Re: World Service podcast bit rates
From: Vangelis forthnet Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 2:58 AM On Tue Aug 15 12:40:54 BST 2017, I wrote: were limited to dafmed, hafmed and hlsaacmed and a bit rate of 96kbit/s. ... Then at some point WSR got the "Audio Factory" treament, to be more on a par with the rest of the BBC Radio stations,> and thus two stream quality variants were created: HE-AACv1@96kbps/48kHz (*med modes in GiP) and HE-AACv1@48kbps /48kHz (*low modes in GiP); these are equally available to UK/non-UK audiences, i.e. if in the UK you can't get > 96kbps... ... But, returning on topic, get_iplayer --type=radio --pid=p05bdb8p -i | FindStr versions => versions: original,podcast get_iplayer --type=radio --pid=p05bdb8p -i | FindStr modes => modes: original: dafmed1,dafmed2,dafmed3,dafmed4,daflow1,daflow2,daflow 3,daflow4,hafmed1,hafmed2,haflow1,haflow2,hlsaacmed1,hlsaaclow1 which is consistent with what I wrote earlier... But for the "podcast" version (not the MP3 file, this is an .m4a file fetched by GiP) it would appear they apply geo-filtering :-( verpids:original: p05bdbfp verpids:podcast: p05c1hf1 http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/select/version/2.0/mediaset/pc/vpid/p05c1hf1 yields different stream data based on geo-location; no signs of dashhigh/dashstd/hlsaacstd over here; but then again, who really wants "talk-radio" @320kbps? (well, some, like Jim web, do, I think even 96kbps is superfluous...) The thread was about World Service and it is some time since you wrote that. It is possible things have changed in the mean time. For non-World Service have you tried hafhigh and hafstd (whether anyone wants it or not)? ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
I used to hear the electronic chattering in the background of Classic FM's MP3 stream (128kbps), it was so intrusive I listened to FM instead even given the difficult reception conditions I had. Analogue hiss was more tolerable. Classic FM seem to have changed their encoding a couple of years ago, the electronic chattering is gone and their MP3 feed now easily beats my bad FM reception. -- Owen Smith <owen.sm...@cantab.net> Cambridge, UK > On 18 Aug 2017, at 13:32, Simon Morgan <s.mor...@skm.org.uk> wrote: > > Peter, > Thanks for putting me right about the needs of some people for better than > 96kb/s. It was something of which I was totally unaware. > Rgds > Simon Morgan > >> -Original Message- >> From: get_iplayer [mailto:get_iplayer-boun...@lists.infradead.org] On >> Behalf Of Peter Corlett >> Sent: 18 August 2017 12:55 >> Cc: get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org >> Subject: Re: World Service podcast bit rates > > >> > >> Not everybody perceives and comprehends speech the same way; it is >> known that people on the autistic spectrum have difficulties separating >> speech from background noise even when they have otherwise excellent >> hearing, for example. >> At low bitrates, high-frequency components are mangled by MP3, >> introducing errors that manifest themselves as sibilance, pitch shifts, >> and in extremis an electronic "chattering" in the background which can >> be quite distracting. >> >> If your hearing and brain are able to filter out the artifacts, well, >> good for you. Others aren't so lucky and need higher-bitrate audio to >> be able to hear and enjoy it properly. The BBC presumably agree, given >> they now make 320kb/s audio available. > > > > -- > I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. > SPAMfighter has removed 645 of my spam emails to date. > Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len > > Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan > http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen > > > ___ > get_iplayer mailing list > get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
RE: World Service podcast bit rates
Peter, Thanks for putting me right about the needs of some people for better than 96kb/s. It was something of which I was totally unaware. Rgds Simon Morgan > -Original Message- > From: get_iplayer [mailto:get_iplayer-boun...@lists.infradead.org] On > Behalf Of Peter Corlett > Sent: 18 August 2017 12:55 > Cc: get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org > Subject: Re: World Service podcast bit rates > > Not everybody perceives and comprehends speech the same way; it is > known that people on the autistic spectrum have difficulties separating > speech from background noise even when they have otherwise excellent > hearing, for example. > At low bitrates, high-frequency components are mangled by MP3, > introducing errors that manifest themselves as sibilance, pitch shifts, > and in extremis an electronic "chattering" in the background which can > be quite distracting. > > If your hearing and brain are able to filter out the artifacts, well, > good for you. Others aren't so lucky and need higher-bitrate audio to > be able to hear and enjoy it properly. The BBC presumably agree, given > they now make 320kb/s audio available. -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. SPAMfighter has removed 645 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 05:31:23PM +0100, Simon Morgan wrote: > Oh for get_iplayer when I was sailing around the Indian Ocean in the early > '60s. Shortwave radio was the only option whether for speech or even "music". > I still mourn the day the World Service dropped its ident tune which was > essential to tune into the news broadcasts. [...] As you probaby know, the World Service theme is a rendition of /Lilliburlero/. If you want a burst of nostalgia, the Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillibullero has many recordings, including several off-air and a nice clean stero version of the one used by the World Service. > As Vangelis has said, 96kps is more than adequate for speech and I can't > recall when I last listened to music on the World Service (used to be call > Overseas Service or something like that I seem to remember). Not everybody perceives and comprehends speech the same way; it is known that people on the autistic spectrum have difficulties separating speech from background noise even when they have otherwise excellent hearing, for example. At low bitrates, high-frequency components are mangled by MP3, introducing errors that manifest themselves as sibilance, pitch shifts, and in extremis an electronic "chattering" in the background which can be quite distracting. If your hearing and brain are able to filter out the artifacts, well, good for you. Others aren't so lucky and need higher-bitrate audio to be able to hear and enjoy it properly. The BBC presumably agree, given they now make 320kb/s audio available. > Notwithstanding some of the rather boring spats on this list, thank goodness > for the author(s) of get_iplayer which I find I find indispensible. The > niceties of the programming language are of no interest to me as I am stuck > in the world of Fortran IV and Fortran 77. Fortran? Perl is the fuddy-duddy language that the kids all poke fun at these days :) > Dinkypumpkin et al keep up the good work. Seconded! ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
From: Budge Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2017 12:03 Hi Richard, This is way OT so forgive top post but you mentioned players and I had some problems with Linn devices a while back which was mentioned again recently and has still not to my knowledge been fixed. My device of choice now is a Raspberry Pi with an IQaudIO DAC on top. Software is straight Raspbian with MPD player and with Jean-Francois Dockes' brilliant upmpdcli front end to give me UPnP renderer with gapless playback between tracks. For completeness of system description the music and GiP radio recordings are served by NAS running minimserver and control point is BubbleUPnP on android phone. Very much more affordable than Linn and more to the point, not yet baulked at playing anything I throw at it and it enables me to continue to use some quite decent amplifiers that otherwise would be redundant. Hi Alastair Many thanks for the suggestion. I'll certainly look at it. I had a quick glance at IQaudIO, and it seems they have a range of boards. The Pi-Digi+ will probably do what I need, although I may only need a HDMI to TOSlink converter as my amplifier will do the DA conversion. Sorry to hear that Linn has not fixed your AAC problem. At one stage it seemed quite promising when they identified the problem from the samples you sent them. I received a lot of help on this listserver from someone with a username something like batguano999. The problem he had sounded similar to mine. He had found it was container dependent. The length of file his player would play ranged from zero with AVconv to 40s for ffmpeg up to 30min for a file multiplexed with mp4creator. I wasn't getting anywhere with AGPteK support so I decided to buy a SanDisk Clip Jam to see if that was any better. I then came across a thread in a ffmpeg forum started by someone with a similar username. He said there it was the SanDisk Clip Jam he was having a problem with! He had been trying for a year or so to get the ffmpeg developers to fix whatever in the multiplexing was responsible for the problem. Anyway I've been lucky because SanDisk issued new firmware which fixed the problem only about two months after I reported it. It will now play all the AAC-LC files I have tried. I still have a problem with the Triax satellite receiver, so I'll give the Raspberry Pi a try. The irony is that the FAAD and FAAD2 decoders used by VLC and ffmpeg seem to work well. I appreciate that developers may not want to include GPL licensed code in their products, but you would think they might get some inspiration as to how to make their decoders work from the free decoders. Best wishes Richard ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
RE: World Service podcast bit rates
Oh for get_iplayer when I was sailing around the Indian Ocean in the early '60s. Shortwave radio was the only option whether for speech or even "music". I still mourn the day the World Service dropped its ident tune which was essential to tune into the news broadcasts. I started off with a "steam driven" Eddystone radio which was the size of a minor planet and eventually I worked through a series of Sony radios. I still have one about half the sizes of a paperback book which is truly excellent with its digital frequency display. Needless to say it is seldom used these days other than for nostalgic reasons. As Vangelis has said, 96kps is more than adequate for speech and I can't recall when I last listened to music on the World Service (used to be call Overseas Service or something like that I seem to remember). Notwithstanding some of the rather boring spats on this list, thank goodness for the author(s) of get_iplayer which I find I find indispensible. The niceties of the programming language are of no interest to me as I am stuck in the world of Fortran IV and Fortran 77. Dinkypumpkin et al keep up the good work. Rgds Simon Morgan -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. SPAMfighter has removed 643 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
Hi Richard, This is way OT so forgive top post but you mentioned players and I had some problems with Linn devices a while back which was mentioned again recently and has still not to my knowledge been fixed. My device of choice now is a Raspberry Pi with an IQaudIO DAC on top. Software is straight Raspbian with MPD player and with Jean-Francois Dockes' brilliant upmpdcli front end to give me UPnP renderer with gapless playback between tracks. For completeness of system description the music and GiP radio recordings are served by NAS running minimserver and control point is BubbleUPnP on android phone. Very much more affordable than Linn and more to the point, not yet baulked at playing anything I throw at it and it enables me to continue to use some quite decent amplifiers that otherwise would be redundant. Regards, Alastair. On 17/08/17 00:32, RS wrote: From: Vangelis forthnet Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 02:58 Thanks Vangelis for your helpful comments and explanations. Since 95% of BBC WS Radio content is "talk-radio", I find 96kbps to be more than adequate for the task... I don't disagree. We have survived with much lower bandwidths in the past. One programme I listen to regularly is Moneybox on Radio 4. If I've remembered correctly for a long time its podcast was at 16kbit/s. I think it is probably made in a tiny studio with Paul Lewis sitting too close to the microphone, because now you can hear his every breath. Considering it's a "World" service, meaning they have to cater for a global audience, 96kbps is a fine compromise between quality and bandwidth costs... And even HE-AACv1@48kbps sounds acceptable for those parts of the world with very expensive/slow Internet access... We must be grateful for all the modes the BBC provides, because they are there for the benefit of devices the BBC wants to support, not for our benefit. Even so it would be nice if there were always one mode without SBR. Programmes with copyrighted music (or other) content are excluded from the podcast treatment, in the rare occasions they do make it to podcast, music tracks are truncated to just 10sec excerpts... I had forgotten about the restriction of music in podcasts. It was probably part of the reason Desert Island Discs didn't have a podcast for so long. I listened to one about a year ago, and it struck me the clips were rather short, but it didn't occur to me that was the reason. (I am only joking here, but several of your recent posts seem to be inquisitive of overseas BBC Radio bitrates, are you planning a retirement to Majorca, Richard?) I don't have any immediate plans to move to another country, but if I did it would be a consolation that I could still listen to BBC radio. If I comment on the politics of copyright licensing I am in danger of going way off topic. In my view the Television Without Frontiers Directive does not go anywhere near far enough. The EU Commission seems to be much closer to the mark with its argument that national copyright licences partition the single market and are therefore unlawful. Unfortunately the UK may not be in the EU by the time anything happens. if HE-AAC with SBR ... HE-AAC always comes with SBR, HE-AAC = AAC-LC + SBR is played on a player that does not support SBR half the bandwidth is lost. I have been wondering how best to deal with that. Yet another topic that you're recently concerned with... It does appear as though you're the owner of a hardware device that is incapable of fully rendering HE-AACv1... FWIW, in 2017, 99% of software players on all modern OSes can play back fully HE-AACv1. Even browsers like Firefox 52.3.0ESR does on this old Vista laptop... I am sure you are right that there are many software players which will play AAC-LC and HE-AAC v1 without problem. It is a different matter when it comes to hardware players (portable players or satellite receivers). Finding players which will reliably play AAC-LC for up to 3 hours is not simple. I was lucky with SanDisk. There was a new version of the firmware which fixed a problem with AAC-LC about 2 months after I asked. My Triax satellite receiver will play AAC television sound, whether stereo or AC3, from satellite, from its own recording, and from external sources for hours on end without problem. When it comes to playing AAC-LC/M4A files on the Music tab it will start playing and then stop after a time which is repeatable for each file, but varies from one file to another with no obvious pattern. I have not received any reply from Triax support. Since I use it as the interface to my surround sound amplifier I have to convert files to MP3 if they are to play reliably. In both cases the player is only claimed to support AAC-LC, so it would be unreasonable to ask the supplier to make it support HE-AAC. My Panasonic blu-ray player only supports MP3 and FLAC. HE-AACv1 (previously known as aacp/aac+) is
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
From: Vangelis forthnet Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 02:58 Thanks Vangelis for your helpful comments and explanations. Since 95% of BBC WS Radio content is "talk-radio", I find 96kbps to be more than adequate for the task... I don't disagree. We have survived with much lower bandwidths in the past. One programme I listen to regularly is Moneybox on Radio 4. If I've remembered correctly for a long time its podcast was at 16kbit/s. I think it is probably made in a tiny studio with Paul Lewis sitting too close to the microphone, because now you can hear his every breath. Considering it's a "World" service, meaning they have to cater for a global audience, 96kbps is a fine compromise between quality and bandwidth costs... And even HE-AACv1@48kbps sounds acceptable for those parts of the world with very expensive/slow Internet access... We must be grateful for all the modes the BBC provides, because they are there for the benefit of devices the BBC wants to support, not for our benefit. Even so it would be nice if there were always one mode without SBR. Programmes with copyrighted music (or other) content are excluded from the podcast treatment, in the rare occasions they do make it to podcast, music tracks are truncated to just 10sec excerpts... I had forgotten about the restriction of music in podcasts. It was probably part of the reason Desert Island Discs didn't have a podcast for so long. I listened to one about a year ago, and it struck me the clips were rather short, but it didn't occur to me that was the reason. (I am only joking here, but several of your recent posts seem to be inquisitive of overseas BBC Radio bitrates, are you planning a retirement to Majorca, Richard?) I don't have any immediate plans to move to another country, but if I did it would be a consolation that I could still listen to BBC radio. If I comment on the politics of copyright licensing I am in danger of going way off topic. In my view the Television Without Frontiers Directive does not go anywhere near far enough. The EU Commission seems to be much closer to the mark with its argument that national copyright licences partition the single market and are therefore unlawful. Unfortunately the UK may not be in the EU by the time anything happens. if HE-AAC with SBR ... HE-AAC always comes with SBR, HE-AAC = AAC-LC + SBR is played on a player that does not support SBR half the bandwidth is lost. I have been wondering how best to deal with that. Yet another topic that you're recently concerned with... It does appear as though you're the owner of a hardware device that is incapable of fully rendering HE-AACv1... FWIW, in 2017, 99% of software players on all modern OSes can play back fully HE-AACv1. Even browsers like Firefox 52.3.0ESR does on this old Vista laptop... I am sure you are right that there are many software players which will play AAC-LC and HE-AAC v1 without problem. It is a different matter when it comes to hardware players (portable players or satellite receivers). Finding players which will reliably play AAC-LC for up to 3 hours is not simple. I was lucky with SanDisk. There was a new version of the firmware which fixed a problem with AAC-LC about 2 months after I asked. My Triax satellite receiver will play AAC television sound, whether stereo or AC3, from satellite, from its own recording, and from external sources for hours on end without problem. When it comes to playing AAC-LC/M4A files on the Music tab it will start playing and then stop after a time which is repeatable for each file, but varies from one file to another with no obvious pattern. I have not received any reply from Triax support. Since I use it as the interface to my surround sound amplifier I have to convert files to MP3 if they are to play reliably. In both cases the player is only claimed to support AAC-LC, so it would be unreasonable to ask the supplier to make it support HE-AAC. My Panasonic blu-ray player only supports MP3 and FLAC. HE-AACv1 (previously known as aacp/aac+) is even natively supported on most cheap mobile phones, where you need good sound quality at reduced bandwidth (because BW is expensive there...). The specification for my phone says it plays eAAC+, which I gather is HE-AAC v2. I have not checked it with the Fraunhofer tests. The specification for my previous phone says it plays AAC/M4A, so it probably does not support HE-AAC v1. They are not the devices I want to use. If your device does not support HE-AACv1, have you contacted its vendor by any chance? I often transcode HE-AACv1 m4a encodes to mp3 files with ffmpeg, here's an example: I am intrigued that you are way ahead of me in transcoding HE-AAC v1 to MP3. You must have had a reason for doing it. When the --aactomp3 option was withdrawn, several people asked for help in creating a --preset or --command to do it. I suspect I am not alone in finding MP3
Re: World Service podcast bit rates
On Tue Aug 15 12:40:54 BST 2017, RS wrote: were limited to dafmed, hafmed and hlsaacmed and a bit rate of 96kbit/s. As a general rule, BBC World Service Radio does not impose any form of geo-filtering; in fact, for all "broadcast versions" of its content (not podcast vPIDs), i.e. the ones available as A-O-D streams on iPlayer Radio, they're employing the same set of streams worldwide (as opposed to a UK and an overseas set...). In the not so distant past, the chosen bitrate for WS Radio (both for live and OD) was set at HE-AACv1@64kbps/44.1kHz (and until the end of 2015 there existed live streams in the form of WMA9@32kbps & ShoutcastMP3@48kbps). Then at some point WSR got the "Audio Factory" treament, to be more on a par with the rest of the BBC Radio stations, and thus two stream quality variants were created: HE-AACv1@96kbps/48kHz (*med modes in GiP) and HE-AACv1@48kbps /48kHz (*low modes in GiP); these are equally available to UK/non-UK audiences, i.e. if in the UK you can't get > 96kbps... Since 95% of BBC WS Radio content is "talk-radio", I find 96kbps to be more than adequate for the task... Considering it's a "World" service, meaning they have to cater for a global audience, 96kbps is a fine compromise between quality and bandwidth costs... And even HE-AACv1@48kbps sounds acceptable for those parts of the world with very expensive/slow Internet access... They also mostly had podcasts, and in the UK I was offered a choice of 128kbit/s and 64kbit/s (snip) I don't know either whether the 128kbit/s podcast option is offered outside the UK. As you said, much of the BBC WS Radio content is turning up as MP3 Podcasts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldserviceradio Programmes with copyrighted music (or other) content are excluded from the podcast treatment, in the rare occasions they do make it to podcast, music tracks are truncated to just 10sec excerpts... Prior to "Audio Factory", only podcasts encoded as 64kbpsCBR/44.1kHz/mono had been available. More and more programmes do show up now with an additional 128kbpsCBR/44.1kHz/stereo option, which IS NOT location specific... (I am only joking here, but several of your recent posts seem to be inquisitive of overseas BBC Radio bitrates, are you planning a retirement to Majorca, Richard?) it seems a lot more attractive than 96kbit/s HE-AAC with the SBR extension (snip) if HE-AAC with SBR ... HE-AAC always comes with SBR, HE-AAC = AAC-LC + SBR is played on a player that does not support SBR half the bandwidth is lost. I have been wondering how best to deal with that. Yet another topic that you're recently concerned with... It does appear as though you're the owner of a hardware device that is incapable of fully rendering HE-AACv1... FWIW, in 2017, 99% of software players on all modern OSes can play back fully HE-AACv1. Even browsers like Firefox 52.3.0ESR does on this old Vista laptop... HE-AACv1 (previously known as aacp/aac+) is even natively supported on most cheap mobile phones, where you need good sound quality at reduced bandwidth (because BW is expensive there...). If your device does not support HE-AACv1, have you contacted its vendor by any chance? Converting to MP3 seems a possibility, (snip) It seems ffmpeg does not support SBR Not true; FFmpeg DOES SUPPORT native decoding of HE-AACv1, as does ffplay, which can be used to play back HE-AACv1 encodes... It is only ENCODING to HE-AACv1 that the native AAC encoder of FFmpeg can't perform (you'll have to build it with the non-free FDK-AAC encoder instead...) I often transcode HE-AACv1 m4a encodes to mp3 files with ffmpeg, here's an example: Batch file used: --- FOR %%N in (*.m4a) DO ffmpeg -v 32 -stats -i "%%N" -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -ac 2 -joint_stereo 1 -af "volume=2.15" "%%~nN.mp3" pause --- Console excerpt: --- ffmpeg version 3.3.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers built with gcc 6.3.0 (Rev3, Built by MSYS2 project) * [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 00a9bfc0] stream 0, timescale not set Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'test-heaac.m4a': * Duration: 00:17:30.94, start: 0.00, bitrate: 63 kb/s Stream #0:0(und): Audio: aac (HE-AAC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 62 kb/s (default) * Stream mapping: Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (aac (native) -> mp3 (libmp3lame)) Press [q] to stop, [?] for help Output #0, mp3, to 'test-heaac.mp3': * size= 16424kB time=00:17:30.95 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s speed=9.42x video:0kB audio:16422kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.012851% --- I can assure you the MP3 transcode has full audio bandwidth preserved! the latest episode of Science in Action, p05bdb8p. => "Risk of Lethal Heat Waves" ... The story of my life this summer! :-) But, returning on topic, get_iplayer --type=radio
World Service podcast bit rates
This is off topic so if you are going to be offended please stop reading. Vangelis mentioned at the weekend that the World Service is very popular overseas. I don't doubt it. It seems to have a very wide range of very informative programmes. My problem is being selective. At one time I used to use Juice to retrieve all the podcasts I might be interested in and found myself drowning in downloads I was never going to have time to listen to. That is not the reason for this post. I noticed that some of the programmes mentioned in the discussion about w1, w3 and 15 digit PIDS were limited to dafmed, hafmed and hlsaacmed and a bit rate of 96kbit/s. They also mostly had podcasts, and in the UK I was offered a choice of 128kbit/s and 64kbit/s. I was aware that BBC radio outside the UK was at one time limited to 96kbit/s, but I did not know if that limit still applied. It is difficult to find the answer on the BBC's web site. I don't know either whether the 128kbit/s podcast option is offered outside the UK. If it is, it seems a lot more attractive than 96kbit/s HE-AAC with the SBR extension from get_iplayer. As Vangelis pointed out a few weeks ago, if HE-AAC with SBR is played on a player that does not support SBR half the bandwidth is lost. I have been wondering how best to deal with that. Converting to MP3 seems a possibility, despite the purists' objection that it is converting from one lossy format to another. It seems ffmpeg does not support SBR, but VLC could be used for the conversion. The podcast is already available as MP3. Even if 128kbit/s is not offered for podcasts outside the UK, 64kbit/s MP3 is probably better than 96kbit/s HE-AAC with half the bandwidth missing. There is something else surprising I noticed this morning about the latest episode of Science in Action, p05bdb8p. The original version was limited to 96kbit/s with dafmed, hafmed and hlsaacmed. The podcast version, p05c1hf1, not only had dafstd, hafstd and hlsaacstd at 128kbit/s, but also dafhigh and hafhigh at 320kbit/s. ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
