This page contains contents additional to those on the following pages:
Great music and sources ___ Improving system performance ___ Music types and sources
Radio-TV sources page ___ Short-wave radio.
This page contains my own comments and the reviews of others, particularly in relation to the ease of use as radio-station tuners, the range of sources available, and of ease of use and quality in general. It was prompted by my frustration with major drawbacks in some tuners: (a) unreadably small lettering on some skins; (b) confusing user interfaces and lack of feedback; and, (c) difficulty of use as a finder of radio stations.
My writings are in black. Plagiarized text is in maroon, sometimes highlighted by me in red.
Go Home. ___ For an overview index of this page and others, go to Links, by type of music.
See also Audio.
AUDIO VILLAGE - The engine of your sound: http://www.audiovillage.com/pagina2.asp?codicecategoria1=05 . . . audio, video and music related sites. Many links. BAGLIONI had a lovely snowfall New Year's card -- wait for next year!
AudioWorld Web Directory Internet_Audio: http://www.audioworld.com/dir/Internet_Audio/ Channels: | Pro | HiFi | HomeTheatre | CarAudio | MP3 | NetAudio | MusicBiz | AudioBiz | HomeRecording |
A comparison of Internet audio compression formats: http://www.sericyb.com.au/sc/audio.html Very detailed.
Download cool mp3 software! MP3 to WAV converters, MP3 mixers, CD burning software + more!: http://www.acoustica.com/
INTERNET AUDIO FORMATS PAGE: http://members.tripod.com/~s_snailham/iaf.html This page initially started out as a page devoted to link for mp3, but I have expanded it to include virtually every audio format that can be found on the net, and then some. . . . Players, Encoders, Audio Utilities, Cassette/Vinyl to Mp3.
Internet Audio Mix: http://www.acoustica.com/software.htm Whether you're a DJ or just creating cool mix CDs, . . . Mix MP3s, record your own, set volume fades and pans via a simple graphical interface! . . . Exports to RealAudio™ and wave files.
Internet Music & Audio Guide -- A Comprehensive Guide to Music & Audio on the Internet: http://www.viewz.com/aol/shoppingguide/musicguide.shtml
Live Internet Audio - Internet broadcasts, broadcasting, and ra sites: http://www.externalharddrive.com/live/live-audio.html Many sites and topics, including mp3, police, radio stations, and download of SoundWaves tuner for capturing wav clips.
Maximize Your Media - Welcome to Real.com. The source for all your Internet media needs: http://www.real.com/ RealPlayer is now RealOne. Get our newest Player.
Silent Way Directory Music and Webcast Links: http://www.silentway.com/links/musiclinks.html#39 The Silent Way Directory: Music- Webcasts, MP3s, CDs, Reading. Based in San Francisco. Massive & varied list of links. Excellent.
Streaming Media,Audio,Video,Mp3 by Destiny-Software: http://www.destiny-software.com/
US State Department - Outreach - Audio of Press Briefing: http://events.yahoo.com/events/usstate/ State Department's Daily Briefing and Other Special Broadcasts.
Media players: sources and reviews
Media players and design flaws in general
See also Gripes: why things don't work well -- from shoelaces to software.
Interface Hall of Shame -- General: http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm The Interface Hall of Shame is an irreverent collection of common interface design mistakes. Our hope is that by highlighting these problems, we can help developers avoid making similar mistakes.
hages.ba-mm.net: http://wvpa-mm-serv.riv.csu.edu.au/hages/print.php?sid=29 Digital Artistry. Internet Essentials. Published - The Daily Advertiser, Sep. 12, 2001 Copyright © 2001 Andrew Hagan.
The first Netscape, as significant it was in it's time, won't properly display HTML 4 -- the code language that formats the web page and presents it in the internet browser window. Sure it handles earlier versions of HTML but those years have long passed. To view modern web pages properly your computer requires the occasional version update every 6 or so months. . . .
Netscape has undeniably been the major casualty of the constantly evolving net landscape. Let's face it, Microsoft won the battle years back with Internet Explorer being installed on over 80% of surfer's machines worldwide. Yes Netscape 6.1 is out but the marvellous people who pioneered the earlier versions have long since abandoned the privacy invasive, problematic, commercially driven incarnation being bastardised by America on Line (AOL).
The original gurus behind Netscape should always be remembered as heroes, they never stood a chance against the immoral and unrepentant Bill Gates juggernaut. Explorer was illegally [I disagree. The US Justice system did not find any illegality. It only found accusations of illegality.] disagintegrated into Windows and Netscape has effectively suffocated since. Even the US government gave up the notion of separating the company and are now instead on the payroll to supervise MS business dealings. Enough of Microsoft bashing . . .
