README

Delphi FFmpeg Radio Player

Native Delphi/Pascal internet radio playback built directly on FFmpeg 8 headers. The project centers on a reusable TRadioPlayer engine, a reusable console UI layer, and a concrete console player application.

What Is Included

• Source/ Delphi radio engine units: TRadioPlayer, stream client, decoder, resampler, PCM buffer, event bus, spectrum analyzer, and audio backends.
• Headers/ FFmpeg 8 Delphi/Pascal header translations used by the player, based on the DelphiFFmpeg.com header set and updated in this repository for FFmpeg 8.1.
• ConsoleRadioPlayer/ A real console radio player built on top of the reusable engine and reusable TRadioConsoleUI.
• SDLRadioPlayer/ A separate SDL3-based GUI player built on top of the same TRadioPlayer library.
• build.sh Optional build helper for Win32 and Win64.
• build-fpc.sh Optional build helper for Linux/FPC.

Current Feature Set

• HTTP/HTTPS radio playback through FFmpeg
• MP3 live stream playback verified
• waveOut and WASAPI output backends on Windows
• PulseAudio and aplay output backends on Linux/FPC
• WASAPI device enumeration and explicit device selection
• WASAPI session or endpoint volume control
• reconnect handling with backoff
• metadata extraction and live updates
• configurable PCM buffer and prebuffer
• advanced runtime stats
• output-aligned VU metering
• output-aligned spectrum analysis
• event bus with dedicated-thread or main-thread dispatch
• reusable console UI component in Source/Radio.ConsoleUI.pas

Project Structure

• Source/Radio.Player.pas Main player facade and orchestration.
• Source/Radio.ConsoleUI.pas Reusable TUI-style console UI class for TRadioPlayer.
• Source/Radio.Output.WASAPI.pas WASAPI backend using MfPack translations.
• Source/Radio.Output.WaveOut.pas Simpler fallback backend.
• Source/Radio.Output.APlay.pas Linux backend that streams PCM to aplay.
• Source/Radio.Output.PulseAudio.pas Linux backend using the PulseAudio simple API.
• ConsoleRadioPlayer/ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr Standalone console radio player host.
• SDLRadioPlayer/SDLRadioPlayer.dpr Standalone SDL3 GUI radio player host.

Requirements

• Delphi 12 / RAD Studio 12 for Windows builds
• Free Pascal 3.2.2+ for Linux builds
• FFmpeg 8.1 runtime libraries available to the final executable at runtime
• MfPack available locally for the WASAPI backend Add MfPack\src to the project search path in RAD Studio, or set MFPACK_DIR when using build.sh.

Linux/FPC additionally needs:

• FFmpeg shared libraries discoverable by the linker/runtime
• libpulse-simple for the PulseAudio backend
• aplay available at runtime if you want the ALSA fallback backend

Optional:

• Embarcadero WinMD package path can still be present, but the audio backend does not depend on it

Build

RAD Studio

Open:

ConsoleRadioPlayer\ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr

or:

SDLRadioPlayer\SDLRadioPlayer.dpr

Project search path should include:

Source
Headers
C:\Path\To\SDL3\Bindings\Units
C:\Path\To\MfPack\src

Then build the selected target platform in the normal way from RAD Studio.

Optional build.sh helper

For users who want command-line builds, build.sh can compile the project through the Delphi command-line compilers. If MfPack is not in a sibling ..\MfPack folder, set MFPACK_DIR first.

Win64:

./build.sh ConsoleRadioPlayer/ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr Win64
./build.sh SDLRadioPlayer/SDLRadioPlayer.dpr Win64

Win32:

./build.sh ConsoleRadioPlayer/ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr Win32
./build.sh SDLRadioPlayer/SDLRadioPlayer.dpr Win32

Build outputs go to:

• Bin\win64\
• Bin\win32\

Optional build-fpc.sh helper

Linkable Linux build:

./build-fpc.sh ConsoleRadioPlayer/ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr

Source and unit validation without linking system FFmpeg libraries:

./build-fpc.sh ConsoleRadioPlayer/ConsoleRadioPlayer.dpr --no-link

Build outputs go to:

• Bin/linux/

Run

Default stream:

Bin\win64\ConsoleRadioPlayer.exe

Explicit backend, volume mode, buffer, and prebuffer:

Bin\win64\ConsoleRadioPlayer.exe https://stream.radio38.de/radio38-live/mp3-192 wasapi session - 1200 400

List WASAPI devices:

Bin\win64\ConsoleRadioPlayer.exe --list-devices

SDL GUI player:

Bin\win64\SDLRadioPlayer.exe

Linux PulseAudio backend:

export PULSE_SERVER=unix:/mnt/wslg/PulseServer
Bin/linux/ConsoleRadioPlayer https://stream.radio38.de/radio38-live/mp3-192 pulseaudio

Linux aplay backend:

Bin/linux/ConsoleRadioPlayer https://stream.radio38.de/radio38-live/mp3-192 aplay

Console Hotkeys

• q quit
• m mute
• + / - volume
• r restart
• b switch backend
• d next WASAPI device on Windows
• v toggle WASAPI volume mode on Windows
• 1..5 load preset
• !..% save preset

Architecture Notes

The codebase is split so FFmpeg-facing ABI usage is isolated from player logic as much as practical:

• Radio.FFmpeg.Api packet/frame and common API helpers
• Radio.FFmpeg.Resample swresample and sample-layout helpers
• player-facing units stream, decode, resample, output, buffering, UI

This keeps future FFmpeg version migration work focused on the adapter layer instead of the whole application.

Third-Party Sources

• Headers/ Based on the DelphiFFmpeg.com Pascal header translations. These files carry their own header notices and redistribution terms in the source files.
• MfPack Used as the Windows Core Audio / Media Foundation translation layer for the WASAPI backend during build. This project is not bundled in this repository and should be available as a normal local dependency.
• FFmpeg runtime DLLs The player loads FFmpeg DLLs at runtime. Their license depends on how those binaries were built.

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Threading Notes

• TRadioPlayer exposes snapshot-style events and lock-protected state accessors.
• EventDispatchMode = redmMainThread is suitable for GUI or console apps that pump CheckSynchronize.
• TRadioConsoleUI polls player snapshots directly for rendering and keeps its own mutable UI state protected internally.

Status

This repository is in a usable V1/V1.5 state for a native Delphi radio player:

• engine and Windows console player are working
• Linux/FPC source compilation is working
• telemetry and diagnostics are in place
• repository layout has been cleaned for normal RAD Studio use

Remaining Nice-To-Haves

• playlist resolver support for .pls / .m3u
• richer automated stress tests
• optional GUI component wrappers
• further extraction of TRadioConsoleUI into a standalone generic console UI project
• richer SDL GUI controls and station management

License

No repository license file has been added yet. Pick one before publishing publicly on GitHub.

Important:

• the code in Source/ and ConsoleRadioPlayer/ can be licensed separately from the third-party dependencies
• the files in Headers/ already carry their own notices from DelphiFFmpeg.com and references to FFmpeg's upstream licensing
• the FFmpeg runtime DLLs you distribute may be LGPL or GPL depending on how they were built