How to Import and Export Internet Radio Playlists

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

Import Radio Playlists

Hi-Fi Cast allows you to import radio station playlists that are in M3U or PLS format.

There are two methods. You can use the Import screen in the Hi-Fi Cast app or share playlist files from a different app. These methods
are described below.

1. Using the Import screen in the Hi-Fi Cast app.
This allows you to select a file or url to be imported.

* Select 'Internet Radio' as your Music Source.
* Navigate to either Favorites or Playlists.
* Tap the 3-dot menu and select Import. This will open the Import screen.
* Select either File or URL from the dropdown list.
* If you haved selected File, tap the 'SELECT PLAYLIST FILE' button. This will open the standard Android File Selection screen.
You may need to change settings via the 3-dot menu to see the Internal storage on your phone. You may need to select Internal Storage
from the hamburger menu at the top-left of the screen. Select the file to import.
* If you have selected URL, enter the URL of the playlist file.
* Tap the 'START IMPORT' button
* You should then see a message indicating the number of internet radio stations found in the playlist file
* Tap the FINISH button to import the stations.

If the names of the stations appear garbled, you may need to select the character encoding of the playlist file and repeat the steps above.

When importing into Playlists a new playlist container will be created and the stations imported into that container.
When importing into Favourites the radio stations themselves will be added to your Favourites.

2. Sharing playlist files or links from other apps
If you share a playlist file or link from another app, the radio stations will be added to the playback queue
and the first station in the file will begin playing. To add these stations to a playlist, select the 3-dot menu
at the top-right of the Queue screen and select 'Add to playlist'.

If there are problems with the import, try using the Import screen as described above. This will display
information about any errors encountered.

Examples.
Sharing a playlist link from the http://www.radio-browser.info site
* Navigate to http://www.radio-browser.info in Chrome
* Find a playlist and select it
* Long-press either the PLS or M3U link at the top of the screen
* Select 'Share Link'
* Select Hi-Fi Cast
* The app should open and start playing the first station in the playlist
* To save the stations to a Playlist in the app, do the following:
** Ensure that 'Internet Radio' is your selected Music Source
** Navigate to the Queue screen and tap the 3-dot menu and select 'Add to playlist'
** Select an existing playlist or tap 'Create new playlist'


Exporting Radio Playlists

Your internet radio favourites and playlists can be exported as M3U/M3U8 files and saved on your Android device.
You must have upgraded to Premium to use this feature.

* Select Internet Radio as your Music Source
* Navigate to either Favorites or to a playlist
* Tap the 3-dot menu at the top-right of the screen and select Export. This will open the Export screen.
* Select the output encoding. UTF-8 is recommended if the station names contain non-latin characters.
* Tap 'START EXPORT' and the standard Android Save File screen will open.
* You may need to change settings via the 3-dot menu to see the Internal storage on your phone. You may also need to select 'Internal Storage' from the hamburger
menu at the top-left of the screen.
* Select the desired folder and tap SAVE.


Note:
When exporting as UTF-8 the default file extension will be .m3u8 and when exporting as Latin1 it will be .m3u.
You can change the file extension in the Save File screen.

[Ulric Thered]

Nice addition, one query. When I export my playlist I seem to lose the image information. Am I doing something wrong?

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

Nice addition, one query. When I export my playlist I seem to lose the image information. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi,

No, you're not doing anything wrong. The app just doesn't save this into the exported m3u file. It probably should though I'm not sure if there's a standard way to do this.

[dmCurator]

Worked like a charm. Thank you.