Explorer has seriously matured into the better program since its despised initial introduction. It even crashes less on a Mac than Netscape (and you know how upsetting that would have been to loyal Apple users who hate M$ with a passion). The latest version for PC's is Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) . . .
A bonus to using IE is Outlook Express, the best email client you could ever possibly hope for, well err, except for the full version that gets shipped with the Office suite. . . . your total internet solution is not near complete without some compulsory plug-ins.
You'll need Apple's QuickTime (QT) and Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP) installed on the computer to view the latest audio or visual media from the web. Due to a design flaw from Apple** (yes, Apple not M$), version 5.02 of QuickTime doesn't like showing movies in the newest Explorers so go to Apple's site and download the fixed plug-in.
[** QuickTime has several addditional (user-interface) design flaws. See Quicktime design flaws.]
Two more plug-ins that you'll definitely need if you want to view interactive web sites are Macromedia's Shockwave and Flash plug-ins. . . .
Adobe Acrobat Reader is also a must and allows you to view and print PDF (Portable Document Format) files as originally intended. . . .
There are two ways to install plug-ins. . . .
This digital signature is . . .
RealPlayer was deliberately omitted from this list for example as I find it invasive and unnecessarily given that QT and WMP now do the same thing. . . .
The one last application you should consider is Norton's Internet Security . . .
no more web pages with crazy layouts or cryptic error pictures *** with nothing happening. View the web as the designers intended.
*** My experience is that Netscape is incompatible with both the Net and with Internet Explorer in transferring images.
Available through Review of RadioCentral. About Radio takes up 8% points of system resources.
Available through Review of RadioCentral.
Available through Review of RadioCentral.
Live365 - Radio Revolution ___ Classical Guitar Radio Station ___ PCWorld.com - Best of the Web.
Live365 takes up 5% points of system resources. Excellent quality. Excellent ease of use. Highly recommended.
Lycos Music Radio Network: http://music.lycos.com/radio/ New and Improved Lycos Radio. Tune in to the new and improved Lycos Radio for the best radio experience on the web. . . . crystal clear audio with professional DJ's . . . music 24/7. . . . wide variety of quality programmed stations . . . Windows Media Player recommended. Internet Explorer 5.0 or newer recommended. Lycos Radio appears to launch rather than need installing. It is user-friendly.
Available through Review of RadioCentral.
RadioCentral Re-launches Lycos Radio: http://www.gavin.com/news/article.php?art_id=720 Terra Lycos and RadioCentral have teamed up to re-launch Lycos Radio. Unlike many other Web radio services that automatically program music by a computer database, the music on Lycos Radio is more like terrestrial radio in that the programming is hand-selected . . . has DJs spinning the music and introducing songs. There will also be streamed advertising . . .
Lycos Radio also offers new functionality such as an "info" button that opens a window with information on the song that is currently playing . . .
Lycos Radio takes up 6% (or 2%?) points of system resources. Excellent quality. Excellent ease of use, except that there is no Stop button (but there is a Mute) . Highly recommended.
PCWorld.com - Best of the Web: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,17178,00.asp . . . MP3.com vs. Spinner. MP3.com also has a wide variety of music, all organized in a simple Yahoo-like directory structure, but who's ever heard of most of these artists?
MusicMatch Jukebox - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/mp3-mmatch.html Review of MusicMatch Jukebox. Rated *****. Jumpin' jukebox! A digital audio MP3 player, CD ripper, and CD burner.
MusicMatch Jukebox is a digital jukebox in the truest sense of the word -- it will play all of your digital audio files, from MP3 clips to audio CDs to RealAudio content. . . . integrated encoder and CD 'ripper' tools allow you to record CD music to your computer in MP3 or RealAudio format. And with cool built-in accessories like a MP3 Equalizer, an advanced playlist manager, and a WAV to MP3 (and vice versa) converter, MusicMatch Jukebox stands on its own as a complete digital audio solution.
MusicMatch Jukebox will also download MP3s and other digital audio over the Internet, automatically adding them to your Music Library. The MusicMatch Web site features a great sample of downloadable music; if the hedonist in you craves more, there's always the mother of all MP3 sites, MP3.com. A cool feature in MusicMatch Jukebox you won't find in most competing offerings is that selected tracks include CD cover art, lyrics, song notes, and/or artist bios.
