MENU : Monitor and Configuration Panel

Recording features include a monitor panel that provides sound level adjustment and configuration of your PC audio hardware.  To view the monitor panel click or touch the MENU button to select the menu panel, then click or touch the Pane On/Off button located on the menu panel to display the monitor and configuration panel.

In addition to manual recording of songs played on the HD Radio receiver, there is an Auto Record feature.  The Auto Record feature is a smart system that detects the start and end of a song.  

For best recording results, adjust the recording input level by moving the "Rec Vol" slider so that the level indicators are close to their peak values without exceeding the max values displayable.  If you click or touch the “Start” button located on the monitor and configuration panel, recording will start immediately.  Forced record mode does not provide automatic song start or end detection, and you must click the “Stop” button in order to end the recording at the appropriate time. 

Auto Record

To activate the Auto Record feature, click or touch the Auto On/Off button located on the menu panel.  Recording is triggered when the start of a song is detected, and stopped when the song is over or  when an interruption of the song occurs.  The recording LED located at the lower left of the display will indicate that it is listening by lighting with the same backlight color of the display.  When recording is active the display LED’s color will change to red.  It is advantageous to add the channel you will be recording as a channel preset, as this will enable additional Synchronization options for fine tuning the song events. 

Synchronization

The Sync value is a duration in seconds added to the song info event (Title switch) as well as to the end event for the song.  Most HD subchannels are software controlled and some stations will add a specified delay between the song information change and the actual start of the song.  This shift in the song timing is addressed by the Sync option.  Click on the Sync button when the song actually starts for the first song when the Auto Rrecord feature has been activated, all songs recorded after that will include the Sync timing.  You can also specify a Sync value manually by typing a valid value in for the Sync entry.  Synchronization data is stored for each channel that you have added as a preset channel and the Sync info will be recalled when the channel is selected at a later time. 

Best results are obtained when there is little or no announcer interruption over the actual song.  In cases where there is no pause at all between the announcer and the start of the song, the recorded song may contain some undesired elements.  Interruptions prior to the song completing may also be included in the recorded song.  A delay added using the Synchronization feature will typically address this when these interruptions are timed and repetitive.  Even in very severe cases, a perfect song recording can still be obtained since you can later edit the song to  remove any  remaining elements. 

There are rare instances where an HD Radio station interrupts the text data transmit with information other than the song artist and title of the current song while the song is still playing.  For channels such as this we have included an add-in module called "Info.msi".  The Info add-in requires an internet connection in order to work, and it simply determines the song duration from an extensive database of song information located on the internet.  It uses this determined duration to ignore any inadvertent interruptions of the transmitted text data until the song has completed.  When song duration has been determined by the Info add-in module, the elapsed time displayed  for the song recording will turn to Bold.  This typically occurs within seconds of the recordings start, and any changes of the text data transmit will then be ignored.  Once this duration has expired the recording elapsed time will revert back to its normal non-bold display, and song end detection will resume.

Archived Songs

HD RadioPC saves recorded songs in mp3 format.  The recorded songs are located in the “Audio Archives” folder within the software installation directory if you are running Windows XP.  If you are running Windows Vista the recorded songs are located in the "Audio Archives" subfolder within your "Documents" folder.  Song files are named according to the Artist and Title of the song, and will also include this information within the mp3 files ID3 tag.  The generated mp3 files can be played back with a variety of popular multimedia software such as WinAmp, Windows Media Player, etc. 

You can access the Audio Archives folder directly by selecting "Files" from the HD RadioPC windows system tray icon menu.

Editing Songs

To edit a saved mp3 song file, first ensure that the monitor and configuration panel has been activated.  Click the "Edit" button located at the lower left of the monitor and configuration panel and the edit pane will activate.  Receiver output will be muted automatically when the edit pane is activated. 

The illustration above shows the edit pane with an mp3 file already opened.  Clicking the "Start" button will set the start cut time and clicking the "Finish" button will set the end cut.  You can preview the new cuts applied by clicking on the respective "Pre" button.  Fine adjustments to both the Start and End cut can be made by clicking the left and right arrow buttons.  Clicking on the song position scroll bar allows you to move to any position within the song, and a right click will resume test playback at the clicked position. 

