Player Recommendations

If you are developing stream player technology in addition to integrating guide content, you will need to support a broad array of codec, protocol, and playlist combinations in order to deliver a competitive product. Among the capabilities you must consider:

• MP3 over HTTP
• MP3 over Icecast
• WMA over HTTP (Microsoft standard)
• WMA over RTSP (WMAudio9 and WMVoice codecs)
• AAC/+ over HTTP
• ASX, M3U, and PLS playlists
• Deeply nested playlists, potentially of differing types
• 301 and 302 redirects for all HTTP resources
• Handling inconsistent HTTP content-types or content lengths

Notably absent from this list is RealMedia, which is fading below a few percentage points in the guide, outlying formats like RTP/Flash, QuickTime, and OGG, and any DRM-protected streams.

Some additional hints gleaned from working with stream providers:

• Allow a generous buffer time, particularly for those stations in a different country than the player
• Do not scan playlists in their entirety before attempting to play the first referenced stream – some playlists will contain dozens of items
• Supply a well-formed user agent header for all HTTP requests