The above may be fine for all but streaming audio and radio, my main interest. It has only two Jazz stations, and has wrongly listed a major jazz station, CJRT, Toronto, as being Classical music, not Jazz. Only five stations are listed as Classical, of which at least two are talk (News) programs, not music. The audio available is all of low bandwidth, with other limitations, unless one pays for enhanced services and CD quality ($4.95/mo. or $39.95/yr.). The selection of any genre of music seems very limited and, without the paying, of the lowest bandwidth. If the selection is this poor on the pay service, it is not worth it. This player also uses a large amount of PC system resources, reducing that from [57, 56, 57] to [30, 51, 30] (all % figures).
It had been suspected that this player and Winamp, or both, were causing interrupts and creating new temporary files, even when not in use. As presently playing, there is one such entry that appears to be caused by MusicMatch: mmradioart.tmp in C:\Program Files\MUSICMATCH\MUSICMATCH Jukebox\TEMP. The many other entries are of the form wbk3092.TMP in C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE50HUZ05AB. That might indicate that it is not MusicMatch that is the cause of most of those interrupts. Even after exiting from MusicMatch, the system resources stand at [53, 53,55] rather than at the level of [57, 56, 57] before.
See also Improving system performance, where I am critical of the fact that MusicMatch Jukebox takes up 28% points of system resources, which is unacceptably high relative to other players -- such as, for example, Talk365, at 10%.
My conclusion: MusicMatch Jukebox is rated as poor to moderate for purposes of streaming music, because of poor and mislabeled program selection, low bandwidth, and very high resource usage (about 27% points!). For all other purposes, it appears to be excellent. Ease of use (affordance in design parlance) is very good or excellent.
MusicMatch Jukebox takes up 22% points of system resources on a later try, after zapping out about three extra commercial windows. Without extra fees, it has only 5 classical stations, although one of them CJRT in Totonto for jazz, is excellent.
AMP3.com MusicMatch Jukebox Review: http://www.amp3.com/mediaplayer/mediaplayer.html
Netscape Radio - Radio: http://radio.netscape.com/radio/radiosell.html Listen to Radio by returning to this page, http://radio.netscape.com. Bookmark it! Or, get Radio easily from the menu bar of the latest Netscape browser.
Download the browser free! Audio feeds provided by Spinner (or, http://www.spinner.com/floor.jhtml?url=%2F_tempdex.jhtml&_requestid=863651&_requestid=863645). I am very pleased with this tuner, powered by Spinner, for the same reasons as in Review of Spinner, except that Radio takes up 5% points of system resources instead of Spinner's 7%.
Interface Hall of Shame -- Quicktime: http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm QuickTime 4.0 Player. . . . the QuickTime 4.0 Player sports a completely redesigned user interface. The new interface represents an almost violent departure from the long established standards that have been the hallmark of Apple software. Ease of Use has always been paramount to Apple, but . . .
There is nothing innovative about the user interface of the QuickTime 4.0 Player; the developers adopted the same misguided principles employed in IBM's RealThings, copied some of the same features we critiqued in our reviews of IBM's RealPhone and RealCD, and added a few new follies of their own. . . .
one must wonder whether Apple, arguably the most zealous defender of consistency in user interface design, has abandoned its twenty-year effort to champion interface standards. As with IBM's RealThings, it would seem that appearance has taken precedence to the basic principles of graphical interface design. . . .
Apple has removed the very interface clues and subtleties that allowed us to learn how to use GUI in the first place. Window borders, title bars, window management controls, meaningful control labels, state indicators, focus indicators, default control indicators, and discernible keyboard access mechanisms are all gone. . . .
The decision to eschew the existing interface controls provided by the operating system creates a variety of problems. The decision not to provide a title bar, for example, resulted in the loss of the standard window management controls. Windows users will find the the player offers no visual indication as to how to move, minimize, or maximize the player window. . . .
There follows a well-documented and illustrated list of very many serious design flaws.
The design of the user interface in the QuickTime 4.0 Player could hardly be described as innovative. It merely represents the latest failure in a sporadic attempt to make computer software look more like real-world analogues. . . .
We find this trend toward "consumer" interfaces to be particularly disturbing. The design places a premium on aesthetics over usability. The emphasis is on creating a flashy product, and not on creating a useful and usable product. Rather than asking, "How can we make this look more like a real thing?", the designers would do their users a far more important service by asking, "How can we make this operate better than the real thing". . . .
We should all be disturbed by this trend. Apple devotees should be enraged. . . .
The constancy of the desktop model might be explained in terms of the constancy of steering wheels and pedals in automobiles: they work very well. . . .
