Playing BBC R3 FLAC files recorded by nightly VLC

[Paul Thornett]

> If Paul Thornett right clicks on the Radio iPlayer, or whatever it is called now, it will tell him the bit rate.  It will be 320kbit/s unless he has a slow connection or is suffering from geo-blocking.

You are, of course, absolutely right. Except that right-clicking
produces 96k rather than 320k. This surprises me as I'm not usually
the victim of geo-blocking (I use a DNS trick) - attested to by the
fact I use GIP all the time and experience no restrictions.
Latest update: yes, apparently my DNS provider acknowledges there is
indeed a problem which they are working on, so that presumably
explains the 96k.

But, really, how astonishing. Why on earth didn't the BBC go the whole
hog and allow the lossless music to be stored for 30 days? If anyone
mentions a lack of space, then please try to explain why the GIP
--streaminfo parameter run against, say, "I know who you are" (episode
8) produces literally dozens of alternative streams for this 1
program.

Regards,

Paul Thornett


On 7 August 2017 at 00:04, RS <richard22j at zoho.com> wrote:
>> From: Jim web
>> Sent: Sunday, August 6, 2017 12:18
>
>
>> In article
>> <CAAFM_YzBie08TvvnBZp+k+r81DvifbTAqAUJ_LvCcSKxTx1n-A at mail.gmail.com>, Paul
>> Thornett <pthornett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>> Well, that's funny. I've been playing Proms on the iPlayer site (nothing
>>> to do with GIP) and recording the stream with Audacity since the Proms
>>
>> >started (as I live in Oz, playing and recording a live stream is
>> >impractical given the time difference).
>
>
>> >MediaInfo shows a constant bit rate of 1411 kb/s, a sampling rate of
>> >44.1 kHz and a bit depth of 16.
>
>
>> Since the BBC will be using 48k for the standard streams (ignoring
>> 'podcasts') that alerts you to "MediaInfo" reporting something which has
>> been converted after reception.
>
>
>> 1411 kb/s is the LPCM rate for stereo 44.1k/16bit.
>
>
>>> If you then do the same for a live Prom, you get exactly the same
>>> results from MediaInfo,
>
>
>> if you do, something in your system *prior* to "MediaInfo" is farting
>> about
>> with the audio and changing the sample rate.
>
>
> If Paul Thornett right clicks on the Radio iPlayer, or whatever it is called
> now, it will tell him the bit rate.  It will be 320kbit/s unless he has a
> slow connection or is suffering from geo-blocking.
>
> He is not making a digital recording.  The digital to analogue converter in
> his sound card is feeding an analogue signal to his speakers and Audacity is
> taking  that analogue signal and converting it to digital.  As you point
> out, the stream from the BBC has a sample rate of 48kHz.  Audacity’s default
> sample rate is 44.1kHz, which is where that sample rate comes from.  The
> additional quantisation noise from re-sampling is small.  Far greater
> distortion is introduced by the digital to analogue and then analogue to
> digital conversions.
>
> Better quality will be achieved by using get_iplayer to download the
> streams, even at 128kbit/s.  get_iplayer offers AAC at a range of bit rates
> up to 320kbit/s.  get_iplayer will not deliver the FLAC streams.  If he
> wants FLAC from the PROMs he will have to get up in the early hours of the
> morning, but as you have pointed out all R3 output is available live (or
> delayed 2 minutes or so) as FLAC during the trial.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> get_iplayer mailing list
> get_iplayer at lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer