Copyright: InfoAnytime 1997


DigiBand Radio

NOTE: Documentation is lagging releases slightly, so newest features are not listed in help file.

The DigiBand Radio offers playback of RealAudio 3.0 streaming Audio over the internet.  Thousands of radio stations, record labels, various broadcast sources, and companies interested in providing entertainment and information.  DigiBand offers features that make DigiBand easy and enjoyable to use.  These include:

100 Preset Buttons

•	Arranged in 5 banks to categorize by categories you supply

•	Easy button definition using Drag and Drop from Channels Lists

•	Button Labels show call letters or names of channel so you can quickly find your favorites

•	Tool Tips noting a details description of the channel

•	Color Indicator noting the current Channel being played

Downloaded and Custom Channel Lists

•	Hundreds of audio sources are pre-programmed in Standard Channel Lists

•	Lists are organized by content or station type

•	Channel lists are constantly upgraded, and can be retrieved with one button push

•	Channels are made up of Call Letters or Name, Description, and Address of source

•	Users can add Custom Lists

•	Full Edit capability for Channel Lists

4 Scanning Modes

•	Configurable Scan Time

•	Scan Currently Selected Preset Bank

•	Scan all Preset Buttons

•	Scan a single Channel list (.ie scan all Alternative Music stations)

•	Scan all Channels

For more information, Click on Contents, or DigiBand Controls for more information.

If you have problems, checkout PlayBack problems

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DigiBand Controls

The DigiBand main window contains everything you need for most operation.

Controls are Divided into 5 categories

•	Clip Controls

•	Channel Information

•	Scan Controls

•	Misc. Controls

Preset Banks

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Clip Controls

The Clip Controls shown below are used for starting, pausing, stopping playback, and for controlling position within a pre-recorded clip.  In addition, this section has controls for playing next or previous clip, and hiding most of the user window.

Play 	Plays the clip address loaded in the Clip field

Pause	Pause current playback

Stop	Stop current playback

Len	Length of current clip (0 for live stations)

Pos	Current position in clip

Volume	Adjusts loudness of playback

Mute	Silences playback

Seek Controls	Restart playback at a new position in clip.  These are disabled for live clips.

See Tool Tips for details on each of these.

Prev Clip	Replays the most recent clip.  You can go back as far as the last 20 clips played in this session.

Next Clip	Skips to next clip if an address returned more than 1 clip to play.

When scanning, use this button to skip to next channel.

 	This button will hide all DigiBand controls except Clip Controls.  This can be used to free up screen

space while listening to clips.  Pressing again will restore windows.

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Channel Information

The Channel Information section provides information about the currently playing clip.

Clip	The Clip field shows the address of the current clip.  To specify a particular address, enter

it here.

Info Box	The middle section of this area displays the Title, Author, and copyright information for the clip

Status	This string shows current status of DigiBand.

Live/Pre	Indicates the current clip is Live or Pre-Recorded

Net Bandwidth	Percentage of required bandwidth that the internet connection is able to supply at the moment.

Less than 100% is likely to cause a problem.  NOTE: Bandwidth problems can happen anywhere

between you and the audio source, so it doesn't mean that something is wrong with your modem

connection.

Ch. Rate	Bits Per Second of the current clip

LEDs	The LEDs are active while an operation is underway.  Green indicates that playback is

proceeding normally.  Red indicates playback hasn't started and host is being connected.

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Scan Controls

Using the Scan buttons shown below, you can scan channels in 4 different methods.  While scanning, channels will be played for (XX seconds - Value you set in preferences) before moving on to the next channel.  The delay on each channel is defined using Edit Preferences.  When you hear a channel you want to stay on, click the scan button again to stop scanning.

Scan This Bank	Scans the buttons on the currently active Preset Bank

Scan All Banks	Scans all 100 channels defined on the Preset Buttons

Scan Ch. List	User selects from a Popup menu of all available channels.  Scan will play channels from

that list.

Scan All Lists	Scans all channels defined in Standard and Custom Channel Lists

This bar indicates countdown of scan timer.  When LEDs fill the bar, scan will proceed

to the next channel.

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Misc. Controls

Channel Lists	Brings up the Available Channels  window

Add Channel	Takes information from the currently playing clip, and places it in the Channel Definition

fields on the Channel Lists window.  This makes it easier to add channels to your lists.

Exit	Exits DigiBand Radio

Menu	Brings up the DigiBand Menu

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Menu

The DigiBand menu has the following options:

Edit Preferences	Allows setting of Digiband Preferences

Check for Upgrade	Checks DigiBand web site for newer version of DigiBand.  NOTE: you must be connected

to internet for this option.

Help	Displays this help file

About	Displays about dialog with version info, as well as information on purchasing and

connecting to DigiBand web site.

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Preset Banks

The Preset Button Banks provide a total of 100 channel presets arranged in 5 banks of 20 buttons.  By clicking on a button, that channel will be played.  Bank names are configurable in the Preferences window.  Buttons may be edited by right click on the button, or by dragging channels onto the button on the channels List window.

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Available Channels

The Available Channels window allows definition of channels, playing of channels, setting Preset Buttons, Adding and Removing Channel lists, and downloading of the latest standard channel lists.

List Area

The List area shows all channels in the currently selected list.

ID	Short name for the channel.  This is typically a call sign or short descriptor.  ID should be kept short

since it is used as the label for preset buttons.

Description	Long description of the channel.  This is used as the Tool Tip for buttons.

Address	URL or Address of the channel or clip.

Withing this list area, you can:

•	 Single click on an ID to move the channels info to the Channel Definition Area.

•	Double Click on an ID to automatically start playing

•	Click on an ID, and drag it onto a Bank Button withing this window.  This will set that button to this channel.

•	Right Click on an ID to remove a channel from the list.

Available Channel Lists

Use the Available Channels DropDown list to select the current Channel List.

Add New List	Allows you to define your own Custom List

Remove List	Removes the Current List from your PC.

Upgrade List	Standard Lists are updated often, and can be downloaded to your PC.  You must be

Connected to the internet for this action.

Ch. Banks

This section allows you to easily define your preset buttons.

Using the Ch. Bank drop down list, pick which of the 5 banks you want to edit.

You then have the following options:

•	Drag an ID from the Available Channels List Area and drop it on a button

•	Right Click on a button and choose Clear to erase the buttons definition

•	Right Click on a button and choose Add From Definition to take current data from Channel Definition area

•	Click on a button to put its current definition in the Channel Definition area

Channel Definition

Use this area to define new channels.

If you selected an ID from the List Area, you can Remove it with the Remove Button.

You can also make changes to it's address and description by hitting Add/Update.

NOTE: the ID is used as a key to the List Area, so Changing the ID of a channel, will add another entry to the list. You would then remove the original one if you wish.

You can also grab channel addresses from web browsers and add them to your lists using this area.  To do this,

Right click on the link in your web browser, and choose copy link location.  Next, click in the Address area and hit

Control-V  to paste the address.  Next, hit play to insure DigiBand is able to play the address.  If so, specify and ID and description, then press Add/Update.

See note on RealAudio Files for details on the types of addresses you can specify.

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RealAudio Files

Several types of addresses can lead you to RealAudio Streams.  Addresses can be specified in the following ways:

.RA addresses

Clip Addresses often begin with pnm:// and end in .ra.  In fact, all clips that are played have this type of address.   This address includes the host address, and a file name.  However, sometimes there are problems with defining channels addresses in this manor.  Problems can be caused by:

•	.ra filename includes a date, meaning that you would always hear that dates audio, where you wish to hear the lastest.  This is a particular problem with daily recorded material, like news briefs and program archives.

•	Providers often change machines or filenames.  In these cases, your connection request will timeout.

•	Some live stations must blackout certain network programming.  Since you have referenced their live stream, and the stream is unavailabe during that program, your connection will timeout.

.RAM addresses

All links to Realaudio you see on web pages are .ram addresses.  These begin with http:// and end in .ram.  In these cases, the web browser downloads the .ram file, then passes the file to a realaudio player.  The .ram file retrieved is simply a list of one or more .ra files.  Often these can return multiple .ra addresses, resulting in playing clip 1, then clip 2.  This is common when commercials or thanks messages preceed the program you are after.  These types of addresses are the most reliable to use.  You can still have problems with these however if the .ram addess includes a date, or the provider removes the specified .ram file.  When you specify a .ram address, DigiBand automatically retrieves the .ra addresses from the file.

HTTP...html addresses

A unique feature of DigiBand is its ability to retrieve a web page internally, and look for the first reference to a .ram file.  The retrieval process takes a bit longer, but is useful for cases where the provider changes the .ram file reference daily, and it is usually the first or only link to .ram on the page.  In these cases, DigiBand retrieves the web page, and looks for the first .ram reference, then retrieves .ra files from that address.

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RealAudio

RealAudio is a registered trademark of Progressive Networks.

See www.real.com for copyright information.

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Tool Tips

Tool Tips are small popup help strings that appear if you hold the mouse still over a control for a couple of seconds.  All controls in DigiBand provide these tool tips to assist your learning of the program.  One unique use of tool tips in Digiband is that Preset buttons provide a detailed description of the channel as a tool tip.

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Preferences

Using the preferences window, you can change various options for the RealAudio playback engine and for Digiband Radio.

RealAudio Options

•	PlayBack Quality - Specifies how much of your available cpu power should be used for RealAudio decompression.  This setting has little effect on higher speed machines, but if have other programs running during Realaudio playback, and you notice a real performance impact, you can adjust Digiband to play back at a lower quality, thus using less cpu time.

•	Bits Per Sample - For soundcards that support both 8bit and 16 bit samples, specify your preference here.  16 bit sounds better.

•	Bandwidth - This should be set to your modem speed.  It is important that you set this accurately for your connections capabilities.  If your modem is capable of 28800, even though you may not always connect at that speed, use 28800.  The playback engine uses this setting to determine what clips you are capable of playing.  Some servers automatically send the best stream rate for your connection.

•	Auto Detect Net Transport - This should be checked unless you know of specific reasons you need to specify details of transport method.  NOTE: Digiband does not currently allow specification of proxy and transport details.  If you need this feature, contact Digiband support.

•	Loss Correction - Should Digiband attempt loss correction.  This should be checked in most situations to improve playback.

Player Options

•	Bank Names - Use these to specify the names of your 5 preset banks.

•	Scan Delay - Specifies the number of seconds to play a clip before moving on to the next during SCAN operations.

•	Skip String - Use this setting to specify names of certain clips you would like to skip during playback.  For example, if you always want to skip a clip called "thanks.ra", put that string here, and Digiband will skip that clip, and move on the the next, if there is another clip to play.  NOTE: Be careful with this setting.  If you do something dumb, like put "com" in here, every clip may be skipped, and you will be unable to play anything since "com" may be included in the address of almost every clip.

•	Always skip first clip - If this is checked, any channel address that returns more than one clip will skip the first clip and start playback with the second clip.

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Channel Lists

A DigiBand channel list is a list of channels fitting a certain category.  All channel lists names end in either Standard or Custom.  Custom Channel Lists are user created lists.  Standard lists are provided by DigiBand, and can be updated via the web.  As more channel lists are added, you will always get the latest using the Upgrade button.

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Playback Problems

There are many reasons why realaudio streams don't play, or playback poorly.  These include:

•	Network Traffic - Realaudio playback is dependent on your connection, and your ISPs connection to net.  Problems or excessive traffic can cause choppy playback, or timeout's connecting to host.

•	Outdated Addresses - Content providers often change the addresses of their Realaudio stream.  We make every effort to keep standard channel lists up to date.  Be sure to upgrade standard channel lists often.  Also note that your preset button settings are not upgraded.  You may need to use the channel lists window to move new definitions to your buttons.  If you notice standard channel lists with channels that consistently do not work, let us know.

•	Blackouts - Many of our channels specify addresses ending in .ra.  These reference streams directly, allowing playback to start quicker.  However, the Radio Station these point to are sometimes required to blackout certain network or syndicated programming.  For these cases, you will get a timeout on that station if it's address specifies a .ra stream directly.

If you have consistent problems playing clips that play normally with the RealAudio player, please report it to

support@DigiBand.com.

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