Database Info

Reader feedback welcome: Multimedia Streaming Bible, VPN Bible, map image downloader

I'm currently working on two new Bibles concurrently & I’ve written a map downloader. I’d certainly welcome any reader feedback BEFORE publishing the first version(s) of these Bibles - what you would like to read, what apps / services I shouldn't forget to elaborate on etc. I also seek info on whether there is any need for an enhanced version of the map downloader introduced in the last section.
The two Bibles are as follows:
a full roundup & tutorial on all kinds of multimedia streaming, including
listening to Internet radio stations & watching TV shows - the basics
accessing non-streamed network resources - file system-based, pre-created files over both local networks and the Internet
ORB, CorePlayer, TCPMP, PacketVideo’s PVPlayer etc. - all streaming-capable Windows Mobile clients
specific radio / TV listing apps like Resco Radio, Mundu Radio etc.
streaming (and/or transcoding) from a desktop computer using SHOUTcast servers, WME etc.
Problems with limited connections and RTSP (RealOne, HTC's Streaming Media etc.)
RTSP -> HTTP converter proxies
using a VPN connection to play back otherwise (using the given restricted connections) unplayable RTSP (non-HTTP)-based streams
etc.
A VPN Bible:
when may you need a VPN, even if you don’t need remote access to any other private network – for example, if and when you want to listen to /watch RealOne or 3GP (for example, Mobile YouTube or YLE Mobile) streams only streamed via RTSP (because of the client’s inability to switch to HTTP streaming)
configuring VPN servers under WinTel (and, probably, Linux) operating systems
how you can access already-existing VPN’s from Windows Mobile (not just the ones you configure yourself, but any of them)
a review & comparison of VPN-related literature (books), should you want to know more of this technology
Finally, upon a reader request (many people know I’m especially well versed in Internet protocols, including HTTP – the protocol behind the Web), I’ve thoroughly analyzed the HTTP communication used by http://map.meta.ua/, a well-known mapping service in Ukraine. My reader asked me to let for saving the individual maps in a file so that they can be browsed even without an active Internet connection and/or on a Pocket PC (where the original interface may prove pretty hard to use).
Needless to say, I've managed to write an early demo (it doesn’t support all functionalities of the original Flash client) of an app that does this. You can find the Java source of the app HERE. It’s just a demo showing it’s possible - it puts 20 images of Kiev (but you can easily modify it to save the fully zoomed-in map of any other city), continuously scrolling to the left, in ResponseX.png files (I've, in case you don’t want to fiddle with Java sources, the images HERE).
My question is as follows: does anyone need anything similar to download the maps of other online map sources? As, to tell the truth, I can’t follow the (desktop-based) advances in this area, I’m not sure whether it’s worth enhancing this app. As most Flash / ActiveX-based solutions seems to use pretty much the same protocol, I can enhance and further develop this application to download any map (of any town, not just in Ukraine) into PNG files for offline browsing or importing for GPS applications. Feel free to tell me if you need such functionality and whether there are other, better, downloadable maps that would result in my enhancing the application absolutely unnecessary.

Sneak peek: the Main Chart of my forthcoming Multimedia Audio Streaming Bible!

