Headphones out to line out

Some ppl are also deaf it seems !

Graham

Joerg,

I'm not sure it could do all that much for them... I've yet to see am MP3 encoder that performs particularly well down in the, say, 16-64kbps range (whereas at the original 'standard' of 128kbps, it sounds fine). On the other hand, satellite radio uses something like 48kbps for the music channels (XM using a variant of AAC, Sirius using something called PAC 4 that iBuquity cooked up for them -- PAC 4 is purportedly a variable bit rate mode, though, so the 48kbps rate is perhaps only an average), and the quality seems a lot better than MP3 at similar data rates.

That's too bad. I suppose the demise of the BBC actually _broadcasting_ could already have been seen years ago when they shut down the transmitters aimed at the US.

---Joel

The BBC use Real Audio, not any protocol of their own making. They usually use 44kbps data rate - it sounds fine even for classical music, if I want to record it I use Total Recorder to make a WAV or high bit rate MP3 file.

The BBC did experiment with the open-source OGG Vorbis but that seems to have stopped.

Their web site wraps up the Real Audio player into a pop-up window but you can use the standard Real Audio interface if you want - just extract the URL from the Web pages - it works fine with both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Although MP3 is the most widely known protocol the radio stations usually use Real Audio or Microsoft WMA encoding as they work better at the lower bit rates (8-44kbps) - I don't know of any other encoding methods for normal radio stations (other than MP3 for some of them).

kevin

Hello Keith,

32K works well but my impression is that isn't what you get on many cell phone connections. On POTS I can often recognize who is at the other end by the time they said "Hello". Then when the same person calls me from a cell phone many times I would not be able to recognize who it is if they hadn't said their name. Words such as "car', "for", "more" sound almost the same.

When talking about a diversity project an engineer who works in cell system HW design told me that kB are to cell phone companies what money is to us. The more paid minutes can be squeezed into a limited bandwidth the higher the profits. It's like leg room on airplanes.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Graham,

That is what I want to try out some day. The stereo we bought a few years back can play MP3 CDs but I have never tried it. I don't want to pay for songs again that I already have paid for on CD. Downloading from clandestine sites is something I find unethical. Maybe there are sites that have some free tunes just to try that out.

Foreign radio stations would be a source but they use a hodge podge of standards. They don't seem to understand what MP3 could do for them. Even the BBC doesn't. They have their own little player and when I load it nothing happens.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Joel,

Sorry, I wasn't making myself clear enough. I meant for their webcasts. On shortwave it should stay as is, plain old AM. Otherwise most listeners in not-so-wealthy countries would be cut off. That is also one reason why I believe DRM isn't a great idea for the short term. Or maybe not at all.

Actually I can receive them on shortwave quite well here in California. Sometimes they also pipe their news into local FM stations.

Regards, Joerg

Your problem is one or more of: the quality of the mp3 player the quality of the mp3 source the compatability of the levels How are you hooking it up to the amplifier? i.e do you have line input or are you using an input intended for a phongraph or microphone?

I have an IBM T23 ThinkPad. I have converted some of our CDs to mp3 and written the mp3's to DVD so I can conveniently take some music with me when away from home. At home, I can readily connect both our CD player and the computer to line inputs on the stereo and do A-B comparisons. They are pretty favourable. Now I'll admit that at 70 I can't hear

23KHz like I could at 25 but I still can hear and dislike any appreciable distortion.

Ted

I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones. I live within hearing distance of two - count 'em, two - classical music stations. I have a radio. I can push the "on" button, and hear nice music, and if station A is playing opera, which I hated before there was even such of a thing as rap to hate, I can switch to station B, which usually has something nice.

This[1] is a terribly handy thing for the destitute.

Cheers! Rich [1] Commercial broadcast FM radio, albeit station B is on some college campus.

You're out of date. Just in the last few months, most of the shortwave stations I listen to have set up Podcast web pages for MP3 download in addition to their RealAudio and Windows Media streaming. Australia's Radio National (which provides a lot of Radio Australia's programming) has a bunch of their stuff online. (Adding a number of programs just last week). Radio Netherlands provides just about everything as MP3 and even some Ogg Vorbis (the open source codec). And the Beeb has a trial of several of the World Service's and some of their domestic network's programs.

Rights negotiation seems to be a hassle. Some programs have to edit out the stuff that they didn't get permission to put online.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Washington State resident

Have you tried Ogg Vorbis?

Ted

It's no different than downloading software from such sites, IMO.

I download music from XM radio to CD. Most of the channels I listen to don't walk all over the intros, making them recording friendly. The quality isn't CD, rather more like FM. This doesn't matter much for the '40s music, because of the recording technology. ...or the 90's, for that matter. ;-)

--
  Keith

It is very simple to rip your own DVDs. I do mine to make a copy that has no previews of coming attractions, etc. When I put the ripped DVD copy in the machine it starts with the movie I paid to see.

Don

I've done the same for several years. I keep the original in their cases and take the coppies in a CD case in the car. I'm now copying the movies I might want to watch more than once from HBO/Cinemax/whatever to DVD. The "BetaMax decision" allows me to sleep well at night. I wish I could copy my purchased DVDs too, but they've blocked that. ...until I figure out how on the PC.

--
  Keith

But when the record companies realised the couldn't get around fair use, they started adding copy protection and just be sure got a law that made breaking such a protection a very serious crime ....

-Lasse

You don't have to. Despite what the record companies would like you to believe, If you bought the CD, I believe the fair use provisions of copyright law would see nothing wrong with copying your CDs to MP3s and burning them to CDs or DVDs as long as you are not selling them or giving them away. I do this so that I can play them on my laptop when away from home.

Ted

For my part I duplicate my CDs for car use. I have no intention of exposing the originals to possible damage in that environment.

Graham

What software do you use? I really need something that works under Linux though. My Windoze system is too far out of date (K6-III/400) to bother puting DVD drives in it.

--
  Keith

I use MacTheRipper, which is freeware, with my Mac computers.

If you google "rip dvd" and "free rip dvd" you will find many for PC operating systems.

Don

Yup. . . :It's no different than downloading software from such sites, IMO. : Keith Williams : Well, yes and no. (Think: Debian, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla... vs. M$)

**You're** talking about the buggy whip manufacturers of the music business.

Here is a company whose business model isn't mired in the 1920s: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:E5P0M-1ZsxkJ:magnatune.com/+Artists-keep-half-of-every-purchase+Listen-to-*-complete-MP3-albums+for-as-little-as-$5

They allow you to preview their artists' efforts in their entirety. (Try before you buy--just as any good record shop would.) This site gets back to the original concept of Copyright[1] (before the RIAA/MPAA perverted it beyond recognition). . . [1]tiding a creative type over until he can complete his next work

--not an excuse to be perpetually lazy and unproductive