A streaming radio client for a TV Headend server which will be expanded to play other streams.

Formerly known as the Yet Another Pi Radio application before it took on a life of its own.

This project allows any linux device (actually, anything that can run Python3), such as a Raspberry Pi, to be used as a radio-like appliance, streaming from a TV Headend server or from a list of URLs.

I have tried to make this an app which can also be used by partially sighted people, by making it possible to speak the channel name or the time.

The program works fairly well now, and I have recently added simple web interface for remote control - see the roadmap at the end of this page. This is designed to be as basic as possible so it will work with an old phone or tablet.

I wrote this partly to stretch my python skills, but mostly because I wanted to be able to turn a Raspberry Pi0/W into the basis of a streaming receiver.

There are many radio streaming programs around, why is this one different?

• Firstly, it understands the TV Headend API, thus allowing you to use a TVH server as a radio source.
• Secondly, it will play other user-definable streams
• Thirdly, you can save streams as favourites
• Fourthly, it can speak to tell you the channel you're about to play.
• Fifthly, it can speak the current time and date

Note: the speaking function uses Google's text to speech engine, so you need an ok internet connection for this to download the audio. It caches the recording of the channel names which means that it will become more reliable on subsequent use.

You can use this on a Pi, or a linux desktop or laptop, as it should run on any linux distro which supports a modern python3.

Please drop me a note if you've made it work on Windows, thanks!

The software here is a command line interface, so that the Pi can be used headless with just a keyboard. This project will be expanded to include instructions on fitting into a re-purposed radio shell, and setting the Pi to boot straight into this application.

Acquire a Raspberry Pi, power supply and memory card.

• Install Raspbian onto the card
• Power up the Pi whilst connected to a display
• Configure the WiFi
• Set the password of the pi user
• Install all updates

We want the most efficient stream possible, which means getting the TVH server to only pass on the audio channel. This reduces the CPU load on the player and reduces bandwifth. On a Raspberry-Pi, it allows the omxplayer player to be used, which otherwise croaks if given a stream which contains video in a non-n264 codec.

Login to TVH as an administrator, and open the Configuration tab, choose Stream, then choose Stream Profiles. Add a stream, starting with the type Audio, set the name to audio-only, and click Apply.

Create a user account with a password and persistent authentication like this:

Then create an access entry for thet use allowing playing media etc like this:

• git clone this repository
• make tvh_radio.py executable if necessary with "chmod ugo+x tvh_radio.py"

• run it
• on first run, you have to go through setup, so provide the settings
• follow the onscreen instructions
• if you need to redo the settings, run it again with the -s option to go into settings

key functions

• ? - help
• d - down a channel
• f - favourite or unfavourite a channel
• F - favourites list
• h - help
• m - mode change, from TVH to stream to favourites
• p - play channel/stop channel
• q - quit
• s - speak channel name
• t - speak time
• u - up a channel

If you are using the Pi as your desktop, you can access tvh_radio.py on http://localhost otherwise you will need to enable the web interface to be public in the settings. Then you can access it as http://a.b.c.d/

This is what you should see

I intend to make the key presses customisable, so you could, say, use a numeric USB key pad to operate it. Also, to make it possible to use GPIOs and switches instead of a USB button board, something like the Display-O-Tron Hat: https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-hats/products/display-o-tron-hat

I also intend to make it possible to use a small LCD display to give status.

This is being actively developed. It will be very light weight so that the most basic old smartphone can be used as a simple remote control.

basic favouriting is complete

... end ...