Downloading streamed radio shows into Mp3?

[thermionic]

Hi,

I have just bought my *first* Mp3 player... Sound good it does not... It was bought for workshop duty - I'm sure you can all empathise with the need for fresh music in the workshop - you can't play your favourite albums all the time. Annoyingly, the vast majority of radio shows I like are not available as podcasts...

Aside from re-recording the show manually and converting it into a format supported by my el-cheapo Mp3 player, is there such a thing as a patch that'll turn streamed radio into a format recognised by the MP3 player?

Many thanks,
Justin

(BTW - I have NO intention of downloading singles - purely radio shows for when I'm slaving over a hot soldering iron)

 

[barclaycon]

I looked into this some time ago because I got fed up with having nothing to listen to on the move etc.
There is software around that can capture internet streams:
http://www.applian.com/products.php
Most radio stations are on the net now after all.

Some stations (like the BBC) still haven't got podcasting sorted out properly. They still have the dreadful Real Networks involved and only a small number of their programmes are available in MP3 format.
Some stations like LBC want you to pay for the privelege of downloading their podcasts !
Another option is to buy a DAB radio with a memory stick. That way you can put it on timer to record a programme on keep it in MP3 format.
But, they are expensive.

 

[thermionic]

Thanks :guinness:

It seems the DAB route will involve the least faffing - what price range are you talking about? I assume the record feature doesn't come on the sub-£50 ones - do you have a suggestion for a model?

Even though it's inconvenient, I'll still take compact cassette over MP3 - there's just something so 'unnatural' about MP3 IMHO - a really synthetic quality that I've never been able to handle. 296k is much better, but no radio station I know of broadcasts anywhere near that rate.


Justin

 

[barclaycon]

The one I was looking at was the Pure Evoke 3, but I'm sure there are others around.

 

[thermionic]

[quote author="mediatechnology"]Take a look at this one:

http://www.stationripper.com/[/quote]

Most pukka - thank you, kind sir!

All I need to worry about now is the fact that the darn MP3-player lasts about an hour per battery... And that's driving the line input on the portable stereo, not cans :shock: Friendly to the environment it is not.

Thinking about it, my old cassette Walkman gave me a few hours on one battery... I thought this no-moving-parts technology was supposed to be more efficient?


Justin

 

[Andy Peters]

[quote author="thermionic"]Hi,

I have just bought my *first* Mp3 player... Sound good it does not... It was bought for workshop duty - I'm sure you can all empathise with the need for fresh music in the workshop - you can't play your favourite albums all the time. Annoyingly, the vast majority of radio shows I like are not available as podcasts...

Aside from re-recording the show manually and converting it into a format supported by my el-cheapo Mp3 player, is there such a thing as a patch that'll turn streamed radio into a format recognised by the MP3 player?

Many thanks,
Justin

(BTW - I have NO intention of downloading singles - purely radio shows for when I'm slaving over a hot soldering iron)[/quote]

If you have a Mac, Rogue Amoeba has a couple of interesting programs. Radio Shift lets you subscribe to all sorts of streams and record them to disk in your favorite format at will.

They also have a program called Audio Hijack, which basically looks like an audio device to the operating system, and lets you capture the output of any audio program (iTunes, streaming players built into your browser, whatever) to disk in your favorite format.

The neat feature of these programs is that they basically strip off any DRM that may have been put onto the files.

As Jerry Pournelle would say, "recommended!"

If you have a Windows box, I can't help ya.
-a

 

[emorysmith]

For WinXP, I use the kx (Open Source) drivers for SB Live! cards.
Lets you get into the innards of the SB and pipe any input to any output.

<kx specific>
The FX0/1 busses are where internally generated signals such as the output from a media player (I use MPC*) are the source and feed the WinMM Recording outputs on the K1lt or an ASIO output.
It's about as versatile and configurable as you can get, has very low and tuneable latency and just plain sounds good!
</kx specific>

Then fire up SoundForge or whatever you use and send it to any audio file format.
--OR--
If you're adventurous, MPC alone can read a stream, play it with any sound card and output to a file but I've not tried that.

I think the Creative drivers (blech!!!) allow something called
"What You Hear" to do a similar thing. Watch your CPU temp though!

As for other brands of sound card, I don't know.
For Linux there are similar packages.
For Vista, upgrade to XP SP2.

* Media Player Classic is part of the k-lite CODEC pack.
Get the FULL package and dump all other media non-players.
(Except iTunes ;^)

I have no connections to any of those companies. This setup works for me.