Internet Radio
Timeshifting
1. Introduction
Thanks for
choosing to try out Radiosity. Radiosity is an application to timeshift
Internet radio broadcasts for later replay through a computer, portable music
player, or burned audio cd.
Radiosity can only
record from ShoutCastª compatible mp3 feeds at this time.
Radiosity has been
released as freeware. My only request is that if you use this program to record
from a public radio station, please support them with a donation.
2. Installation
Radiosity is
distributed as a compressed .dmg disk image. Uncompress the disk image and
double click to mount. The Radiosity folder can then be dragged to your
Applications folder. It is now ready for use.
3. Use
Upon opening the
Radiosity application, you will see the main window, containing a list of
ÒRecordingsÓ that you have requested that Radiosity record for you.
Below the list of
recordings is a log window. Radiosity displays a running log of all recording
activity in this window (including start and stop times, and also any errors
that Radiosity encountered in trying to record your show.)
Before we create
any recordings, weÕll have to add our favorite ÒStationsÓ (websites that stream
ShoutCastª compatible mp3 streams) to our station list.
a. Station List
To get to the
Station List, press the ÒStation ListÓ button or hit cmd-S. You can now see a
list of Stations, and you can edit, delete or create new stations from this
window. Warning: if you delete a station, all the recordings that record from
that station will be deleted.
b. New Station
To create a new
Station, go to the Station List and select the ÒNew StationÓ button. From the
ÒNew StationÓ dialog, you can enter the station name and the URL of the mp3
stream.
At this time,
Radiosity only supports the ÒplaylistÓ style URL. These can be identified by
the Ò.plsÓ file extension. Support for the Ò.m3uÓ style URL is experimental,
and will not work for many stations.
You can find mp3
streaming Stations in several ways:
publicradiofan.com:
This website
maintains a listing of many (if not all) public radio stations that broadcast
streams over the net. Look for stations with the WinAmpª logo (a lightning
bolt).
http://www.publicradiofan.com/
shoutcast.com:
This website
maintains a listing of lots of stations broadcasting music, talk, and other
audio services using the ShoutCast software.
Your
favorite radio station:
Look up your
favorite radio station on the web, and see if they offer a mp3 stream over the
web. These are usually identified as ÔWinAmpªÓ or mp3 streams.
Once youÕve found
your station(s), enter them through the New Station dialog. You can test that
these stations work either by setting up a temporary recording in Radiosity
(see later in this document), or by opening iTunes and opening the URL of the
station in the Advanced -> Open Stream menu option.
c. Recording List
Once youÕve
entered in your favorite stations, you can go back to the main Recording List
window. Here, you can create new scheduled recordings, delete old recordings,
or edit existing recordings. LetÕs create a new recording.
d. New Recording
You can create a
new recording by either selecting the ÒNew RecordingÓ button or hitting cmd-N.
You are then presented with the New Recording dialog.
The name of the
new recording is important. Not only does it identify the recording for you, it
also is the basis of the filename that Radiosity will store your recording in.
So, pick something unique here.
Then select the
Station that you wish to record from, and which day you want to record (you can
select any individual day of the week, just weekends, or just weekdays).
After this is
done, you select the time you wish to record. Be careful here! You may be
recording from a station that is outside your time zone, and you may have to
correct from that stations time zone to your own. HereÕs a chart to help out
(assuming that you are in the United States É)
|
Station Time Zone |
||||
Pacific |
Mountain |
Central |
East Coast |
||
Your Time Zone |
Pacific |
0 |
-1 hours |
-2 hours |
-3 hours |
Mountain |
+1 hours |
0 |
-1 hours |
-2 hours |
|
Central |
+2 hours |
+1 hours |
0 |
-1 hours |
|
East Coast |
+3 hours |
+2 hours |
+1 hours |
0 |
For example, if I
were in the Central time zone, and I wanted to record from a Station in the
Pacific time zone, and the program starts at 8 AM Pacific, I would look up on
the chart that I need to add +2 hours to the start time. So, I would have my
Recording start at 10 AM Central.
If you are in a
state or county that does not observe standard daylight savings, or are out of
the U.S.A., you are on your own.
