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1. pdstein
   Member
   Posted 5 years ago #

   In the past when I've put mp3s up on a regular HTML web page, I've created an m3u file which references the mp3 in order to "pseudo stream" the mp3 (get it to start playing before the entire file has been downloaded.)

   1) In WordPress, is it necessary to link to an m3u file to get an mp3 to play before it's been downloaded? This is important for people listening while reading the blog.

   2) Will posting a blog/podcast with a link to the m3u file in wordpress mess up the podcast. Because WordPress automatically creates the podcast enclosure from the link I'm afraid that it would send the m3u file instead of the mp3 file which would be useless for podcasting subscribers.

   3) If the answer to 1 and 2 are both yes, then what's the best way to accomodate both the online listeners and the podcasting listeners?

   - Paul

2. Otto
   Tech Ninja
   Posted 5 years ago #

   I don't understand what you're talking about with #1. Whether you use an M3U or not is irrelevant to whether it streams or not. Streaming is a function of the playing software, not the link. Well, okay, actually it's a function of the browser, since the browser will probably download the whole file before activating the playing software. If you want it to play on the blog, you should probably use a plugin of some type to add an embedded player or something. Or use PodPress.

   With #2, it depends on what MIME type the server software is configured to return M3U and MP3 files as. WordPress will create an enclosure for any link that the server says falls into audio/* or video/*. So if the server returns the correct "audio/x-mpegurl" for m3u, then yes, WordPress will enclose it for you in the feed.

3. pdstein
   Member
   Posted 5 years ago #

   Otto42, thanks for your reply.

   Basically what you're saying is, yes, if I link directly to the mp3 file because of the way browsers work it will download the entire mp3 file before it starts playing. But if I create an m3u playlist file while will cause the browser to begin playing the mp3 file immediately (before the whole thing downloads), WordPress may or may not enclose the m3u file, but it won't enclose the mp3 file, so it won't get podcast.

   The best solution is the podpress plugin?

   What if I were to include links to both the mp3 and m3u files?

4. Otto
   Tech Ninja
   Posted 5 years ago #

   WordPress may or may not enclose the m3u file, but it won't enclose the mp3 file, so it won't get podcast.

   No, not at all. WordPress will enclose *anything* that has a MIME type starting with "audio" or "video". This depends on your server configuration, of course. MP3 is audio/mpeg and so yes, a link to it should get enclosed (if the server is configured correctly).

   A link to both in a post will enclose them both if they both return "audio/whatever". However, I doubt m3u is in the normal list of types, so maybe only the MP3 would get enclosed.

   Including a link to both the MP3 file as well as the M3U file would probably work, yes.

   While some readers don't like the idea of multiple enclosures, it's becoming more and more standard to allow multiple enclosures when they are just different formats of the same thing. You may want to test the resulting feed with iTunes and possibly a couple other podcast clients.

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