The information balloon is actually a button that will open the id3 tag pane.  Make any changes to both the id3 v1 and id3 v2 tags that you wish, and then click the "Close" button.  The new tag info will be saved when you save the opened file.

When you are done editing the song, click the "Save" button to save it to a file.  The default file save name can be changed so that the original song is not overwritten if you wish. 

Important :  Exit the edit pane by clicking on the "Exit" button to resume normal receiver control.

Customizing the display

The display itself  is actually a collection of image files (.bmp).  These files can be modified extensively if desired as long as each files original name remains unaltered.  The graphic files for the display are also known as a skin, thus the files are located in the “Skin/HD Radio” folder within the software’s installation directory.  The file names correspond to detected or forced screen resolutions.  HD RadioPC can also be used without its internal skins.  Setting the displayonly value to 1 in the hdradio.ini file will enable skinless mode in which only the LCD portion of the display is visible.  The display area can also be forced to a larger or smaller size by setting the “screen=” to a supported value.  The LCD display area  can be positioned anywhere on your screen by setting the hdradio.ini file coordinates “left=” and “top=” to a valid value in pixels.  For example, “ left=400” represents the exact middle of an 800x600 screen.  Button hotspots are specified in the hdradio.ini file allowing you to position your own button designs anywhere. You can essentially create your own totally new look as an interface if desired, only the LCD portion of the display graphics are somewhat static.  The color of the LCD display can be changed to any 24 bit color by setting the “backlight” to a decimal value representation of the color.

Ending the HD RadioPC application

Left click or touch the software’s icon located in the windows system tray and then click or touch on the “Exit” menu item.

Using HD RadioPC with other software

The LCD portion of the display can be used by itself within other software such as a front end like Road Runner.  The ”hdradio.ini” file located in the software installation folder contains several user modifiable settings.   The "Options" panel within the HD RadioPC application menu modifies this settings. The following excerpt from the hdradio.ini file should provide adequate explanation of these features :

; backlight is a 24-bit numeric color value.  Convert hex color values to decimal before using.

backlight=8438015

; displayonly toggles off HD RadioPC's skins so that the LCD portion of the display alone

; can be used in other skinable applications such as RoadRunner

; displayonly=1 for skinless HD RadioPC, default is 0

displayonly=0

;"Top" and "Left" are the screen coordinates of the display LCD. These settings

;can be used to position the display LCD in other skinable applications such as RoadRunner.

;When no entry is found the last detected position is used. 

top=

left=

; The "screen" setting specifies how large the display will appear

; This setting overrides automatic screen size detection and will effect

; both skinless and normal modes.

; If "screen=" has no entry then automatic screen size detection is used.

; Valid settings are : 800, 1024, or 1280

screen=

;The "skin" setting specifies the skin set to use for the display.  

;The text at the beginning of the skin names indicates the skin set.  

;For example, "darkready800.bmp" refers to a 800x600 skin graphic within the "dark" skin set 

;that appears when the display is showing as connected to the receiver and is currently turned off.  

;There are three modes of operation, and an individual skin file name will designate one of these specific operation modes:  OFF, READY, or ON

skin=visteon

; The keyscan entry toggles on or off the software keyboard key press

; detection. 1=On, 0=Off

keyscan=1

; ext_control is the Window name of your external controlling application (optional).

; Example:  ext_control=RoadRunner

ext_control=

; ext_status is the command required for HD RadioPC to obtain screen

; status info from your application. (optional)

; Example: ext_status=REQUEST;HDRadio Interface;RRSCREEN

ext_status=

; ext_trigger is the keyword sent along with the current screen status from your app. (optional)

; Example: ext_trigger=RRSCREEN

ext_trigger=

; ext_panels are the screens within your app where you want HD RadioPC to be audible. (optional)

; Example: ext_panels=MENU.SKIN, RADIO_PLAYER.SKIN

ext_panels=

; ext_show is the screen within your app where the HD RadioPC display will be presented. (optional)

; Example: ext_show=RADIO_PLAYER.SKIN

ext_show=

;  The following are button definitions. Button hotspot coordinates are in pixels.

