Using Python to verify streaming tv/radio station links

[donnyf@gmail.com]

Hi guys. I've put together a website ( http://worldwidemediaproject.com
) that is a database of internet streaming tv/radio stations from
around the world. I have built the site with all users in mind. The
site should be Linux, Unix, Mac, Win, etc friendly as I do not hide
the actual stream link or force the user to use an embedded player to
view/listen to the streams. In fact, you can even download the streams
you like as a playlist that you can load into your player of choice
(and even a few PVR software plugins).

In building the site, I have enabled the user to report stations that
are nonfunctional. In addition to this, I would like to automate the
checking of the links in the database as well as any user submitted
links. What I am wanting to do is to script this with a simple for
loop which would loop through a file containing the station stream
link as well as the station id. I'd like to pass each through some
kind of verification function and if a connection is made then the
stream is good and move on to the next. If the connection fails then
the stream is bad, I would like to add the station id to a file
containing all 'nonfunctional' streams that I can later automate to
flag the stations.

Is there an easy way to use python to verify a stream exists? I've
done a little experimenting with sockets and was able to connect to my
usenet server and talk to it, but I don't really know what's involved
with connecting to streaming windows media, real media and winamp
servers or what to expect as far as connection status messages. I am
not unfamiliar with python, but I am far from an expert. If anyone
could give me a hand with this or give me a push in the right
direction I would greatly appreciate it!

Many thanks!

[alexelder@gmail.com]

Re: Using Python to verify streaming tv/radio station links

On Apr 29, 1:52 pm, don...@gmail.co m wrote:

Hi guys. I've put together a website (http://worldwidemediaproject.com
) that is a database of internet streaming tv/radio stations from
around the world. I have built the site with all users in mind. The
site should be Linux, Unix, Mac, Win, etc friendly as I do not hide
the actual stream link or force the user to use an embedded player to
view/listen to the streams. In fact, you can even download the streams
you like as a playlist that you can load into your player of choice
(and even a few PVR software plugins).
>
In building the site, I have enabled the user to report stations that
are nonfunctional. In addition to this, I would like to automate the
checking of the links in the database as well as any user submitted
links. What I am wanting to do is to script this with a simple for
loop which would loop through a file containing the station stream
link as well as the station id. I'd like to pass each through some
kind of verification function and if a connection is made then the
stream is good and move on to the next. If the connection fails then
the stream is bad, I would like to add the station id to a file
containing all 'nonfunctional' streams that I can later automate to
flag the stations.
>
Is there an easy way to use python to verify a stream exists? I've
done a little experimenting with sockets and was able to connect to my
usenet server and talk to it, but I don't really know what's involved
with connecting to streaming windows media, real media and winamp
servers or what to expect as far as connection status messages. I am
not unfamiliar with python, but I am far from an expert. If anyone
could give me a hand with this or give me a push in the right
direction I would greatly appreciate it!
>
Many thanks!

Hey!

With regards checking feeds, look into urllib (maybe) and the httplib
(definitely). They /could/ offer some sort of information regarding
the activity of your feeds. Without knowing anything about the
streaming protocols I wouldn't suggest my methods to necessarily be
the most helpful. You could, at least [maybe], establish whether a
feed is active if it can return a HTTP 200 response. If that's a
sufficient check I would suggest that httplib is the place to start.

Alex.

[donnyf@gmail.com]

Re: Using Python to verify streaming tv/radio station links

On Apr 29, 10:11 am, alexel...@gmail .com wrote:

Hey!
>
With regards checking feeds, look into urllib (maybe) and the httplib
(definitely). They /could/ offer some sort of information regarding
the activity of your feeds. Without knowing anything about the
streaming protocols I wouldn't suggest my methods to necessarily be
the most helpful. You could, at least [maybe], establish whether a
feed is active if it can return a HTTP 200 response. If that's a
sufficient check I would suggest that httplib is the place to start.
>
Alex.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not so sure that httplib is going to work
as most of these are not http urls. Here's a handful of examples that
maybe someone could use to give me an idea of how to accomplish what
I'm trying to do.

Here's a list of the various types of media links I have in my
database (all working):

http://www.dradio.de/streaming/dkultur_hq_ogg.m3u

http://200.29.92.21/ucvtv

http://www.ampmedia.org/asx/marina25.asx

http://www.jazz.fm/streaming/JAZZFM91.pls

mms://144.122.56.15/ODTU-TV
rtsp://200.79.7.137/broadcast/tv.rm

The httplib approach may work the http urls, but what about the mms
and rsp 'protocols'?

Please remember that I only know enough to be dangerous and that I'm
much more a hacker than I am a programmer. As always, any help is
greatly appreciated!