Methods > Players and stream mixers > LoadInternetStreamEx method

Remarks

Loads a song from the Internet or from a Shoutcast/Icecast server.

Accepted stream formats are: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4 (***), AIFF, AAC, AC3, FLAC, WAV, OGG Vorbis, WMA (*), ASF (**), WMV (**), OPUS and HLS (HTTP Live Streaming).

MOD formats are not accepted: if you want to play MOD music downloaded from the Internet, you should download the MOD file into local memory (for example using the Microsoft WININET API) and then use the LoadSoundFromMemory method.

A successful call to this method invokes the CallbackForPlayersEvents delegate with the nEvent parameter set to EV_DOWNLOAD_BUFFERING.

n case you should be downloading a single file (not a radio stream), once the download completes the CallbackForPlayersEvents delegate is invoked with the nEvent parameter set to EV_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETE: if for example you need to retrieve the ID3V1 tag of a downloaded MP3 file, information available only on the latest bytes of the file, you could use this event to trigger the availability of the needed Tag.

Once the downloaded stream or file has enough playable data, the CallbackForPlayersEvents delegate is invoked with the nEvent parameter set to EV_STREAM_LOADED.

Default settings related to Internet connections can be retrieved and modified through the InternetSettingsGet and InternetSettingsSet methods.

For further details about Internet streams support see the How to play Internet streams and radio stations section.

Syntax

[Visual Basic]

Public Function LoadInternetStreamEx (

nPlayerIndex as Int16,

strURL as String,

nFormat as enumFileTypes,

nOffsetInSizePerc as Int32

) as enumErrorCodes

[C#]

public enumErrorCodes LoadInternetStreamEx (

Int16 nPlayerIndex,

string strURL,

enumFileTypes nFormat,

Int32 nOffsetInSizePerc

);

[C++]

public: enumErrorCodes LoadInternetStreamEx (

Int16 nPlayerIndex,

string strURL,

enumFileTypes nFormat,

Int32 nOffsetInSizePerc

);

Parameter

Description

nPlayerIndex

Number representing the zero-based index of the player that will load the sound

strURL

String containing the URL of the stream to load. Accepted URLs begin with "http://", "ftp://" or "mms://".

Passing an empty string will cause to cancel any previous call to the LoadInternetStream or LoadInternetStreamEx methods.

nFormat

Type of audio format to try first, allowing a faster creation of the Internet stream when the audio format produced by the server is known in advance.

In case the URL should produce a different audio format, the control will in any case try against other supported audio formats.

This parameter is ignored when set to -1.

Supported values are the following:

Mnemonic constant	Value	Format

SOUNDTYPE_MP3	0	MP3
SOUNDTYPE_MP2	2	MP2
SOUNDTYPE_MP1	3	MP1
SOUNDTYPE_OGG	4	OGG Vorbis
SOUNDTYPE_WMA	5	Windows Media Audio
SOUNDTYPE_AIFF	13	AIFF
SOUNDTYPE_FLAC	14	FLAC
SOUNDTYPE_AAC	15	AAC
SOUNDTYPE_MP4	16	MP4
SOUNDTYPE_AC3	17	AC3
SOUNDTYPE_WV	19	WavPack
SOUNDTYPE_OPUS	36	Opus
SOUNDTYPE_HLS	37	HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)

nOffsetInSizePerc

When the URL doesn't point to a continuous flow of audio data generated by Shoutcast/Icecast servers, as in the case of Internet radios, but points to an audio file having a defined size, this parameter allows discarding a certain amount of data at the beginning of the file itself and starting buffering audio data at a later position.

The passed value is expressed in percentage of the original file size: this means that, in case of compressed files like MP3, the percentage is related to the compressed file and not to the uncompressed and decoded audio data.

This parameter is ignored when set to 0.

Return value

Value	Meaning

enumErrorCodes.NOERROR (0)	The song file has been loaded successfully.
Negative value	An error occurred: see the LastError property for further error details or for a list of the possible error values.

(*) Requires Microsoft Windows Media Format modules already installed on the target PC

(**) Performs sound tracks only (no video): requires Microsoft Windows Media Format modules already installed on the target PC

(***) Performs sound tracks only (no video)

The Windows Media Format modules can be installed using the redistribution setup package (wmfdist.exe) provided by Microsoft. Details about the integration of these modules inside your own setup package can be found on the following link of the official Microsoft web site (note that in the future this link could change due to the Microsoft site maintenance).