XMTuner 0.6 is a new major release. Focus on this release has been improving and simplifying features, primarily in the main UI, as well as lots of bug fixing. New to this release is the "XM Service Control" utility. This little application is the new home for the "Service" tab for users of the XMTuner service, letting you manage and configure the service as well as see its log file, without having to run the main XMTuner program. Other new features include support for favorite channels, an improved history tab that better matches the rest of the application; Addition of views (such as by category) for the channels tab; The URL builder panel, which takes the UI for generating links to playlists, feeds, channels, etc, for configuring your devices and places it in a single location, which can be hidden away when you're done with it; XMTuner is now resizable, no more being stuck only seeing a few channels; On Windows 7 and Vista, Aero glass is now featured in the UI, so it better fits in with the rest of your desktop.

Behind the scenes, the server now supports channel playlists for better compatibility with some devices and media servers, the transcoder (if enabled) can now provide wav streams as well as mp3. XMTuner now supports windows power management, and will shut down its server when your computer sleeps, and upon wake-up restart back to its previous state. Lots of crashes and exceptions have been fixed, too many to list here. XMTuner 0.6 also now supports auto-retrying your stream when there's a built-in player error, as part of a drive to improve the application's performance both in responsiveness and long-term usage. XMTuner starts up faster, is easier to use, and plays longer than before.

Changes in 0.6

• Improved Service Control with new XMTuner Service Control utility
• Favorite Channels
• New History Tab
• URL Builder
• Channels tab now supports sorting by category
• Aero UI for Windows Vista / Windows 7 users
• UI Improvements, such as being resizable, always on top, etc.
• History length can now be customized and the notification box can be disabled, if desired.
• Improvements to TVersity transcoder support - can now transcode to WAV as well as MP3
• Channel Playlists now supported for feeds for servers and devices that need them.
• Support for Windows Power Management
• Auto relogin on login failure
• Auto-retry on player errors.
• Lots of fixes for long-term usage and playback (can now stream reliably for 24+ hours)
• Improved error messages for when things inevitably go wrong.
• Lots of crash (exception) errors fixed
• Performance has been improved (both for UI like the channels tab and things like startup time.)
• Automatically check for relogin in the background in addition to when things happen
• and more...

Download XMTuner 0.6 >>

As you may have noticed by now, XMTuner has a new website. It took awhile, but after the success of XMTuner, I decided it deserved new look and feel for its web presence.. The result, now graces the pages of XMTuner.net.

Let me know if you like it, hate it, or find any bugs in it..

-- Chris

History

XMTuner is a Windows application designed to replace the no-longer maintained uSirius and uXM applications that were written by Millard software. It was born when SiriusXM upgraded their internet radio player and broke the applications for good, as an avid XM Radio fan, and an owner of a set-top media player which was no longer as useful, my friend and I set out to write a replacement that would match as closely as possible the functionality of uXM, as well as to extend it with useful additional features. In the last few months, that’s exactly what we’ve done. Starting out with a simple featureless but functional application, and improving and adding to it bit-by-bit in each new version.

What is XMTuner?

Simply put, XMTuner allows you to access the Sirius/XM Satelite Radio streams (both XM Radio Online and Sirius Internet Radio) on your UPnP media player. XMTuner serves as a proxy or interpreter between the SiriusXM web radio pages, making the streams much more accessible.

XMTuner supports a variety of devices, such as the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii consoles, the D-Link DSM-320 and similar set-top players, the Sanegan WFT-1 Internet Radio tuner, as well as a variety of smartphones such as the blackberry, palm, android, and iphone (some devices need TVersity or Orb as well).

Features of XM Tuner that go beyond the original uSirius / uXM applications:

• Windows Service

The uSirius/uXM applications required being logged in all the time, which if you only needed them as a background application, they got in the way. XMTuner supports running as a “service” meaning in background, without a user having to be logged on at all.

• Now Playing page

Especially useful when running as a service, but available in either mode, this simple web page lets you see whats playing on all the Sirius|XM channels as well as keeping up with the currently playing channel and letting you see what recently played. Designed to complement your player as it plays your favorite channel, without you having to keep an eye on it so you don’t miss anything.

• Program Guide

XMTuner supports and integrates the XM Radio program guide making it quick and easy to see what program’s on now. The current and next program appear on the now playing page and integrated player.

• Player

Building on the roots of uXM, the popular Yahoo Widget for XM, XMTuner features a built-in player, making it just as useful on your desktop as on your media player. The player features currently playing song information, along with the current program, and also integrates XMTuner’s history capabilities. A handy notification box appears on song changes so you can minimize XMTuner out of your way while you’re working and not miss out on anything. XMTuner also supports Windows Media Player's visualizations (it shows the last one used in WMP, and Audio Enhancement plugins such as DFX, to improve the stream quality.)

XMTuner also supports most of the uXM/uSirius featureset:

• RSS (Podcast) feeds for the channel lineup
• Playlists
• Transcoding SiriusXM’s WMA streams to mp3 (when tversity is installed and configured) for supporting devices that don’t handle Windows Media.

