Apple TV Internet Radio Sound Quality

[Aragornii]

Does anyone listen to internet radio on an Apple TV hooked up to a good sound system? I've sampled a few stations and the sound quality has been terrible.

I'm not one who can tell the difference between 256 AAC and an uncompressed CD, but when I listen to internet ratio the sound is terrible relative to my music collection.

Are there internet radio stations that broadcast at something that resembles 256 AAC? If so, does anyone have any recommendations for high sound quality stations? How about any stations that people recommend for their playlist regardless of genre?

 

[davidoloan]

Does anyone listen to internet radio on an Apple TV hooked up to a good sound system? I've sampled a few stations and the sound quality has been terrible.

I'm not one who can tell the difference between 256 AAC and an uncompressed CD, but when I listen to internet ratio the sound is terrible relative to my music collection.

Are there internet radio stations that broadcast at something that resembles 256 AAC? If so, does anyone have any recommendations for high sound quality stations? How about any stations that people recommend for their playlist regardless of genre?

The BBC stream Radio 3 at 320 kb/s on the Apple TV2.

This is from their website. "We are now delivering the sampled 'HD' sound at a rate of 320 kb/s (AAC), which delivers more audio information and results in better sound, compared to the previous rate of 192 kb/s."

So it is likely that the streams from most other stations are a low bitrate.

I don't use the Apple TV2 radio because the radio interface is so bad, though I use it for video and podcasts with a good Dac and Amp.

But Yes, the bandwith required for HQ Radio is much less than video, so it is about time that stream quality increased across the board.

Here, FM is still best for quality with the odd exception and DAB is rubbish.

 

[marzer]

I suspect the ATV uses the same list of stations available to iTunes. In that case you can see many of the radio stations still broadcast at less than 128kbps. I think a 64kbps stream is usually considered equivalent to a good FM stereo broadcast.

 

[Aragornii]

Okay, so I had the brilliant idea that I'd create a smart playlist where "kind" equals internet audio stream and "bit rate" is greater than 128kbps. Above that the quality seems to actually be pretty good. Turns out that smart playlists won't pull from the radio list, so no luck there.

A workaround is to ctrl-a on all radio stations and copy them into a regular playlist, then the smart playlist will recognize them. The drawback is the it doesn't keep the categorization by type (comedy, classical, etc.) so it's not a very useful playlist.

A very useful feature would be to be able to screen out all stations with below a certain bit rate, so as to cut the 7,000 streams down to a more manageable number, and to be able to set up radio station playlists that are recognized by iTunes. Maybe in the future.

Interesting to note that my Denon receiver allows internet radio stations to be favorited, so I can just go to my favorites playlist.

 

[machpost]

Internet radio in iTunes and on the Apple TV seems like an afterthought.