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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 210 responses total. |
keesan
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response 144 of 210:
| 
May 4 16:57 UTC 2000 |
classicalwebcast.com is a very nice listing of about 50 classical stations
around the world, including Estonia, Korea, and Bulgaria, with clear
indication of whether you need Windows Media Player (for Win95 only), G2
(Win95) or 16K (etc. up to over 50K) mono or stereo. (WKAR does not need G2
and they listed it as G2). For my hardware (16M RAM) and software (RealPlayer
5) I have had the best luck with lower fidelity mono broadcasts (found one 8K,
many 15 or 16K and 20K). Seattle KING works but with a lot of gaps in the
sound while buffering. More RAM would probably fix this. Clicking on 16K
mono takes you right to the broadcast, or you can click on the station name
for its home page. I got Adelaide Australia (unlistenable quality), tried
to get Radio Bartok (timed out, busy), and crashed on Czech Radio 3, which
is classical, as is Croatian Radio 3. Another time I got Czech Radio 3,
classical, jazz, ethnic, etc., and got some American popular tune of the
forties (is this ethnic?).
We will probably set up one FreeBSD (UNIX) computer with Netscape and
Realaudio for Linux and lots of RAM. Is there a Windows Media Player for
Linux? (Is there a RealAudio for Linux?)
People have been complaining recently that my phone is busy all day.
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keesan
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response 145 of 210:
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May 6 23:40 UTC 2000 |
Peter Ribbens, who runs this site, tells me that WKAR broadcasts FM in G2 and
AM in something that I can hear with version 5. That explains why it was all
talk. Some of the file compression and other messages may result from my
using Win31 and not Win95, rather than dependent on the version of RealPlayer.
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dbratman
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response 146 of 210:
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May 8 23:53 UTC 2000 |
I have yet to try listening to radio on the web. After reading the
account of sound quality in post #144, I feel disinclined to try.
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keesan
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response 147 of 210:
|
May 21 12:49 UTC 2000 |
Some stations have much better quality than others, and the statistics for
them reveal 100% of the signal was received either when due, or soon enough
afterwarsd for buffering to make up for that. The really bad ones lose what
sounds like 50%. Probably listening to stations that broadcast at rates more
than 20K, with a modem faster than 28K, would improve overall quality. Many
of the stations broadcast at two or more rates, for people with modems or
direct connects (up to 128K), in mono or stereo.
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keesan
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response 148 of 210:
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May 21 12:53 UTC 2000 |
RealPlayer 7 basic is available for Win 95 or later, Mac 8, Solaris 2.6, or
Linux 2.0. Does Linux come with a free dialer, or are there shareware dialers
for it? Not much point in trying to listen with Win31/Shiva.
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scott
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response 149 of 210:
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May 21 14:35 UTC 2000 |
Linux does indeed include a dialer.
(Linux doesn't have networking as an add-on like DOS and Win 3x. It's all
part of the basic package)
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krj
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response 150 of 210:
|
Jun 7 16:11 UTC 2000 |
Salon today has an overview article of the Internet radio scene, which they
think is getting ready to explode in popularity:
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/06/internet_radio/index.html
One little bit from the article: New Orleans jazz station WWOZ says it
now has 50,000 online listeners to go with its 50,000 over-the-air
listeners, and it is getting 10-15% of its financial contributions from
outside its broadcast area.
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jmsaul
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response 151 of 210:
|
Jul 2 14:54 UTC 2000 |
There are now some 2500 stations listed on real.com's "Radio Tuner" website,
and quality is very good (for broadcast radio with a reasonable-quality tuner;
it isn't up there with my rooftop antenna and Linn Kudos tuner) most of the
time in experience. Sometimes "Net Congestion" interferes with a specific
station at a specific time, so I just go to another one.
(I'm using a PowerMac 8600/300 and single-channel ISDN, for comparison
purposes.)
(Should we move the Internet radio part of this discussion to its own item?)
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keesan
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response 152 of 210:
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Jul 3 14:53 UTC 2000 |
Sure, start another item if you think there is enough more to say about it.
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bmoran
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response 153 of 210:
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Jul 9 21:31 UTC 2000 |
Hey, move it to the 'radio' .cf
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bmoran
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response 154 of 210:
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Jul 9 21:54 UTC 2000 |
OOPs, it's already there.
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krj
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response 155 of 210:
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Aug 9 17:35 UTC 2000 |
http://www.inside.com today offers a nice story on the two competing
satellite radio systems, Sirius and XM, which are rapidly moving towards
market. These will be subscription services for about $10/month,
intended for car drivers. They plan to distinguish themselves
through the personalities of their DJs. Sirius plans to recruit
serious and knowledgable people; XM plans to recruit wacky lunatics.
XM's plans are driven by Lee Abrams, "a radio legend credited with
inventing every calcified format in existence -- album and classic
rock, urban contemporary, smooth jazz, Howard Stern."
