Internet Radios

[Hussar 54]

Advice / Opinion, please....


Seen adverts recently for Internet Radios....Does anyone have any experience of these, please ?


I suppose we need a wi-fi, but do they have to be attached to the PC, or is the signal 'sent' from the PC to the radio ?


I'm thinking of getting one for home in France, but also for our hang-out in Africa so that we can listen to European radio, but haven't the first idea of how they work, quality, etc....


All your positives / negatives really would be appreciated....


Thanks

[exeng]

Do you mean this type of thing: http://www.live365.com/index.live

I.E. you download the radio staion broadcast via broadband to your PC. In other words 'internet radio' is anything but radio; it may also be broadcast as radio but it is also released over the internet.

I would imagine you could then 'broadcast' your downloads to your other computers via 'wifi'.


Regards
Exeng

[green granite]

Or do you mean something like this: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Internet_and_Radio/Online_Receivers/

[HuntandFish]

I have an Internet radio got it cheap £40? from ALDI
Looks like a radio works very well 4000+ stations .
You do need WiFi then all you do is connect the power supply it finds your network enter your security code and thats it . Mine will also connect to my PC if its on and play any MP3 files it finds .
Mine has a dedicated website you can register it on create play lists etc .
So the device goes straight to the internet not via your PC changing stations is a bit clunky but your are changing web sites so its bound to take time .

[Juud]

He´s probably asking for feedback on something like this (http://www.ccrane.com/radios/wifi-radios/tangent-quattro-wifi-internet-radio.aspx).
So am I. ;)

H&F does it have a brand name, and does it stream smoothly or does it ´jump´ over bits of sound?

[HuntandFish]

"jumping " or buffering is really about the download speed of your broadband connection . Mine is poor rarely getting up to 1mb but the radio works . Some stations with high audio quality can cause problems as they require higher download speeds to get the quality of course.
There is also a licencing/copyright issue and I have noticed that live sport is not available on BBC 4 and 5 via the Internet .
My radio is a Tevion it works fine but the interface is clumsy and there are only 10 presets .

[Wader2]

Ugly tho aren't they?

[Out Of Trim]

I have a cheap Logik IR100 - Works OK though.

Only requires a Wifi connection and mains power to run. PC not required.

Some sets are uglier than others..! Some buffering and cut outs happen, just like listening through a pc or mac; streamed content is not completely reliable.

My set is linked through Reciva's Web site see

https://www.reciva.com/

I've listened to live sport on Radio Five Live before, so not had any issues as mentioned earlier. You can also listen to podcasts etc; say Radio 4's Any Questions from last Saturday for instance.

[Wing Commander Fowler]

got me one of these (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=4TWV&CategorySelectedId=11228&InMerch=1)

and its brilliant!

[None of the above]

You might find this site a useful alternative to a dedicated web radio: http://www.radeo.net/

N o t a

[Hussar 54]

Hello again....

Big Thanks to everyone for the input....

Perhaps I should have been a little clearer and added that we currently use our PC's to connect to the Radio Stations which stream on-line, but obviously then need to have the machines switched on and running through the mini-speakers, etc....All of which is a bit cumbersome, and also means that we can't access the radio if the PC's are in use somewhere else....

The type I was thinking about are the those that Judd has provided the link for - although now I'm wondering what the difference is between a machine at $350 and a machine at $80 from Aldi....

Do I assume that the machines ' home in ' on a specific site which carries different stations, so that depending on the machine chosen you may end up with a bigger / smaller / different selection of stations, or is each machine capable of being as flexible as our current set-up using the PC's and selecting any station we want from the different sites ( live365.com or yahoo.com, etc ) or those where we log-on directly to the stations ( eg, bbc.co.uk or FranceBleu.fr, etc )....

Again, thanks to everyone and any further advice / explanation much appreciated...

[Out Of Trim]

My Logik IR100 was around £40 - but is about £70 now I think, and is a stand alone set. PC not required.

It can pick up around 5000 stations. You can access the station lists in various ways - Geographical or by Genre but, the basic way is by scrolling through a list of Continents, then select say Europe. Then select a Country. Say you select UK - you then have a list of say 840 stations in alphabetical order; and hence lots of scrolling until you find a station of interest.

You select that station and the screen says connecting / buffering takes place for say five or six seconds and then you should connect and your station will start playing.

You can save your favourites to presets and can also save more to a seperate list via Reciva's Web site under My Stuff - hence less scrolling then required. I have one preset to JFK Tower - ATC as it can be interesting sometimes! :E

Reciva makes the controller hardware and software for many of these sets and the Manufacturers construct a set around this. Thus, Reciva can update individual sets online through their web site; as each set has a unique serial number. New Firmware is quite often updated and then downloadable if required.

[The late XV105]

I have used the Acoustic Energy Internet Radio for just over a year now since accepting recommendation made on this site, and love it. With a small physical footprint, slick user interface, and aesthetics that match the Denon MD-31 mini system it's plugged in to (requires 3.5mm stereo jack to dual RCA lead), it's proven perfect.

Ours is streaming Czech radio stations nearly all day and we never notice any impact on broadband or wireless connections; when not abroad, I work from home and would quickly notice any significant service degradation.

£169 from John Lewis.
Now £159 I recall.

[Hussar 54]

Thanks everyone.....Think we have it figured now and will be buying the Jon Lewis offering next time we're back in Europe.....