Introduction
Radioplayer primarily uses Flash to play audio on desktop browsers. Flash has restrictions on how playlists work and most of the time the problem you’re experiencing relates to this. Before we delve in, let’s start with the basics
First – test the stream in a desktop media player
Test your stream in a standalone player. We recommend VLC or Winamp. In VLC, select Open Network Stream from the File menu and paste in your stream URL. If you’re more old skool then in Winamp, right-click on the play button and choose Open URL.
If your stream doesn’t play, then there’s a problem with the streaming server so you should contact whoever looks after your streaming. They will also be able to check that the playlist URL is correct and it’s in the correct format. If it does play, read on.
Check for a cross-domain file
When Flash tries to access a playlist file, it first looks to see if it has the necessary security permissions. It does this by checking to see if there’s a security file called a crossdomain.xml file in the root/top level of the streaming server. If that file is missing, it will not play the playlist and your console will hang with the ‘loading’ message in the ticker.
Where can I find the cross-domain file?
The cross-domain file should exist in the root of your streaming server and on the same port. So by that we mean – suppose your stream URL is:
http://www.streaming-company.com:8000/streams/station.pls
…then there needs to be a crossdomain.xml file at the URL….
http://www.streaming-company.com:8000/crossdomain.xml
It is normally the responsibility of your streaming company to put this in place so do contact them and reference this article if it helps. To test if there’s one there, simply take your stream URL, remove everything after the third forward slash and append crossdomain.xml to the stream URL. Pop that into a browser. If you get a 404 error, there is no crossdomain.xml present. You need to create one and place it on that URL.
What goes in the cross-domain file?
The full cross-domain specification and background has been published by Adobe here. The key thing is to ensure that your directives include wildcards that allow access from all hosts.
Re-test using the console generator
Return to the Station Control Panel and re-generate your console. Select Playlist as your stream type then paste in your stream URL and click TEST AUDIO. If it plays, then all is well and you can continue on to generate a new console zip file. If it doesn’t play then try some of these tips:
Useful links
Playlist formats (Winamp thread)
Adobe’s cross-domain documentation
Cross-domain file generator (use cautiously – not tested by RP)
If you still continue to have problems, drop the Radioplayer team a line for additional help.