This is a follow-up to the post a few days ago. It is now much easier to get those AAC streams on your SqueezeBox.
It is now possible to navigate and play the High quality (up to 192kbps) AAC BBC iPlayer Radio and Live Radio streams on your Squeezebox by mean of an OPML playlist.

Just add the following URL to your favourites in SqueezeCenter and then navigate to the Favourites on the SqueezeBox remote an you will see a three-level menu of Channel -> Programme Name -> Programme for iPlayer Radio. You need to be running get_iplayer PVR Manager v0.24 or later. This has only been tested on Linux and may work on OSX and Windows.

http://[SERVER IP]:1935/opml?PROGTYPES=radio&MODES=flash,iphone&LIST=channel

To list all the Live iPlayer Radio channels add this to your SqueezeBox favourites:

http://[SERVER IP]:1935/opml?PROGTYPES=liveradio&OUTTYPE=wav

Finally, to only show those numbered BBC Radio stations:

http://[SERVER IP]:1935/opml?PROGTYPES=liveradio&MODES=flash&SEARCH=%20\d&OUTTYPE=wav

Update: Now works on windows except for realaudio mode. Ensure you use flvstreamer v1.8h or later.

With the latest experimental release of get_iplayer PVR Manager you can now use to browse and play almost any BBC iPlayer programme directly from VLC‘s playlist. This functionality of get_iplayer PVR Manager should work on Linux/Unix, MacOSX and Windows.

Just download and run get_iplayer PVR manager as described in yesterdays post

Next, using VLC to open a URL such as:

http://127.0.0.1:1935/playlist?PROGTYPES=liveradio

You will get an automatically generated playlist for the programme type you selected.

Valid programme types are:

• tv
• radio
• livetv
• liveradio

Open the playlist in the vlc GUI and you will see all of the available programmes.

Just click on one and it will start playing after a few seconds.

There are many more examples and detailed usage in the comments at the top of the get_iplayer.cgi script if you are interested.

I haven’t tried opening the playlists in anything other than mplayer and vlc so far. When I get a chance I’ll try them out on the Squeezebox also.

Let me know if you get this working on any other players or if you find any other novel uses for it.

Update: Now works on windows except for realaudio channels. Ensure you use flvstreamer v1.8h or later.

Update: See Part II of this post – all this has been improved and simplified…

I’ve been playing with get_iplayer PVR Manager (get_iplayer.cgi) on Linux (although it works on MacOSX and Windows also). It can now also act as an RTMP proxy to allow simple streaming of any flashaac radio or liveradio BBC iPlayer programme to a Slim Devices / Logitech Squeezebox (SBII or better). WARNING: This is still alpha quality experimental code….

All you need to do is:
Install and start the get_iplayer PVR Manager:

• download get_iplayer.cgi from SVN (see the get_iplayer PVR Manager page)
• Ensure you have flvstreamer installed and it’s location saved in your options
• Ensure ffmpeg is installed and in the system PATH
• Start it on your Linux server:
  

  perl get_iplayer.cgi –port=1935 –getiplayer=/path/to/get_iplayer –ffmpeg=/path/to/ffmpeg

Now configure the Squeezebox:

• Go to the Squeezecenter page for your Squeezebox
• Add a Favourite with the streaming URL. e.g. http://[server_ip_address]:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=liveradio&PID=bbc_radio_one&MODES=flashaac&OUTTYPE=a.wav
• Go to your Squeezebox remote control or web page and play the favourite you have added.
• Sit back and listen to much higher quality Radio at up to 192kbps AAC on your Hi-Fi

Similarly you can stream all sorts of programmes and modes on other http based media players. e.g.:

* Stream flash AAC liveradio as 320k mp3 stream:

vlc "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=liveradio&PID=[PID]&BITRATE=320&MODES=flashaac\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.mp3"

* Stream flash livetv as an flv stream:

vlc "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=livetv&PID=[PID]&MODES=flashnormal\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.flv"

* Stream flash AAC liveradio as a raw wav stream:

vlc "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=liveradio&PID=[PID]&MODES=flashaac\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.wav"

* Stream tv as a quicktime stream:

mplayer "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=tv&PID=[PID]&MODES=iphone\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.mov" -cache 2048

* Stream iphone radio as http mp3 stream:

vlc "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=radio&PID=[PID]&MODES=iphone\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.mp3"

* Stream flash mp3 radio as http flac stream:

vlc "http://localhost:1935/?ACTION=stream&PROGTYPES=radio&PID=[PID]&MODES=flashaudio\
  &OUTTYPE=nnn.flac"

***PLEASE REWRITE THE DOUBLE QUOTES – this blog mangles them***

The valid [PID]s for any programme type can be determined by running:

get_iplayer –info [usual search terms]

Update (July 30th 2009): I changed SEARCH= to PID= in the latest version…Also updated to use new cmdline options. Also now works in Windows with the latest Automated Installer.
Update (September 18th 2009): I changed streaming URLs for the latest version.