Have you ever wanted to listen to radio stations on the Net? With
the advent of the pre-3G technology EDGE, which, with most network operators, is sufficient for listening to most (if not all) radio stations on the Net (let alone 3G, of course),
the proliferation of unlimited data contracts
and, last but in no way least, the really revolutionary, bandwidth-saving, "high-quality stereo even over slow GPRS connections" AAC+ (also known as HE-AAC, aacPlus etc.) streams becoming common,
they have become accessible to almost everyone with a connected mobile device (for example, a mobile phone) on both the Windows Mobile and the Symbian platform. (Note that the final version of the article / chart will also have extensive info on the seriously enhanced Pocket Tunes 4.0 on the Palm OS – that is, it’ll cover no less than THREE mobile operating systems!)
In my forthcoming article, I discuss for example the following questions:
What radio stations there are?
How you can access them?
What should you pay attention to, depending on whether you’re on an unlimited contact, and/or super-slow GPRS connections?
Which radio client to choose, depending on your needs?
Note that I still haven’t decided whether I should publish the Multimedia Streaming Bible as a separate entity, or, part of my (even larger) Multimedia Bible. There are both pros and cons in both approaches:
Pros:
I can publish it in the next one or two days – you don’t need to wait some 1-2 additional weeks for the Bible to be, finally, published
Separating these pretty disjunctive subjects greatly help in reducing the size of the Multimedia Bible. This would be pretty much welcome as it’s going to be BIG. Very big.
Cons:
It’ll miss a lot of information I’ll only give you in the “big” Multimedia Bible like equalizer support, hardware button support, alarm / sleep shutdown functionality, screen dimming etc. That is, the Streaming Bible will only contain information strictly related to audio streaming and will not contain other info, which may make it easier to choose from the given apps. (This missing info, however, WILL be present in the final Multimedia Bible – sometimes later.)
And yes, before I forget about it: HERE’S THE CHART. Do check it out, do comment it, do send me flames and/or greetings. And, do enjoy the information not readily available anywhere else - for example, many people have been hunting for an AAC+-capable player for ages (see for example THIS). Yes, noone has actually published a tutorial on what players are able to play these streams.
It contains both protocol compliance reports, battery life-related remarks (with Windows Mobile, in CPU usage percentage; with Symbian, in Watts) and some other goodies like whether they’re able to record the radio stream.
Again and again, as has already been pointed out above, the chart mostly contains strictly (audio) streaming-related info. That is, I haven’t for example elaborated on stuff that I’ll discuss in the final Multimedia Bible. Subjects like these are equalizers, button handling, AVRCP compliance etc. I’ve mentioned SOME of these in the Pros / Cons rows at the bottom but, except for the links, the price and the MOST important compatibility information (for example, Mundu Radio’s not really supporting (W)VGA Pocket PC’s). These questions will ALL be covered in the chart targeted at the wider audience (not only those that want a radio client).
Also note that I don’t discuss Orb and the like in here; they’ll only be elaborated on in the final Multimedia Bible. The same stands for video streaming, LAN access and UPnP. With this Bible, my “only” aim is to give you a complete picture of listening to the already existing, remote radio stations on the Net.

Added the just-released Kinoma Play 1.0 and Spb Online 1.0 to the chart. See my Spb Online review for more info.

Sneak peak: the Main Chart of my forthcoming Multimedia Audio Streaming Bible!

Have you ever wanted to listen to radio stations on the Net? With
the advent of the pre-3G technology EDGE, which, with most network operators, is sufficient for listening to most (if not all) radio stations on the Net (let alone 3G, of course),
the proliferation of unlimited data contracts
and, last but in no way least, the really revolutionary, bandwidth-saving, "high-quality stereo even over slow GPRS connections" AAC+ (also known as HE-AAC, aacPlus etc.) streams becoming common,
they have become accessible to almost everyone with a connected mobile device (for example, a mobile phone) on both the Windows Mobile and the Symbian platform. (Note that the final version of the article / chart will also have extensive info on the seriously enhanced Pocket Tunes 4.0 on the Palm OS – that is, it’ll cover no less than THREE mobile operating systems!)
In my forthcoming article, I discuss for example the following questions:
What radio stations there are?
How you can access them?
What should you pay attention to, depending on whether you’re on an unlimited contact, and/or super-slow GPRS connections?
Which radio client to choose, depending on your needs?
Note that I still haven’t decided whether I should publish the Multimedia Streaming Bible as a separate entity, or, part of my (even larger) Multimedia Bible. There are both pros and cons in both approaches:
Pros:
I can publish it in the next one or two days – you don’t need to wait some 1-2 additional weeks for the Bible to be, finally, published
Separating these pretty disjunctive subjects greatly help in reducing the size of the Multimedia Bible. This would be pretty much welcome as it’s going to be BIG. Very big.
Cons:
It’ll miss a lot of information I’ll only give you in the “big” Multimedia Bible like equalizer support, hardware button support, alarm / sleep shutdown functionality, screen dimming etc. That is, the Streaming Bible will only contain information strictly related to audio streaming and will not contain other info, which may make it easier to choose from the given apps. (This missing info, however, WILL be present in the final Multimedia Bible – sometimes later.)
And yes, before I forget about it: HERE’S THE CHART. Do check it out, do comment it, do send me flames and/or greetings. And, do enjoy the information not readily available anywhere else - for example, many people have been hunting for an AAC+-capable player for ages (see for example THIS). Yes, noone has actually published a tutorial on what players are able to play these streams.
It contains both protocol compliance reports, battery life-related remarks (with Windows Mobile, in CPU usage percentage; with Symbian, in Watts) and some other goodies like whether they’re able to record the radio stream.
Again and again, as has already been pointed out above, the chart mostly contains strictly (audio) streaming-related info. That is, I haven’t for example elaborated on stuff that I’ll discuss in the final Multimedia Bible. Subjects like these are equalizers, button handling, AVRCP compliance etc. I’ve mentioned SOME of these in the Pros / Cons rows at the bottom but, except for the links, the price and the MOST important compatibility information (for example, Mundu Radio’s not really supporting (W)VGA Pocket PC’s). These questions will ALL be covered in the chart targeted at the wider audience (not only those that want a radio client).
Also note that I don’t discuss Orb and the like in here; they’ll only be elaborated on in the final Multimedia Bible. The same stands for video streaming, LAN access and UPnP. With this Bible, my “only” aim is to give you a complete picture of listening to the already existing, remote radio stations on the Net.