Quicktime design flaws: http://www.stanford.edu/~alexou/cs147_assignment3.doc
Apple\rquote s Quicktime 4.0 Player has come under heavy criticism for poor user interface design from a variety of perspectives. Indeed, even so-called "die-hard" Macintosh users and Apple devotees have found Quicktime 4.0 falling far short of Apple's allegedly unsurpassed adherence to sensible user interface design. This paper will look at a few of the more serious design flaws of Quicktime 4.0, as well as suggest a couple of design elements . . .
Quicktime 4.0 demonstrates both hidden as well as false affordances, which achieve the exact opposite effect. The speaker icon is an instance of a hidden affordance; clicking on the speaker icon will mute or unmute audio output, but there is no way for the user to know this, as there is nothing about the speaker icon which suggests that it can be acted up on in any way. The apple icon exemplifies a false affordance, in that it resembles actual affordances like the speaker icon, but provides no function . . .
there is no built-in help facility . . .
An overall sense of inadequate feedback pervades the application, as the aesthetically-minded brushed-metal look conceals the availability of the controls. Furthermore, when feedback is generated, it is less than appropriate, as the play button appears functional when a movie is already playing; at this time, it is the stop button which appears grayed-out and disabled. . . .
Quicktime Favorites . . . create high memory load for the user; with no text to distinguish between files . . .
The most significant design flaw of Quicktime 4.0 is inconsistency Quicktime 4.0 should not be seen as a standalone product; it is a media player designed to be integrated seamlessly into its operating system environment, be it Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. . . . users should reasonably expect it to obey design conventions that completely standalone, non-integrated products adhere to. Instead, in the words of the Interface Hall of Shame, [See Interface Hall of Shame -- Quicktime.] "Window borders, title bars, window management controls, state indicators, focus indicators . . . are all gone." This failure is especially deplorable in the Macintosh operating system environment; Quicktime is created by Apple, a company that prides itself on -- indeed, distinguishes itself from competitors by -- a supposedly unique and single-minded emphasis on user interface design. . . .
Quicktime 4.0 does not come across as a complete design failure, however. In creating any interface, tradeoffs must be made as design principles are compared and prioritized. The conflict between unnatural mapping and modes is resolved by adopting an unnatural mapping system to avoid introducing confusing modes of operation and input. . . .
RadioCentral - The World Leader in Internet Radio: http://www.radiocentral.com/
Pick one of these high quality stations created by RadioCentral. . . .
. . . Lycos Radio ___ EarthLink Radio ___ Scour Radio ___ About Radio ___ A&E Radio
One can add each of these stations to one's desktop -- each with its own clickable shortcut. Or, one can add one of them, from which one can access all of them, as I did with About Radio. It is simple to use, with excellent quality.
See also: . . . Review of About Radio ___ Review of A&E Radio ___ Review of EarthLink Radio
. . . . . . . . . . . Review of Lycos Radio ___ Review of Scour Radio
Maximize Your Media - Welcome to Real.com: http://www.real.com/ RealOne™ Player - Our Best Player. Only RealOne gives you: Your choice of 2000+ radio stations. Amazing audio and brilliant full-screen video*. Advanced picture controls and a graphic EQ. Premier programming including ABCNEWS.com, CNN, E! Entertainment, . . .
RealJukebox - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/audiocd-realjukebox.html 19 Jan 02.
Trying to transform a grass-roots movement into a business, RealNetworks has debuted a software system that positions the company at one of the most controversial intersections of the Internet -- digitally downloaded music. The company's new product, RealJukebox, can play and record MP3 files, the audio file format that is creating questions for old-line music companies and opportunities for new Internet music companies.
Many media players can already play individual MP3 files and full-featured MP3 applications, like the shareware Winamp, have been around for a while. But RealJukebox marks the first time a name-brand company has released a program for playing, encoding, and managing MP3s. . . .
RealPlayer - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/avstream-realplay.html Real-time audio, video, and Flash on-demand streaming for the Web. Rated *****. RealAudio was the first client released on the 'net that allowed users to download and run audio clips in real-time -- i.e. the sound bytes run while being downloaded, not after. Since its initial release in June of 1995, RealAudio has continually evolved in order to stay one step ahead of the competition while still managing to retain its freeware status. Its affordability and reputation for outstanding audio quality are two of the reasons that RealAudio has become the most popular client of its type on the 'net.
RealONE Player - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/avstream-realone.html Review. RealPlayer and RealJukebox combined into one. Rated *****. Next generation real-time audio, video, and Flash on-demand multimedia.
