Playing BBC MPEG-DASH and HLS radio streams on a Naim streamer

Latest news

(2021/09/02) Transcoding to 32-bit WAV is now supported.

Latest change

(2022/12/16) MinimStreamer 2.0.11 has been released

[NEW] MinimStreamer 2 has replaced MinimStreamer 0.7. The license to use MinimStreamer 0.7 expired on 1st April 2021. For details of how to install MinimStreamer 2, see the Installing page.

Playing BBC MPEG-DASH and HLS radio streams on a Naim streamer

For information about playing BBC HLS streams on an internet radio, see this page.
For information about playing BBC MPEG-DASH [NEW] or HLS streams on other UPnP renderers, see this page.

To use MinimStreamer and MinimServer to play BBC MPEG-DASH [NEW] and HLS radio streams on a Naim streamer, you need to run MinimStreamer and MinimServer on a computer or NAS on your local network and follow the steps listed below. These steps assume you don't already have MinimServer installed.

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.
Create a plain text file named BBC Radio DASH.m3u [NEW] or BBC Radio HLS.m3u in this folder (with Windows Notepad, select ANSI). You can download a sample version of these files from this link (MPEG-DASH) [NEW] or this link (HLS). These sample files list all the BBC national MPEG-DASH [NEW] and HLS UK streams in the best available sound quality. After downloading the sample file, remember to rename it to BBC Radio DASH.m3u [NEW] or BBC 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).
Install MinimServer on this machine by following the instructions on this page. For the content directory setting, use the 'BBC Radio' folder that you created in step 2.
If you have installed MinimServer on a NAS, you need to install MinimWatch 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 this 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.
When the minim icon reappears, select Properties and then select the System tab in the Properties window.
Check that the stream.converter field contains the value ffmpeg or avconv. If this field is blank, install the ffmpeg or avconv program by following the instructions in the Stream converter program section of the MinimStreamer user guide. If this isn't working for you, you can get help by posting to the MinimStreamer section of the MinimServer support forum (see the Support page).
In the stream.transcode field, enter *:L16 and click OK.
In the Naim app, you should be able to see the BBC Radio DASH [NEW] or BBC Radio HLS playlists in the playlists section of the top-level menu. If you don't see these playlists, check that the playlist files have the correct filenames 'BBC Radio DASH.m3u' [NEW] and 'BBC Radio HLS.m3u'.
Each of these playlists should contain a list of BBC radio stations. If you don't see this list, check that the 'BBC Radio DASH.m3u' [NEW] or 'BBC Radio HLS.m3u' file has been saved as a plain text file and not some other format such as RTF (with Windows Notepad, select ANSI).
Select the playlist entry for the station that you want. This should play the 320 kbps MPEG-DASH [NEW] or HLS UK stream for the station.
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' [NEW] 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 website. Enjoy!