Radio app for WinMo

This app for the iPhone seems long overdue for Windows Mobile. Loonnnng overdue.
Can it be ported?
http://www.iheartradio.com/national_radio_tuner/

There are alot of "radio" streaming apps out for windows mobile already.... long before iphone even came out.

joel2009 said:
There are alot of "radio" streaming apps out for windows mobile already.... long before iphone even came out.
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Really? One that includes a majority of ClearChannel stations? Care to point me towards one of these apps?

WizardN00b said:
Really? One that includes a majority of ClearChannel stations? Care to point me towards one of these apps?
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I use shoutcast website to find various (almost commercial free mostly) internet radio stations. I create M3U playlist for each radio station (using Winamp) and save them to my device in a folder I created called (internet radio stations) I have created shortcuts to each of my favorite radio stations in ultimate launch and had it load TCPMP to play each radio station. Works like a charm for me - I have a dedicated Ultimate launch page strictly for my favorite internet radio stations. Too bad I can't get a good unlimited data plan in Canada to listen to them whenever I want (such as in my car) but I use it all the time when connected to WIFI.

hotrod101 said:
I use shoutcast website to find various (almost commercial free mostly) internet radio stations. I create M3U playlist for each radio station (using Winamp) and save them to my device in a folder I created called (internet radio stations) I have created shortcuts to each of my favorite radio stations in ultimate launch and had it load TCPMP to play each radio station. Works like a charm for me - I have a dedicated Ultimate launch page strictly for my favorite internet radio stations. Too bad I can't get a good unlimited data plan in Canada to listen to them whenever I want (such as in my car) but I use it all the time when connected to WIFI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not interested in internet radio stations, I'm interested in the stations locally owned by ClearChannel, and other ClearChannel stations nationally that I enjoy.

WizardN00b said:
I'm not interested in internet radio stations, I'm interested in the stations locally owned by ClearChannel, and other ClearChannel stations nationally that I enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do understand that unless you are listening to FM or AM radio on your device - If it is capable - that anything else is basically online Internet streaming radio - It may be a live radio station streaming over the net or a purely internet radio station. The concept I mentioned above of having your favorite stations can still apply.
Perhaps what you are looking for is an easier way? An all in one app that will be preprgramed with your favorite online radio stations.
There is a serius/XM Satellite radio app available in this forum - take a look at that - you will need to subscribe to Serius or XM radio to get your online listening account and password - (this i still internet radio - Serius or XM Streaming live over the internet)

WizardN00b said:
I'm not interested in internet radio stations, I'm interested in the stations locally owned by ClearChannel, and other ClearChannel stations nationally that I enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you,WN. It's not an app but I use a work around call The Mobile Stream Center. I think they also have an Iphone app. Anyway, it's online streaming through media player. It's actual stations!!! I listen to three Clear Channel sations here in New Orleans. You can search the list of stations by their call letters.

hotrod101 said:
You do understand that unless you are listening to FM or AM radio on your device - If it is capable - that anything else is basically online Internet streaming radio - It may be a live radio station streaming over the net or a purely internet radio station. The concept I mentioned above of having your favorite stations can still apply.
Perhaps what you are looking for is an easier way? An all in one app that will be preprgramed with your favorite online radio stations.
There is a serius/XM Satellite radio app available in this forum - take a look at that - you will need to subscribe to Serius or XM radio to get your online listening account and password - (this i still internet radio - Serius or XM Streaming live over the internet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I know technically it is "internet streaming radio", however these are local stations, and that is what I would prefer to listen to.
The application is completely free for the iPhone. I'm not going to pay for something that does something similar for a WinMo phone when I feel I have the superior product in the first place.
Given that ClearChannel has it's database of these local stations and their Streaming IDs online, it should be quite simple for a handy programmer to retrieve that list and build it into an app that utilizes perhaps WMP.