Available through Review of RadioCentral.
Review of several media players
Great North Radio, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: :http://www.tyneside.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/software/ Free Media Player Downloads & Software Links.
Start365: Desktop access to all your Live365 presets. Works with Player365 [See next entry.] and supported 3rd party players 216 k (or less than a minute with a 56 k modem). See also Live365 - Radio Revolution.
Player365: Streaming MP3 player optimized for Live365 streams. Auto-reconnects if broadcast stops Downloads quickly; installs automatically and Wont disrupt audio software that you have for other uses. Only 160 k (or less than a minute with a 56 k modem).
Nullsoft Winamp is the ultimate high-fidelity music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, CD and other audio formats, with more than 20,000 skins and 150 audio visualization and effect plug-ins. Winamp is freeware.
Download Real Player 8 basic ( Free ), or upgrade to the Real Player 8 Plus.
Coolplayer from DaanSystems. Excellent for listening to Tyneside. It's FREE, very cool, and only a 157 kb download. Amazing. PS: I use this player to moniter our output. Excellent sound quality.
C-4 Media Player is a low CPU usage, audio player for Windows 95 +. It supports MPEG Audio (MP3, MP2, MP1), Internet Streaming, MPEG Audio (MP3, MP2, MP1), VQF, CD Audio, Midi, Wave, and Tracker Files (MOD etc). C-4 has the most flexible "free-form" skinning support available.
Ultraplayer will handle MP3, WMA, RealAudio, WAV, MIDI, CD Audio, Internet radio, and video files ( Windows Media, AVI, MPEG, Real ), and it's FREE. We tested Ultraplayer and found it to be a reliable player for listening to Tyneside. Excellent.
Sonique is another cool free media and MP3 player. It features support for all the latest audio formats, a killer user interface, customizable skins and visuals, and built-in access to music resources on the Web. We tested this for several hours listening to Tyneside, and we could not fault it. Brilliant.
FreeAmp is an extensible, cross-platform audio player. It features an optimized version of the GPLed Xing MPEG decoder which makes it one of the fastest and best sounding players available.
Download the latest version of Microsoft Windows Media Player. We are still using version 6.4 here, and find it the most reliable version. Read our review and faqs.
iM Tuner.
Silent Way Directory Music and Webcast Links: http://www.silentway.com/links/musiclinks.html The Silent Way Directory: Music- Webcasts, MP3s, CDs, Reading. Based in San Francisco. Massive & varied list of links. Excellent.
Review of Sonicbox iM Tuner and iM Networks
iM Networks: http://www.sonicbox.com/ check out all the iM Radio hardware products or download the iM Radio® Tuner Software.
Sympatico.ca - Downloads: http://tucows.sympatico.ca/tucows/preview/193609.shtml Sonicbox iM Tuner.
Sonicbox Tuner lets listeners tune in to one of 800 high-quality Internet radio stations [organized into 25 genres, ranging from alternative music to news to police scanners, and via search] that the PD picks for good stream and content.
Listeners can customize their own band with stations from anywhere on the Web. Initiate push-button "tell me more" e-commerce and vote on the content. It even lets you listen to pre-roll station announcements and music during buffer time.
. . . you don't have to look at banner ads on a site or on the tuner. . . .
ZDNet Story The day the music died--and why I still love Internet radio: http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2708016,00.html 16 Apr 01.
I am sitting here waiting for my Internet radio -- a Kerbango device -- to die. I know this will happen, maybe today, because 3Com recently killed its Internet appliance division and has laid off the Kerbango staff, before the award-winning product ever got to market. . . .
IM NETWORKS ALSO DOES something for people without special hardware: The same software that drives the remote tuner can also be used as a desktop application, connected to the company's radio portal with links to hundreds of stations, many of which you might never find on your own. Of course, the major audio players offer radio tuners . . . accessed from RealAudio or Microsoft Windows Media Player.
These tuning services -- essentially radio-specific search engines -- are very useful for finding the stations and programs you are interested in. Internet radio has pretty much made shortwave obsolete as a means for countries to talk to one another. All my favorite shortwave programs are now available over the Internet, either as a live stream or convenient on-demand basis.
streamingmedia.com newsletter: http://www.streamingmedia.com/newsletter/071800.html . . . Tune In…
The iM Tuner software, which can also be used independently of the Sonicbox hardware, is available for free download from the company’s Web site. The simple-to-install software supports any station that's broadcast in RealAudio, Microsoft Windows Media, or MP3 (Icecast, Shoutcast) format, and will even play MP3s. (You'll need to install the freely downloadable RealPlayer and Windows Media Player 6.4 to make use of the iM Tuner.)
