Radio 3 HD.

[Rapid 17]

I found this on another forum.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8200090/Radio-3-begins-HD-broadcasts.html

Geoff.

 

[palpnorte]

What I want to know is what Internet Radio has to say on the subject.

 

[chris@panteg]

320 kbs HD my arse

 

[mudlark]

It's designed to stop the wingeing masses so they can turn off the analogue signal.

 

[colasblue]

Is this new HD what you get by default in iPlayer or do you have to get it by some other means?

 

[Klyde]

Not available in my area, I'm afraid...

 

[Robert]

Is this new HD what you get by default in iPlayer or do you have to get it by some other means?

Default on mine, and very good it is too.
Better than FM in all respects.

The HD description does hold if you compare the HD feed to FM IMO - much as we may love FM it does have some clear limitations. Won't stop me using FM because I love radio and old tuners, but that's the only reason.

 

[palpnorte]

I know you can't exactly compare the two, but what would a vaguely equivalent bitrate be to FM? I read 96kbps on Wikipedia, which can't be right, and then 720kbps in a thread on Head-Fi which does seem rather high.

palp

 

[Paul R]

I know you can't exactly compare the two, but what would a vaguely equivalent bitrate be to FM?

Up until 1993 FM was distributed at 13 * 32000 * 2 = 832kbps. Then the NICAM distribution arrived and that allowed about 700kbps per stereo pair.

(I've inferred from http://www.bbceng.info/Install/comms_projects/comms_reminiscences/pcm_changeover.htm )

Paul

 

[sean99]

I know you can't exactly compare the two, but what would a vaguely equivalent bitrate be to FM? I read 96kbps on Wikipedia, which can't be right, and then 720kbps in a thread on Head-Fi which does seem rather high.

palp

It would depend on the compression/encoding scheme.

I would think that 320kbps MP3 would give pretty good sound quality. I use 196kbps on my ipod, and through decent headphones it sounds OK on rock/pop, and borderline on classical.

 

[palpnorte]

Thanks Paul and Sean. I'm listening to a live chamber music concert at the moment through my SD600s (although only onboard PC sound), and it sounds pretty good. Most importantly the stream hasn't needed to buffer in the hour or so I have been listening.

I suppose it is too much to hope that if the BBC extend this to other stations they will give up on the outrageous compression they do in the name of loudness, but it is a welcome start.

palp

 

[Paul R]

FWIW the satellite feeds are less compressed than the FM, even on Radio 3. I suppose it might be worth capturing some samples to prove this...

I think there's every chance that MP3 will out do Nicam in terms of making the most of the available bits so the internet transmission could be fundamentally better than the FM.

Paul