VLC 2.1.0 won't open Icecast radio directory

[bigbobbysd]

It will open the list from Jamendo Selections and Channels.com always, (and will play any selection I choose) but will only open the list from the Icecast radio directory occasionally, meaning mostly never. On the occasion it does I can stream from whichever station I choose. I do not understand this inconsistency.
Any help would be appreciated to remedy this problem.
Thanks and peace.

[dolik.rce]

Same problem here... It is about 50% chance that the icecast loads correctly.

Here is output from console, if it helps to identify the problem:

Code: Select all

$ vlc VLC media player 2.1.0 Rincewind (revision 2.1.0-0-gedd8835) [0x86332b0] pulse audio output error: PulseAudio server connection failure: Connection refused [0x85a40d0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface. [0xb1cbce58] lua services discovery error: Error loading script /usr/lib/vlc/lua/sd/icecast.luac: lua/sd/icecast.lua:22: attempt to call global 'require' (a nil value) [0xb16031e8] xml xml reader error: XML parser error (line 318) : Extra content at the end of the document [0xb1cbce58] lua services discovery error: Error while running script /usr/lib/vlc/lua/sd/icecast.luac, function main(): lua/modules/simplexml.lua:84: XML parser error/Missing closing tags

Best regards...

[bigbobbysd]

Thanks for responding dolik.rce. My apologies for getting back to you so late. As I'm new to VLC (and not a programmer) I can't really tell much from your kind response. Seems like communication errors to me. Has this been an on-going problem with the player in previous versions? If you or anyone else has a suggestion on how to remedy this problem it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and peace..............

[dolik.rce]

Thanks for responding dolik.rce. My apologies for getting back to you so late. As I'm new to VLC (and not a programmer) I can't really tell much from your kind response. Seems like communication errors to me. Has this been an on-going problem with the player in previous versions? If you or anyone else has a suggestion on how to remedy this problem it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and peace..............

Sorry bigbobbysd, it wasn't really answer I just wanted to confirm that the problem exists and add some additional details (i.e. the error messages) for someone more familiar with the VLC internals...

[dolik.rce]

After investigating bit more, it seems that the problem is not in VLC player itself, but rather on the icecast site... When I tried to download the stream directory manually few times, it sometimes works and sometimes fails. It might be due to errors or overload on the icecast servers, in which case there is probably not much you (or anyone) could do about it

[bigbobbysd]

Hi dolik.rce. Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly. By downloading the directory manually are you referring to opening the playlist and under "internet" clicking on the Icecast Radio Directory link? That's what I've been referring to all along. Am I missing something?
I thought it could be an Icecast problem too, but I have it as a favourite in Chrome and it never fails to open and play any station within VLC. What I cannot do is open the Icecast directory within the player with any degree of reliability. Let me know if this clarification helps or if we're talking about the same thing.
Many thanks............

[dolik.rce]

Seems I'm not very clear about this I'm a programmer after all, although I'm not associated with VLC in any way, only as a user

The thing is, that VLC player grabs the list of icecast stream from this url: http://dir.xiph.org/yp.xml. By "manually downloading" I meant copying this address to the browser. The url returns rather long list of all the streams in xml format, which VLC tries to parse and then display to the user. But sometimes (quite often) the download of this document fails, and the parsing crashes because of the incomplete data. As the download fails in both VLC and browser (and few other apps I tried), I suspect that this has nothing to do with VLC itself and that the problem must be on the icecast side.

[bigbobbysd]

I appreciate your patience dolik.rce. I entered the url you supplied into Chrome a few times and it failed on every occasion. Likewise VLC won't download the radio directory from within the player either. (very hit and miss) So in view of this, coupled with your suspicions I too must agree that the problem is with Icecast itself.
Hopefully they will resolve this problem in the near future.
I thank you for all your help and patience.
Peace...........