The iM Tuner serves as a front-end for iM Band, Sonicbox's tuning service, which delivers what the company considers to be the 800 best stations on the Internet. The stations are divided into 25 diverse genres, and are cleverly alphabetized for easy memorization: A for alternative, B for blues, W for world beat, X for eXtreme, and so on. I spent an hour hopping from station to station and barely scratched the surface of the available content. If you're not satisfied with the preset stations, there are 32 user-definable slots on the Z-band.
Sonicbox takes up 5% points of system resources.
Sonique Web v3.0: http://sonique.lycos.com/ SONIQUE 1.95 · The Ultimate Audio Player · Sonique is the Web's hottest media and MP3 player. It features support for all the latest audio formats, a killer user interface, customizable skins and visuals, and built-in access to music resources on the Web.
Sonique is another cool free media and MP3 player.
Sonique - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/mp3-sonique.html Review. Sonique. Rated **** 1/2. Great features and an amazing interface - does Winamp finally have a rival? The uncontested winner in the MP3 player category has always been Winamp. It has an outstanding feature-base and a huge following, a situation that's unlikely to change as far as we can see. But that doesn't mean there aren't other excellent players out there. In fact, there are several players now available that do some things much better than Winamp. One such player is Sonique, from Night 55. . . .
The first noticeable feature of Sonique is its interface. And what an interface! It is completely out of this world compared to all other MP3 players, but at the same time its far more beautiful as well. . . .
The only drawback to this player is its navigation and slight learning curve. It's a bit confusing to get around the program at first, but at the same time it's so much fun interacting with it that you probably won't mind the detours. . . .
Sonique takes up 5% points of system resources. Unless one is searching to play a list of advertised pieces, this site is so unfriendly that I could not find how to play a stream of music or to tune into radio stations. It may be alright for those who wish to pick individual pieces; however, I am not interested in that, and there are other sources which can do that. I will probably delete this player. This player is useless for my purposes, and is very user-unfriendly. It seems oriented only toward the names of artists, not the type of music. It is therefore useless! I will give it one more try, then probably delete it.
PCWorld.com - Best of the Web: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,17178,00.asp . . . MP3.com vs. Spinner Spinner (or http://www.spinner.com/getspinner/getspinnerhome.jhtml?_requestid=8186806) is part radio network, part music library. Its potential grew exponentially when its mama company, America Online, agreed to merge with Time Warner, home to some of the biggest music labels around. Using the downloadable Spinner Plus 3, you can listen to preprogrammed music on over 120 channels -- from opera to rockabilly. You can download customized playlists to load on your MP3 player or listen to from your hard drive.
"Best Net Radio" -- Yahoo
Internet Life -- Best Sites for 2001 (Jan. 2001)
"You have in one fell swoop made the FM tuner on my stereo
system obsolete." -- Steven S. --
SPINNER
Also Powered By Spinner: Netscape Radio
(See Review
of Netscape Radio.) - AOL Plus Radio
- Compuserve Radio - ICQ
Radio
Spinner 4 now has over 150 channels. Spinner has a wide selection of musical genres, very good quality audio, very few interruptions, and is designed very well for ease of use. It takes up 7% points of system resources.
UltraPlayer Digital Media Player - Play MP3, Internet Radio, Video, CD, and more!: http://www.ultraplayer.com/ UltraPlayer handles the playing chores for MP3, WMA, RealAudio, WAV, MIDI, CD Audio, Internet radio, AND video files (Windows Media, AVI, MPEG, Real). It looks and sounds great, it's lightweight and powerful, and it's more handy than a big bucket full of llamas and aliens.
UltraPlayer Digital Media Player - Press 07-26-00: http://www.ultraplayer.com/company/press2k/072600.asp UltraPlayer Software Ranks Highest In Independent MP3 Audio Quality Tests
Louisville, CO July 26, 2000 -- UltraCo Incorporated announced today that their UltraPlayer™ Audio Software received the highest ranking in an impartial head-to-head test comparing the audio quality of 20 of the most popular media players. Their Neutrino™ MPEG Audio decoder passed all of the five rigorous tests with flying colors. The tests were performed by PhD candidate David Robinson under an independent research grant from the Engineering and Physics Research Council. . . .
UltraPlayer’s Neutrino decoder was top rated in a formidable field of players, beating Winamp™ 2.62, Sonique™ 1.51, MusicMatch™ Jukebox 5.1118, and Microsoft Windows Media Player™ v6.4 and v7 beta.
