Internet radio stations & other alternatives to Radio 3

[Beresford]

Tonight (Friday) on France Musique - 5 hours of Ensemble Intercontemporain - to celebrate their 40th.

[Pulcinella]

Mrs CS is familiar

Are you sure that she won't mind us all knowing?

[Cockney Sparrow]

Now that Hama unit looks very interesting. As I have DAC and amp in my speakers, I am keeping a large AV Receiver purely for the radio and because Mrs CS is familiar with it,** and can switch it on without any special "app" flummery. As long as Mrs CS can find radio 3 or R4 easily, this is the solution and of course offers more in the form of internet radio...

On a quick look at the manual on the website this looks like a good solution. (particularly as I have resisted DAB tuners but they probably will have their way and turn off the FM transmitters, and anyway for quality sound its now clear the R3 internet stream is superior to FM).

[gurnemanz]

I have finally found a suitable replacement for my old Sony VHF tuner which has done great hi-fi service over the years - an excellent new all-purpose digital tuner from Germany. The Hama dit2010 does everything: Internet radio, wifi streaming from PC, DAB, VHF, Spotify, USB input. Very good sound through amp. It can also be controlled from smartphone. It is actually an exact equivalent of the Roberts 93i which I have as a bedside radio but geared up for use with hifi setups. It seems not to be available from UK. I ordered it over the net from a Czech site for £184 with trackable deivery and it arrived problem-free a couple of days later.

It is now easy listen to Radio 3 HD + of course umpteen other stations. A current favourite is Ancient FM with ad- and announcement-free mediaeval and renaissance music.

[johnb]

But there's a problem - playing the stream in iTunes mysteriously removes the option to beam it wirelessly via Airplay/Airport. So I can only use the computer speakers, rather defeating the HQ purpose. Very odd.

That is very puzzling. It might be that the Airplay/Airport options are confused because the URL points to a playlist rather than a direct connection to, say, a mp3 stream.

However, there is another option to receive Radio3 320 kbps using a "temporary" legacy stream that the BBC instituted specially for Radio 3, following the outcry when they switched off the old rtmp streams early last year:

http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/select/version/2.0/mediaset/http-icy-aac-lc-a/format/pls/vpid/bbc_radio_three.pls

I've tested it in iTunes and it works fine, but I don't know whether it will solve your Airplay/Airport problem.

This stream was only intended as a temporary fix for Radio 3 listeners who were used to receiving 320kbps and who used streaming devices which couldn't handle for the new HLS/HDS streams. The BBC will eventually terminate this stream, and they could do so at any time.

[Nick Armstrong]

If iTunes by default only offers Radio 3 live at 128 kbps you can still get the 320 kbps HLS stream by entering the following URL into iTunes. On my Windows iTunes the method seems to be: File/Open Stream, but I have no idea how you save details for later use.

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

Many thanks for this johnb - it stays in iTunes once added, so that's fine. But there's a problem - playing the stream in iTunes mysteriously removes the option to beam it wirelessly via Airplay/Airport. So I can only use the computer speakers, rather defeating the HQ purpose. Very odd.

[johnb]

I don't use iTunes, but it is curious that, by default, it only lists the R3 128kbps live stream.

I've looked back at my notes from early last year when the BBC introduced the current HLS streams (which are almost certainly used by iTunes): the live Radio 3 HLS streams are available at 320, 128, 96 and 48 kbps.

If iTunes by default only offers Radio 3 live at 128 kbps you can still get the 320 kbps HLS stream by entering the following URL into iTunes. On my Windows iTunes the method seems to be: File/Open Stream, but I have no idea how you save details for later use.

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


If anyone is interested I will post the details of the URLs for the HLS streams of all the BBC National Stations, together with the various options.

[Bryn]

I just wonder why the BBC Radio 3 offering is only at 128kbps. Isn't iTunes capable of picking up the 320kbps feed, and decoding it?

Especially as the iPlayer used AAC-LC encoding, which is what Apple 'wraps up' as m4a lossy format. Confusingly, they use the same file-type identifier for their lossless CODEC.

[Dave2002]

I just wonder why the BBC Radio 3 offering is only at 128kbps. Isn't iTunes capable of picking up the 320kbps feed, and decoding it?

[Beef Oven!]

I think it's definitely Apple manipulation when it comes to radio on iOS - they seem to have disabled that function on iTunes for mobile devices to send people towards the marketable "Apps" store...

I don’t think I’m the least bit thick - I think it’s an Apple conspiracy.

[Nick Armstrong]

I don’t think that there’s any conspiracy, Richard - I was just being a bit thick.

I think it's definitely Apple manipulation when it comes to radio on iOS - they seem to have disabled that function on iTunes for mobile devices to send people towards the marketable "Apps" store...

[Beef Oven!]

I suspect that Apple has subtly made it increasingly difficult to find Internet Stations because that is less profitable for them
Than if you were to spend on Apple Music.
I just installed Tune In on my iPad. It is a free app that many of the commercial streaming services bundle in their software to find Internet Radio Stations. If you install that on your phone or Tablet then you should be able to find any station.

I don’t think that there’s any conspiracy, Richard - I was just being a bit thick.

[Nick Armstrong]

Glad to sort you out, BeefO!

I just installed Tune In on my iPad. It is a free app that many of the commercial streaming services bundle in their software to find Internet Radio Stations. If you install that on your phone or Tablet then you should be able to find any station.

Thanks rfg - helpful, I now get that iTunes for iOS doesn't carry radio in the same way, and that one has to download separate "Apps". Looking around, I think the one that suits me (rather than your Tune In) is this one: http://appcrawlr.com/ios/classical-radio - for one thing, it easily allows me to get my cherished Classical Minnesota Public Radio at one click.

Even easier - I've found that my favourite US station, KUSC, has its own app https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/clas...447665086?mt=8 so that's now on the iPad and will probably be my first port of call after R3 via iPlayer.

Ooooh! And the KUSC app has an 'AirPlay' option so I can switch it to play through the big HiFi when at home! Brill!

Cheers

[Beef Oven!]

R3 has disappeared in the past but it's in the classical list constantly these days - and in sound which belies its rather lowly bit rate...

Can't you see it in the alphabetical classical list if you rank it like this:



after quite a lot of dross starting with 'A'?

Doh!!

Yes, I’ve got it. I’ve been making a schoolboy error in my searches. Many thanks - all sorted and ship-shape now

[richardfinegold]

I suspect that Apple has subtly made it increasingly difficult to find Internet Stations because that is less profitable for them
Than if you were to spend on Apple Music.
I just installed Tune In on my iPad. It is a free app that many of the commercial streaming services bundle in their software to find Internet Radio Stations. If you install that on your phone or Tablet then you should be able to find any station.