Can't Get Radio Paradise MP3 Audio Streams To Play On Ubuntu Edgy

This shouldn't be so hard, but I can't find a solution. Hopefully one of the Ubuntu cognoscenti will come to the rescue.

The Problem.
I'm trying to find an audio player for my Ubuntu Edgy 64-bit system that can stream Radio Paradise, my favorite Internet Radio station. This is yet another of those things I currently use either a Windows or Mac OS X machine for (with iTunes), and for which I'm now trying to find a solution for, under Ubuntu.

I first tried xmms, because that's what the Radio Paradise website suggests. I right clicked over the xmms GUI, and selected "Play Location" from the menu. I copied in the URL of the 32Kb MP3 streaming link, and then clicked the OK button. Nothing appeared to happen. Certainly no audio playing.

I then tried totem, as that was the default application suggested by Firefox in the "Opening rp_32.m3u" dialog window when I clicked on this link.

I got a popup error dialog containing:

Totem could not play 'http://205.188.215.226:8000'.

You do not have a decoder installed to handle this file. You might need 
to install the necessary plugins

I then tried rhythmbox, typing the URL for the 32Kb MP3 stream into the "New Internet Radio Station" popup and clicking on the Add button. It appears in the table of available stations. Double clicking on it results in an error dialog stating:

Couldn't start Playback

You do not have a decoder installed to handle this file. You might need 
to install the necessary plugins

Probably using the same underlying audio libraries.

I then found My quest for a Linux audio player by Peter Enseleit. He seems to like MPlayer best. Okay, I'll give that a try. I found that the MPlayer MPlayer download site recommends building from the source. Aww, that's so sweet, but really I have a life to live. I want a solution that "Just Works(TM)". I then found another website that showed me how to install the required Ubuntu packages. I did that. So I now have MPlayer on my system. I tried Applications->Sound & Video->MPlayer Movie Player, right clicked to get the menu and selected Open...->Play URL... and entered the streaming URL again. I got an error dialog saying:

Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: www.radioparadise.com

Unlike Peter, I don't feel like trying another dozen audio players.

I suspect all these problems are the same thing. I know that MP3 is a patented codec, so it's probable that this is simply a case of none of these players having an MP3 codec by default.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time googling around trying to find a solution on how to do this, but to no avail.

So...

Can anybody point me at a Ubuntu HOWTO for how to set this up for personal use on an Edgy system? And make sure that it works for Radio Paradise!

If I get a workable solution suggested, I'll update this blog entry accordingly, to hopefully alleviate the pain of the next person who wants to do this and goes googling for a solution.

Thanks!

Update:
Thanks to the first three people to comment. I've now installed gstreamer-fluendo-mp3 and gstreamer-plugins-ugly via the Synaptic Package Manager, and reclicked on the RP MP3 link, and totem now streams the radio station just fine.

[Technorati Tag: Radio Paradise]

[Technorati Tag: Streaming Audio]

[Technorati Tag: Ubuntu]

( Dec 09 2006, 07:30:54 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [11]