UltraPlayer takes up 8% points of system resources. It uses RealOne, and has a variety of radio sources. It is user-friendly, except that its window-control icons for Minimize and Exit are disgracefully poorly designed -- being gray on gray in color, if you can imagine!
WINAMP.COM Now Featuring Self-transforming Mechanical Elves: http://www.winamp.com/
Winamp - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/mp3-winamp.html Review of Winamp. Rated *****. By far the best MP3 audio player on the 'net -- and it's free!
The latest rage in 'net audio continues to be MPEG Audio Layer 3 stream technology (MP3 for short). This is the latest official MPEG standard to be released from the ISO/IEC standardization body (MPEG4 is in the works) and is by far the most powerful member of the family. MPEG Audio Layer 3 utilizes a combination of extremely complex methods to attain high compression ratios while preserving CD-quality audio.
While it might not sound overwhelmingly impressive at first glance, when you take into account that without compression it takes approximately 175 Kilobytes to store just one second of CD-quality stereo sound, the full benefits of MP3 and the older MPEG standards quickly become apparent.
Review of Microsoft Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player - Stroud's CWSApps: http://cws.internet.com/avstream-msmedia.html The scintillating successor to NetShow and Microsoft's Media Player. Rated *****.
Windows Media Player is a universal media player released by Microsoft and designed to receive and playback streaming audio and video media over the Internet or your private intranet. The player serves as the successor to the standard media player included with Windows 3.x/95/NT and is a critical component of the newer releases of Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Internet Explorer 5.x.
At the same time, Windows Media Player also serves as the successor to the standalone Microsoft NetShow player -- it retains all of NetShow 2.x's features and functionality as well as delivering a ton of its own. Media Player is also the only client available that will play encoded and/or served NetShow 3.x media files.
WebReview.com Media Player 7 Ups the Ante: http://www.webreview.com/mmedia/2000/08_18_00.shtml August 18, 2000 > Multimedia Developer. The world of multimedia has gotten a little bit more interesting as of late. With the release of Microsoft's Windows Media Player 7, the trend towards an all-in-one media player continues. This not only puts pressure on RealNetworks to release an all-in-one version of RealPlayer, but also shows that WMP7 stands to chip away at the dominant market share that RealNetworks has enjoyed for years in the streaming media market. . . .
Comparing the quality of the major media players is where Microsoft shows its flaws, especially with video. RealPlayer's RealVideo 8 really has a leg up on WMP7, especially when the video is encoded for a high-bandwidth target audience. RealVideo claims to have better than VHS quality (no more blurred images!) and it is comparable to Quicktime (which always has had superior video quality). . . .
Yahoo! - Broadcast: http://broadcast.yahoo.com/home.html Yahoo! Broadcast offers a wide variety of on-demand audio and video content, from space shuttle launches to full-length movies. We have sports heroes in action, bands performing in concert, and TV shows that haven't been on the air in years.
The Yahoo! Broadcast player has three panes. The bottom pane is a browser for selecting Yahoo! Broadcast content.
When you select a piece of content from the bottom pane, the audio/video content plays in the pane on the upper left and related information is shown in the pane on the upper right.
You can click on the orange "Y! Broadcast Home" button below the video pane to return the bottom browser pane to the front page of Yahoo! Broadcast. The orange buttons at the bottom of the related information pane help you navigate quickly between categories.
PCWorld.com - Best of the Web: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,17178,00.asp Live365.com vs. Yahoo Broadcast . . . . The site (Yahoo) has exclusive rights to programs from thousands of radio and TV stations. Brazilian music, British news, German soccer, and endless stuff from the good old USA -- it's all here. Live365.com is a different proposition, but a neat one. Using tools provided by the site, regular folks can create their own online radio stations. It's fun, but finding something you want to listen to is a trial-and-error process.
I have tried this out, and I do not like it -- at least for radio stations, my main interest. Maybe it would be alright for movies. I will try one out. Before each selection, one has to endure a movie preview or video clip.
See also:
(a) HTML code to create link to Web site.
(b) mp3 history, future, technology.
(c) Technical details of DNAS.
A comparison of Internet audio compression formats: http://www.sericyb.com.au/sc/audio.html Very detailed.
Music Links: http://music.utsa.edu/technology/links/ Includes a link to Carmina Burana Home Page (http://www.unidata.com/~ucc01/carmina.htm); however, it appears to be innactive. I will try again. Many links.
