World Service podcast bit rates

[Peter Corlett]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 05:31:23PM +0100, Simon Morgan wrote:
> Oh for get_iplayer when I was sailing around the Indian Ocean in the early
> '60s. Shortwave radio was the only option whether for speech or even "music".
> I still mourn the day the World Service dropped its ident tune which was
> essential to tune into the news broadcasts. [...]

As you probaby know, the World Service theme is a rendition of /Lilliburlero/.
If you want a burst of nostalgia, the Wikipedia page at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillibullero has many recordings, including
several off-air and a nice clean stero version of the one used by the World
Service.

> As Vangelis has said, 96kps is more than adequate for speech and I can't
> recall when I last listened to music on the World Service (used to be call
> Overseas Service or something like that I seem to remember).

Not everybody perceives and comprehends speech the same way; it is known that
people on the autistic spectrum have difficulties separating speech from
background noise even when they have otherwise excellent hearing, for example.
At low bitrates, high-frequency components are mangled by MP3, introducing
errors that manifest themselves as sibilance, pitch shifts, and in extremis an
electronic "chattering" in the background which can be quite distracting.

If your hearing and brain are able to filter out the artifacts, well, good for
you. Others aren't so lucky and need higher-bitrate audio to be able to hear
and enjoy it properly. The BBC presumably agree, given they now make 320kb/s
audio available.

> Notwithstanding some of the rather boring spats on this list, thank goodness
> for the author(s) of get_iplayer which I find I find indispensible. The
> niceties of the programming language are of no interest to me as I am stuck
> in the world of Fortran IV and Fortran 77.

Fortran? Perl is the fuddy-duddy language that the kids all poke fun at these
days :)

> Dinkypumpkin et al keep up the good work.

Seconded!