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z105
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Sure go for it then, each to their own. Enjoy !
Wifi internet radio
- Thread starter Sherman
- Start date
Sure go for it then, each to their own. Enjoy !
Was the Dundalk store but I would guess their pricing is same country wide - they have a store in Swords Airside retail park
I know someone who has a Freecom Internet Radio, bought from Argos, which they have been very happy with (price is around €130 or so, depending on where you source it). It is this one, I believe:
Amongst other things, the Freecom unit allows you to listen to MP3's from your PC (via the wireless network) in addition to streaming radio stations from the Internet. That is a handy feature which might not be available on some devices. It support MP3 and WAV only (see below if you are interested in BBC stations, as this unit won't support them right now!).
For those that are willing to spend more (significantly more actually, in the region of £200 sterling), then the Roberts WM201 looks good: http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/pages/wm201.html
...on the plus side, the Roberts supports Real Audio (you need this to listen to the BBC stations from outside of the UK!), it supports the "Listen again" feature on the BBC sites so that you can listen to programmes after they have been broadcast, it has a remote control, etc. On the negative side, it has no FM tuner so if you lose your Internet connectivity this device is useless as a radio (presumably it can still stream files from your PC though), and that price tag is very steep.
Further to what I mention above, beware of buying an Internet Radio that does not support Real Audio if you want to listen to BBC radio stations - in the UK BBC stations are streamed in Realaudio and WAV format, but outside of the UK it is Realaudio only. There are quite a few Internet Radios out there that do not support Realaudio, and with one of those the best that you can hope for in order to listen to BBC stations is to find some site that "re-broadcasts" the stations in a support format (such as mp3). Such stations do exist, but I'm not sure if they cover all of the BBC stations and they may not be entirely legal either so could disappear at any time.
Amongst other things, the Freecom unit allows you to listen to MP3's from your PC (via the wireless network) in addition to streaming radio stations from the Internet. That is a handy feature which might not be available on some devices. It support MP3 and WAV only (see below if you are interested in BBC stations, as this unit won't support them right now!).
For those that are willing to spend more (significantly more actually, in the region of £200 sterling), then the Roberts WM201 looks good: http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/pages/wm201.html
...on the plus side, the Roberts supports Real Audio (you need this to listen to the BBC stations from outside of the UK!), it supports the "Listen again" feature on the BBC sites so that you can listen to programmes after they have been broadcast, it has a remote control, etc. On the negative side, it has no FM tuner so if you lose your Internet connectivity this device is useless as a radio (presumably it can still stream files from your PC though), and that price tag is very steep.
Further to what I mention above, beware of buying an Internet Radio that does not support Real Audio if you want to listen to BBC radio stations - in the UK BBC stations are streamed in Realaudio and WAV format, but outside of the UK it is Realaudio only. There are quite a few Internet Radios out there that do not support Realaudio, and with one of those the best that you can hope for in order to listen to BBC stations is to find some site that "re-broadcasts" the stations in a support format (such as mp3). Such stations do exist, but I'm not sure if they cover all of the BBC stations and they may not be entirely legal either so could disappear at any time.
For info, here is a snippet of the info from the BBC website re the format of their streams. The full info is available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/broadband_faq.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/broadband_faq.shtml
I thought that once a device can deal with internet radio streams then it can also deal with streams from local/LAN sources? The supported codec issue that you mention is obviously also pertinent.
The feed of audio from a website to your internet radio is a constant stream of audio data, encoded in whatever format (MP3, WAV, Realaudio, etc.). This streaming of the audio is provided by software running on the server and your radio is like a passive listening device.
In the case of audio files stored on your home PC, chances are you don't have equivalent streaming software installed, so your internet radio needs to actively access the encoded audio files directly on the disk - for this the radio needs to have the necessary functionality to access a shared network drive for example. The technology is simple enough, especially given that a lot of internet radios are likely just mini-PC's with a full-blown operating system running on them (which will have this functionality built in), but it seems to be a bit of functionality that is not enabled on all of them.
I don't know, to be honest, as I've never tried. Although I believe that VLC (http://www.videolan.org/) can act as a streaming server and that is freely available for a number of operating systems (and is quite good as a media player generally).
There are probably a variety of other freely available pieces of software that will do this too, but one headache may be the fact that you can only listen to what the software is streaming at any one time i.e. from your internet radio you may not be able to pick and choose which media file on your PC you want to listen to, you'll likely have to go to the PC to get it to stream right now the file you want to listen to. Having said that though, maybe there is some kind of functionality available on some of these streaming server implementations that allows a client such as your internet radio to tell it what file to stream - I am just speculating here though as I haven't looked at the details of any of the (free) streaming servers available.
An internet radio that is able to access the files directly (from a shared network drive) is probably more convenient - at the expense of sharing the drive on your PC on its local network, of course, which might be an issue for some people under certain circumstances.
I haven't used it or seen any comprehensive reviews of the Binatone but a couple of things that might be worth investigating if possible before buying it or any internet radio:
1. What wifi standard does it operate at; b/g or n? afaik a wifi network's speed will drop to the lowest common denominator so you might be hurting your overall network speed by adding a new device
2. Will the internet radio streaming types supported by the Bintone match your listening requirements? I don't think Real Audio, MP3 and WMA covers all radio stations - I know I have seen other types but I can't search at the moment. For instance I think RTE use a funny type.
3. Is BBC a core requirement? The BBC have recently changed their internet radio policy and only allow UK residents to access their radio streams. This can be easily circumvented when browsing via a pc but some internet radios / players have a country set up option which may exclude you from accessing some BBC stations.
These are just some of the things I have seen discussed, and experienced in some cases
, in relation to internet radio and may not apply to the Binatone or other products but may be worth a further look.
All of the above notwithstanding, I think Internet Radio is the best thing since sliced bread, particularly Iceberg Radio which gives a fantastic choice.
1. What wifi standard does it operate at; b/g or n? afaik a wifi network's speed will drop to the lowest common denominator so you might be hurting your overall network speed by adding a new device
2. Will the internet radio streaming types supported by the Bintone match your listening requirements? I don't think Real Audio, MP3 and WMA covers all radio stations - I know I have seen other types but I can't search at the moment. For instance I think RTE use a funny type.
3. Is BBC a core requirement? The BBC have recently changed their internet radio policy and only allow UK residents to access their radio streams. This can be easily circumvented when browsing via a pc but some internet radios / players have a country set up option which may exclude you from accessing some BBC stations.
These are just some of the things I have seen discussed, and experienced in some cases
, in relation to internet radio and may not apply to the Binatone or other products but may be worth a further look.All of the above notwithstanding, I think Internet Radio is the best thing since sliced bread, particularly Iceberg Radio which gives a fantastic choice.
Thanks for the tips on things to look out for. It's difficult to find detailed information on this device (and the Frontier portal that it uses - i.e. not the that others use) so I might just get one from Argos to find out more.
Bought one today but the fascia/case of the thing is scratched so I'll be bringing it back for replacement.
The manual is pretty sparse and doesn't clarify if it's 802.11b or 802.11g. It also just says that it copes with MP3, WMA and RealAudio but doesn't say if this list is exhaustive or what variants (e.g. bitrates etc.) are supported.podgerodge
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I have the Binatone/Transciva.
No probs at all with it. No problems with wifi speed. No problems with different bitrates used by different stations. The difference between this and the Internet radios that use Reciva is that it uses Frontier (http://www.wifiradio-frontier.com) - where u register your access code for free. This website allows you to enter co-ordinates for stations that aren't on their list - from then on this new station is available on your radio. works very well.
Sound quality is kitchen radio stuff - which is fine.
And on top of this it has ordinary FM and DAB. I thought it was a great buy.
If you are quick about it there is a Riva Blik wifi radio on Ibood today - I believe it's a higher quality sound radio with remote control.
No probs at all with it. No problems with wifi speed. No problems with different bitrates used by different stations. The difference between this and the Internet radios that use Reciva is that it uses Frontier (http://www.wifiradio-frontier.com) - where u register your access code for free. This website allows you to enter co-ordinates for stations that aren't on their list - from then on this new station is available on your radio. works very well.
Sound quality is kitchen radio stuff - which is fine.
And on top of this it has ordinary FM and DAB. I thought it was a great buy.
If you are quick about it there is a Riva Blik wifi radio on Ibood today - I believe it's a higher quality sound radio with remote control.
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't had a chance to replace and try out the Binatone yet. I saw the iBood offer but I was more interested in a 3-in-1 FM/DAB/Wifi internet unit.
podgerodge
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I bought one item from iBood. There was some confusion with the order being processed due to a problem with their website. However their telephone support was excellent and got the problem solved. I think that delivery was a little slow too. They are legitimate if that's your worry. Boards.ie (in particular the Bargains Alerts forum) discusses them and their one day offers quite a bit.
Did you get a specific and correct delivery date eventually or was it a random delivery?. I'd hate to have to hang around waiting for the postman
You read my mind, that was my concern, especially I had read a few posts regarding late deliveries etc. Guess it's time to decide on which one to go for. (and at the same time change from a Tesco Visa Card, which doesn't allow for online transactions reading, which is necessary for peace of mind where there may be delivery problems).
Thanks again for all the help