I have a question about what use the current player software (2.0 Beta 3) puts the RDS data stream to [if any].

I know that it *can* use some of the data to display the name of the station, but RDS is much more than that.
It also uses the presence of the RDS data stream right now to turn on the 'RDS' data indicator on the display I guess as thats what happens now when you tune to a FM station with RDS enabled by the broadcaster.

I am also aware of at least one user level application that consumes the RDS data stream from the player but this is mainly to do with Traffic Alerts (a admirable application, but not one I have any immediate use for).

So: can the empeg guys enlighten us about what use the current player makes of the RDS data stream, would the player software crash and burn if it found that the /dev/rds or whatever device was opened directly by a user level application (exclusively) thus preventing the player from doing so?

I am thinking here of creating a small [user level] app that can (eventually) parse and display some of the RDS data stream - for now I would just spit the RDS data stream out the network port (as UDP and.or TCP broadcast packets ) and use a PC to tease apart and display the various sub-streams in the RDS data stream.

Any comments etc appreciated

Even if the player objected to you opening /dev/rds (or whatever it is called) you should still be able to rename /dev/rds, create a new device node (or whatever they are called), open the real /dev/rds with your code, read the incoming data and pass it on to the player (which will have opened your new /dev/rds).

There is code on the developer side here that does this same thing with the IR device.

Yes, that way it works.
Thats exactly what I have done for my RDS TMC application.