iPlayer fault reports

[Bryn]

I thought a separate thread for these was called for.

Currently, both Composer of the Week, and the Lunchtime Concert for 27th December 2013 have been made available only in "LO" bandwidth (49kbps 22kHz sample rate mono HE-AAC) versions, i.e. no HD Sound offering. I have reported the fault but it might help if others do likewise via https://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co....orms/emailPage .

[Bryn]

O.K., Friday's Composer of the Week has now been made available in HD Sound format, but the Lunchtime Concert remains stuck in low data and sampling rate mono. I'll check again tomorrow and if there is no change I will go through the convoluted "Contact Us" process again. Can others please do likewise. I think a little attrition might just do the trick.

[David-G]

Still seems not to be working. I have submitted a fault report. Hopefully others will too.

[David-G]

They do seem to have fixed this now. Curiously, in the Schedule page for this concert, the pianist Evgeni Koroliov is listed in Cyrillic characters ("Performer: Евгений
Александрович Королёв"). This is rather unusual!

[Bryn]

They do seem to have fixed this now. Curiously, in the Schedule page for this concert, the pianist Evgeni Koroliov is listed in Cyrillic characters ("Performer: Евгений
Александрович Королёв"). This is rather unusual!

Thanks, I had an email from the iPlayer team yesterday afternoon in which they said the fault had been passed on for investigation. As to the Cyrillic, its appearance in the listings has become something of a commonplace of late.

[David-G]

Today's Early Music Show only seems to be available in "LO" quality. I will fill in a fault report. It might be helpful if others could do likewise. Thanks!

[David-G]

The "HI" version of the EMS on the iplayer seems to be alright now - no action needed!

[robk]

If I download a MP3 file from Amazon and import it into Media Monkey the bitrate is shown as 320 or 256 depending on the files that are available on Amazon. If I rip a CD and import it into Media Monkey a typical value for the bitrate would be around 500. If I capture the Radio 3 stream from i-Player using Audacity set at Stereo 44100 Hz and 32 bit float then import the file into Media Monkey as a FLAC, I still get a bitrate at around 500. I don’t know how to tell what bitrate i-player is streaming at, other than Hi or Low Resolution, but I doubt it is going to be more than 320. Any idea what is going on here? Is Audacity creating a file with “redundant” bits? How can you tell what the streaming rate actually is.

[johnb]

Radio 3 iPlayer Hi Res (both Live and Listen Again) is 320 kbps AAC-LC.

Other BBC radio channels on iPlayer have significantly lower bitrates.

[Bryn]

Radio 3 iPlayer Hi Res (both Live and Listen Again) is 320 kbps AAC-LC.

Other BBC radio channels on iPlayer have significantly lower bitrates.

Since AAC-LC appears to employ variable bit rate, I think it safer to say c. 320kbps.

A CD rip should give a data rate of 1411kbps.

FLAC can give a wide range of data rates depending upon the original material and the time you want the encoder to take to do its job.

[robk]

I think Media Monkey derives the bitrate from the file size and the duration of the track. So the low bit rate for the ripped CD would be because of the compression in the FLAC file - I hope. But I would have expected therefore that the FLAC's derived from capture of the iPlayer stream would be less than 320. Perhaps I should save a WAV file and see how that looks.

[Bryn]

I think Media Monkey derives the bitrate from the file size and the duration of the track. So the low bit rate for the ripped CD would be because of the compression in the FLAC file - I hope. But I would have expected therefore that the FLAC's derived from capture of the iPlayer stream would be less than 320. Perhaps I should save a WAV file and see how that looks.

Since the Radio 3 HD Sound AAC-LC uses a sample rate of 44.1kHz, and 16 bit quantization, the data rate of WAV derived format should be 1411, the same as the CD rate.

[robk]

Tried saving a Wav file captured from Radio 3 live stream using Audacity and it came out at 1411 kbps. Why is it so high then?

[robk]

Since the Radio 3 HD Sound AAC-LC uses a sample rate of 44.1kHz, and 16 bit quantization, the data rate of WAV derived format should be 1411, the same as the CD rate.

Thanks Bryn - it was.

[Bryn]

Lat night's Through the Night, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03s6279 , has been made available in the "LO" bandwidth, low sample rate, low data rate, mono version only. I have reported the fault via iPlayer "Contact Us" system, https://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co....orms/emailPage but it might help if others also do likewise.