Methods > Players and stream mixers > LoadInternetStream method

Remarks

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

This method will try to open the Internet stream using different audio format decoders until the compatible one is found: accepted stream formats are: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4 (***), AIFF, AAC, AC3, FLAC, WAV, OGG Vorbis, WMA (*), ASF (**), WMV (**), OPUS and HLS (HTTP Live Streaming).

In case you should already know the exact audio format of the Internet stream, you may select the proper one through the LoadInternetStreamEx method, allowing a faster availability of audio data to play.

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 will fire the DownloadBuffering event.

In case you should be downloading a single file (not a radio stream), once the download completes the DownloadComplete event will be fired: 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 control will fire the StreamLoaded event.

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]

control.LoadInternetStream (

nPlayer as Integer,

strURL as String

) as enumErrorCodes

[C++]

short control.LoadInternetStream (

short nPlayer,

LPCTSTR strURL

);

Parameter	Description

nPlayer	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 method.

Return value

Value	Meaning

enumErrorCodes.NOERROR (0)	The method call was successful.
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).