Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered!)

Microsoft Windows specific usage questions
Forum rules
Please post only Windows specific questions in this forum category. If you don't know where to post, please read the different forums' rules. Thanks.
rjamesd
New Cone
New Cone
Posts: 7
Joined: 21 Apr 2008 10:50

Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered!)

Postby rjamesd » 25 Jun 2010 01:25

These instructions show how to capture/record directly from a MP3/M3U stream of a radio station, using VLC player, configuring/setting up VLC via its graphical user interface (GUI) - no need to learn the command line options! Using Windows version of VLC but instructions should be usable for other platforms.

Please discuss if necessary and contribute. These are working instructions.

Please abide by copyright rules in your locale. The safest option is to record for your own personal use.

The reason why I am posting this is to give people the opportunity to record programmes for listening at a time that suits them as many stations, particularly smaller, community based ones are not well set up for podcasts/listen anytime/listen again. The intention is that you would discard the recording after use if you wish, to avoid any copyright issues. This is a benevolent endeavour aimed at increasing a station's audience by allowing timeshifting of programmes to suit listeners personal schedules.

Find the website of your favourite radio station, e.g. resonancefm.com. If it uses a .m3u playlist file for streaming, locate the page that holds this within the site. You need the .mp3 file stream url that the .m3u contains. So, first save the .m3u file

Image


Open the file in your text editor

Image



Image


Copy the .mp3 stream URL

Image


Run VLC player. Select open network stream.

Image



Paste in the copied URL from earlier.

Image



Click the thin button with the 'o' symbol at the bottom, and from the drop-down menu, select 'Stream'

Image



Click 'Destinations'

Image

Activate transcoding should be unchecked - we don't need to re-encode the mp3 stream. For 'new destinaton' select file, click Add and choose a path and filename for the recording.
Image



Click stream button on bottom right to start the streaming to the file.
Image

filodre
New Cone
New Cone
Posts: 1
Joined: 04 Nov 2010 03:23

Re: Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered

Postby filodre » 04 Nov 2010 03:31

Hi, what if the actual streaming isn't an MP3 though but instead a playlist?

I am trying to record stream from this site www.breakz.us, and their .m3u playlist file is:
http://breakz.us/radio/listen.m3u

Whenever I open this .m3u file in notepad, it comes up with

"#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,www.BreakZ.us | Radio | We Love Music | Hip-Hop | RnB | Remix | Breaks | House | Mixtapes | Black vs House
http://stream.breakz.us:8100"

I tried your method but it didn't seem to work :(

rjamesd
New Cone
New Cone
Posts: 7
Joined: 21 Apr 2008 10:50

Re: Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered

Postby rjamesd » 30 Nov 2010 13:39

I tried your method but it didn't seem to work :(


In the step where I said paste in the mp3 url, did you paste: http://stream.breakz.us:8100
Perhaps it will work with this URL as perhaps the URL does not have to end with mp3.

Another option: create a webpage file:

test.html:

<html>
<body>
<a href="http://stream.breakz.us:8100">link</a>
</body>
</html>

Save this file locally on your machine, then open in it your browser.
You should see the work "link" (usually underlined, too), move your mouse over this, right click and "Save as" - what is saved - an mp3 file? If so then that url is a mp3 stream but without the .mp3 at the end. This is possible owing to how the (Apache?) server they run is set up - the index file for this URL would be a .mp3 instead of index.html - just some random thoughts that might give you a clue.

Otherwise try this alternative:

(Replace the URL with: http://stream.breakz.us:8100 )


Credit: Kev Swindells from mediauk.com forum "(Answered) How to record mp3 internet radio using vlc player":

Slightly easier way of doing it in VLC

Open VLC
Media
Convert/Save
Network - http://icecast.commedia.org.uk:8000/prestonfm.mp3
Convert/Save
Choose your destination file
Dump Raw Input
Start

Wait about 10 seconds, right click on the MP3, Open With, VLC Media Player

Saves the need for two streams (saving the stations bandwidth costs) and also allows you to check the recording is okay - okay so you have a 10 second delay but that might be okay.


Arrradio on Android allows you to record any station in Shoutcast - but no timer.

woooei
New Cone
New Cone
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 Oct 2013 21:02

Re: Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered

Postby woooei » 22 Oct 2013 21:17

Hello,

I followed the steps you described above. But is it possible to set a start -& -end -time for the stream? To record just a part of the stream?

Thanks in advance!

Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Site Administrator
Site Administrator
Posts: 37523
Joined: 22 Jul 2005 15:29
VLC version: 4.0.0-git
Operating System: Linux, Windows, Mac
Location: Cone, France
Contact:

Re: Record radio station mp3/m3u stream via VLC UI (answered

Postby Jean-Baptiste Kempf » 05 Nov 2013 23:04

It is possible.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf
http://www.jbkempf.com/ - http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/category/Videolan
VLC media player developer, VideoLAN President and Sites administrator
If you want an answer to your question, just be specific and precise. Don't use Private Messages.


Return to “VLC media player for Windows Troubleshooting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 49 guests