RRipper 0.9.3
The Radio Player and Ripper for Unix
This is a simple documentation of RRipper version 0.9.3, giving a short overview over the functions and features it has.This documentation isn't complete at all, there are still some little things missing, others need to be better explained. I'm working on improving and enhancing it.
Anyway I actully hope, that RRipper has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, so that there's no real need for a documentation (but nevertheless there will be one available).
Layout (Tabs)
For a better overview and easier access, the different functions of RRipper are put into tabs.The details tab contains some general information about the current station (like name, meta data, technical data, saving location, type of playback, ...).
The second tab is entitled "Streamripper". There you can adjust some Streamripper preferences.
Streamripper itself has some more possible arguments/settings, but some of them aren't really useful in RRipper - and some are simply not yet implemented.
Note: Some options don't go together! Usually RRipper is taking care of this itself and may uncheck conflicting settings.
Also note, that some fields have a colored background. A green background shows, that the content of this field is valid. A red background shows, that it needs to be changed before it can be used (if you don't change it, it will be ignored when starting a recording).
Next you find the "Directories" Tab. Currently you can browse two stream directories with RRipper: Shoutcast.com and Icecast.com. The data ist loaded as needed and saved in a database. That makes it much faster to browse them, because the data needs only to be loaded once. But that means at the same time, that a change on the Shoutcast/Icecast-Servers isn't immediately visble in RRipper. So it may be wise to erase the saved directory content and reload it from time to time (the button with the two arrows in an circle).
In the tab "Lyrics", the lyrics of the currently played song can be displayed (if available). RRipper is currently searching LyricsVIP.com for the lyrics.
The checkbox "Auto-Fetch" en-/diables the automatic fetching of the lyrics when the song changes. If the meta data for a song isn't correct, you can adjust the artist/title.
In earlier versions, RRipper searched LyricsPlugin.com for the lyrics. But due to a change of the LyricsPlugin.com database, this is no longer possible.
Last but not least, the tab "Global Preferences". This tab still needs a bit of improvement/enhancement. Currently you can adjust just some basic settings here, as e.g. en-/disable the tray icon, adjust the mplayer/streamripper-paths, change the language and so on.
Playing
There are two types of playback in RRipper: The normal and the intelligent playback. The normal playback is a simple playinf of a stream with mplayer. The intelligent playback is actually a ripping of the stream with Streamripper into a temporary folder and a playing of the ripped data. If you listen to a song and you like it and you want to save it, you can hit at any time during the song the "Save" button in the upper right of RRipper. At the end of the song, it will be copied into the saving location set for "normal" ripping. The name of the new file will be in the pattern of "<artist> - <title>" (a formatting is not yet possible, but planned).Note:
- The intelligent playback has the same restrictions as a ripping: Some streams won't work (e.g. mms:// streams)!
- Only one stream can be playing at the same time!
- If the "Auto-Fetch" checkbox in the lyrics tab is checked, then RRipper searches for the lyric of the currently played song and displays it there (if available).
- A start of a recording stopps a playing! RRipper trys to restart the playing once the recording is up and running.
Recording
RRipper is currently only able to record a stream with Streamripper. This provides some nice features of Streamripper, but has at the same time some restrictions: Some stream (e.g. mms-streams) just wont work! On the website of Streamripper, the developer states, that RRipper only can play streams from the Shoutcast/Icecast directories. Other streams can possibly work (I was successful with some), but some just wont work (you have to try and hope).In a coming version, RRipper will have the option to rip a stream with MPlayer. This has the advantage, that pretty much every stream can be ripped. But it will all be ripped into one big file.
This future function will always be an option! Streamripper will stay the default.
As long as a recording is running, you can't change the playback type and the Streamripper options for this stream (wouldn't make any sense, would it?).
All recording are saved in the saving location specified and optionally in the pattern specified ("-D" option of Streamripper).
Additional Features
RRipper has some additional features, that shall help to simplify and extend the use of it:- You can set a stream to stop recording after the currently playing song is finished.
- Through the toolbar/menu you can start/stop the recording of all (running) streams at once.
- If any problem occurred with an instance of MPlayer/Streamripper, you can force them to be finished (kill). There are two types of killing: an internal one, that just kills all internally started processes; and an external one, that tries to kill all running mplayer/streamripper processes. Note: This can affect other programs using MPlayer/Streamripper!!
There are some more little features of RRipper, but it all should be pretty much self-explaining. One of my aims for RRipper is to create an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, combining the power of MPlayer and Streamripper and adding some additional useful functions.
I hope you enjoy using RRipper. If there's any problem (RRipper crashes, something isn't working, etc.), write me an email to rripper91@yahoo.com. Please state the version of RRipper you're using, and (if you started it from the console) the output you've got.
May it be useful for you!
Lukas Spies, programmer of RRipper
Lukas Spies, programmer of RRipper