Forum R3 HD Link - Never Works?

[Guest]

Every time I try the Forum link 'Live HD stream' I just get a message about 'Doesn't seem to be working - try again later'.
(This URL is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hd-sound/)

When I then go to the R3 site and click on 'Listen now' it comes up right away (using http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_three) and has the HD option, which I use.

This has been happening for some weeks now. Is anyone else affected? The Forum non-HD link 'Listen Live' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/b...ree/listenlive) seems to work OK, but there is no switch, once one is there, to change to HD.


Why do there have to be so many confusing ways of killing the cat, anyway?

You'd think there would just be two BBC R3 URLs, for HD and not, which everything would point to.

[Treek]

I've been having trouble accessing HD stream via my Squeezebox Touch. Not sure when it stopped working, last time I listened was late 2012, and over Xmas/NY just got File not Found when trying to access. Regular stream OK. Will report back if/when I have solution

[johnb]

Treek,

Are you using Logitech's app or Triode's third party plugin (which runs on LMS)? Also are you using the current version of the software?

Originally the BBC had the R3 HD stream separate from the 'standard' iPlayer options. Later this was dropped and the R3 HD stream replaced the normal (up to then 192kbps) iPlayer stream. So there was no longer any need for the separate HD stream, with its own URL.

I don't use Logitech's iPlayer app, only Triode's 3rd part plugin and that works fine - but he updated it many months ago to reflect the dropping of the separate HD stream. I presume the Logitech app will have been similarly updated, but I don't know for sure, and it might very well be the case that, now, you are getting the 320 kbps stream be default? By the way, I've found the current Squeezebox software release to be very stable.

I suspect the problems both you and Don are having are due to the links on this forum and the Touch software you are using not having been updated to reflect the current situation.

By the way, I have always found that the easiest way to access the R3 iPlayer (on a PC) is via the R3 Schedule pages.

[doversoul1]

By the way, I have always found that the easiest way to access the R3 iPlayer (on a PC) is via the R3 Schedule pages.

I do, too, but have you tried to listen again last week’s Through the Night ? The schedule page (Last) tells you that the week began on Monday 2 January, thus yesterday (Sunday) was 8 January. No programmes were available for Listen Again from this page. It has not yet corrected.

I had to go round to Programme>A to Z>T>Through the Night>Episodes.

What a mess!

[David-G]

I just Google "Radio 3 Schedule", click the date that is offered (currently today Monday 7 January), and then select whichever day I want in the last week from the bar at the top. I just tried it and it works fine.

[doversoul1]

I just Google "Radio 3 Schedule", click the date that is offered (currently today Monday 7 January), and then select whichever day I want in the last week from the bar at the top. I just tried it and it works fine.

Ah, yes. There is that way, too. Just for the fun of it, try this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules/2012/w01/grid

[johnb]

This is the link for what David referred to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules

The easiest method is to set that as a Bookmark or Favourite with your browser, then you can automatically access it whenever you like.

[Andrew Slater]

Has anyone considered using the 'Listen' links on this blog?

(To go back a week, click on the second item in the 'BLOG ARCHIVE' column on the right.)

[Zucchini]

I do, too, but have you tried to listen again last week’s Through the Night ? The schedule page (Last) tells you that the week began on Monday 2 January, thus yesterday (Sunday) was 8 January. No programmes were available for Listen Again from this page.What a mess!

Don't know why, prob. a turn of year software glitch but yes, when you backpedal from today to last week (Week 1) you get the schedule for the first week of 2012.

So of course you can't Listen Again. Will probably sort itself in a week's time when going back from Week 3 to Week 2. Not very serious and not worth the cost of correcting the software for this alone in a tiny backwater of the BBC.

[doversoul1]

Oh, is that what it is (the date being last years)? Come to that, there was no ‘last week’ available all last week. Surely even the BBC knows that a new year comes round every year. Can’t they set up something to deal with it? Not that it is all that serious but it does look pretty silly.

[Don Petter]

Interesting. No-one has yet responded to my original post.

As far as I'm concerned it still never works from the Forum HD link. (Just tried it again now).

[johnb]

Dan,

I think I did address your issues in my earlier post.

The BBC no longer has a separate "HD Sound" stream. It "upgraded" the previous 192 kbps iPlayer stream to 320 kbps, therefore there was no longer a need for a separate URL for HD and they have probably removed it.

So the forum HD link is obsolete and should really be removed.

It might well be that ff is already intending to remove that link, but just in case that is not the case I will complaint about my own post, hoping that will bring the issue to the attention of whoever is currently looking after such matters while ff recuperates.

[Don Petter]

Dan,

I think I did address your issues in my earlier post.

The BBC no longer has a separate "HD Sound" stream. It "upgraded" the previous 192 kbps iPlayer stream to 320 kbps, therefore there was no longer a need for a separate URL for HD and they have probably removed it.

So the forum HD link is obsolete and should really be removed.

It might well be that ff is already intending to remove that link, but just in case that is not the case I will complaint about my own post, hoping that will bring the issue to the attention of whoever is currently looking after such matters while ff recuperates.

That sounds feasible, but it doesn't seem to be quite like that.

The 'Non-HD' forum link goes to the iPlayer stream which is still at about 190-200kps (just tried it) with no option to switch to HD, so that isn't 320kps. The 'normal' route via the R3 home page gives the choice of Lo or Hi, and defaults to the latter at 320kps (just tried that).

So it still seems that the forum needs a link via a different route to gives users the HD stream.

[johnb]

Dan,

Very curious!

Using the Listen Live link goes to a webpage which, it seems, is a version of iPlayer which has now been superceded. You're absolutely right that it goes stream at 192 kbps. However, if you run your mouse over the panel a black bar appears at the bottom. In the middle of that is a "pop out" button which, when used, does give the correct 320 kbps stream!

The current Listen Live link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/b...ree/listenlive

It seems that the new revised URL is the Radio 3 homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/
Later edit: this might not be correct - see subsequent post

So, until one of the administrators updates the links, the best thing to do is to use the Radio 3 'Homepage' link.
Later edit: this might be a BBC problem rather than a problem with the link - see subsequent post.

(Even easier is to set the Radio 3 Schedule as a bookmark/favourite in your browser: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules )

[johnb]

Dan,

I've looked at the matter again and I think that there is an error on the iPayer website (although it is true that on one occasion then I used the iPlayer site to navigate to Radio 3 Live there was a pop-up window suggesting I use the Radio 3 Homepage).

Because of this I have e-mailed a contact within the BBC who was very helpful in sorting out an intermittent bit rate problem at the back end of 2011.