You can then enter
the duration of the program, and also the directory where you want the mp3 file
to be saved. Be careful! This directory should be world writable (or, at least
writable by the user that is running Radiosity).
TIP: Add a little
padding to the beginning and ending of programs. I usually have programs begin
a minute before their stated beginning times, and end a few minutes after the
ending times. Many stations, and particularly public radio stations, are not
that particular about precise starting and ending times.
Once you are done
specifying your Recording, hit the Save button to save it to your list.
e. What happens during a recording?
Your machine must
be on and awake and Radiosity must be running to record a program! Once the
time to record a program comes, Radiosity will initiate a record. A red ÒRECÓ
icon will appear in the Recording list, and the Radiosity Dock icon will get a
red dot to indicate that it is recording.
Radiosity will
automatically record to a file in the directory you specified. It creates an
mp3 file with a name that is based on both the name of the Recording and the
current date. So, if you had a Recording called ÒFRESH_AIRÓ that recorded on
Dec. 14, 2005, the final recording name would be ÒFRESH_AIR_12_14_2005.mp3.Ó
If the recording
succeeds, a green ÒOKÓ icon will appear next to the Recording in the list. You
may find your completed mp3 file in your specified directory. You can then add
it to iTunes, or burn it to cd, or do anything you want with it!
If there was a
problem with the recording, a yellow ÒERRÓ icon will appear next to the
Recording. Also, the reason for the error will be located in the log window.
Most common errors are (1) Unreachable Station (usually your internet service
would be down in some way, or the Station is down or has changed their URL, or
you have entered the Station URL incorrectly), (2) Unreliable connection
(usually this is with smaller Stations that have problems maintaining many
streams during popular listening times) and (3) local file problems (this is
usually due to permission problems, the Radiosity user must have permission to
write to your specified directory.)
The ÒhistoryÓ
(i.e. the ÒOKÓ or ÒERRÓ status of a Recording) is cleared every night at
midnight.
4. FAQ
Does my machine
need to be on for Radiosity to record?
Does Radiosity
need to be running to record?
Yes! Your machine
needs to be on and awake, and Radiosity needs to be running. You can be logged
out, however, as long as Radiosity is running while you are logged out.
Can I record
more than one program at a time?
Yes! You can up to
the limits of your bandwidth. If you are using some kind of broadband (DSL or
Cable Internet Service) or better connection, you should be fine with several
simultaneous Recordings.
What versions
of the Mac OS do you support?
We support 10.4
only.
Is Radiosity
available for Windows?
Not yet.
Do you support
Òm3uÓ style Stations?
Not at this time.
WeÕre looking at this for 2.0.
Do you support recording from Streaming Windows Media or RealAudio streams?
No. If you need
this, there is a shareware program called ÒAudio HijackÓ that will do this for
you. ItÕs great!
Do you support
recording from the audio inputs in my mac?
Not at this time.
WeÕre looking at this for 2.0.
Where does
Radiosity store my Stations and Recording data?
Radiosity stores
your data in Ò(Your home directory)/Library/Application Support/Radiosity/Ó.
Your mp3 files are stored wherever you specified in the New Recording dialog
box.
Is Radiosity
written in Cocoa?
The UI is written
in Cocoa/Objective-C. There is a reptilian hind-brain (that does all the work)
written in C++ that is more UNIX-ish.
Is Radiosity a
Universal binary?
Yes it is!
IÕm having
problems with some particular station. WhatÕs wrong?
We do not support
Windows Media streaming, RealAudio streaming, or m3u style streams (if the
stream address ends in .m3u, that means we do not support it). If youÕre
getting an error saying ÒServer will not accept user-agent,Ó we will not
support that stream.
If the stream is a
playlist style (i.e. the address ends in .pls), and it will play in iTunes, but
will not record in Radiosity, please send that station info to support@periodicsoftware.com. We
will try to fix Radiosity to support that stream!
Where should I
send bug reports or feature requests?
Please send all
such requests to support@periodicsoftware.com.
5. Company
Periodic Software
was formed as a custom software development and consulting company in 2000 by
David Coufal. Periodic Software specializes in cross-platform development and
porting. More information about the company can be found at:
http://www.periodicsoftware.com/
More information
about the author can be found at: