Internet Radio

[GoneWest]

Currently living in Florida. There are four things I miss (in particular) about not being in UK - mountains, fish & chips, BBC radio and television and, Carol Vorderman.

Mountains are hard to find here (other than financial ones), fish & chips are available (but crap), Carol Vorderman...well, available when i'm asleep - but what about the BBC??

I am considering building a small computer, attach it to my home network, run it through the television set for internet surfing (DSL connection) and through the hi-fi for listening to BBC Radio 2 and 4.

Not really interested in great speed, don't need huge hard drives to store data (though I have a spare 40gig drive anyway), certainly don't need CDRoms and/or DVD drives....WHAT DO I NEED??

Anybody suggest a reasonable, low priced, spec? The "tower" is likely to be hidden behind a wall unit - so no access to front panel once it is in place. Will probably do a wireless mouse and keyboard to run it whilst sat on the sofa.

Any thoughts??

[BayAreaLondoner]

Depending on how adept you are with computers, you may want to look at some of the things at www.newegg.com - they seem to be a good low-priced source for parts. You might consider a build-it yourself system in a small case. Alternatively, look at www.slickdeals.net - they often have very good deals on kit through companies like Dell.
I've been contemplating doing something similar, but I want mine to have a region-free DVD player and a video card with a TV output, all hooked up to my DSL line and my TV and stereo. That way I can watch UK DVDs, watch live feeds and listen to audio streams. How sad is that?

[stagger]

For the internet radio side of things pretty much anything will do. Even the lowest spec new system should be able to handle decompressing a Real Audio (or similar) stream and playing it back. There's not even that much point in getting a fantastic sound card since the quality of the stream isn't that great in the first place.

Real.com list the following...

Minimum System Requirements for RealOne Player and RealOne Player Plus*
- 233MHz Intel Pentium II processor
- 64MB of RAM
- 28.8Kpbs modem (audio only)
- 16-bit sound card and speakers
- 65,000-color video display card set to display at 800x600 (video)
- Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later, Windows XP
- IE 5.0 or later


Recommended
- 300 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or greater (supports simultaneous record/playback features)
- 128MB of RAM
- 56Kpbs modem
- Full Duplex sound card and speakers
- 65,000-color video display card set to display at 800x600 or higher (video)
- Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later, Windows XP
- IE 5.0 or later

[GoneWest]

Bay Area...am equally sad - but have found a good source for full size, region free DVD players.

Stagger - thanks mate, that was exactly the information I was looking for.

Don't 'spose you have Carol Vorderman's e-mail address, do you??

[No Mode Charlie]

LOL, and here is me living in the UK and I can't stand fish and ships nor the radio!

I'm having a great time listening to a Florida radio station on my computer whenever I'm at home! 949ZETA!

Wonna swap? You can have the BBC and real stone mountains and I'll take the mountains of money!

Edited twice for: playing with the new toys and colors!

[newswatcher]

Gonewest,

I don't know how kosher this is, but try the following route.

You can write to Carol via her manager at John Miles Organisation.


Carol Vorderman
c/o John Miles Organisation,
Cadbury Camp Lane,
Clapton in Gordano,
Bristol.
BS20 6SB

Telephone - 01275 854675 OR 01275 810186
Fax - 01275 810186
Email - [email protected]

[A-V-8R]

Getting Rid of Regional Encoding...

Try this URL:

http://www.astalavista.box.sk/

To find out how to flash your computers DVD firmware to get rid of regional encoding. I did it with my Toshiba Laptop, and it works fine...

[GoneWest]

No Mode C...wanna send me a link for that radio station??

Another local favourite is www.gater.com - based in West Palm Beach. Rock music - with a magic networked station (Bob & Tom show) from 6 till 10 am every morning...add four hours...make it 10 till 2 GMT.

Newswatcher...how come you know about John Miles?? I have some stuff of his already - I used to work in TV in Britain, and have a few promotional videos of Carol (sigh).

I'm also quite fond of Trish Williamson - used to be a weather bunny on TVAM (pre GMTV days) - then moved to Carlton or Meridian (or similar) as an evening news and traffic presenter.

Last worked with Trish when we shot the pilot programme of a series that was originally filmed in shopping malls...all about food products...now called "Supermarket Sweep".

Would like Trish's e-mail too. (pant, pant)

[gofer]

www.gater.com

Getting a page can not be displayed on this - what about others ?

[FJJP]

I get the BBC thru my computer on the net - you don't need the equivalent of a Cray to do it. I use Realplayer software (downloaded for free from somewhere a while ago). Then go www.bbc.co.uk and click on the radio tag on the top bar. Then click on 'Listen'. Quality is quite good, as is the buffering rate, with very few breaks.

[GoneWest]

gofer...I've clicked the link I posted numerous times over the last few days...every one has opened the station home page. Sorry - don't know what else to tell you.

[gofer]

Gater

GW - workd just now. I tried again when I saw your post. Must be sonmething to do with Bandwidth and distance when all of Asia out here is online.

Thanks for checking and posting
A true Gentleman

Good on ya Mate

[Sick]

dead chuffed to find I don't need to go to the expense of moving to London to listen to jazz fm at home

www.jazzfm.com