The Art-Music, Literature and Linguistics Forum

Most honest and straightforward Englishmen have little time for the difficult and unrewarding foreign rigmarole of a "pop-up player"; they prefer to see in their honest and straightforward directories honest and straightforward files.

In the case of the ConcertZender the procedure that effects this is simple. I will describe it in illustrated steps, shewing how to circumvent those few hiccups and stumbling-blocks that are possible, using as example a performance of Peter Schat's First Symphony.

1) Go to the programme schedule at http://www.concertzender.nl/programmagids/ (http://www.concertzender.nl/programmagids/), find the programme you want to hear, and hover your rodent over the little loud-speaker symbol:


Look at the information at the bottom of the screen, and make a note of a) the date (here 20120509, meaning the ninth of May), and b) the hour at which the programme began (here 20, meaning 8 p.m. in the Continental system).

Note that many programmes are repeated, and the date and time will be those of the original broadcast.

2) Start "VLC media player" (or if you have not got it go and get it). Go to the "Media" menu, and "Open Network Stream" thereunder.


3) Into the box bearing the legend "Please enter a network URL:" enter an URL in the following form:


Obviously in the case of the Schat programme we substitute 20120509 for YYYYMMDD, and 2000 for HH00, as shewn here:


The rest of the URL does not seem to vary.

4) After that, one should poke the little arrow next to the word "Play," and having done so one will then see a choice of four options. Poke onto the last one, which is "Convert."


5) Thereupon we are presented with this window, which invites us to specify a "Destination" and the appropriate "Settings":


Choose a file name and fill in the destination; here I have used "D:\chooseaname.asf" but a more suitable name in this case would of course be "D:\Schat.asf" - note that the ".asf" part is a requirement, or at least highly recommended, as explained below.

6) Now we have to create a "profile" for use with the ConcertZender. This part need be executed only once, since once created the profile can be saved, and used over and over again. Poke the little box as illustrated, the one that says "Create a new profile."


7) When the next screen appears, fill in the profile name field with something that appeals to you. Here I have used "GrabConcertZender." And then, under the heading "Encapsulation," poke the little circle reading ASF/WMV, as shewn here:


As stated, this step is part of creating a profile and need be performed only once.

8) Under the heading "Audio codec," poke the little box labelled "Audio" and ensure that a tick appears therein:


And fill in the remaining four boxes ("Codec," "Bitrate," "Channels," and "Sample Rate") with the values illustrated: WMA2, 160 kb/s, 2, and 44100. This step too is part of creating a profile and need be performed only once. When you feel ready poke the little box saying "Save."

9) Now you will be back at the "Convert" window as illustrated.


If you poke the "Profile" box you will find therein the name of the profile you created (in this example "GrabConcertZender"), Poke on it as shewn.

10) Now simply poke the "Start" box, illustrated here:


11) The player will (silently) display this familiar window:


There are two things to note there: a) the running time of the programme is 59 minutes and 58 seconds; and b) the actual download will take a much shorter time, something under 5 minutes.

That is why I chose the .asf route in steps 5, 7 and 8 above. If one attempts to download the file directly as type mp3 one will discover that the process for some reason occupies one full hour - "real time" - instead of five minutes!

Similarly, if one changes the values 160 kb/s and 44100 in step 8, the file size will grow, but I do not think any improvement in the sound will ensue.

Of course now the .asf file on one's hard disc may be played, converted, or otherwise manipulated to one's heart's content. Is not the direct and straightforward way preferable in computing as it is in all one's undertakings?

Whilst I have no doubt that anyone interested will be indebted to you for the con-Syd-erable trouble that you have taken in putting together your helpful post above, I have no reason to assume that a majority of them are likely to be "honest and straightforward Englishmen" or indeed Englishmen at all - and, after all, these broadcasts are being relayed from the unhyphenated Netherlands in any case.