[mythtv-users] mythstream workarounds?

[James Miller]

Hi. I'm a mythbuntu user and recently upgraded to the latest release 
(9.10) that uses Mythtv .22. To my chagrin, I've discovered that the 
mythstream plugin has been removed--whether just from mythbuntu or from 
Mythtv as a whole I don't know. But it's certainly absent from the latest 
mythbuntu release I'm running.

Furthermore, I took a look at the mythstream site and it appears the 
project may be going moribund: the latest release is dated last September. 
That doesn't inspire confidence that it will be worthwhile to go to the 
trouble of compiling it for my system. So I'm looking into what might be 
some possible workarounds for getting at least a semblance of the 
functionality mythstream offered.

There are really two things for which I used mythstream: 1) listening to 
the occasional shoutcast stream; and 2) watching news in Russian (Vesti). 
The latter is actually the more urgent priority at the moment since my 
father-in-law (from Russia) will visit us soon and likes to watch the news 
daily.

I know there must be do-it-yourself ways of implementing some of the 
functionality of mythstream: for example, if you know the URI of a stream 
mplayer could be invoked to load and play that stream, a menu item could 
be created for this, etc. I'm not terribly adept at cobbling together 
these sorts of solutions, though, so would need some basic instruction on 
how to implement something like this.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some directives on how to 
implement these or any other mythstream workarounds? Also, any tips anyone 
might wish to offer on-list (or privately) on setting up a means of 
playing a few streams will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
James