovered that I can upgrade, too!

    BlackBerry 101: How to Install or Upgrade to a New RIM BlackBerry Operating System (OS) | CrackBerry.com
    04-02-09 05:56 PM
  20. dhs's Avatar
    Hi PDX. I hadn't checked the forum for a bit but was excited to see your moodio solution. Unfortunately it doesn't work for me either. It loads the player but then all I get is Error Playing messages regardless of the station. One moodio forum user said to change browsers, but that doesn't help me either. Any other thoughts?
    thanks
    04-02-09 11:05 PM
  21. pdxuser's Avatar
    Well, I've upgraded to the latest OS myself, and Moodio isn't working for me, either. It does open up the media player and say it's loading, which it didn't do before, but then I get the error, "Wireless network connection disconnected. Verify wireless connection settings." Some online searching hasn't found any solutions that work, although I did discover that I can also get the same error going to the mobile YouTube site. That site didn't open the media player before either, so I guess this is some sort of progress.

    The thing both Moodio and YouTube Mobile have in common is that they stream using the rtsp protocol (rather than http). This latest OS is supposed to be able to handle rtsp streams, but perhaps something's not configured right.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-03-09 at 01:16 AM.
    04-03-09 01:07 AM
  22. pdxuser's Avatar
    As I learn new things, I'm having to make changes to some of the info I provided. Would anyone mind if I made the first post in this thread a list of stream links, and the second post an updated general how-to? I'm also thinking maybe this thread should be moved to the generic BlackBerry thread. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-17-09 at 08:21 PM.
    04-04-09 03:21 PM
  23. pdxuser's Avatar
    Ok, I got Moodio to work! And YouTube! The problem has something to do with my router. When I connect to a different wifi hotspot (thank you, cafe down the street!) I can get the rtsp streaming to work. I think I may have to upgrade my router's firmware to get it to cooperate.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-17-09 at 08:22 PM.
    04-04-09 05:23 PM
  24. pdxuser's Avatar
    I don't know what technology is used here, but the BBC just opened up a beta site for mobile access to TV and radio for Brits only:

    Radio: BBC Mobile

    TV: BBC Mobile

    Tell me how it works out for you, dhs.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    04-04-09 09:15 PM
  25. pdxuser's Avatar
    Ok, as some of you may have noticed, I've been busy updating the first two posts in this thread. The first post became a link list, but then it grew longer and longer until the site started spitting back error messages about the post being too long or timing out while it tried to visit every URL I included. So I've created a very simple temporary home for the list that I've linked to in the first post. Let me know what you think! The complexity of the list is very limited by the free service I'm using. As a web developer, I'd like to create a new site with more functionality to house the thousands of streams, but that costs money. :-( This is also taking a lot of time away from projects that actually pay money. Would anyone be willing to donate a couple bucks if I created a new site for streaming radio on the BlackBerry? If I end up making a radio app (I'm also working on BB development), I'll promise to give you free access to all final versions, and give you beta access as well.
    Last edited by pdxuser; 04-18-09 at 01:12 AM.
    04-17-09 08:31 PM
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