Odd fetching of radio

[Jim web]

In article <EA08698A072B4837AA51CC07A6C637B2 at vasonote>, Vangelis
forthnet
<northmedia1 at the.forthnet.gr> wrote:

>  As for the SR of 44.1kHz, I remember asking our own "Jim web" some
> months ago why it was still used for shoutcast MP3 live radio, his
> "connections" told him it was to afford compatibility with as many
> "legacy" devices as possible. I assume the same reason could be argued
> for MP3 podcast files...

FWIW I've not yet really investigated 'podcasts' as a distinct species.
I've recently started wondering about them, though, due to the habit of the
producers of some programs (e.g. 'Feedback' and 'More or Less') to provide
a 'shortened' version when I fetch using the standard pid. 

The behaviour seems to arise due to the BBC poking 5-min inserts into the
live broadcasts for things like the 'Listening Project'. I can understand
why they means the conventional broadcast will be shorter. But not why this
means the material is removed from the main iplayer version. Seems to
happen even for the version shown at the 'repeat' time when it was *not*
cut down. The first broadcast and repeat share the same pid and both tend
to be shortened.

AIUI 44.1k was used in the past because the older versions of Flash were
unable to cope with 48k. That limit is now gone for most of us. But maybe
there is still a conversion in the path for mp3 for shoutcast / legacy
reasons.

I'll see if I can get some info on the above as it has been puzzling me.

BTW more recently my DASH radio fetching has become very fast. [1]So I
assume the variations I was getting are down to the unknowns of net
transfer routes, traffic loadings, etc, etc. Not a gip problem as such.

Jim

[1] Got the 3 hr "Williams on the Wireless" program at 320k in less than a
minute this morning! Very fast indeed. I'm hoping it may include "Post
Mortem". If it does, I'd recommend people try it. Quite unlike what people
may expect!

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