Copyright: InfoAnytime 1997


DigiBand Radio

Help us improve.  If you notice any error, or have suggestions for this help file, please contact support@digiband.com.

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

We are working hard to build a different kind of internet company.  If you have any problems or suggestions, you can get the latest info on DigiBand Radio by visiting http://www.digiband.com.  You can also reach us by email at support@digiband.com.  We answer all email as soon as possible, often withing 30 min., and almost always within 10 hours.  We will work to correct any problems, or answer questions as quickly as possible.


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


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.


Channel Information

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

Cylone

Sliding LED indicates Radio is active.  Red indicates lookup and connection underway, Green indicates audio is streaming.

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

Banner/GO

Displays information about sites with DigiBand and Realaudio links and information.  Click Go to launch the described web page in your browser.


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.


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


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.


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.

You may also drag links from Netscape or Internet Explorer onto preset button.  To use this method of defining preset buttons, move your cursor over a relaudio link on a web page.  Hold down the left mouse button, without releasing, and drag the link over the desired DigiBand preset button, then release the mouse button.  If successful, the button definition window will appear to allow entry of ID and string, but address will automatically show the link address.

NOTE: This feature only works with text links, not those links with a picture to click on instead of words, and this the functionality isn't perfected yet, so a little trial and error may be required to use this method.

DigiNews

This button plays the DigiBand News audio channel.  Un-registered users hear a commercial.  Registered users will hear the latest news from DigiBand, and will hear our spotlight channel of the week.  We will attempt to spotlight great stations or programs that you probably haven't found on your own.

DigiLinks

Launches the DigiBand Realaudio link page.  We are building a network of RealMedia link pages to give you a great starting point in finding all of the listening options on the net.

Guide Buttons

These buttons launch Realaudio guides.  By default, these will be pages selected by DigiBand, but you can customize these to launch any web page you like, by right-clicking on the desired button.


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 within 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.


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.


RealAudio

RealAudio is a registered trademark of RealNetworks.

See www.real.com for copyright information.


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.


Preferences

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

Banks Names

Use these field to customize the names appearing about your 5 preset banks on the main screen

Always skip first clip

Checking here will cause the player to always skip the first clip when an address returns multiple clips.  Only advanced users should use this feature.

Retry on Error

Advanced users only.  This tells the player that if playback of a channel stops for any reason, restart it.  This is useful when listening to live streams (such as sporting events) that seem to get timeout errors due to network traffic.  Use of this feature can cause some player features, such as scanning, to not function until this value is turned off.

Scan Delay

Specifies the number of seconds to play each station before moving to the next during scan operations.

Network Timeout

Specifies the number of seconds to attempt playback before generating timeout error.  If server does not respond, or buffering without streamed data continues for this number of seconds, an error will be reported.  If you have a poor connection, higher numbers here may help continue playback, although audio will have gaps.

Skip String

Advanced users only.  If addresses you listen to often return multiple clips, and you want to skip forward to the next clip, enter part of the address here, and any clip with that string in the address will be skipped.  Use extreme care if you utilize this feature.  If you put something stupid here, like ".com", almost all clips would be skipped, and player will not play anything.

RealVideo Player Program

DigiBand Radio does not yet have native ability to show RealVideo or RealMedia animation clips.  These clips have an address ending in ".rm".  If you attempt to view these clips, DigiBand Radio can automatically launch a RealVideo player by specifying the path here.  You can get the latest free RealVideo player at http://www.real.com.

Path to Web Browser

Some of DigiBand Radio's features can automatically launch web pages for you.  In order to do this, you must specify the path to your web browser in this field.  User the locate button to navigate your disk to locate program.

Volume Mode

Some new soundcard drivers do not support Volume and Mute functions using the typical volume control functions.  We are working on this problem, and it will be corrected in a future release of DigiBand Radio.  If your volume and mute controls don't appear to work, try changing this Volume Mode to one of the modes listed here, and retry volume adjustments.  This corrects the problem for many users.  If volume control still doesn't work, let us know at support@digiband.com.  Until this problem is corrected, you will have to use the Microsoft mixer application included with Windows95, or another freeware mixer application.

RealAudio Options

This launches the Realaudio Options dialog.  This contains many settings to allow you to specify details of how realaudio should be streamed.  These settings include specifying your connection speed, and defining proxy servers if you are running DigiBand Radio behind a firewall, and require a proxy to access the internet.


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.


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.

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions, at http://www.digiband.com/faq.html to see more information.

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

support@DigiBand.com.