BBC Web Streams

Remember that not everyone gets the same streams from the same servers ... so for some people a certain feed may work but someone else might not be able to get that same 'quality' feed ... it really is a bit of a duckshoot at the moment.

Phil

Radio 3 apart, what were the bit rates for the WMA streams?

Dave

No idea what the latest rates were sorry Dave, I am not a heavy user.

Correct if they have the same content.(in fact that was a key design objective at the dawn of DAB).  Sorry I read, clearly incorrectly, that there was going to be local programming for each of the towns etc

Looking at the list for Suffolk - some of the places listed along the East coast line are small  towns / large villages quite close to each other. (Woodbridge, Halesworth, Blythburgh, Southwold)  This suggests the transmitters are going to small very low powered  transmitters up the coast. Perhaps this is to mitigate the Continental interference issues..

It looks expensive.. perhaps why it has taken so long.

Simon

It will be interesting to see how you get on over the weekend when there is more live sport. As I understand it the mp3 streams are international.

I'm now confused. I thought the new streams would be AAC and MP3 would be temporary. The Audio Factory blog people seem to be suggesting that it's just MP3?

Keith

Will Naim and Vtuner support this AAC HLS thing?

Hopefully, and DASH to, because it would seem as if it's the intended direction.

I looked at the BBC site earlier today and it said (if I remember and understood it correctly) that live streams would be mp3 and  on demand would be AAC. So you should be  able to listen in higher quality to 'old' programmes via the wbsite but for 'live' streams theywould be mp3. This is fine if you have a computer connected to your system but not much use with a streamer. 

A thoroughly retrograde step. I've just checked on my ipod and (even) Classic FM has an AAC stream. The BBC mp3 stream would be ok if the rate was 320k bps rather than the 128k bps.

I now regret selling my fm tuner.

BN

It's confusing but mp3 will be going away completely. According to the original BBC Blog post:

"We will provide a SHOUTcast mp3 stream of all our radio stations so that live radio will continue to work on internet radio devices for another year or two."

Unfortunately they appear to be international streams so sports coverage is limited as well as the audio quality.

Regarding 'listen again' It would appear that unless your device supports AAC HLS/HDS/DASH you're out of luck.

"Providing a replacement for listen again (ie not live radio) is a much more difficult problem. Without windows media, the only other way that these devices can receive an audio file is to download it in an unprotected format. This would contravene the BBC’s agreements with rights holders (record companies, publishers, writers etc.) which require copyright material to be protected.

Windows Media accounts for 2-5% of on demand online listening. Some of this 2-5% of online listeners will be able to switch to our new feeds, some will not.

Continuing to serve Windows Media is too expensive at a time when the BBC is facing significant cuts in its funding. It requires special infrastructure to serve it and the industry is moving away from providing it as an option. We have explored the potential to set up an authentication process to provide downloads to these devices, in a way that would meet our rightsholder agreements, but this would also be complicated and expensive.

We will continue to make listen again available for programmes where the BBC has download rights and the material is made available as a podcast. Podcasts will still be available on these devices as mp3"

AAC is going to be HLS. What the flip is HLS and will Naim be supporting it? Perhaps Phil Harris can explain. 

Keith

Just to update, thanks to great work by some wonderful guys in the on-line Logitech Squeezebox Community, I am now listening to the BBC National radio stations and Radio Solent using the new AAC HLS streams.

Dave

If Logitech can do it,  here's hoping Naim & vTuner can.

And Logitech Squeezebox products are now only supported by a community of unpaid enthusiasts!

Dave

Where can I get the plugin Dave. I assume it's not in the server settings plugin page as thats where I've looked first.

Thanks

Jay

The plugin is titled "PlayHLS" (v.1.1) (author: bpa). You also have to have installed "BBC iPlayer Extras" (v.1.7) (author: bpa). In LMS it'll be near the bottom of the plugins window. If you go to the Logitech Squeezebox Forum and the "Annouce: BBC iPlayer Plugin (UK only)" thread you'll find details there. There's been a lot of activity during the last 24 hours so you may need to scan through several pages to find the necessary information. Setting-up the correct http address's is a bit fiddlely but once you know how they are generated it's fairly straightforward. Good luck.

Dave

This www link is to BBC Audio Factory boss Jim Simmons update of what's going on.

Scroll down a page or two  to Comments & his blog dated 12 Feb 2015 @ 18:42

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/int...b2-a23c-71680c49882f

Thanks Dave.

I had seen that plugin and wondered but there's obviously more too it! I'll have a go I'm not a complete techno numpty!

I've just tried BBC Radio 3 through the NDS at 128kbps MP3 and compared it with FM through my NAT01. If this is to be the future then heaven help us. It sounds dreadful and seems to suffer a fairly lengthy delay. The conspiracist in me now thinks Naim Audio is in on this: it's to make us all think that Spotify streamed at 320kbps will be good enough!

Too rub salt into the wound BBC HLS streaming at 320kbps doesn't sound too bad on my SB's.

Dave

Thanks for the link Mike. While the two previous communications could be open to interpretation, the most recent comment from Jim Simmons makes it pretty clear. Unless you can decode AAC HLS all you get is the 128kbps mp3 feed and almost no sport on Five Live.

Is anyone using a Naim streamer getting BBC radio in anything other than 128kbps mp3.

The instructions are a bit scattered about - really could do with an idiots guide. If you start at page 225 ish on the above thread you should be ok. 

Thanks to dave4jazz for the info. I'm just off to see if my SBT can now play the AAC streams

Double thanks Dave. I now have Radio 1 working well (cough)....what's the link for 6 music? Anyone know, I've tried a few permutations...

This was very helpful from user PasTim on the Squeezebox forum. I hope I am not breaking any rules by posting here. Apologies if I have....

I'll try to help.

On the web interface, go to 'settings', and select the 'plugins' tab. Go to the bottom. You may need to tick a box saying something like 'allow 3rd party plugins', and press Apply.

At the very bottom you should have a section called 'Additional Repositories'

Add a line containing 

http://bpaplugins.googlecode.c...unk/repo-playhls.xml

and Press Apply.

Near the bottom you should now have a section called "PlayHLS Plugin repo". Tick the box, Apply, and restart LMS.

LMS should now be able to play the new format streams. Try adding a favourite at 

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/medi...k/bbc_radio_one.m3u8

It should now play. Not high quality, but at least present.