Mike Walker said:I noticed this morning that the webcast audio of IMUS (from the WABC website) is actually VERY good. Surprisingly so...better than anything I've (yet) heard from AM HD!
Yeah, I know "wi-max" will kill HD Radio. Earth to people who believe that...you need a flash-based platform, which includes almost no pocket devices (phones, pdas, etc) for the player. You have to "jump through hoops" to access the stream. And that's true of more and more streaming audio. Not nearly as convenient (or even AVAILABLE) as a radio, where you just turn the damn thing on, and hit a pushbutton for the right preset.
Mike Walker said:I'd LOVE to have a Roku, Chuck. But they're WAY more expensive, aren't they? Something like 300 bucks? YIKES! And people complain about the cost of HD Radio!
Mike Walker said:I'd LOVE to have a Roku, Chuck. But they're WAY more expensive, aren't they? Something like 300 bucks? YIKES! And people complain about the cost of HD Radio!
Multicast radio streams
Internet multicast is a very efficient way to distribute live radio and TV streams compared to the way streams have been distributed up to now using 'unicast', where each listener or viewer is delivered with their own individual stream. With multicast, only one stream is sent to each ISP, and the ISP then forwards the streams to their customers. Therefore, instead of having to send tens of thousands of streams in parallel (the bandwidth required for unicast = number of users x stream bandwidth), the broadcasters only have to send one stream per channel to each ISP, therefore making an enormous percentage saving in the bandwidth required, and this allows the broadcasters to provide higher bit rate levels, so the audio quality is higher. Multicast is also expected to be used to deliver HDTV streams within the next 2-4 years. HDTV streams will typically use bit rate levels of about 10 Mbps, which is about 80-times higher than the 128 kbps bit rate levels being used at present, so the bit rates of the radio station streams should increase a lot in future as well.
SUPERCASTER said:You also might consider these WiFi digital radios:
http://www.sangean.com/category.php?category_ID=12
http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/pages/wm201.html
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/Digital+Media+Adapters/Digital+Media+Player/SoundBridge+Radio.htm
http://www.justclickradios.co.uk/Internet-WiFi-Radio_B2VG0.aspx
There are others also.
Multicast radio streams
Internet multicast is a very efficient way to distribute live radio and TV streams compared to the way streams have been distributed up to now using 'unicast', where each listener or viewer is delivered with their own individual stream. With multicast, only one stream is sent to each ISP, and the ISP then forwards the streams to their customers. Therefore, instead of having to send tens of thousands of streams in parallel (the bandwidth required for unicast = number of users x stream bandwidth), the broadcasters only have to send one stream per channel to each ISP, therefore making an enormous percentage saving in the bandwidth required, and this allows the broadcasters to provide higher bit rate levels, so the audio quality is higher. Multicast is also expected to be used to deliver HDTV streams within the next 2-4 years. HDTV streams will typically use bit rate levels of about 10 Mbps, which is about 80-times higher than the 128 kbps bit rate levels being used at present, so the bit rates of the radio station streams should increase a lot in future as well.
SUPERCASTER said:It seems the biggest selling point for the [...] radio is that you never need new batteries, just use a very long extension cord.