Radio plugin is currently not able to play

[FHoevi]

Dear all,
the plugin is not able to play a stream for about a week now. I'm using version 3.0.9+matrix.1 on a Matrix (19.4) installation running on an RPi 4 and a separate, otherwise identical one on an RPi 3. Both are not working and just playing the sound which is also played when Kodi is starting.

Any hints?

Best

[Poeschl]

I'm getting similar errors in the kodi logs as the ones below:

2024-04-21 09:51:23.416 T:173      info <general>: [xbmcswift2] Request for "/stations/local/1" matches rule for function "show_local_stations"
2024-04-21 09:51:23.417 T:173      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] get_stations_nearby started with, sizeperpage=50, pageindex=1
2024-04-21 09:51:23.417 T:173      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __api_call started with path=v2/search/localstations, param={'sizeperpage': 50, 'pageindex': '1'}
2024-04-21 09:51:23.417 T:173      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen opening url=http://api.radio.de/info/v2/search/localstations?sizeperpage=50&pageindex=1
2024-04-21 09:51:23.460 T:173      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen HTTPError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
2024-04-21 09:51:23.460 T:173      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] String is missing: network_error
2024-04-21 09:51:23.472 T:169     error <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting plugin://plugin.audio.radio_de/stations/local/1
2024-04-21 09:51:26.563 T:175      info <general>: [xbmcswift2] Request for "/" matches rule for function "show_root_menu"
2024-04-21 09:51:27.820 T:176      info <general>: [xbmcswift2] Request for "/stations/local/1" matches rule for function "show_local_stations"
2024-04-21 09:51:27.821 T:176      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] get_stations_nearby started with, sizeperpage=50, pageindex=1
2024-04-21 09:51:27.821 T:176      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __api_call started with path=v2/search/localstations, param={'sizeperpage': 50, 'pageindex': '1'}
2024-04-21 09:51:27.821 T:176      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen opening url=http://api.radio.de/info/v2/search/localstations?sizeperpage=50&pageindex=1
2024-04-21 09:51:27.858 T:176      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen HTTPError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
2024-04-21 09:51:27.858 T:176      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] String is missing: network_error
2024-04-21 09:51:27.882 T:169     error <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting plugin://plugin.audio.radio_de/stations/local/1
2024-04-21 09:51:28.882 T:177      info <general>: [xbmcswift2] Request for "/stations/recommended" matches rule for function "show_recommendation_stations"
2024-04-21 09:51:28.883 T:177      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] get_recommendation_stations started
2024-04-21 09:51:28.883 T:177      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __api_call started with path=v2/search/editorstips, param=None
2024-04-21 09:51:28.883 T:177      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen opening url=http://api.radio.de/info/v2/search/editorstips
2024-04-21 09:51:28.923 T:177      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] __urlopen HTTPError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
2024-04-21 09:51:28.923 T:177      info <general>: [plugin.audio.radio_de] String is missing: network_error

It indicates that the radio.de api is not working anymore. Links like http://api.radio.de/info/v2/search/editorstips lead to 404 errors.

Edit: The forum has a hacky workaround to use a different api url. (https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=119362&pid=3193505#pid3193505)

[FHoevi]

Allright, thanks a lot, the "hacky workaround" works on my side as well. I just asked at radio.de where the API is to be found.

[FHoevi]

The info I just received from radio.de is that they only want people or companies use their API who they've signed a contract with. It looks as if their german API is gone for public use.

[denics]

This solution is easier also for non coding people: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=119362&pid=3193558#pid3193558:

A way more simple workaround is to set "language" to something different from "German" in the add-on settings.

Maybe an idea for improvement is to automatically set the language as the preferred language of Kodi ?

Anyway, thanks for the plugin! I use it daily with pleasure!

[k-jell]

So apparently the API changed and we are left with a very limited subset (at least that's what I found in the javascript:

/stations/details?stationIds=
/stations/X/similar?count=
/stations/X/family?count=&offset=
/stations/list-by-system-name?systemName=xy&count=1&offset=0
/stations/by-tag?tagType=&slug=&count=&offset=
/stations/all?character=l&count=10&offset=0
/stations/shortlist?tagType=&count=
/stations/search?query=&count=&offset=
/ratings/stations/?apiKey=
/ratings/stations/
/stations/cities/X/frequencies
/stations/X/songs
/stations/local?count=&offset=
/stations/now-playing?stationIds=

/podcasts/category/podcasts/charts?count=
/podcasts/search?query=&count=&offset=
/podcasts/category-list/charts
/podcasts/by-author/X
/podcasts/list-by-system-name?systemName=&count=&offset=
/podcasts/category/X/charts?count=&offset=
/podcasts/details?podcastIds=
/podcasts/episodes/by-podcast-ids?podcastIds=&count=&offset=

Might have some minor mistakes in there, as I just quickly copied those over and removed the JS around it. But basically this is, what is available.

From what was possible before we this is the status:

• Editorials Recommendations ❌
• Top 100 Stations ❌
• Browse by genre ❌
• Browse by topic ❌
• Browse by country ❌
• Browse by city (✅ kind of still possible I think)
• Browse by language ❌
• Local Stations ✅
• Search for Station ✅

One solution I can think of is scraping the stuff that is not working from the website, which should be fairly straightforward and not too difficult. But that will not be very future proof, compared to using the API (I'm very sure the website will change more rapidly than the API does.) Any other ideas are welcome.

[kotjarka]

It is possible to switch plugin to radio-browser.info api and release under new name?
This plugin https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Radio-Browser.info looks dead..

[k-jell]

It is possible to switch plugin to radio-browser.info api and release under new name? This plugin https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Radio-Browser.info looks dead..

It would be best to bring the discussion there: https://github.com/segler-alex/kodi-radio-browser
If the maintainer doesn't have time for it anymore (which looks like it), maybe a fork can be brought up to date.

[kotjarka]

Indeed, I missed this fork of mentioned dead kodi-radio-browse plugin:
https://github.com/JaroslawHryszko/RadioChomik
I will test it with kodi 21. But it will be nice to have this in official kodi repo. Currently there is not much choice when it comes to radio plugins.

[talos-sail]

language change in the radio extension and everything is ok 😎 🎶

[fivebanger]

Thanks to @k-jell endpoint listing above I have written a new radio.de add-on based on the new API. You can find the add-on for now at

https://github.com/fivebanger/kodi_addons/tree/master/plugin.audio.radiode

or via my repository

https://github.com/fivebanger/kodi_addons/raw/master/repository.fivebanger.zip

[FHoevi]

An alternative would be this radio browser addon. It connects to radio browser at which the corresponding API links are community-maintained which is a plus from my point of view. The look&feel is quite similar.

[rnestler]

@fivebanger Would you consider creating a pull request for this repository with your code changes?