Restriction of BBC Radio HLS/DASH to authorised third parties

[nickc]

(29-10-2023 12:56)rich28 Wrote:  ..... And better still, if like me you’re in the UK, 320k playback should be achievable by replacing ‘96000’ with ‘320000’ .

The ww stream for radio 3 works for me, but not if I edit it as suggested for UK and 320k.

Are others still having success with the latter?

[FakePlasticDunk]

(30-10-2023 16:02)nickc Wrote:  The ww stream for radio 3 works for me, but not if I edit it as suggested for UK and 320k.

Are others still having success with the latter?

Seems to be working for me.

[malkit]

(30-10-2023 16:02)nickc Wrote:  

(29-10-2023 12:56)rich28 Wrote:  ..... And better still, if like me you’re in the UK, 320k playback should be achievable by replacing ‘96000’ with ‘320000’ .

The ww stream for radio 3 works for me, but not if I edit it as suggested for UK and 320k.

Are others still having success with the latter?

I had 6 Music playing at 320k on vlc on my iphone at lunchtime.

[nickc]

Thanks @malkit and @FakePlasticDunk for your confirmations. I've now tried simply changing "96000" to "320000" in the ww address and to my surprise that works, VLC showing the increased bitrate.

I believe there are other factors at work when I try to use the uk address.

[SoundAdikt]

When I have tried these updated URLs it occasionally paused, briefly came back as a continuation before the pause, played for a few seconds and then skipped to presumably the current time of the live stream. I never experienced this before with the previous URLs. My workaround for now is to use a HDHomeRun feed for BBC Radio and it works fine although the bitrate is 192kbps. If Simon can convince the BBC to make MinimStreamer an authorised application, I would install MinimStreamer to get the higher quality, hopefully for me at least, more reliable feeds...

[simoncn]

Are you located in the UK? What equipment were you using (the renderer and the device running MinimServer/MinimStreamer) when you had this problem? Was the problem consistent or occasional?

[SoundAdikt]

Not using MinimStreamer for the streams, directly into MoodeAudio which under the covers uses mpd. The "old" URLs worked fine, the new ones suffer from a consistent pause after 30mins or so or more for about 10 to 20 seconds, then resume all be it skipping forward to the current time. That said, if MinimStreamer became an official receiver, I would be very happy to install and use for this purpose...

[malkit]

I’ve managed to set up a temporary solution with a new playlist file and above stream at 320k this morning for my main system but already missing extra HLS quality.
Incidentally do we know if lossless streams are still being made available to approved third parties?
As one of the key stated aim’s in their laughable distribution policy is quality I would surely hope so.

[JohnLeG]

This is a complete disaster! The BBC HLS streams stopped working while I was away, and I've come home to find one of my most enjoyable pastimes, listening to the excellent Radio 3 Saturday programmes, is now utterly broken. I'm using

• an old copy of Rune player on an RPi3 (armhf)
• minimserver on another RPi3 where my files are
• bubbleupnpserver to get OpenHome services
• Linn Kazoo as a control point.
  

I tried switching to the "new" playlist which I'd found on GitHub e.g.

#EXTINF:-1,BBC - Radio 3
http://as-hls-ww-live.akamaized.net/pool...ewind.m3u8)

Obviously that doesn't work... mpd is reporting "mad: input/Input does not appear to be a mp3 bit stream". I've tried using "uk" in place of "ww", and also "320000" in place of "96000", and ffmpeg + "*:mp3" in the MinimStreamer config. Neither of those appears to be improving the situation with mpd, still complaining about the stream of non-mp3 data.

Has anyone got this to work, and if so, what exact steps did they use? Or are we currently being denied access to the service I believe we're paying for through our licence fee, as so eloquently described in previous posts?

Thanks for your sterling work Simon, I really appreciate it, MinimServer is an excellent product.

[FakePlasticDunk]

(04-11-2023 11:37)malkit Wrote:  I’ve managed to set up a temporary solution with a new playlist file and above stream at 320k this morning for my main system but already missing extra HLS quality.
Incidentally do we know if lossless streams are still being made available to approved third parties?
As one of the key stated aim’s in their laughable distribution policy is quality I would surely hope so.

I wasn't aware that any of the previously available BBC HLS streams had been lossless? AAC @ 320k was the best they were previously providing, I thought.