BBC radio streams
Posted by: Trevor Wilson on 14 February 2015
hi all
As many of you are aware the BBC recently switched off their WMA and AAC streams in favour of HLS formats (plus a "legacy" Shoutcast mp3 stream available but at lower bit rate).
Naim products should now all link to this "legacy" mp3 streams - however - please be aware that the BBC themselves have admitted that the Shoutcast stream isn’t very stable at present. Furthermore, if you have a BBC station as a preset you will need to re-navigate to the stream in the listing and re-save the stream/preset (its ok to overwrite an existing preset)
Naim were informed in September that the WMA streams would be leaving us, but the communication indicated that AAC would continue. The communication (and test streams that we tried using a development variant of Naim Choice) all indicated that things would be fine and we had sat back thinking we were ahead of the curve. Sadly as the switch over occurred, the aac streams have been embedded within the m3u8 container that we cannot currently decode.
Rest assured that as soon as we realized what had occurred we a) talked to the BBC to formally request that aac was re-instated, b) started work on understanding what HLS/DASH would need in order to be available on our products.
The BBC has informed me that the previously available AAC stream cannot be re-instated, and so, Naim and many other UK (and non UK) manufacturers and customers are now working hard to resolve the situation for our customers
The head of BBC media services, has posted this blog
Naim are actively pushing to get our customers the BBC streams they desire, rest assured on this. It may take some time, but we are on it
Trevor (R&D)
Posted on: 14 February 2015 by FlyMe
I presume this explains why I can no longer get the BBC Radio 3 and 4 that I had as preset on my ND5XS. When I rang the Naim dealer thus morning they knew nothing about it. Thought I was going bonkers.
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by JSH
Is this why R3 is currently at 128k rather than its usual 320k?
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
Originally Posted by JSH:
Is this why R3 is currently at 128k rather than its usual 320k?
correct
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by likesmusic
There's a post from simoncn on another site announcing that minimserver can now play the new BBC HLS AAC streams, and it converts them to a 'normal' AAC ADTS stream, which might be helpful to naim users.
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by Bananahead
Originally Posted by likesmusic:
There's a post from simoncn on another site announcing that minimserver can now play the new BBC HLS AAC streams, and it converts them to a 'normal' AAC ADTS stream, which might be helpful to naim users.
Tried it. And the streams don't open.
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by likesmusic
Originally Posted by Bananahead:
Originally Posted by likesmusic:
There's a post from simoncn on another site announcing that minimserver can now play the new BBC HLS AAC streams, and it converts them to a 'normal' AAC ADTS stream, which might be helpful to naim users.
Tried it. And the streams don't open.
Linn users seem to be able to. And the JRiver community similarly.
Posted on: 16 February 2015 by dave4jazz
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by R.K
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Bonner
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by JSH
Not at that price! I pay £12 pm for all the TV and radio I can eat from the BBC which is still the best music bargain in the world
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Guy007
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by JSH
Sorry to be dense here RK but could you help please?
I've been to the Minim site and see the 320 feeds. I've not used Minim for radio before, so where do I put the streams? It does not work if I add them as a "Content" under Server. Is it a Stream.transcode under System or what? Can I add R3, R4 etc like that?
And do I add the aac.L16 you refer to as a suffix so that it finishes "m3u8.aac:L16"
Many thanks
JSH
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
hi all
the BBC Radio 3 UK 320K stream is now available again inside Naim Choice menu on your products. you will need to exit that menu and re-enter it to get the updated URL.
the BBC have not yet given a time when the stream will be de-activated (we had a call with them today) but its gonna be a while
cheers
Trev
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by R.K
Hi JSH
I have a radio3 playlist within my music folder named Radio3.m3u
It contains:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,[*R3;aac] BBC Radio 3
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/medi...bbc_radio_three.m3u8
The minimserver (streamer) properties has the following entry in the system:stream transcode field:
flac:wav24, aac:wav
This works for me.
Simon, who develops Minimserver, is amazingly helpful. If my settings don't work for you, maybe ask him on the minimserver forum.
Good luck!
Let me know how you get on.
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by JSH
Sorry TW, I'm probably being thick but.....
I've deleted my R2 and R3 presets. I've come out of Naim Choice; I've even re-booted my Qute.
But when I go back into Naim choice and look for R3 I still get an 128k MP3 feed and not 320. What am I doing wrong?
Meanwhile, I'm off to explore RK's line
Thanks
JSH
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
hi JSH
being honest unclear, ive emailed vTuner to have a look for me (they have a unitiqute in their developer site for these reasons)
Trevor
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
I am the same, no matter what I do it seems to come back as 44.1 kHz 128kbps MP3
Simon
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
can you try it again please chaps, make sure to enter and exit the menu
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by R.K
Sorry Trevor but "me too"
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by KRM
Nope, not working here either.
Keith
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
hi guys
I've tested the URL from the BBC (using vlc) and it seems ok but for reasons i don't yet understand, when the same URL is placed into our vTuner account system it comes down as 128K not 320K. I've asked vTuner to review overnight
Trev
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by Trevor Wilson
one sudden brain wave later and i think i've got it
you should now see 2 BBC Radio 3 stream in Naim Choice -
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 - 320K UK AAC
if you can use the 320K UK AAC stream - i've left the other stream in for non UK customers just in case
Trev
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by KRM
Bingo!
Thanks Trevor. Have fun with HLS 
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by JSH
Many thanks. Working here
Any chance of working the same magic on R2, R4 etc
Posted on: 17 February 2015 by PeterX
Hi Trev
Its working via my HDX at 320k
Peter