Silent Way Directory Music and Webcast Links: http://www.silentway.com/links/musiclinks.html#39 The Silent Way Directory: Music- Webcasts, MP3s, CDs, Reading. Based in San Francisco. Massive & varied list of links. Excellent.
. . . Netscape audio tip
Download Sheet Music and Audio Files: http://www.whschambersingers.org/download.html Some Netscape users have experienced problems opening our digital audio files. That's because later versions of Netscape aren't automatically configured to open Real Audio Player and other programs. For those experiencing technical problems, try using these tips: . . . See TECH TIPS on that site (near the bottom).
CNN.com - Technology - Review Acer, Sonicbox team to stream Net radio in stereo - December 15, 2000: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/15/net.radio.in.stereo.idg/
Acer NeWeb and Sonicbox have partnered to unchain digital music from PCs with the release of the $120 IRhythm device. It's a wireless Web radio tuner that links hundreds of Net-based stations and personal MP3 collections to your home stereo.
The IRhythm is made up of a base unit (that plugs into a PC's USB port), a wireless receiver (that attaches to your stereo), and an Art Deco-style tuner called the IM Tuner that categorizes 800 Web radio stations by genre. The signal is sent from the base to the wireless receiver, which can be up to 100 feet away, on the same 900-MHz frequency used for cordless phones. You can retrieve the Web radio online and route it for playing through your stereo.
The IRhythm is not a new concept but rather an affordable alternative to more expensive devices such as the $250 Dell Audio Receiver or Gateway Connected Music Player, priced at $300. Also, there's 3Com's $300 Kerbango and Audioramp's IRAD-S device, which costs $400. The software-only version of this product was released earlier this year as the IM Software Tuner.
A limited wireless range and awkward audio management software prevent IRhythm from competing equally with more expensive brethren. . . .
I was impressed with Sonicbox's IM Remote Tuner, which handles flipping among Web radio stations like scanning your radio dial. When you click to a station, a small audio clip alerts you to the name, location, and genre of the station you've selected. Sonicbox says it periodically checks stations to ensure they meet a minimum level of reliability.
To add radio stations, you must locate the "live" link on the Net radio station's site and "drag" it with your mouse to the IRhythm software tuner.
The hardware console includes buttons that let you send "smile" or "frown" events to stations so they'll know what you think of their programming. You can also push a Tell Me More button to get an e-mail containing information about the artist. This feature will be more useful when more stations support it. . . .
Sonicbox iM Remote Tuner - Hardware Reviews - CNET.com: http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-16332-405-1990301.html CNET Rating: 8out of 10.
Listening to radio broadcasts from around the world via the Internet is great, but being tethered to your PC can be a drag. We found the Sonicbox iM Remote Tuner to be a clever, fun-to-use solution for enjoying Internet radio from the comfort of your living room . . . over your home stereo as opposed to through those tinny computer speakers.
Simple Setup
The $75 iM Remote Tuner actually consists of three separate
pieces: a transmitter that plugs into both your USB port and
sound card, a remote control device, and a pager-sized receiver
that plugs into the audio inputs on your stereo and works on AC
or battery power. By using battery power and a pair of
headphones, the iM Remote Tuner doubles as a wireless Internet
radio Walkman. The USB interface on the transmitter makes
installation a snap, but it also means that you'll need to run
Windows 98 or Windows 2000. The system's 900-MHz transmitter, similar to the ones used in higher-end
cordless phones, is much easier to set up than wireless devices,
such as the NetPlay Radio, that use the FM band.
NetPlay Radio - Hardware Reviews - CNET.com: http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-16332-404-1993297.html?tag=st.co.16332-405-1990301.txt.16332-404-1993297 NetPlay Radio CNET Rating: 6 out of 10 The good: Good sound quality; simple to use. The bad: Somewhat expensive for what is essentially a wireless wire.
TenTec RX-320 PC Radio: http://peripherals.about.com/library/weekly/aa012602a.htm The Radio Upgrade. This finely engineered shortwave radio receiver has no dials or switches on the front panel. You control the radio via the serial port on your PC system. TenTec offers a basic control software package for PC systems with Windows, but if you really want to take the RX-320 to the limit, check out the Java-based Dxtra Worldstation front-end software. Any computer with a serial port (or a supported USB-serial converter) and a sufficiently advanced Java environment can use the Worldstation software. . . .
Go to Site overview directory. ___ Go to Latest additions. ___ Go to Music types page. ___ Go to Links, by type of music.
Go to Greatest page. ___ Go Home.
You can e-mail me at waynerp@sympatico.ca