bennyj71 said:
I hear you,WN. It's not an app but I use a work around call The Mobile Stream Center. I think they also have an Iphone app. Anyway, it's online streaming through media player. It's actual stations!!! I listen to three Clear Channel sations here in New Orleans. You can search the list of stations by their call letters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, this is exactly what I am talking about!! Thanks!!!
http://www.tuned.mobi on your phone.

iPhone gets iheartradio for Clear Channel radio. What can WM users do?

Long time WM user that can appreciate the iPhone and iPod Touch ability to listen to ClearChannel radio stations "online". But I don't understand why Windows Mobile is being left out.
If we can watch YouTube videos, certainly we have the horsepower for radio. Does anyone else have this problem? Better yet, have a solution that works? Would love to get my local Sports Radio station on my Touch Cruise, but not even Skyfire works for me.

Well, still no luck. I found a website that tracks radio stations around the US and even internationally, but there is no link to Sports Radio 950 KJR (www.kjram.com) and I can't find a link anywhere else but their own home page, which won't work with Opera or Skyfire.
Currently running one of c_s rom's, which doesn't come with IE. Thought maybe adding IE 6.1 would help, but haven't found a link yet. Anyone know how I can add that to an existing rom?
Off to do more searching, but pretty soon I suppose I should just break down and buy an iPod Touch.

from your Touch Cruise:
www.theStreamCenter.com/pda/
Works in pIE, Opera 8.65 and Opera Mini. Not sure if it needs pIE to actually open the radio station's link though, since it's built into the ROM on my Polaris.
I searched for your station 950 kjr and found it if it's located in Seattle (did not find it when I searched kjr 950 - go figure). However, never got it to connect. Immediately tried a ClearChannel station I listen to and it connected perfectly. Don't know if 950 kjr link is bad or if the station was not broadcasting. Perhaps, it was a blackout due to a game or something like that? Give it a try and see if you have better luck.
ps...
Tried to stream the station on my laptop via the kjram.com website (NOT through streamcenter.com) and it did not work either. Looks like maybe they are having problems at the moment and hopefully it'll work when you try.
Good luck!

Still looking for pIE I can add to my current WM6 rom. The author didn't include pIE as part of the "image". I also tried your link, and in Opera I couldn't find any part of the KJR AM page I could "click" on. So I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong if not just using the wrong browser.
Not having ANY luck and not sure what else to try.

Wunder radio was supposed to come out on January 15th. It supposedly has 50,000 radio stations. I'm hoping clear channel will be part of that.
I can stream clear channel stations through IE on my PC but PIE says it can't do it. Opera Mobile gets close but won't actually play the music.
I can stream some stations that aren't clear channel using Opera, and I can stream NPR after downloading the .asx link and selecting it with TCPMP.

Can't help with how to get pIE on your phone since you are using a ROM without it. All I can tell you is I stream Clear Channel stations (all others too) by going to:
www.thestreamcenter.com/pda
Then searching for the station. Once you find your station you can save it as a favorite and access it much easier.
On the front page of www.thestreamcenter.com/pda it says...
"Clear Channel Stream Announcement:
PDA users can now exclusively access Clear Channel live streams directly from the Mobile Stream Center! (Thanks Bret!). The streams and this announcement are not displayed on desktop PCs."
Clear Channel stations stream via Windows Media Player by default.
No jumping through hoops. Nothing needed that doesn't come built into Windows Mobile by default.
FYI, I am sitting here streaming/listening to your KJR 950 on my phone as I'm typing. Costas is interviewing Matt Cheney regarding drug testing in the NFL...
Good luck!

Okay, so I'm a dork. Had pIE installed and didn't know it, as it was only under the menu and nowhere else.
Started that up, found it's in mobile mode instead of "look like a PC mode" like I think Opera does, and finally saw the links like you mention! Thought I was home free until...
Had some funny language prompting me. Hit one side, and ended up with a save screen. The file saved made a .php file I think, and I can't figure out how to get Window Mobile's Media Player to open it. The other options all didn't seem to do much of anything, and Pocket Streamer on my phone didn't do a .php either!
I'll play some more, as I *think* I'm close... but I'm not there yet.

