How to Create Playlist for Large Number of RealAudio Tracks?

October 11, 2004 11:13 PM

How can I download/listen to a large number of streaming music tracks (ram format) without having to click each link individually and wait for each song? [mi]

I am taking a class, which has a long list of songs we are supposed to listen to every week. The instructor has posted these songs online, available in streaming *.ram format. I am currently using Media Player Classic (unicode build) to listen to each song individually. I am unable to set up the individual stream files back-to-back in WMP classic, nor am I able to download all the songs, so I can listen to them without having to click every three minutes.

Any suggestions for programs/techniques which will let me download/listen to the whole week's worth of songs consecutively without having to click each file individually?

posted by ruwan to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

It depends on how the streaming server is set up, but if the RAMs are being streamed over http, try this:

On the page with the list of links, right click on each link and "Save link as...". Save all the files to a folder. Now open each file in a text editor, and if you're lucky, it will contain a URL to the location of the actual streaming file - http://whatever/file.rm. If the protocol isn't http:// then you've got problems, but if it is, paste each URL into your browser and you should be able to download each song to your harddrive, to be listened to at your leisure.
posted by Jimbob at 11:57 PM on October 11, 2004

Response by poster: jimbob, unfortunately, the URL that shows up in notepad is the following:

rtsp://169.237.142.***:***/mus***/week-01/Track01.rm

thanks for you suggestion though, any other ideas?
posted by ruwan at 8:25 AM on October 12, 2004

Net Transport: http://www.xi-soft.com/

Can download and save rtsp (and mms) streams. Slightly dodgy interface, but incredibly useful for getting around streaming nastiness.

(MPC is great, but its playlisting features could indeed use a little work.)
posted by BobInce at 9:22 AM on October 12, 2004

Can't you just create a new .ram file (which is just a metafile anyway), with each rtsp:// URL on a separate line? The .ram file should then work like a playlist when loaded in the browser. This has worked for me with rtsp streams before -- at least when the .ram file is loaded in the browser from an actual Web server (which would send the correct MIME type along with the file).

Or you might just be able to directly open such a .ram file with RealPlayer, which already knows how to handle it, avoiding the whole MIME type issue.

Either way, if it works, it would save you from having to download/capture the actual streams.
posted by macrone at 6:11 PM on October 12, 2004