some ideas

[ak1dd]

there is no discussion forum so I'll put this here. Delete if it isn't useful.

First, amazing app. It finds a lot more (although not everything) that other apps find. It starts playing almost instantly. Very very cool.

some thoughts:

• my biggest issue is I can't search or sort by bitrate. For example, BBC broadcasts in 128K and also 320K. I want the highest fidelity only - otherwise I have to go to other app options. It would be great if Search results showed bitrate and when the station is playing it said the bitrate also.

• the ability to play by language is great. It wasn't obvious to me that the little magnifying glass was how to do that. This isn't terrible, but IMO this is the key differentiator you have - tons and tons of stations. I'd put the entire search control on the main page. It belongs at the very top (and Browse by Genre is VERY related and exposed on the main page... they should be together and the highlight of your first impression)

• I really dislike the featured stations taking up 1/4-1/3 of the screen. Also, it doesn't seem to be showing me anything specific to my favorite stations. I get only US stations and everything from Christian content all the way to Heavy Metal. I'd like to turn that off personally and have more favorites. Or at least minimize it when I'm playing what I want.

• I couldn't get the control to scroll through the feature stations to work any way other than using a mouse scroll. I'd expect the mouse to show arrows when hovering over the icon list or the little dots underneath.

• I'd like to be able to sort my favorites. It is random now and I don't listen to all of them in the same frequency. Let us drag and drop!

• a personal preference would be qt based but what you've done is great.

I wish you the best.

[meehow]

This is very good place to post such questions and ideas.

1. Currently get_stream_url tries to select the highest bitrate available, but you are right that it could be at least displayed somewhere, ideally selection should be possible. There are already several streams collected in the database, but there is no way to manually select preferred one.

2. This is valuable feedback. Thank you. "View All" button also takes you to search and clicking on genre just prefills search query, but I will re-think how to organize it better.

3. There is an option (in hamburger menu) to hide featured. The selection is done just randomly from list of stations in your region which have big enough logo. It was implemented rather to show to the user "I know your locale and this program is able to find content for your location". Another feature to re-think.

4. That's easily fixable, but I'm not sure if I will keep "featured" section at all.

5. Drag and drop is a good idea!

6. This whole program is Vala experiment and I'm a GNOME user, so GTK4 it is...

[ben2talk]

This is a lovely project - I really appreciate the thumbnails.

Shortwave and radio-browser.info are interesting also, but this project has the potential to be the best.

Previously I generated lists of stations (for pyradio, for widget radios, for general playlists that work in most players), but Shortwave was the application which finally broke that habit - or at least offered an alternative (I still have the Strawberry and Pyradio playlists).

Searching something like BBC Radio 4 Extra in *browser.info I see two options; the url's are from 'akamaized.net' and the two options are for a 128k and a 320k stream (verified by copying that URL and pasting it in Qmplay2)... and for this station I would go with 128k - but I would actually like to add BOTH options with their respective icons.

Shortwave brings up the same two results, one Purple and one Blue icon version.
Clicking on an icon reveals information and the URL with an option to copy:

http://as-hls-ww-live.akamaized.net/pool_26173715/live/ww/bbc_radio_four_extra/bbc_radio_four_extra.isml/bbc_radio_four_extra-audio%3d128000.norewind.m3u8

http://as-hls-ww-live.akamaized.net/pool_26173715/live/ww/bbc_radio_four_extra/bbc_radio_four_extra.isml/bbc_radio_four_extra-audio=320000.norewind.m3u8

From these links (using QMPlay2) it's evident how much information is available, and it would be marvelous to be able to toggle an 'info' inset into the Statusbar, like the live format, codec, bitrate. (obviously 'toggle' as you obviously want to offer something accessible, appearing simple, but slightly holding back so far on revealing too many options/informations).

So a 128k and a 320k option - this information is easily accessible... When playing, the 'player' opens in a sidebar (which unfortunately messes up the station list horizontally) and offers an ⓘ information icon.

Another purely aesthetic feature of Shortwave is the window icon, which switches it into the miniplayer

Obviously then the next largest hurdle to usability is arguably the display (the permanent 'Browse' being one). The 'Status' of the playing station is nice, just needs an information option... and the list might be better if it is possible to add some options for arrangement - alphabetical, manual, or by order.

Currently this can be done by searching for an item, then removing and re-adding it (to the end of the list).

So hopefully, I hope you can push your baby to even greater heights - but even as it is I'm definitely a fan and wish you the best.

Thank you.

[meehow]

I removed "featured" in v0.4.0.

[Alanon202]

@meehow Rather than open a separate discussion or issue, I’d like to raise a couple of questions/ideas here if this is OK with you? Great app by the way, it’s really in a sweet-spot for me for looks/ease of use and functionality!

1. Some FLAC/high bitrate streams seem to have trouble playing in Receiver, but not other radio apps. This is likely because stations like JB Radio require more buffering. Would it be possible to add a per-station setting to increase buffer, or automatically assign a larger buffer for all high-quality streams?
2. How were the stations that Receiver shows selected? Is there a way of petitioning for stations to be added to the repo? For example, I noticed only a few stations of Radio Caprice show up, and not all stations of Ella Radio show up either. Caprice has nice genre-based 320kbps mp3 streams I find I’m missing them ever since switching to Receiver.
3. Is it possible to add a setting to control how search results are sorted? Sometimes when searching through stations it’s much easier to parse through them if they’re sorted alphabetically.
4. Would it be possible to add an option to hide the filters that are currently always on display? I don’t use them and the UI would be nicer and cleaner that way?