[MPlayer-users] Problem Playing Some .asx files

[Martin McCormick]

	Our local university radio station has 3 streaming audio
links.  the web site is

http://www.kosu.org

	The links point to two .asx files and a .ram file.  The .ram
file is fine, but the two .asx files have a problem that I am not sure
is due to corrupted information in the .asx file or due to a problem
with mplayer's interpretation of the syntax.  Here is an excerpt of
what I sent to the person I am working with, there, who is knocking
himself out to get this working right.  I don't know where the syntax
violation is, but, as you will read, I can make the two .asx files
work by removing a line from them.  For all I know, this may make then
useless for Windows users which is not what we want, so a bit of
guidance is appreciated.  Excerpt starts from here and goes to end of
message:

________________________________________________________________________________

Neither of the Windows Media links work.
That's live48.asx and live.asx.  The problem appears to be some sort
of syntax issue, however.  The mplayer program plays all kinds of .asx
files without any trouble at all.  The error messages I see indicate
that mplayer is totally confused about what it is trying to play.
This usually means a missing quote or something wrong with the comment
notation that tells the player what text is to be ignored and what
other text is to appear on the screen or be part of the actual url.
Here is an output of all the errors from live48.asx:

Playing <ASX version = "3.0">.
File not found: '<ASX version = "3.0">'
Failed to open <ASX version = "3.0">

Playing <!- the line Ref href points to where the media is located. ->.
File not found: '<!- the line Ref href points to where the media is located. ->'
Failed to open <!- the line Ref href points to where the media is located. ->

Playing <Title>KOSU Live</Title>.
File not found: '<Title>KOSU Live</Title>'
Failed to open <Title>KOSU Live</Title>

Playing <Moreinfo HREF="http://www.kosu.org" Target="_frame" />.
Unable to open URL: <Moreinfo HREF="http://www.kosu.org" Target="_frame" />

Playing <ENTRY>.
File not found: '<ENTRY>'
Failed to open <ENTRY>

Playing <REF HREF = "mms://wms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>.
Unable to open URL: <REF HREF = "mms://wms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>

Playing <DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />.
File not found: '<DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />'
Failed to open <DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />

Playing <REF HREF = "mms://kwms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>.
Unable to open URL: <REF HREF = "mms://kwms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>

Playing <DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />.
File not found: '<DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />'
Failed to open <DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />

Playing </ENTRY>.
File not found: '</ENTRY>'
Failed to open </ENTRY>

Playing </ASX>.
File not found: '</ASX>'
Failed to open </ASX>


Exiting... (End of file)

	The confusion starts from the very first line, but the error
could be anywhere in there since I have a very similar .asx file for
listening to the Denver police radio scanner which a group of people
run.  It looks much like the KOSU live48.asx file except a little more
simple.  Here is live48.asx

________________________________________________________________________________

<ASX version = "3.0">
<!- the line Ref href points to where the media is located. ->

<Title>KOSU Live</Title>
<Moreinfo HREF="http://www.kosu.org" Target="_frame" />

<ENTRY>

<REF HREF = "mms://wms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>
<DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />

<REF HREF = "mms://kwms.kosu.okstate.edu/Live48"/>
<DURATION VALUE="02:00:00" />

</ENTRY>

</ASX>

________________________________________________________________________________

Here is the Denver scanner .asx file.

________________________________________________________________________________

<ASX version="3.0">
<Entry>
<ref HREF="http://scan-denver.net/intro.mp3"/>
</Entry>
<Entry>
<ref HREF="mms://scandenver.no-ip.com:8080"/>
<Banner HREF="http://www.geocities.com/scan_denver/banner.gif"/>
</Entry>
</ASX>

________________________________________________________________________________

	I discovered that both live48.asx and live.asx do work
if I chop on them a bit. this line:

<!- the line Ref href points to where the media is located. ->

is what is poisoning both of them in mplayer.  I don't honestly yet
know if this is a mplayer problem or this line is incorrect for some
reason.  If I take it out, both live48.asx and live.asx play without a
problem.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group