This is a howto to help anyone who has had problems trying to listen to various BBC Radio programs that are streamed in realplayer format. ______________________________
Linux x86_64 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.5 ______________________________
The default Firefox plugin "Totem Web Browser Plugin" is no good for this so I install mozilla-mplayer.
Install the following packages:
mplayer mozilla-mplayer mplayer-fonts mplayer-skin-blue mplayer-skins
Restart Firefox and you should be good to go.
Here is a good place to test that its working: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/rams/inourtime_20060629.ram
If all goes well the mplayer plugin should, after a pause, start playing the episode regarding GALAXIES.
If not try typing...
about:plugins...in the address bar and check that it has been installed.
BBC URL's http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_archive_home.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ Useful URL's http://computerperson.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/linux-sol-2-mplayer-af_inet6-error/ https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/soundconverter/+question/49509
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Tips: ______________________________
1. If you stop or pause a stream it will probably start again from the begining :( [B][U] Workaround[/U][/B] You can right click and "Copy URL" then paste this in mplayer direct to allow you to go to a particular time, its a bit of a pain but it does work... here is how:
The initial url is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/rams/inourtime_20060629.ram
This actual relates to:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060629.ra?BBC-UID=7blah5608d0***1b74ec06c2718aa3f41f5blaha9040b1eaa4bbfa05e28115e4&SSO2-UID=
Remove all after .ra? like so:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060629.ra?
Add your start time to the end of the url:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060629.ra?start="20:39"
Now open mplayer up and right click "Open" > "play url" paste your link in and wait a couple of minutes.
If you get mplayer error: "Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6" add...
prefer-ipv4 = yes...to the configuration file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf.
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2. RA/RAM to MP3 conversion Based on Bhavani Shankar's post here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/soundconverter/+question/49509
you can also use:
mplayer -dumpstream <stream>
to record streaming audio and video. The song will then be inside "stream.dump" (same format as the stream)
then use: mplayer stream.dump -ao pcm:file=ripped_audio.wav
to convert to wav.
Then you can use Audacity (or similar) to convert to mp3 (/ogg).
Hope that helped & Good Luck!