;  You can use a graphics editor like paintbrush to find the coordinates of your 

;  button "hotspots" for a customized skin. In paintbrush the pixel coordinates appear 

;  at the lower right of the editor screen as you move your mouse over the image. 

;  The format is: "B#=left,right,top,bottom,command,label"

[buttons800]

B1=56,79,142,166,"preset 1","1"

B2=110,132,142,166,"preset 2","2"

B3=162,186,142,166,"preset 3","3"

B4=215,238,142,166,"preset 4","4"

B5=268,292,142,166,"preset 5","5"

B6=336,374,142,166,"bank","BANK"

B7=395,435,142,166,"seek","SEEK"

B8=336,374,106,126,"band","BAND"

B9=336,374,68,88,"disp","DISP"

B10=336,374,29,49,"menu","MENU"

B11=391,419,57,97,"left",""

B12=471,499,57,97,"right",""

B13=424,466,23,52,"up",""

B14=424,466,101,129,"down",""

B15=430,460,61,91,"select","SEL"

B16=491,515,20,44,"power",""

B17=491,515,108,132,"mute",""

B18=513,523,3,12,"minimize",""

Program Options

The "Options" panel allows you to set program options such as display appearance.  To access the Options panel, left click or touch the software’s icon located in the windows system tray and select "Options" from the menu. 

The Options panel settings will modify most of the setting values available in the hdradio.ini file.

Keyboard Commands

The HD RadioPC software communicates with other applications such as Road Runner.  The software will correctly hide itself when the front end screen changes, and also end at the appropriate time.  Keypresses  can be issued with a “Sendkey” type message or simply typed on the keyboard.  The mappings are as follows:

Home =  POWERON

End =  POWEROFF

Esc =  MINIMIZE

Left Arrow  =  LEFT

Right Arrow =  RIGHT

Up Arrow =  UP

Down Arrow =  DOWN

Page Up  = VOLUME UP

Page Down  = VOLUME DOWN

Enter =  SELECT

Ctrl =  SEEK

Spacebar =  MUTE

Alt =  DISP

Tab =  BAND

0 =  BANK

1 =  PRESET 1

2 =  PRESET 2

3 =  PRESET 3

4 =  PRESET 4

5 =  PRESET 5

API Messages

Each of the commands above associated with a keyboard key press can also be sent directly to the software using an api “SendMessage” routine

For example, the following command issued from your software application will cause the HD RadioPC software to Power On:

COMSend "HDRadio Interface", " POWERON "

The Visual Basic code for the COMSend function used in the above example is as follows:

Public Function COMSend(Window As String, data As String)

Dim lHWnd   As Long

Dim cds     As COPYDATASTRUCT

Dim buf() As Byte

' Get the handle of the target application's visible window.

lHWnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, Window)

' Copy the string into a byte array,

' converting it to ASCII. Assign lpData

' the address of the byte array.

ReDim buf(Len(data))

Call CopyMemory(buf(0), ByVal data, Len(data))

With cds

                                 .dwData = 1

                                 .cbData = Len(data)

                                 .lpData = VarPtr(buf(0))

End With

' Send the string.

Call SendMessage(lHWnd, WM_COPYDATA, 0&, cds)

End Function

The following declarations should be included in your codes module:

Public Const WM_COPYDATA = &H4A

Public Type COPYDATASTRUCT

    dwData As Long

    cbData As Long

    lpData As Long

End Type

Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias _

   "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName _

   As String) As Long

Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _

   "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal _

   wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _

   (hpvDest As Any, hpvSource As Any, ByVal cbCopy As Long)

There are also some specific commands not accessible by keyboard key press.  They are:

SHOW

Maximizes the software display.  Has no effect while in invisible mode.

TUNE

Tunes to a specific channel.

Example :  COMSend "HDRadio Interface", "TUNE 101.5 FM”

REC_ON

Start song recording.

REC_OFF

Stops song recording.

AUTOREC

Switches Auto Record "ON"

STOP

Switches recording off no matter what the recording state is (auto record or normal).

