Questions/Problems accessing internet radio stream STRM files

[Loondawg 17]

I have no idea if I am even doing this right, so please point me in another direction if there's a better way to do this. But since the internet radio add-on was broken for Kodi V21, I'm trying to find the best way to stream radio stations in Kodi.

So I tried creating an Emby library of STRM files. They are just a simple text file with the stream URL in them. And I built a mixed content library of the STRM files and they work great from within Emby. But when I try to access them in Kodi via a dynamic library using Emby for Kodi Next Gen they don't play and it often crashes Kodi.

If I take the same STRM files and play them via Kodi's file manager, they play fine. But that is a sloppy, cumbersome solution. Since both Kodi and Emby can play them, it seems like it should be possible to play them through Emby for Kodi Next Gen. But i don't know if I'm setting something up wrong or if Emby for Kodi Next Gen doesn't handle these STRM files properly.

 

[Luke 38499]

HI, please attach the kodi log and emby server log from when the problem occurred. Thanks.

[Loondawg 17]

Thanks Luke. Let me know if you need anything else.

kodi.log embyserver-63865152000.zip

[quickmic 1510]

Please send me one or two of the strm files for review.

I see, you run an older version of next-gen plugin. Please update to latest stable or probably even better, to latest 11.X version.

Also, I would use the "music" library type on Emby server for radio streams. As there shouldn't be any videos, a "mixed" type is not necessary.

Does the (Kodi) log include a failed playback? I can see some indicators, but not the actual playback logs from Kodi.

Probably enable the debug mode in Kodi and grab a new log. Also please (temporary) disable embycon, for debugging. It's easier to understand, what's going on.

"plugin.audio.radio_de" is also several times reported in the log, but seems not to be installed. Not sure where this is coming from.

2024-10-22 12:28:04.777 T:6728    error <general>: XFILE::CDirectory::GetDirectory - Error getting plugin://plugin.audio.radio_de/stations/my/
2024-10-22 12:28:04.777 T:6728    error <general>: Unable to find plugin plugin.audio.radio_de

Did you include this path "plugin://plugin.audio.radio_de/stations/my/" somewhere? Somewhere in strm files or as a kodi source etc?

As you are running a portable version of Kodi, probably it's the best to use a fresh instance for debugging with only next-gen installed.

[Loondawg 17]

Hi quickmic,

I'm taking your suggestion and setting up a new portable installation so it can be as clean as possible and using the latest next-gen plugin. Building the database and figuring out why some things are not working is taking a long time so I will probably not be able to post an update until tomorrow. I just wanted to acknowledge your response and say thanks for looking into this.

And to answer the question about the "plugin.audio.radio_de," that was apparently coming from it attempting to load from a skin menu even though the plugin was disabled. That will not be present in the test installation.

Also I have attached a couple of the STRM files in case you want to take a look at them in the mean time.

Thanks

 

WBRU.strm WKIT Bangor.strm 101 WRIF Arkansas.strm

[Loondawg 17]

Hello Gentlemen (Luke and quickmic),

I think I figured out what was throwing me off in testing and have a better handle on what's happening.

Using a new portable installation of Kodi 21.1 with the next-gen plugin version 11.1.2 and the default Kodi skin, the STRM files do not show if I make the library type "music." However they do show when I make the library type "mixed content." And as far as I can tell, they only appeared under the "video" menu under "categories" under Emby dynamic content under certain selections. For example, they appear under "A-Z Movies"  but not under "Movies."

And they play!!! No crashes. No hangs.

And even though they only show under videos, they seem to be treated correctly by Kodi as music as they kick off a music visualization when played.

So even though that is confusing though the GUI, I could happily work with this as-is. But. . .it is confusing. And it would also be really nice to have an "ALL" category so I could see all my stations in one, clean wall view. The "Random Items" category kind of works but I'm not sure how many that is limited to.

Let me know if you need anything and I will try to help. Thanks again for your hard work.

Edited October 23 by Loondawg
accidentally repeated word

[Loondawg 17]

Just one more minor point of clarification, they do seem to be interpreted as videos in the menus by Kodi as the cover art shows with a rectangular DVD shaped box rather than the usual square cover icon associated with music. But again, they do seem to play as music with visualizations.

[Loondawg 17]

Sorry to keep posting updates but I wanted to update something that was somewhat inaccurate earlier. I have found when the STRM files show up via next-gen dynamic libraries they work great. But they have proven to be extremely inconsistent.

For example, if I open them under "A-Z Movies," they have showed up every single time without fail. But under "Random Items," it's a total crap shoot whether they will show at all. I would estimate they show up less than 30% of the time. When they do show up it's awesome but it is completely unreliable. And so far they have not showed up under "Movies" at all yet.

So I just wanted to throw that out as I would love to get my radio stations working again. And if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. Thanks.

[quickmic 1510]

Thanks for the updates, I'll review it it when I'm back from vacation.

 

[quickmic 1510]

I run a few tests:

1. I used WBRU.strm and WKIT Bangor.strm. The 3rd strm is geo-blocked and I cannot use it.

2. I used "music" library on emby server not mixed.

3. I used plugin 11.X version

Results:

1. The content is synced, playable and visible under Kodi (stock skin).

2. The plugins synced nodes also shows the content. I hope you used the "correct" addon for access. Add-Ons -> My Add-Ons -> Music Add-ons -> Emby for Kodi (Audio) -> Synced Nodes - > lib-name -> Artists -> --No INFO ->

3. If you select "Albums" (or any other node with "Album" e.g. "Recently added Album"), the content is not shown, due it's tagged as a "single" not an album (I try to find a workaround for that).

