Playing BBC MPEG-DASH or HLS radio streams on a UPnP renderer
For information about playing BBC HLS streams on an internet radio, see this page.
To use MinimStreamer and MinimServer to play BBC MPEG-DASH or HLS radio streams on a UPnP renderer, you need to run MinimStreamer and MinimServer on a computer or NAS on your local network. If you already have MinimServer installed for playing local files, follow the steps in the section Using an existing MinimServer installation. If you don't yet have MinimServer installed, follow the steps in the section Using a new MinimServer installation.
Using an existing MinimServer installation
-
Create a folder named
BBC
Radio
anywhere inside your MinimServer library (content directory). -
Create a plain text file named
BBC
Radio
DASH.m3u
orBBC
Radio
HLS.m3u
in the 'BBC Radio' folder (with Windows Notepad, select ANSI). You can download a sample version of these files from this link (MPEG-DASH) or this link (HLS). These sample files list all the BBC national MPEG-DASH and HLS streams in the best available sound quality for UK-based users. After downloading the sample file, remember to rename it toBBC
Radio
DASH.m3u
orBBC
Radio
HLS.m3u
and make sure it has been saved as a plain text file and not some other format such as RTF (with Windows Notepad, select ANSI). -
On Windows, check the Type column in Windows Explorer to make sure the Type column shows
M3U file, not Text Document. If the Type column shows Text Document, select View and enable the
File name extensions option, then edit the filename in the Name column to change the
file extension from
.m3u.txt
to.m3u
. - If you have installed MinimServer on a NAS, you need to have MinimWatch installed on another computer on your local network. It can be a Windows PC, a Mac or a Linux computer. To install MinimWatch, follow the instructions on the MinimWatch page.
- Activate a full license or trial license for MinimServer. You need this to be able to install and run MinimStreamer. For details of how to activate this license, visit the Quick start page.
- On the computer where you installed MinimWatch, you should see a small icon with a minim symbol in your system tray or menu bar. From this icon's pop-up menu, select Properties and then select the Packages tab in the Properties window.
- Select the 'minimstreamer' entry that appears in the list of available packages, then click Install and follow the prompts. When installation is complete, click the Relaunch button. If the 'minimstreamer' entry is greyed out, this means you don't have a MinimServer full license or trial license activated.
-
In a UPnP control point, you should be able to see the BBC Radio DASH or BBC Radio HLS playlist in the
playlists section of the top-level menu. If you don't see this playlist, check that the playlist file has the correct filename
BBC
Radio
DASH.m3u
orBBC
Radio
HLS.m3u
and then select Rescan from MinimWatch. -
The playlist should
contain a list of BBC radio stations. If you don't see this list, check that the
BBC
Radio
DASH.m3u
orBBC
Radio
HLS.m3u
file has been saved as a plain text file and has the correct file extension (see points 2 and 3). - Select the playlist entry for the station that you want. This should play the 320 kbps MPEG-DASH or HLS UK stream for the station.
-
This might not work with some UPnP renderers that don't support playing AAC/ADTS network streams.
In this case, you might be able to get the stream to play by putting the setting
aac:L16
oraac:wav
into the stream.transcode field and restarting MinimServer. - If something isn't working correctly, select 'Show log' from the minim icon and check whether the log contains any error or warning messages.
You can add more stations (e.g., BBC local stations or non-UK streams) by editing the
BBC
Radio
DASH.m3u
or BBC
Radio
HLS.m3u
file using a text editor. Make sure the updated file has been saved as a plain text file
and not some other format such as RTF (with Windows Notepad, select ANSI).
After making any changes, select Rescan from the minim icon.
You can add an icon image to a radio stream by downloading a logo image and
saving it in the BBC
Radio
folder with a name matching the playlist name of the radio station.
For example, if your .m3u file contains a radio station named BBC
Radio
3
,
the icon image file needs to be named BBC
Radio
3.png
or BBC
Radio
3.jpg
.
After making any changes, select Rescan from the minim icon.
If you have any problems or questions, please create a thread in the MinimStreamer section of the MinimServer forum as described on the Support page.
For more information about MinimStreamer, see the MinimStreamer page. Enjoy!
Using a new MinimServer installation
- Decide which machine (computer or NAS) you will use to install and run MinimStreamer and MinimServer. It can be a Windows PC, a Mac, a Linux computer (a Raspberry Pi is ideal), a QNAP NAS, an ASUSTOR NAS or a Synology NAS.
-
Create a folder named
BBC
Radio
on this machine. -
Install MinimServer on this machine by following the instructions on the
Quick start page. For the content
directory setting, use the
BBC
Radio
folder that you created in step 2. - Continue from step 2 in the section Using an existing MinimServer installation.