Internet video and audio streams

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Revision as of 14:20, 17 August 2006 by >Gamester17
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If you want to listen to video (TV) or audio (Radio) streams in XBMC you can do it as long as the codec/format and streaming-method (network-protocol) is supported by XBMC, plus that the stream is not password protected.

There are two ways this can be done, either via .STRM file or standard playlists (.PLS or .M3U).

The STRM method:

Create a normal text-file and rename the .txt extension to .strm then open it up with a text-editor (like Notepad in Microsoft Windows) and input the the direkt URL-link of the stream.

This should look like:
http://host/path/stream
or
mms://host/path/stream
or
rtsp://host/path/stream

Other protocols are supported such as http://host/path/to/somefile.mp3. Then save/copy the .strm file to somewhere where you can open it from XBMC, (like on a SMB/SAMBA, XBMS or UPnP share, or FTP it to the local harddrive in the Xbox), like you would with any video/audio file. Open it using play in XBMC under My Videos or My Music (if it is a video stream, respectivly a audio stream). If the video stream does not work then the URL-link could be wrong, or possible the codec/format or the network-protocol it uses it not supported by XBMC.

Creating a .STRM file in Microsoft Windows step-by-step

Right click somewhere on your desktop or the right-side of Windows Explorer (the file-manaager in Microsoft Windows) when your inside a folder, and select "New > Text Document". Rename that file to something to represent the stream like "BBC Radio-1 internet stream" and add the .strm extention to the edn. If you have file extensions turned off on your computer, you may want to turn them back on by going into wWndow Explorer's "Tools" menu, selecting "Folder Options > View" and then making sure "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked, that way you can see that the file really has been renamed to whatever.strm and not whatever.strm.txt.

The standard playlists (.PLS or .M3U) method:

Download a supported playlist (like .PLS or .M3U) file from the internet, (these playlist files can often be found on the website of the web-radio stations or TV web-casts websites). For example stream.pls or something else, (you can rename it to whatever you want but keep the same extention). Then save/copy the .strm file to somewhere where you can open it from XBMC, (like on a SMB/SAMBA, XBMS or UPnP share, or FTP it to the local harddrive in the Xbox), like you would with any video/audio file. Open it using play in XBMC under My Videos or My Music (if it is a video stream, respectivly a audio stream). If the video stream does not work then the URL-link could be wrong, or possible the codec/format or the network-protocol it uses it not supported by XBMC. You can check and edit playlists with a normal text-editor (like Notepad in Microsoft Windows).