 

Can you confirm my review till this point?

[Loondawg 17]

I apologize for my lack of expertise with Kodi. It really slows down my testing. I was not seeing the same thing as you and it took me a while to figure out why. I'm assuming you were running NextGen in Add-on (default) mode whereas I was previously running in Native (direct paths). That seems to be why I was seeing different results.

My testing is now on completely clean portable installs using only NextGen 11.1.2 on Omega 21.1, plus the three v10.1.12 helper plug-ins for audio, images, and video. The only library I have installed is my Internet Streams library.

Running under Native mode, I get very different results. I could not get my internet streams library to sync. I could only access it via dynamic nodes even though it was selected for sync. Everything else NextGen related seemed to be working.

Running under Direct mode, I saw pretty much what you described. Although I would mention they showed up under --NO INFO-- under Composers which I don't think are songs. So from what I am seeing,  you appear to have nailed the problem which is it seems to be identifying the stations as single entities rather that albums. The more I think about it, that kind of makes sense they should show as single entities. You obviously know this stuff better than me though.

For the end result of keeping these stations separate from the rest of my music, I am hoping to to be able to access these via dynamic libraries rather than synced libraries. That's what I was doing in my previous testing under the Aeon MQ 9 - Omega MOD skin. And there, just like under the default skin, the only place I was seeing the stations with the music type was under in places where single entities would appear. But the results were much more inconsistent running in Native mode. The stations tended to always show under A-Z but would only appear under Random sometimes (i.e. randomly). And when they did show up they showed correctly as music, i.e. played with visualizations and showed CD cover art.

I've always used Native as my preferred mode because I have been told it provides the best compatibility with other Kodi add-ons. Is that still true or do you have a different recommendation on which is better for use with Emby?

And again, I am sorry for being so slow. I genuinely appreciate all your work on this. It's really impressive.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

[quickmic 1510]

Always glad to help, I didn't know you use native mode and will check it.

Addon-mode is default, compatibility wise there is almost no difference between the modes. I fixed nearly every incompatibility over the years but it's true. Some edge cases still exists. e.g. usage of edl files (skip commercial markers -> Emby server does not support that).

Quote

--NO INFO-- under Composers

Correct, Kodi's music library is designed for songs not for radio therefore I used workarounds. As radio has no albums, singles, artist, composers etc, I injected this "-- NO INFO--" metadata so Kodi's "browsing" works correctly.

Usually Kodi handles radio via pvr plugins (e.g. iptvsimple). It's also supported by the plugin but would require different setup on your Emby server. -> m3u playlist including the radio strms and must be loaded on Emby server as liveTV.

Also the name/label of the radio station (in the m3u playlist) must include the word "radio" so the plugin could decide if it's a tv stream or radio stream (Emby doesn't have this information out of the box).

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="WBRU" tvg-name="WBRU (Radio)" group-title="WBRU",WBRU (Radio)
https://icecast-stream.wbur.org/wbur_www
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="WKIT" tvg-name="WKIT (Radio)" group-title="WKIT",WKIT (Radio)
https://ice6.securenetsystems.net/WKIT

EDIT: This (livetv) approach seems not working for your media sources, as Emby server cannot play the stream even via WebUI (at least on my setup).

...I also found a way selecting "singles" in the nodes and will add that in next version.

Quote

For the end result of keeping these stations separate from the rest of my music, I am hoping to to be able to access these via dynamic libraries rather than synced libraries.

This is possible even with synced nodes. I do it all the time e.g. for podcasts, audiobooks and regular music (3 music libraries on Emby). Also for other library types -> movie: documentary, movies (2 movie libraries on Emby). Musicvideos: concerts and regular (2 musicvideo libraries on Emby). TVShows: youtube and regular (2 tvshows libraries on Emby)

Kodi doesn't support this separation out of the box and merges all together using Kodi's stock nodes. As you can see by browsing via the plugin nodes, all libraries are seperated.

The trick is customizing your skin. You must replace Kodi's stock nodes with the plugin nodes. It's a bit of work, but in the end you have a perfect result.

 

 

 

 

 

[quickmic 1510]

14 hours ago, quickmic said:

Usually Kodi handles radio via pvr plugins (e.g. iptvsimple). It's also supported by the plugin but would require different setup on your Emby server. -> m3u playlist including the radio strms and must be loaded on Emby server as liveTV.

Also the name/label of the radio station (in the m3u playlist) must include the word "radio" so the plugin could decide if it's a tv stream or radio stream (Emby doesn't have this information out of the box).

I add a workaround for this Emby server issue in next next version.

Edited November 15 by quickmic

[Loondawg 17]

I can't thank you enough for your help and the info. I'll look forward to the next version and to give this a try.

And since you said there is almost no difference between the modes I've converted to over Addon-mode. Hopefully that will make life easier. It definitely makes the current workaround for streaming radio stations work much better.

And I will try to take another look into synced nodes. I vaguely recall there being something aside from having to create custom nodes that was a showstopper for me. But that was a long time ago. I am much more comfortable making mods via custom nodes and smart playlists and even playing around a little with customizing the xml files. But I still use a ton of dynamics lists as they are very convenient. 

I'll tell you, between NextGen and the MQ 9 MOD, this is getting to be a pretty slick set up. Again. thank you for all your work on this. If there's ever anything I can do to help, like testing or something like that, don't hesitate to ask.

Edited November 15 by Loondawg
bad grammar