Windows Media streaming radio vs. Wii: FIGHT!!!

January 16, 2007 10:08 AM

Is there any combination of software that I can lash together that will allow me to listen to a Windows Media internet radio station on my Wii?

Specifically, the station I'd like to start with is Hit Fm, from Taiwan. Here's a direct link to the stream.

I've already got lots of pieces of the puzzle, but I haven't fit them together. I know that streaming radio is possible on the Wii, through flash. The proof is at Wii Hear. They download you a flash player that apparently can play Shoutcast (or Icecast? what's the difference?) streams. The stream URL seems to be hardcoded in the player, though. I've found several other players but none that I can confirm can both play a stream and work on Wii.

The other problem is that even if I did have a player, I wouldn't get anywhere with Hit Fm, since its stream is in Window Media format (which the Wii flash player, as far as I know, can't play). At this point I'm thinking of two options: use VLC on a server to transcode the stream? Or use any old player to play the stream and then Icecast to snarf the audio and rebroadcast it?

So, uh, any help? I'm a geek, so go ahead and answer in terms of MPEG specifications and HTTP headers if you want. My expertise with both flash and streaming is pretty basic, but I'm more that willing to wade in with a flash decompiler and tcpdump if backed into a corner.

posted by steveminutillo to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Maybe I'm missing something - But if you just want to hear one station, WiiHear probably wants to know about it. I'd bet that donating $50 or so would probably get it bumped to the top of the queue, to boot.
posted by Orb2069 at 10:20 AM on January 17, 2007

1) I don't want to hear just that one station, I'm using it as an example.

2) Wii Hear only accepts Shoutcast stations - and in fact right now they aren't accepting any new stations.

3) "Donate"? So they can keep the secret sauce secret and parcel it out in AdWords-monetized dribs and drabs? Ha!
posted by steveminutillo at 2:49 PM on January 17, 2007

OK, I got it working! I'll probably post something more comprehensive later, but here's the basics:

For the player, I'm using this one by Marko Belic. Simple, free, comes with source, works on Wii! Using just this player, I (or anyone) could clone Wii Hear, but be able to listen to arbitrary stations just by editing the playlist.xml file. Too bad the player doesn't accept a URL to play as an HTML parameter....

Then for the transcoding, I'm using good old Windows Media Player on an unused Windows machine to play the stream, Oddcast to snarf the audio and transcode to MP3, and Icecast to stream it out over HTTP on my local network. Amazingly, this all works, and was pretty easy to set up on Windows.

To bring it all together, I edited the player's playlist file to have the URL to my stream, hit reload on the Wii browser and crossed my fingers. The surprising result was IT WORKS! The transcoded stream plays in that player on Wii quite nicely. There are some audio glitches, but I'm hoping I can tune those away, or maybe fix them by moving the transcoding operation to a faster machine.
posted by steveminutillo at 8:54 PM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite]