Computer Audio

shane · Post by **shane** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:25 pm

True, it's not brilliant, and I was a bit disappointed to find that I couldn't get rid of my tuner. However, the tuner doesn't get radios 5, 6 and 7, and neither does it do Listen Again. Has anyone compared AlienBBC to DAB?

simon · Post by **simon** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:27 pm

I have a Cambridge Azur 640T FM and DAB tuner. It's not high end, I'm not a serious listener, and I only have an omni aerial. But FM has a sparkle that DAB doesn't and I prefer to listen to FM by some margin. Alien BBC sounds like AM in comparison, worse than DAB.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:36 pm

If better quality were available then I'd take it, but in the meantime I find Listen Again invaluable.

Live At Midnight has some great acts, and with two kids under 5 I'm never awake enough to catch it in real time.

cheers,

-- Andrew

Post by **Nick** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:03 pm

Not good news on the alienbbc

I managed to build the codecs, and its working, but there isn't enough processing power to manage a continuious stream.

I guess its using an emulation maths lib. Shame.

ed · Post by ed » Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:03 am

I managed to build the codecs, and its working, but there isn't enough processing power to manage a continuious stream.

well thats just crazy cos the little ppc machine plays folkalley and the newyork jazz stations really well, and they are top-notch fidelity. Like I said before the beeb have got so much to answer for when it comes to delivering modern services, whether its fm, dab or internet they just seem to cock everything......

rant rant and double rant......ahhh thats better

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:26 am

ed wrote:
I managed to build the codecs, and its working, but there isn't enough processing power to manage a continuious stream.
well thats just crazy cos the little ppc machine plays folkalley and the newyork jazz stations really well, and they are top-notch fidelity. Like I said before the beeb have got so much to answer for when it comes to delivering modern services, whether its fm, dab or internet they just seem to cock everything......

rant rant and double rant......ahhh thats better

Yeah it's because the beeb is wedded to crap streaming technologies like RealNetworks and the bloody Microsoft WMA garbage, MS has convinced them they need to "protect" their content.

AlienBBC sound quality is a pile of shite. The BBC ought to be ashamed of themselves. For an organisation that once led the world in terms of broadcast sound quality it is an absolute travesty.

Why on earth they don't just broadcast AAC or Mp3 over the Internet, like everyone else, is one of life's great mysteries.

Steve.

Post by **Nick** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:33 am

Well, they did used to use ogg as well, but someone in the BBC obviously thought that was silly. What, you mean that there are ex microsoft folk there, well, that can't make a difference can it?

meanwhile on the ARM trial, the default debian build uses hard float emulation, which as far as I can see requires a exception and switch to kernel space for every floating point instruction. So I am seeing if I can build a softfloat toolchain. Should keep me busy if nothing else.

iansr · Post by **iansr** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:36 pm

Nick wrote: meanwhile on the ARM trial, the default debian build uses hard float emulation, which as far as I can see requires a exception and switch to kernel space for every floating point instruction. So I am seeing if I can build a softfloat toolchain..

Nick
please tell me that you made all that stuff up.

Ian

pre65 · Post by **pre65** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:59 pm

Hi-that reminds me of an exercise they used to give when i went on management training courses !

They gave you a bit of paper with various techno speak words arranged in columns and if you took any one word from each column and put it in a sentence you ended up with something that sounded grand but was complete bollocks

Now i assume it means something to you computer experts but i think you have lost the majority of us.

ed · Post by ed » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:32 pm

Nick wrote:meanwhile on the ARM trial, the default debian build uses hard float emulation, which as far as I can see requires a exception and switch to kernel space for every floating point instruction. So I am seeing if I can build a softfloat toolchain. Should keep me busy if nothing else.

gosh this is a giggle......keep up chaps....

I'm not familiar with the arm architecture but I presume you mean load the stack and interrupt........as far as softfloat toolchain, where is the benefit???? and if this processor has been used for any length of time I'm pretty sure somebody has already been down down that path for hosting slim...have you tried the forum for workarounds???

I am surprised theres no hwfp as the list of uses for the marvel chips is very comprehensive and some of the entries are very maths oriented........

Post by **Nick** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:32 pm

Now i assume it means something to you computer experts but i think you have lost the majority of us.

Well, with all respect, I didn't post it for everyone, but if I didn't use the correct terms, I would be forced to say

"it doesn't work, because the faries came and poo'd upon it"

Of course one of the problem I have found over the years is that many managers assume that if something can't be put in terms they understand, it cant be important.

(don't mean you Phil, but you did bring up the M word).

please tell me that you made all that stuff up.

Sorry no

Actually, compaired to the crap that get spouted about computing generated by marketing types, what I said, was simple and to the point, and it actually meant something.

If someone can actually tell me what Web 2.0 is without lots of arm waving, I will try and explain the difference between a hard and soft floating point implementation

Post by **Nick** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:38 pm

I'm pretty sure somebody has already been down down that path for hosting slim...have you tried the forum for workarounds

Maybe, but I failed to find any references, for hosting slim its just fine, working away perfectly, its just the problem Andrew warned us about with fp emulation. Its not alienbbc that has the problem, but mplayer, and thats only a issue when you require transcoding from different formats.

Ok, did anither search now I know the problem better, and this shows some help

http://forums.slimdevices.com/archive/i ... 33873.html

I got mplayer workign by rebuilding for the corect processor, but its justnot up to a continuious stream at the moment

ed · Post by ed » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:44 pm

and and and I remember one time in band camp......

I've just been thinking about the conversation last week with Steve about the Linn downloads at 96k and 88k....if the codec does the down sampling on the fly, as it does, then how does the processor keep up at these speeds.....unless it relies totally on integer maths.....or logical shifts for its easy divisions...

ed · Post by ed » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:58 pm

thats a good link...I hadn't seen it before but its comprehensively nailed the subject......it seems my ppc unit has an FPU....sticks tongue out and says nerrr nerr ne nerr nerr.......

must admit I'm not familiar with fixed point routines but if thats in the wind and its obviously a quicker alternative then it sounds like its just a matter of time......might save you some head scratching time anyway..

on the other thing.....if its just decoding the real stream thats hanging you up then what about my discovery the other day about the beeb streaming to 'media player' now instead of just to 'real player'...is it just a matter of finding the new URLs??

shane · Post by **shane** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:49 pm

Nick wrote:
Its not alienbbc that has the problem, but mplayer, and thats only a issue when you require transcoding from different formats.

My understanding of this thread is pretty much on a par with Philip's, but does what you're saying here mean that AlienBBC could be improved if only I knew how? As it is, it's full of pops, drop-outs and slightly weird distortions.

audio-talk

Computer Audio

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