END or EXIT

Causes the HD RadioPC application to terminate.

ATTACH

The ATTACH command will cause HD RadioPC to send real time status updates to your own software.  An example of the command sent to attach your program to the HD RadioPC software API:

COMSend "HDRadio Interface", "ATTACH  yourwindowname"

The format of the string it sends to your app is as follows:

"HD Radio | analog signal  | volume | artist  | title  | station name  | call sign | genre | HD active  | HD lock  | sub channel  |sub channel count  | muted  | tuner seeking  | HD signal  | tuner tuned  | port opened | power on  ~"

Note that your software must have the correct receive function routines in place in order to receive windows COM messages.

Discrete power control is also provided by issuing the POWERON or POWEROFF commands.  Note that the POWER api command itself is simply a toggle.

AIVMS Integration

 "C:\Program Files\AIVMS\AIVMS.exe" CMD HD RADIO | SLEEP 4 | CMD POWERON | SLEEP 15 | CMD AUTOREC

Action shortcuts are easy to create using the AIVMS Task interface, just create a new task, select EVENT as the interval and  "Shortcut" as theTrigger, then point and click to select commands.  Click the LINK button to chain more than one command, and then the Add Task button to finish.

Note : The SLEEP commands just give the HD RadioPC software time to startup and tune to the last channel, you could also include specific channel "preset"  commands to select a different channel, etc.

"C:\Program Files\AIVMS\AIVMS.exe" CMD HD RADIO | SLEEP 4 | CMD POWERON | SLEEP 10 | CMD PRESETS | CMD THREE  | SLEEP 5 | CMD AUTOREC  (switches to PRESET 3 before starting auto record)

Once you have the action shortcut created  you can schedule a time to run the action shortcut quite easily.  Just drag and drop the action shortcut to the primary AIVMS program shortcut on your desktop and AIVMS tasks will open, ready for you to specify a time for the action shortcut to run.    There are various other nice uses for drag and drop scheduling such as a wake to music alarm, or even opening your eBay auction pages when an auction is about to end. 

TIP :  The drag and drop functionality is a very good reason to keep an AIVMS program shortcut ( a simple shortcut pointing to the AIVMS executable file with no command line switches ) on your desktop.

Streaming and network remote control

If you have AIVMS installed on the computer where HD RadioPC resides, you can easily stream your HD Radio receiver’s audio source securely over the internet to a remote client such as another PC or a mobile device.  You can listen to the stream and control the HD radio receiver using AIVMS client software installed on the remote device.  Applications for HD RadioPC's remote control capability include whole house distribution systems where each remote network connected terminal panel is capable of running the HD RadioPC client application.  To enable HD RadioPC remote client access a few initial setup steps need to be conducted:

Ensure AIVMS is running, then click on the AIVMS windows system tray  icon and select “Settings” and then “DJ Mode” from the menu.  Ensure that the “Enable TCP/IP Audio Stream Server” option is checked as illustrated below.  Click apply to save changes if required and then close the DJ Mode Settings screen.  Select "Settings" again from the AIVMS menu and then select "Defaults".  Activate the remote connections option  in the "Default Settings" screen by ensuring that the "Yes" option is selected in the Remote Enabled box.

	AIVMS windows client login settings example.   The settings in the example above are used to connect to the local machines AIVMS system for testing purposes.  You would normally specify the remote host as the internal or external IP address of the system you are connecting to.		HD RadioPC NET connected to a remote HD Radio receiver equipped PC over the Internet.

Once you have entered valid login information and connected to the serving AIVMS system the login attempt will occur automatically whenever you start the client application. The client remote interface also initiates upon execution of the HD RadioPC NET application.  HD RadioPC NET has the same familiar interface as HD RadioPC, in fact it is quite difficult to tell the two interfaces apart when they are running side by side on the same system.

AIVMS PDA client login settings example

 client software

Trouble Shooting And Error Messages

HD RadioPC logs its connection attempts along with any error messages in a text file named ” HD_Radio.log” which is located in the software installation folder.  If you encounter issues it might be a good idea to attach this file to an email message and send it to the software developers.