Got it!
Turned off automatic language detection in pIE, then when I went back to the link, it prompted me to save a .wma file that DOES stream in Windows Media Player. And I've saved the link as a Playlist as well!
Thanks for all the help!!!!

Glad you got something to work!
Just to clarify, the browser needs to be in mobile mode, otherwise the Clear Channel "WMP PDA only" links will not show up. I noticed when I click on a link for a station that streams via mp3, it saves a .pls file to the "My Device\My Documents" folder - but, it happens automatically. I am not prompted and don't have to approve the save. It just saves itself, then starts playing using the TCPMP player. I have not noticed any file - of any type - like that when I play a Clear Channel station. However, it's totally possible it may just save a file of some type somewhere that I have not come across. After clicking the Clear Channel "PDA Only" link, Windows Media Player opens automatically, the stream buffers and then plays. I have not come across any .wma streams to see how that kind works on my phone.

Clearchannel Streaming Utility for Windows Mobile Devices.. Works in IE.. Doesn't seem to work in Opera, though it may be the link I'm providing.. I may possibly work on this and see if I can get it to work in Opera.
http://www.verrigan.net/cchannel.php
[edit]
This utility scans the website for the clearchannel stream.. It then gives you the then-current stream URL for that radio station. It should open the stream in Windows Media Player. (in IE.. Not with Opera)
BTW, the utility is not strictly for use on Windows Mobile, but not many other phones use mms URLs for streaming as far as I could tell. It does, however, stream on regular PCs running Windows or Linux (with a MMS stream media player).

if you want most uk radio stations use coreplayer or the htc stream app , head over to www.musicradio.com and choose your favorite radio , note down the url and you get perfect streaming eg for GWR Bristol its http://media-ice.musicradio.com/GWRBristolMP3 LBC is the same address but ends with LBC973MP3Low , if you have an ipod touch or an iphone you can download an app called radio which is poor in visuals but shows the url to the stations which you can type into your streaming app , or in pie head over to pdatuner.com this has all the stations as well but in lower 64 quality

Clear Channel is now blocking themediastream.com from streaming their radio stations?

yup, stay tuned to see if they work it out

just came across this old post, appears to be worked out

Did we ever get this figured out? Most of the Local Stations I listen to are Clear Channel Stations....Do they just not care that there are probably many more WM users out here then Iphone users? Or did they make some sort of exclusive deal with Iphone? I was using the http://www.thestreamcenter.com/pda method for a while and then nothing...it seems like they intentionally don't want WM users to have access to there online stream!

I just fired this email off to the Communications / Media Relations contact at ClearChannel
"To Whom it may concern,
I am just wondering why, it seems, that Clear Channel seems to have abandoned Millions of Windows Mobile users and Welcomed the "Trendy" but yet less used IPhone/Blackberry users? You have embraced and are Pushing the use of "IHeart Radio" on all your radio stations, Yet this program only works on IPhone's and I think Blackberry Phones, So us Window Mobile users are left "Swinging in the Breeze"!
Then when we find a way around your "Lack of Support" by using a website like http://www.thestreamcenter.com/pda and You slap us in the face again and shut down your stream to such websites....What Gives?
I am a loyal listener of at least two of your stations in the Cleveland Area, One FM and one AM station, and when I am not near a radio it would be really nice to be able to hear your show on my PDA, but I am forced to listen to other stations sub-standard programming because you at ClearChannel seem to have an "Issue" with Windows Mobile for some reason! I just read an online news report that stated that IPhone users have up'd your listener base by 15%....I think you will up it much more then that if you included support for Windows Mobile Users!
I apologise for the Rant if I have just missed something and am totally off base about your support for WM, If so please advise me of a program that you know of that does allow us access to your online programming.
If I have to keep going out and finding other Radio Stations that support WM online, then I might find programming that I like and abandon ClearChannel all together, after all why have loyalty to a company that has no loyalty to a large group of it's listeners!"
Well see if I get a response!

2+ months later... no response?

gkenny said:
2+ months later... no response?
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Click to collapse
Yea...They responded, Life just got hectic for me and forgot to post their responce here....To sum it up they basically gave me a couple good strokes by saying that they are always looking to improve their product and that the Windows Mobile Platform would definately be in "Consideration" for future versions...blah....blah...blah!
Sorry I did not follow up sooner!
0Grav

Never mind... Streamcenter works once again.

Good to know....I'll have to give it a try again!