The VideoLAN Forums

I have VLC 3.0.8 running on an older Mac Mini, under MacOS El Capitan. I'm streaming audio from a jazz radio station. For years this has been OK, but for the last month or so, during the early evening hours the stream will quit, and require restarting. The stream is accessed by either an HTTP or HTTPS URL, and I run it continuously from 6:30 AM to midnight. All I need to do to restart it is to run the original AppleScript that starts it in the morning. The normal midnight stop is simply the Mac shutdown. The AppleScript that starts it runs automatically when the Mac boots in the morning.

This Mac has no keyboard, and only a big-screen TV display. I access it only using Screen Sharing. My internet connection is not particularly fast - usually runs around 12MBPS, but I also stream audio/video in the evenings, and never have any issues with buffering on Netflix, Amazon Prime video, HBO, SHO, etc.

I have explored the menus and preferences in VLC and I did find some options to restart a stream, but this has not resolved the issue. I also contacted the tech support group of the radio station, which is local to the Seattle/Tacoma area. They were unable to offer any solutions, and they indicated that they use VLC also to monitor their streams.

First of all, have I missed some VLC preference that might help? And secondly, is there any kind of listening app that might be used to restart the stream using perhaps AppleScript to automate a restart?

You should be able to configure VLC to keep repeating the stream, so if playback stops, it will automatically restart. However, for this to work, VLC needs to detect that playback actually stopped (in case it keeps playing silence forever which may happen in a few scenarios, this won't work).

But well, VLC shouldn't expose this behaviour unless your system clock is changing (as in re-synchronizing like when switching from summer time to winter time), so this is a bit weird indeed. Ehm, this raises a question: is your Mac's real time battery working correctly or is it actually booting on the 1st January of 1970 and synchronises to modern days once it is connected to the internet?