6yr anniversary for StationRipper–and new Beta

StationRipper was first released on Dec 13, 2003. It’s great to see it’s still going strong, even though I wouldn’t have guessed it would be when I first wrote it – I’ve done my best to keep it up to date with newer technologies, so guess I’m not THAT surprised :)

I’ve released a new version of the sniffer. It can be found here:

http://www.stationripper.com/release/SR_V2.93SS.exe

This version continues to improve on the new SmartStationSniffer. It should be correctly tagging, naming is better, and should work for more sites.

While I’m still looking for feedback and bugs, one of the big things I’m looking for in this release is - what web 2.0 stations does this new version work with? The focus has been on Pandora - but it should work with most…

If you run into a problem, please include:

1. What you were doing when it happened.
2. Any error messages that you saw.
3. Copy the last screen of info from SmartStationSniffer.exe console, if available.
4. Copy the last 50 or so lines of the SmartStationSniffer.txt.

You can put the above info as a response to this message, or fill out a support request with the info, here: http://www.stationripper.com/regrequest.htm

I appreciate any and all help testing this. This is using some really new things to record, so I want to have a solid beta before releasing it.

Thanks!

-Greg

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Info on running:

To run:

1. Download from and install http://www.stationripper.com/release/SR_V2.93SS.exe
2. Run StationRipper.
3. Go to the View->Options, Advanced tab and check "Show StationRipper console". This is optional, but this will help to make sure things are running ok.
4. Under View->Options, Sniffer tab, check "Record all Possible Music". This is also optional, but I recommend to really test it. If you don't do this, only a handful of sites will work. Checking it will let the sniffer record for most Web 2.0 sites.
5. Under View menu, there is a new option, "Start SmartStationSniffer".

At this point, you should see a black window come up. If everything installed correctly and things are working, it should say "SSR has loaded and is running". If it doesn't say this, note any errors - also bring up the SmartStationSniffer.txt file and copy the contents of that. Post that info here, or fill out a reg request and send it in, so I can figure out what's up.

If you browse to Pandora, you should see some things happen in that black window, and then it will say it saved the song - and that info will show up in StationRipper. Try other sites - some may not get the song name, but most will get the media file.



Edited by gratajik - 25�March�2010 at 9:59pm

I hadn't tested it against Lala. Not sure if I'd compare to Napster.... even though picking a song and downloading is not the intent of StationRipper (it's meant to record internet radio, where the broadcaster picks the songs. Pandora still falls under that, as you can't pick the actual song, just kinda nudge in the direction of music you like).

-Greg

Jeff, any info on the screen?

-Greg

error loading: retreiving the COM class factory for component with clsid <c0732731-ae43-4127-b73b-bf35c6b9fef9> failed due to the followiing error 80040154

To clarify item #4 in my last post, the genre field is coming through on the SR on-screen track info while recording but not at all in the file ID3 tags.

JimC

Further testing with Smart Station Sniffer with Pandora is showing it to be much more reliable in picking up song names and not going into a pandora_996a9s6d96a9s696a79.mp3 rut than Station Sniffer with proxy.

A couple issues though:
1. SSS stopped recording at one point after an hour or so with no errors, no lock-ups, just wouldn't detect a stream. Had to remove and restart SSS. The problem hasn't returned after runing many hours.
2. In a 2 hour recording session, 2 songs failed. One did end up as a pandora_0sd0f9sd09fsdfs.mp3 file (first one!) with no ID3 tag info and the other picked up the file name, but not ID3 tag info. Both of these showed exit code 3 in the SSS console.

Huge improvement over the babysitting I've had to do with Station Sniffer!

JimC

On #1, if that happens again, could you go to Task Manager and see if "SmartStationSniffer.exe" is still listed? You can also go to View->Options, Advanced Tab and check "Show StationRipper console". (And then, when it happens ago, verify it's still up, and if it is, see if any other errors are shown).

It's still possible for it to miss songs, but it should be greatly reduced. I'll continue to look at improving that.

Didn't know about the art issue - thanks, I'll take a look.

Thanks for the testing - I'd like to look at releasing, but want it to be working as best as it can - and the more people who use the beta, the better :)

-Greg

Congratulations Greg!

The last thing (the mozzila) was the sniffer thinking it found a media file, but didn't (probably too small)

Not sure ont he stopping - if you restart, does it pick up again?

I *AM* seeing a issue with memory - tracking that down (which may be related)

Thanks,
-Greg

Originally posted by jeffh error loading: retreiving the COM class factory for component with clsid <c0732731-ae43-4127-b73b-bf35c6b9fef9> failed due to the followiing error 80040154

I have this same error. Any ideas?
Im on Windows 7 64-bit.

Screenshot below