Sky or Telewest/NTL vs IP as music source?

does anyone use either cable or satelite as (frequent) digital source of stereo music, in preference to using Internet/IP?

 

I find that Freeview gives good quality stereo radio broadcasts, and certainly better than DAB but without the range of choice of DAB. Freeview is better than internet broadcasts that I have experienced and would therefore expect Sky/NTL etc to be similarly better.

 

Radio off Sky is excellent quality.

Bob

 

Sorry something you said just surprised me.

Can anyone else clarify that freeview sounds better than DAB?

I have freeview atm, I was saving up for a DAB. you might have saved me some money!

 

see https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?p=143797&highlight=compression#post143797

there were some earlier threads about compression rate on dab broadcasts being worse (station for station) on dab than on av digital sources

 

Presumably, at least one of those sources is illegal to record from.

 

is it illegal to record broadcast material for one's own use - from any source and at any compression/format? likely it might be illegal to re-distribute.

 

AFAIK it's illegal to record anything without the permission of the copyright owner.

You are not allowed to record a tape/CD for the car, Coronation street on VCR, you are not allowed to demonstrate a hifi in a hifi shop, play the radio as background in a shop or bar [without the appropriate licence] - or to your friend. Hifi bakeoffs are illegal also. Thats just the arsehole country we live in..

 

I can also confirm that radio via satellite is better quality than DAB, due to preferable compression rates on satellite/freeview. I read quite a bit about it a while ago and it struck me that all this was a bit crap really, as the BBC in particular were sporadically increasing the compression on certain channels therefore reducing quality, yet at the same time bombarding the listener/viewer with adverts designed to make them buy DAB radios, and failing to point out that if quality is your utmost requirement then you be better off steering clear of DAB and going for satellite/freeview or in fact making the most of FM while it's still used by them.

My experience of radio via IP is that it's pap - varies from low quality to unlistenable - but perhaps I gave up on it too soon (?)

That's how I understood it anyway......

P.S. I use a digibox into my stereo, and a lovely old 70's Roberts VHF/LW/MW radio for the kitchen, which to be honest I prefer, just cos it looks nice and reminds me of being a kid.

 

DAB has very bad compression.

DVB is not too bad.


If you want good quality radio... stick with FM.