Internet radio sets

I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio sites
via a home network, wired or wi-fi.

Does anyone have any experience of these?

--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:
> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
> sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of these?

Before you consider buying one take a look here and check out how much of
your usage wouod bve taken up using it.

http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail...roadbandusage/

Peter Crosland

(E-Mail Removed)

On 07/04/2008 in message <(E-Mail Removed)>
Michael Chare wrote:

>I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
>sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>
>Does anyone have any experience of these?

Yes, but not good. It's a bit like listening to Radio Luxembourg under the
blankets.

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day.
Tomorrow, isn't looking good either.

Michael Chare wrote:
> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
> sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of these?

Yes.



Some of them work reasonably well. Some are vastly overpriced in my
opinion. All seem to have glitches and bugs which suggest the products are
not totally stable.


The most common in the UK are based on a Reciva chipset and software. Reciva
license their designs to brand names who then make and market radios (from
Dixons group to Roberts Radio and numerous others). Reciva is the main
(only?) supplier which offers "Real Audio" within their hardware, which is
currently necessary(*) to access BBC "Listen Again" services.
One common alternative maker is the "Slim Devices" receiver which uses a PC
based plug-in to decode Real Audio (so your PC must be switched on to work
the plug-in), but its an expensive product.


The Reciva devices seem to suffer from buffering problems from some services
(notably the BBC). The cause has not been identified, though I suspect its a
combination of: poor buffer control in Radio compared to PC client players,
congestion at ISP, congestion to BBC servers. The ISP can be controlled by
swapping ISP, but the radio is dependent on the maker.



My Radio is a Logik IR-100 (Dixons own brand) bought during one of their
regular sales when the price drops to circa £40. I've added a few hardware
and software hacks to upgrade it and fix faults. For £40 its a good useful
item. I am less sure about its full price (it has hardware issues), though
its official software is now reasonably up to date.


I would suggest that a small laptop might be a better buy than the more
expensive models; an Asus EEE PC costs under £200 in its most basic version
and looks to me to be more capable than a £200 "radio", less likely to be
out of date, etc..



(* the BBC has said that it will start to offer other codecs, such as MP3 or
ACC during the course of 2008 for Listen Again, which will start to remove
the Real Audio monopoly on BBC Listen Again output).


- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Nigel Cliffe wrote:
> One common alternative maker is the "Slim Devices" receiver which uses a PC
> based plug-in to decode Real Audio (so your PC must be switched on to work
> the plug-in), but its an expensive product.

That setup is only if you are into listening to real audio streams like
from the BBC. Most of decent internet radio is thankfully _not_ real
audio, and the squeezebox can work happily standalone replaying very
high quality content from these stations. Of course, it's with a server
that the whole system excels. Oh, and an "unlimited" internet use account.

It is not cheap; Logitech have released some quite expensive toys
recently for the dedicated, moving onto a handheld touch screen
controller that can do wonders - but then so can my iPod touch connected
to the same slimserver system (via www.pengiunlovesmusic.de)

Sound quality from foreign broadcasters way outstrips the abilities of
broadcasters in this country. Seems here we are frightened to broadcast
any live signal of decent quality incase someone records it and then
doesn't go and buy the corresponding CD...

--
Adrian C

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:G6OdnXAUYOvcXGTanZ2dnUVZ8vWdnZ2d@plusnet...
> Michael Chare wrote:
>> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
>> sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>>
>> Does anyone have any experience of these?
>
> Before you consider buying one take a look here and check out how much of
> your usage wouod bve taken up using it.
>
> http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail...roadbandusage/
>


Food for thought! Certainly according to that the network usage is
surprisingly high, but they don't say what speed they are using in their
calculations. I .


--
Michael Chare

"Nigel Cliffe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ftcltf$c32$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Michael Chare wrote:
>> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
>> sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>>
>> Does anyone have any experience of these?
>
> Yes.
>
>
> The most common in the UK are based on a Reciva chipset and software.
> Reciva license their designs to brand names who then make and market
> radios (from Dixons group to Roberts Radio and numerous others). Reciva
> is the main (only?) supplier which offers "Real Audio" within their
> hardware, which is currently necessary(*) to access BBC "Listen Again"
> services.
> One common alternative maker is the "Slim Devices" receiver which uses a
> PC based plug-in to decode Real Audio (so your PC must be switched on to
> work the plug-in), but its an expensive product.
>

I came across the Roberts WM202, which does FM and DAB as well as Internet.

I did not know that there are such things and assumed that I was just not
keeping up with modern technology, but it turns out that this is a new
product. It mentions http://www.wifiradio-frontier.com in the user manual
which I assume is different from https://www.reciva.com/. The radio clearly
depends on an internet database of stations so I would hope that it uses a
standards based technology, and that it is possible to change the database
that it uses.


>
> I would suggest that a small laptop might be a better buy than the more
> expensive models; an Asus EEE PC costs under £200 in its most basic
> version and looks to me to be more capable than a £200 "radio", less
> likely to be out of date, etc..
>

The WM202 is not so much cheaper!


--
Michael Chare

"Adrian C" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Nigel Cliffe wrote:
>>
> Sound quality from foreign broadcasters way outstrips the abilities of
> broadcasters in this country.

Would you be thinking of Bayern Klassik? Also good on satellite as they
have more bandwidth than any of the BBC stations.


> Seems here we are frightened to broadcast any live signal of decent
> quality incase someone records it and then doesn't go and buy the
> corresponding CD...

Trouble is that we end up with quantity rather that quality. American
country and western stations are even worse!


--
Michael Chare

"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:2d-(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:G6OdnXAUYOvcXGTanZ2dnUVZ8vWdnZ2d@plusnet...
> > Michael Chare wrote:
> >> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
> >> sites via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any experience of these?
> >
> > Before you consider buying one take a look here and check out how much
of
> > your usage wouod bve taken up using it.
> >
> > http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail...roadbandusage/
> >
>
>
> Food for thought! Certainly according to that the network usage is
> surprisingly high, but they don't say what speed they are using in their
> calculations. I .

What has speed got to do with it? If you transfer 20 megabytes in 5
minutes, or 20 megabytes in 20 minutes, its still 20 megabytes....

"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I see that you can now buy radios that will connect to internet radio
sites
> via a home network, wired or wi-fi.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of these?

Another option would be to leave the PC on and use a wireless transmitter
(ipod type) attached to the audio output of the PC to transmit the stereo
signal to a standard FM radio. Less faffy in my opinion and more flexible
regarding the types of streams you might want to listen to, unless of
course, you dont want to leave a PC on. This way you can tune in anyhere in
the house using any existing FM radio tuners (listen in two rooms if you
want to, by using two FM radios). Another alternative would be to buy a
pair of wireless headphones and connect them to the PC's audio output. This
would allow you to listen to your favourite stations from the internet
anywhere you go around the house or garden using the wireless headphone. Of
course apart from internet radio, you can alos use this setup to listen to
any other audio generated from your PC, so you can also hear your favourite
albums etc.... You can even buy a unit that runs on a USB port, with built
in sound card and FM stereo transmitter (all in one) to do the job. A much
more flexiible option.