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<a class="trail" href="index.html" title="♪ Streamtuner2"><span class="media"><span class="media media-image"><img src="img/logo.png" class="media media-inline" alt="♪"></span></span> Streamtuner2 </a> › <a class="trail" href="index.html#footer" title="index#footer"></a> » <a class="trail" href="glossary.html" title="Glossary">Glossary</a> › <a class="trail" href="glossary.html#filetypes" title="Filetypes">Filetypes</a> » </div></div></div></header><article><div class="hgroup pagewide"><h1 class="title"><span class="title">File types</span></h1></div>
<div class="region">
<div class="contents pagewide"><p class="p">Streamtuner2 understands different playlist formats as used by various
directory services and audio players.</p></div>
<section id="m3u"><div class="inner">
<div class="hgroup pagewide"><h2 class="title"><span class="title">.M3U files</span></h2></div>
<div class="region"><div class="contents pagewide">
<p class="p">M3U files are one of the simplest playlist types. They're often used by desktop audio players.</p>
<p class="p">The MIME type of these files is <span class="sys">audio/x-mpegurl</span> and often contain just a list of URLs:</p>
<div class="code"><pre class="contents"><code class="">#M3U
http://123.45.67.189:8222/
http://123.45.67.222:7555/</code></pre></div>
</div></div>
</div></section><section id="pls"><div class="inner">
<div class="hgroup pagewide"><h2 class="title"><span class="title">.PLS files</span></h2></div>
<div class="region"><div class="contents pagewide">
<p class="p">Playlist files often have the extension <span class="file">.pls</span>. It's the primary station
stream link format of SHOUTcast, and was popularized by WinAmp.</p>
<p class="p">The MIME type of these files is <span class="sys">audio/x-scpls</span> and they often look like: </p>
<div class="code"><pre class="contents"><code class="">[playlist]
numberofentries=1
File1=http://123.45.67.189:8222
Title1=(#1 - 555/2000) radio station Xyz - top 100 - all the hitzez
Length1=-1</code></pre></div>
</div></div>
</div></section><section id="json"><div class="inner">
<div class="hgroup pagewide"><h2 class="title"><span class="title">.JSON files</span></h2></div>
<div class="region"><div class="contents pagewide">
<p class="p">JSON is a data representation format derived from Javascript (the browser embedded
programming language for websites). It's commonly used because it provides a
nice balance between terse and exact data representation, while still being
readable.</p>
<p class="p">Streamtuner2 uses it to store all of its configuration and radio station data files.
The MIME type of these files is <span class="sys">application/json</span> and they often look like: </p>
<div class="code"><pre class="contents"><code class="syntax language-json">[
{
"title": "Station title..",
"url": "http://1.2.3.4:8000/",
"homepage": "http://radio.org/",
},
{ "title": "second" }
]</code></pre></div>
<p class="p">It's also the basis for JSPF, the JSON variant of XSPF.</p>
</div></div>
</div></section><section id="xspf"><div class="inner">
<div class="hgroup pagewide"><h2 class="title"><span class="title">.XSPF files</span></h2></div>
<div class="region"><div class="contents pagewide">
<p class="p">The Xiph foundation manages the Ogg streaming format, Vorbis and other
codecs, and introduced the "XML shareable playlist format" or "XSPF" for short.
They're hard to look at and not very widespread. On the upside they
contain more meta information than any other playlist store.</p>
<p class="p">As MIME type <span class="sys">application/xspf+xml</span> and they often look like: </p>
<div class="code"><pre class="contents"><code class="syntax language-xml"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<title>Top 500 hitz station XY</title>
<annotation>Paris</annotation>
<location>http://123.24.67.189:8222</location>
<info>Pop, Rock, Future-Jazz</info>
<homepage>http://example.com/</homepage>
</track>
</trackList>
</playlist></code></pre></div>
<p class="p">A variation of this format exists as JSPF, using JSON (yay!) instead of XML.</p>
</div></div>
</div></section><section id=""><div class="inner">
<div class="hgroup pagewide"><h2 class="title"><span class="title">Uncommon formats</span></h2></div>
<div class="region"><div class="contents pagewide">
<p class="p">Various other file formats are in existence, but not widely used:</p>
<div class="list"><div class="inner"><div class="region"><ul class="list">
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">SMIL</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language is an HTML-style
audio/video/stream-link format.</p>
</li>
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">ASX</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">Is a Windows-only format, a variation of SMIL. There's an abhorrent
number of similar formats, like .ASF and .WPL, basically doing the same
thing. Nobody knows why.</p>
</li>
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">QTL</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">QuickTime Link files are also a variation of SMIL</p>
</li>
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">B4S</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">.B4S is a failed WinAmp XML playlist format.</p>
</li>
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">.desktop</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">*.desktop files can contain just one link.</p>
</li>
<li class="list">
<div class="title title-item"><h3><span class="title">.url</span></h3></div>
<p class="p">*.url (Internet Shortcut) files also are single-link containers.</p>
</li>
</ul></div></div></div>
<p class="p">For a comparison of what various audio players support, see also
<span class="link"><a href="http://fossil.include-once.org/streamtuner2/wiki/Playlist+format+support" title="http://fossil.include-once.org/streamtuner2/wiki/Playlist+format+support">Playlist format support</a></span>
in the ST2 fossil wiki.</p>
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