No mention of classical music -- sorry Sindi -- but each service is
supposed to have 50 channels so maybe a classical service will be
tossed in.
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,7859_9,00.html
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keesan
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response 156 of 210:
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Aug 10 19:34 UTC 2000 |
Lynx will not let me view this site.
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keesan
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response 157 of 210:
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Nov 8 21:14 UTC 2000 |
What is streaming MP3? Is it the same as RealAudio? If not, is anyone
broadcasting it and how would one listen to it? What minimum modem speed
would be needed? At 33K, it took me a lot longer to download a 1M MP3 file
than to listen to it, but I don't recall the ratio.
|
other
|
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response 158 of 210:
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Nov 8 21:26 UTC 2000 |
Streaming in general is a technology better served by a connection which
is fast enough to download data faster than the data can be handled and
played back to you. A 33k dial-up connection is not likely to make for a
worthwhile experience of streaming mp3.
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micklpkl
|
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response 159 of 210:
|
Nov 9 01:04 UTC 2000 |
Streaming MP3s are, I believe, Shoutcast streams
http://www.shoutcast.com
(although M$ is doing something similiar in another format)
It is different from RealAudio in several ways, from what I understand. I
admit to being self-taught in computer audio. RealAudio is another proprietary
format, and although popular, still requires specialized encoding and server
software. Shoutcast and streaming mp3s are making this quite a bit easier.
I've been listening to several different "homegrown" streams lately. I do this
by pointing WinAMP (not sure about cross-platform availability) to the URL
for the stream. Granted, for full, deep, stereo sound a broadband connection
is a definite must, but, as with mp3s themselves, the encoding parameters of
the music determines the bandwidth required. For example, at work where I am
stuck with a 56K dialup connection, I can listen to my favourite Celtic music
stream, but only because the "D.J." encoded his music at a low bitrate
suitable for dialup streaming. Most decent mp3s are encoded at a bitrate of
128 or 160 Kbps, with theoretically would require at least ISDN for decent
streaming.
I hope that helps. Again, I'm no expert; YMMV
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keesan
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response 160 of 210:
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Nov 9 15:54 UTC 2000 |
Are any MP3s encoded at 28K? (mono) Some RealAudio broadcasts are.
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keesan
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response 161 of 210:
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Nov 9 16:02 UTC 2000 |
Looked at that site. They offer a choice of players for Windows (Winamp),
Mac, or Linux/X. Any chance that a DOS MP3 player could be made to work (QV,
DOSAMP)? I looked up classical broadcasts, of which there are 18 (most are
mixed with jazz or other things), and the bitrates are listed as 128 (very
few), 56, 32, 24, 20 (Moscow) and even 18. Presumably a 33K modem could
handle up to 32 (with some gaps).
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keesan
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response 162 of 210:
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Nov 9 16:05 UTC 2000 |
Winamp requires Win95 or later. Hopefully Arachne or Newdeal will come up
with some DOS-based way to hear streaming MP3. Does this sound any better
than RealAudio at the same modem speed?
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keesan
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response 163 of 210:
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Nov 9 16:15 UTC 2000 |
www.mpeg.org/mpeg/mpeg-audio-player.html has lots of links to mp3 info,
including one to players for most operating systems - 3 players for DOS, some
for OS/2, BeOS, Solaris, etc. I might experiment with streaming MP3 and
Win31/Netscape. Can't be any worse than RealAudio. Shoutcast seemed to be
implying that only their WinAMP for Win95 would work.
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krj
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response 164 of 210:
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Nov 13 17:49 UTC 2000 |
My gut feeling is that no streaming system is going to sound particularly
good after it's run through a modem-speed connection, even a 56K one.
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keesan
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response 165 of 210:
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Nov 14 03:04 UTC 2000 |
How much worse would the best streaming audio sound at 56K than the Toledo
classical station as heard in Ann Arbor, 60 miles away?
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krj
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response 166 of 210:
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Nov 14 18:36 UTC 2000 |
Yeetch. Tough call, as the damage being done to the sound is different
in the two transmissions. Streaming is going to sound tinny, sort of
like AM radio, with dropouts. The FM signal from Toledo, particularly
in the daytime, is going to have that nasty hash/static noise.
Name your poison, I guess.
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keesan
|
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response 167 of 210:
|
Nov 15 22:09 UTC 2000 |
Since Toledo is at many times of the day and week the only classical station
hearable in Ann Arbor, and at some times there are no classical broadcasts
at all (6-6:30 pm) even a tinny internet broadcast would be welcome. Toledo
is not as bad in mono - I almost never try to listen to classical music on
the radio in stereo as we have no classical stations close enough.
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gelinas
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response 168 of 210:
|
Nov 16 03:16 UTC 2000 |
WKAR is often classical, and usually hearable. The only place I regular
lose it is on Packard at State.
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