Curseradio, plays OPML directories from Ubuntu terminal

In the next article we are going to take a look at Curseradio. This software provides us with a interface for navigating a directory OPML and play internet radio broadcasts. It is designed to use the TuneIn directory found at radiotime, but could be adapted to others.

Like what happens with pyradio, Curseradio offers users a interface of Races with which we can navigate and reproduce an OPML directory of Internet radio transmissions. As with PyRadio, this one is also written with Python.

This little program is for those who like to use console software and want to listen to Internet radio. Curseradio works correctly, within its simplicity. If I have to say that from what I have been able to prove, the option to add to favorites does not work correctly. Its interface is anything but attractive, even if it does what it has to do.

This software is limited to mpv to play streams so a must have it installed. On this, PyRadio offers much more flexibility. The truth is that Curseradio needs a little time for the user to feel really comfortable when using it.

General characteristics of Curseradio

• This does not stop being a really simple application in all its aspects. It relies on curses to navigate and uses mpv to reproduce radio broadcasts.
• As a point in favor say that consumes little system resources.
• curseradio uses the TuneIn directory.
• When executing Curseradio we will see appear a very spartan interface.
• curseradio requires Python 3 and other dependencies that can be queried in your GitHub page.
• Navigation through the menu structure is intuitive. We will no longer have to use the up and down keys to find the entry that interests us. Once highlighted you have to press Enter to show the contents of the directory or start playing the selected flow. Although in this case also we can use the mouse scroll wheel to move for the options.
• We can skip a page with the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys.
• If we want to stop playing a stream, we just have to press the k key.
• the interface it will show us the bit rate of each stream reproduced.
• There is the possibility to add a transmission to favorites by pressing the f key. Favorites have their own section of the menu. It appears at the top of the menu structure. The image below shows some added favorite friends.

• El favorites file it is stored in the Schema Processor Markup Language (OPML). We will find it stored in the directory ~ / .local / share / curseradio / favorites.opml. I have to say that this is where the favorites option has failed me. After adding some favorites, exiting the software and starting it again, the application did not save the favorites.

Curseradio installation

In order to install this software in our system we will be able to download and install it in our Ubuntu thanks to its repository. We will not have more than clone the project repo and run the setup.py script.

Before we must say that we must have installed python3 and some requirements. To proceed with the installation of these we will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and write the following commands:

sudo apt install python3-setuptools python3-lxml python3-requests python3-xdg

Later, to get hold of the program, in the same terminal we write the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/chronitis/curseradio.git

cd curseradio/

sudo python3 setup.py install

After the installation, we can launch the program typing:

curseradio

Another possibility of installation will be download its corresponding .deb package from the following link. Then all you have to do is open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and type the following command to install the software:

dpkg -i curseradio*.deb

During my test of the program, Curseradio has consumed approximately 20MB of RAM. But despite this lightness, it must be taken into account that the software uses mpv for playback, which adds another 50MB of RAM usage.

uninstall

If you have used Python3 to install this program, you can uninstall it used pip3. In a terminal you just have to write:

sudo pip3 uninstall curseradio

If you have used the .deb package, you can uninstall the program as you would any other program of this style.

In closing, I can only say that it is not clear if the software is actively maintained. As I have seen in his GitHub page, the last update came to you two years ago, but for the moment it still works. In addition, it is easy to configure it to the user's liking.