DLNA-Radio

Most Internet Radio devices use a third party station database to populate stations in the radio. Sometimes these databases can be outdated or simply vanish off the Internet leaving you in a bit of a bind when trying to add or update your stations. If your device has DLNA / UPnP there is a quick hack using a server called Rygel that can give you a bridge to your device from a Laptop or Raspberry Pi.

Using Rygel to stream radio URL's over DLNA / UPnP. This requires the use of the gStreamer libraries, be sure to install gStreamer as needed for your distro first. There is a basic apt get for GS in the install file.

Youtube and Youtube Live over DLNA

Work in progress and switching over to yt-dlp. Originally using youtube-dl it is possible to somewhat stream Youtube audio. Device's vary and the true YT Live streams don't have an audio only stream like the non live ones do.

Use audio/mp4 as the mime for non live streams, use audio/live in the stations.json for youtube live streams

Devices Tested

Servers:

• Linux Mint 21.2
• Raspberry Pi (RpiOS Lite .. working in terminal)

Raspberry Pi may give this warning if not using desktop but will still function fine for sharing radio.

Rygel-Tracker-WARNING **: 03:30:15.720: Failed to start Tracker service: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY. Plugin disabled.

Clients:

• LG Smart TV (complains not audio, maybe buffering?)
• VLC - Working
• Ocean Digital WR26 - Working
• Roku Media Player - Working
• Bubble UPnP Android - Working

Setup

$ mkdir -p ~/gitb && cd ~/git
$ git clone https://github.com/duracell80/DLNA-Radio.git && cd ~/git/DLNA-Radio
$ chmod +x *.sh
$ ./install.sh

Choose between older Raspbery Pi Os and newer (Bookworm)

Adding Your Stations

Edit the stations.json file in the ~/python-apps/dlnaradio directory to add the Radio URL's you'd like to broadcast to your devices

{
    "dlna-conf": [
        { "library-name": "My Radio", "library-enabled": "true"}
    ],    
    "dlna-stations": [
        { "url": "https://0n-60s.radionetz.de/0n-60s.mp3", "name": "0n Radio - 60s", "mime" : "audio/mpeg" },
        { "url": "https://0n-70s.radionetz.de/0n-70s.mp3", "name": "0n Radio - 70s", "mime" : "audio/mpeg" }
    ]
}

dlna-conf ... A library name and turning the library on or off can be done here dlna-stations ... enter a URL a name and a mime type (MP3 = audio/mpeg) (AAC = audio/mp4)

Autorun:

The installation uses systemd to start a service called dlna.service

To restart the service type without the dollar:

$ sudo systemctrl restart dlna.service
$ systemctrl status dlna.service

To Run DLNA Radio manually:

Edit the s_rygel_file variable in main.py to your home directory accordingly.

$ cd ~/python-apps/dlnaradio
$ ./run.sh

Wait for the Python Virtual Environment to start, then run.sh again

$ ./run.sh

Testing in VLC:

Launch VLC and on the left of the interface choose "Universal Plug n Play", if the server is running you will see a "Folder" called My Radio on (your host name).

Listening on your Radio Device:

Depending on your device you will find the DLNA / UPnP function maybe under something called Media or Media Center. Browse in there and you will see a directory called My Radio on (your host name). Choose a station to listen to. The server on your Linux or Raspberry Pi needs to be running to access the streams in the DLNA directory.