Future

XMTuner is currently beta quality software, and adopts it versioning system from open source projects, by using a major version of 0, and a minor version for each major milestone in its development, on its way to 1.0. XMTuner is quite stable and we strive to do our best to take feedback and problem reports seriously and fix them in the next milestone. I try to answer all e-mail I receive as quickly as possible, though problem solving can take time. Suggestions and feedback are most definitely welcome and encouraged.

XMTuner 0.5 introduces two new features, Sirius Internet Radio support and TVersity integration. Sirius support allows you to use your Sirius Internet Radio subscription and get all of the features already available for XM subscribers in XMTuner, including the program guide and song history. The new TVersity integration panel makes it easier for TVersity users to add and maintain the XMTuner feed in TVersity. XMTuner 0.5 also includes an improved updater, which now supports automatically downloading the new version, removing the need to manually download the application for every new version and as usual the wide variety of bug fixes, including several persistant and annoying crashes, and minor improvements.

Changes in 0.5

• Sirius Internet Radio Support
• TVersity Panel
• Improved Updater and Installer
• and a variety of bug and crash fixes and minor improvements...

An issue has recently occurred with XMTuner 0.4 due to a change on the XM Radio Online system. As a result, there is a new build of XMTuner released to address this issue. XMTuner 0.4.1 will correct the problem. You may download it at http://xmtuner.pcfire.net/

This release is specifically for Sirius Internet Radio users who want to try XM Tuner. Its a pre-release build of what will hopefully be Sirius support in XM Tuner 0.5. Its intended for testing purposes only. (For XM users, use XMTuner 0.4, available from here.)

Features:

• Support for SIRIUS Internet Radio

Known Issues:

• Automatic relogin does not work correctly when the SIR session ends
• Does not support running on a machine with XMTuner already installed in some cases
  (They share a common config file and will both try to use the same username/password and settings for both SIR and XMRO, which may be undesirable)
• Channel lineup caching does not work completely (does not affect application operation, only startup performance)

Download | Homepage

Release 0.4
January 16, 2010

XMTuner 0.4 focuses on a few new features and polishing and refining ones from previous releases. New to this release is a built-in media player, eliminating the need to run another media player on your desktop just for listening, as well as a a recently played history to make it eaiser to find out about the song you just heard 5 minutes or 50 minutes ago, as well as new playlist support and a variety of bug fixes and improvements.

Changes in 0.4

• Built-in Media Player
• Recently Played History of your last 25 songs
• Integrated XM Program Guide in addition to the currently playing song
• PLS, M3u and ASX Playlists
• Revised Channels Tab with better visibility for feed URLs
• Works with Windows Vista / 7 User Account Control
• and a bunch of minor bugs and crashes fixed...

Screenshots

Some users of Windows Vista or Windows 7 using User Access Control may see the following security exception:
"Application attempted to perform an operation not allowed by the security
policy. To grant this application the required permission, contact you
system administrator, or use the Microsoft .NET Framework Configuration
tool."

This error may occur on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and/or Windows Server 2008 (R2).

The error occurs because XMTuner does not request rights escalation. This issue will be fixed in the next release of XMTuner.

To work around this problem:
Right-click XMTuner
Click Properties
Select the "Compatibility" tab
At the bottom, check "Run as Administrator"
Click Apply.
Run XMTuner
Accept the UAC escalation prompt
Attempt your task again

XM Tuner
December 8, 2009
Release 0.3
------------------

This application is designed as an intermediate between the XM Radio Online platform
and a UPnP service provider (such as TVersity or Orb).

If you encounter any issues, please send us an email at xmtuner@pcfire.net.

Usuability notes:
- You will need an XMRO account to utilize this application.
- The default address for the feed is http://localhost:19081/feeds/
- "Playing now" information is available at http://localhost:19081/
- You may need to open port 19081 on your Windows firewall
- The port number can be changed in the configuration
- You WILL need to set up your configuration again, as 0.3's configuration is not
backwards compatible with 0.2 or older.
- If after installing the service you wish to not automatically start the service:
Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Services > XMTuner
Right-click, Properties. Toggle "Startup type" to "Manual"
- Service requires that you check the "Autologin" box in your configuration

Release Comments:
- Future releases with more functionality are intended
- XM Tuner requires Windows XP SP2 or higher with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

The Service:
With this release comes the ability to install a Windows service version of the
application. This means a lot of things for users, including no longer havine the
requirement of being logged into the PC to have XMRO on your devices. The service
installs and will automatically start with Windows by default. The service will read
your configuration file and run with the same settings (you MUST check the AUTOLOGIN
box in Configuration). If you make configuration changes while the service is running,
be sure to save the changes and then using the Service Control tab, click Restart.
The service opperates the same way as the application normally does, except without
a user interface, although, you may still launch XMTuner to make changes to the service
or remove it completely if you wish.

Changes from 0.2
- Ability to run server as a service (no need to stay logged in to Windows)
- Service control mechanism in the user interface
- Cleaner UI
- Fixed several crash-worthy bugs
- Caching of channel data
- Refreshing of "playing" info every 30 seconds
- MP3 Transcoding via TVersity
- Custom addresses via configuration
- New configuration format
- New configuration location
- Substancial UI enhancement
- Updated "What's On" Page
- Automatically checks for new versions

Special Notes for TVersity Users:
-If you have a limit of 20 channels on Tversity:
-Set Internet Feeds Maximum Items Per Feed to 0 (unlimited)