Byte-Range Requests error

Your media file URLs are given as using Feedproxy but this is in fact a 301 redirect to http://www.redpointchurch.com

Running a test on this in Terminal:

curl -I -r 200-300 http://www.redpointchurch.com/static/audio/audio/Parables/2012-09-02_AM_Jamie_Te rnent_-_The_parable_of_the_Rich_man_and_Lazarus.mp3

Produces the result

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:07:34 GMT

Server: Apache/2.2.20 (Ubuntu)

Last-Modified: Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:02:48 GMT

Content-Length: 32624281

Content-Type: audio/mpeg

This would seem to suggest that your server indeed does not support byte-range requests. A successful result would look like this:

HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content

Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:59:27 GMT

Server: Apache

Last-Modified: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:06:04 GMT

ETag: "3fb8374-2bf169c-4c7e6fa626300"

Accept-Ranges: bytes

Content-Length: 101

Content-Range: bytes 200-300/46077596

Content-Type: audio/mpeg

I can't advise on server technology: the nearest forum to your problem would be for Mac OSX server and I don't know whether anyone there can advice, otherwise you will need to find a forum dedicated to Apache.

Standard Apache on Ubuntu should support byte-range requests by default. Are you serving the files directly, or are you using a PHP script to serve out the files via readfile() or similar? If you are doing the latter (perhaps for statistics gathering), you will need to modify your script to properly reply to byte-range requests. I've heard that http_send_file() works, but haven't tried it yet (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.http-send-file.php).

Typically, Apple's error message is TOTALLY MISLEADING. This error has NOTHING to do with your server or with byte-range requests. HERE IS THE SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM, which it took me months to figure out.

Just model your rss on this.

http://deimos.apple.com/rsrc/doc/iTunesUAdministrationGuide/ManagingiTunesUCours ePages/chapter_11_section_6.html

Put your own content information between this tags, submit to iTunes, and it will work. It's actually that simple. Other rss templates don't work.

Perhaps you would like to identify any problem in the OP's feed, which validates in FeedValidator. The particular issue, which is limited to iOS devices, is well documented and seems likely to be the problem here aas his server does not test as accepting byte-range requests. Incidentally the OP has received no error message from Apple, simply a failure of the files to play on an iOS device.

...scrub last sentence, he did indeed get the error message (someone else is having similar issues). Apple are getting very sticky about this one after a lot of compaints about the problem.

Backing up what Roger is saying - Apple has publicly stated you must be on a byte-range supported server.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

Item 2 below is from Apple.

Submission and Feedback Processes

Podcasting on iTunes requires several steps:

1. Creating your first episode, which can be an audio recording, video, or even a text document. Supported file formats include .m4a, .mp3, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .pdf and .epub.
2. Posting your episode file(s) on a server with byte-range support enabled and a publicly accessible URL. Byte-range support allows users to stream your episodes.
3. Creating an RSS feed (an XML file) that:
   • conforms to the RSS 2.0 specification
   • includes the recommended iTunes RSS tags,
   • contains pointers to your episode.
4. Posting the RSS file on a server.
5. Submit the URL for your RSS feed to iTunes.

Regards,

Rob Walch

libsyn