SR Player - Sveriges Radio Desktop Player

A super fast and lightweight cross-platform desktop app for streaming Sveriges Radio live channels and podcasts, built with Rust, Slint, Symphonia and Rodio.

Features

Live Radio

• Stream all Sveriges Radio live channels
• Gapless and super fast audio playback
• Real-time "Now Playing" information with playback progess tracking
• Quick channel browsing

Podcasts

• Browse and listen to programs and podcasts
• Hybrid streaming and caching for optimal performance

Cross-Platform

• Native macOS .app bundle (~5MB)
• Linux binary with minimal dependencies
• Windows executable

Current Status: Milestone 4 Complete

The code is extensively commented and easy for new Rust developers to get into, possibly coming from Python or JavaScript.

Working:

• Gapless streaming using Symphonia decoder
• Fetch and display all Sveriges Radio channels from API
• Real-time "Now Playing" program information (auto-updates every 30s)
• Stockholm timezone support (handles CET/CEST automatically)
• Browse and play podcast episodes (25 most recent, server-side sorted)
• Tabbed UI for Live channels, Podcasts, and News
• Collapsible groups for P4 Local News and Ekot News
• Cross-platform builds (macOS, Linux, Windows)
• Optimized release builds (~5MB total size)
• Thread-safe async streaming architecture

Milestone Plan

Stage	Description
M1	Minimum UI & single stream playback
M2	Full channel list browsing
M3	Gapless streaming, macOS build
M4	Podcast browsing & playback, Linux & Windows build
M5	Polished UI & improved packaging

Installation

Download Pre-built Binaries

macOS

1. Go to Releases
2. Download SR-Player-vX.X.X-macos.zip
3. Unzip and drag SR Player.app to Applications
4. Right-click and select "Open" (first time only, due to macOS Gatekeeper)

Linux

1. Go to Releases
2. Download sr-player-vX.X.X-linux.tar.gz
3. Extract: tar -xzf sr-player-vX.X.X-linux.tar.gz
4. Run: ./sr-player

Linux Dependencies:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install libasound2 libxcb-render0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-xfixes0 libxkbcommon0 libfontconfig1

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install alsa-lib libxcb libxkbcommon fontconfig

Windows

1. Go to Releases
2. Download sr-player-vX.X.X-windows.zip
3. Extract the ZIP file
4. Run sr-player.exe

Build from Source

Development Mode:

# Build and run
cargo run

Syntax highlighting in VSCode for Slint

Production Builds:

macOS (App Bundle):

# Install cargo-bundle (first time only)
cargo install cargo-bundle

# Build optimized .app bundle
cargo bundle --release

# Result: target/release/bundle/osx/SR Player.app

Linux:

# Build optimized binary
cargo build --release

# Result: target/release/sr-player

Windows:

# Build optimized binary
cargo build --release

# Result: target/release/sr-player.exe

Binary Size Optimization

The release build is configured for minimal size in Cargo.toml:

[profile.release]
strip = true          # Strip debug symbols (~60% size reduction)
opt-level = "z"       # Optimize for size
lto = true            # Link-time optimization
codegen-units = 1     # Better optimization
panic = "abort"       # Remove unwinding machinery

Size breakdown:

• Before optimization: ~15MB (14MB binary + 1MB icon)
• After optimization: ~3-5MB total
• Comparison: Electron app (80-150MB)

Technical Architecture

Gapless Streaming:

• HTTP Stream → Custom MediaSource → Symphonia Decoder → Rodio Sink
• Supports both live radio streams (AAC) and podcast episodes (MP3)
• Dedicated audio thread for thread-safe non-Send types
• Async HTTP streaming with tokio
• Eliminates gaps between audio chunks

Episode Playback:

• HybridPlayer for intelligent streaming and caching
• FilePlayer with minimp3 decoder for seekable local playback
• Background downloading with progress tracking
• Send-safe wrappers for cross-thread communication
• Automatic cache management

UI Framework:

• Slint 1.9 for native cross-platform UI
• Declarative component-based architecture
• Compiles to native code (no web runtime)

API Integration:

• Sveriges Radio Open API for channels, schedules, programs, and podcasts
• Episodes endpoint (not podfiles) for reliable server-side sorting
• Async data fetching with lazy loading for performance
• Image decoding and display for program artwork
• Automatic timezone conversion (UTC → Stockholm)

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License

MPL-2.0 for open development compatibility.
Uses Sveriges Radio API under Creative Commons Attribution stipulations.