Using Python to verify streaming tv/radio station links

[alexelder at gmail.com]

On Apr 29, 1:52 pm, don... at gmail.com wrote:
> Hi guys. I've put together a website (http://worldwidemediaproject.com
> ) that is a database of internet streaming tv/radio stations from
> around the world. I have built the site with all users in mind. The
> site should be Linux, Unix, Mac, Win, etc friendly as I do not hide
> the actual stream link or force the user to use an embedded player to
> view/listen to the streams. In fact, you can even download the streams
> you like as a playlist that you can load into your player of choice
> (and even a few PVR software plugins).
>
> In building the site, I have enabled the user to report stations that
> are nonfunctional. In addition to this, I would like to automate the
> checking of the links in the database as well as any user submitted
> links. What I am wanting to do is to script this with a simple for
> loop which would loop through a file containing the station stream
> link as well as the station id. I'd like to pass each through some
> kind of verification function and if a connection is made then the
> stream is good and move on to the next. If the connection fails then
> the stream is bad, I would like to add the station id to a file
> containing all 'nonfunctional' streams that I can later automate to
> flag the stations.
>
> Is there an easy way to use python to verify a stream exists? I've
> done a little experimenting with sockets and was able to connect to my
> usenet server and talk to it, but I don't really know what's involved
> with connecting to streaming windows media, real media and winamp
> servers or what to expect as far as connection status messages.   I am
> not unfamiliar with python, but I am far from an expert. If anyone
> could give me a hand with this or give me a push in the right
> direction I would greatly appreciate it!
>
> Many thanks!

Hey!

With regards checking feeds, look into urllib (maybe) and the httplib
(definitely). They /could/ offer some sort of information regarding
the activity of your feeds. Without knowing anything about the
streaming protocols I wouldn't suggest my methods to necessarily be
the most helpful. You could, at least [maybe], establish whether a
feed is active if it can return a HTTP 200 response. If that's a
sufficient check I would suggest that httplib is the place to start.

Alex.