Goodbye to HD Radio (for the moment)

[Guest]

Has anyone noticed that the 320kbps AAC R3 stream has been turned off? The BBC has discontinued SHOUTcast AAC and replaced it with 128kbps mp3! With no notice (oh, all right, in an arcane blog read by very few). I now have two bricks in place of internet radios.

[Frances_iom]

...With no notice (oh, all right, in an arcane blog read by very few). I now have two bricks in place of internet radios.

just like the promised high quality 'better than CD' DAB services touted to get early purchasers to buy the expensive DAB - BBC is I'm afraid untrustworthy in many respects - its only good point is that it is somewhat better than Faux news but only just at times

[french frank]

There are other posts from#97 on this thread

Jim Simmons has now posted a grovelling apology on that blog, but I don't think it makes much difference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/977a1954-658f-4fb2-a23c-71680c49882f

[johnb]

FF,

I think this topic deserves a thread of its own. It would be ideal if the relevant posts on the other thread could be moved over - however that might be difficult as this subject didn't really have a distinct beginning on that thread.

[johnb]

There are certainly major changes which have very badly affected many BBC Radio listeners but this is the current situation for the various ways I access R3:

R3 Accessed via the R3 website on a computer (Windows 7/Firefox):
- R3 Live: 320 kbps (presumably AAC-LC)
- R3 Listen Again: 320 kbps (presumably AAC-LC)

Logitech Touch (using "Triode's" BBC iPlayer plugin)
- R3 Live: programmes have been replaced by an announcement "explaining" the changes
- R3 Listen Again: currently working as usual (320kbps AAC-LC), but this is expected to stop once the changes are fully rolled out

[johnb]

It seems that some of the techie guys on the slimdevices forum (supporting the Squeezebox devices) have already come up with a provisional work round to access the live streams and, at least for now, most of the channels (not just R3) appear to be 320 kbps.

[Phileas]

There may be a temporary fix for Squeezebox users here:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?53229-Announce-BBCiPlayer-Plugin-(UK-only)&p=806872&viewfull=1#post806872

[french frank]

FF,

I think this topic deserves a thread of its own. It would be ideal if the relevant posts on the other thread could be moved over - however that might be difficult as this subject didn't really have a distinct beginning on that thread.

I'll see how it works out. The posts on the other thread will mostly take precedence over these as they were posted earlier.

[johnb]

Thanks to the amazing guys in the Squeezebox community (i.e. the slimdevices forum) my Logitech Touch is now streaming R3 Live again, seemingly 320 kbps AAC, using a workaround that one of the contributors quickly developed.

This is the sort of thing that makes the Squeezebox system rather special.

[Phileas]

Me too.

[jayne lee wilson]

Through JRiver (publicradiofan) or direct from the BBC R3 iPlayer page, 320 kbps aac still comes up in the window for say, the Rattle Sibelius recordings - couldn't get a reading off the live stream just now, but the "HDs" logo still appears. iTunes lost the "R3 High" choice a while ago, as did some other portals.

With the JRiver/prf access, if I click on the immediate live stream symbol, I get 128 kbps. Probably same feed as iTunes. I have to go to the R3 iPlayer page itself to get 320, by a slightly tortuous route...

[johnb]

Jayne,

This is probably of no help to you at all, but the guys on the slimdevices (Squeezebox) forum report that the new HLS live streams are available for all the BBC radio stations from two third parties ("sbr_high" representing the 320 kbps AAC stream), e.g. for Radio 3:

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_three.m3u8

and

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/llnw/bbc_radio_three.m3u8

(Additionally it seems that Radio 4, etc are also available at 320 kbps.)

They then used ffmpeg (a well known free software package) to convert the streams to mp3/flac/pcm on the fly.

Perhaps the guys at JRiver could lash up something similar.

[Later Edit]
Jayne, from a cursory glance at the JRiver website it seems that the player might support the HLS streams already - so why not try those URLs.

[Stunsworth]

Through JRiver (publicradiofan) or direct from the BBC R3 iPlayer page, 320 kbps aac still comes up in the window for say, the Rattle Sibelius recordings

Yes, the iPlayer is still 320k - though at some point the sampling rate changed from 44.1k to 48k. No idea when, could have been ages ago.

[Bryn]

Yes, the iPlayer is still 320k - though at some point the sampling rate changed from 44.1k to 48k. No idea when, could have been ages ago.

I reported on this change a week or two ago. It is a very recent change. I will try an pinpoint the date, but not tonight.

[David-G]

I reported on this change a week or two ago. It is a very recent change. I will try an pinpoint the date, but not tonight.

"Not a fault report, as such, but I note that in the past week or so, the sample rate used for the HD Sound stream has been changed from 44.1kHz to 48kHz, thus bringing it into line with the sample rate used for most DAB and other digital broadcast streams. Might make a few dogs prick up their ears, I suppose."

Bryn, what is the effect or implications of this change? Improved quality?