Much better Podcast support

[Audacity]

I'd like to be able to listen to my Podcasts in a scheduled fashion, probably using alarms. But I'd like the alarm function to be able to have some simple logic that it will play the most recent episode in from the RSS feed.

For example, at 10am I'd like to play "The World in Brief" from the Economist, and I'd like it to play whatever the most recent episode on that RSS feed. Ultimately, my goal is to be able to create a schedule of various podcast shows in such a way that I'm essentially creating a talk radio station with a selection of all my favourites. That would be a interesting way to use WiiM streamers/speakers.

I'm not sure if this would be easier to do using existing music services that happen to integrate Podcasts (e.g. Spotify), or if it's worth WiiM writing their own podcast player code. I think the latter might ultimately be better than the former for many reasons because you'd have way more flexibility on what you'd be able to do, and as a software dev myself it doesn't seem to be difficult to do in relative terms. Primarily because podcasts all want you to fetch their content, the RSS feed interface is public/standard, it's not like licensed streaming services which try and prevent 3rd party apps from accessing their content because it's all behind a mandatory paywall due to content licensing. Also importantly: there are a lot of open source podcast apps "out there" (e.g. PocketCasts, my "daily driver" podcast app happens to be open source).

 

[hgo58]

Completely disagree. The WiiMs are music streamers that shall focus on sound quality.

Use the available apps and cast it to the WiiM, if you want to hear it that way.

 

[Audacity]

The WiiMs are music steamers that shall focus on sound quality.

Well, when I need my music steamed, I'll know where to go.

 

[castalla]

Completely disagree. The WiiMs are music streamers that shall focus on sound quality.

Use the available apps and cast it to the WiiM, if you want to hear it that way.

They are audio streamers - music is just one form of audio

 

[Krabin]

I'd like to be able to listen to my Podcasts in a scheduled fashion, probably using alarms. But I'd like the alarm function to be able to have some simple logic that it will play the most recent episode in from the RSS feed.

For example, at 10am I'd like to play "The World in Brief" from the Economist, and I'd like it to play whatever the most recent episode on that RSS feed. Ultimately, my goal is to be able to create a schedule of various podcast shows in such a way that I'm essentially creating a talk radio station with a selection of all my favourites. That would be a interesting way to use WiiM streamers/speakers.

I'm not sure if this would be easier to do using existing music services that happen to integrate Podcasts (e.g. Spotify), or if it's worth WiiM writing their own podcast player code. I think the latter might ultimately be better than the former for many reasons because you'd have way more flexibility on what you'd be able to do, and as a software dev myself it doesn't seem to be difficult to do in relative terms. Primarily because podcasts all want you to fetch their content, the RSS feed interface is public/standard, it's not like licensed streaming services which try and prevent 3rd party apps from accessing their content because it's all behind a mandatory paywall due to content licensing. Also importantly: there are a lot of open source podcast apps "out there" (e.g. PocketCasts, my "daily driver" podcast app happens to be open source).

IMHO, WiiM still needs to focus on the designed purpose: modern hifi music streaming and stereo home theater. They're doing great, but there's still a bit of bugs and important standard features like eq pregain that need to be taken care of before adding more smart bells and whistles for stuff like podcasts. I'm pretty sure everything you described can easily be done with something like a $40 Amazon Echo Pop or Google Nest Mini. Podcasts aren't typically recorded with quality in mind, so a cheap speaker should be fine, and smart speakers are designed to do stuff like that. I'm not against adding podcast stuff, I'm just saying there are bigger priorities that'll probably take a while, and I don't want to distract from it.

 

[castalla]

IMHO, WiiM still needs to focus on the designed purpose: modern hifi music streaming and stereo home theater. They're doing great, but there's still a bit of bugs and important standard features like eq pregain that need to be taken care of before adding more smart bells and whistles for stuff like podcasts. I'm pretty sure everything you described can easily be done with something like a $40 Amazon Echo Pop or Google Nest Mini. Podcasts aren't typically recorded with quality in mind, so a cheap speaker should be fine, and smart speakers are designed to do stuff like that. I'm not against adding podcast stuff, I'm just saying there are bigger priorities that'll probably take a while, and I don't want to distract from it.

What the heck is EQ regain? Why should I care about it?

 

[Krabin]

What the heck is EQ regain? Why should I care about it?

It's an easy way to make sure you don't cause digital clipping (too much gain) or elevated noise floor (not enough gain) for each eq save. I explain it more here:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/eq-pre-gain-per-saved-eq.7800/
If you have the volume at 100, the volume limit at 100%, and pre-input pregain at 0dB, you have 0dBFS of headroom. So, if you boost 100Hz by 3dB, and a song goes over -3dB, the signal with hard clip, a nasty sound you've probably heard before. This is where the pregain comes in: you simply lower it by 3dB and problem solved. Let's say you want to prevent clipping from ever happening, so you lower the per-input pregain by 10dB. Then, instead of a 16-bit track having a noise floor at -96dB, it gets elevated to -86dB. You probably won't hear that, but your speaker's amplifier or something before it probably has a higher noise floor, and it can definitely become audible when you turn up the amp's volume to compensate for the low gain.

 

[castalla]

It's an easy way to make sure you don't cause digital clipping (too much gain) or elevated noise floor (not enough gain) for each eq save. I explain it more here:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/eq-pre-gain-per-saved-eq.7800/
If you have the volume at 100, the volume limit at 100%, and pre-input pregain at 0dB, you have 0dBFS of headroom. So, if you boost 100Hz by 3dB, and a song goes over -3dB, the signal with hard clip, a nasty sound you've probably heard before. This is where the pregain comes in: you simply lower it by 3dB and problem solved. Let's say you want to prevent clipping from ever happening, so you lower the per-input pregain by 10dB. Then, instead of a 16-bit track having a noise floor at -96dB, it gets elevated to -86dB. You probably won't hear that, but your speaker's amplifier or something before it probably has a higher noise floor, and it can definitely become audible when you turn up the amp's volume to compensate for the low gain.

Thanks for the explanation. Maybe discussions of these audio characteristics could be made into a series of podcasts ..?

 

[harkpabst]

It's an easy way to make sure you don't cause digital clipping (too much gain) or elevated noise floor (not enough gain) for each eq save. I explain it more here:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/eq-pre-gain-per-saved-eq.7800/
If you have the volume at 100, the volume limit at 100%, and pre-input pregain at 0dB, you have 0dBFS of headroom. So, if you boost 100Hz by 3dB, and a song goes over -3dB, the signal with hard clip, a nasty sound you've probably heard before. This is where the pregain comes in: you simply lower it by 3dB and problem solved. Let's say you want to prevent clipping from ever happening, so you lower the per-input pregain by 10dB. Then, instead of a 16-bit track having a noise floor at -96dB, it gets elevated to -86dB. You probably won't hear that, but your speaker's amplifier or something before it probably has a higher noise floor, and it can definitely become audible when you turn up the amp's volume to compensate for the low gain.

So far my understanding is that the new cut-only mode is doing exactly this. Even if the naming is unusual.

 

[slartibartfast]

So far my understanding is that the new cut-only mode is doing exactly this. Even if the naming is unusual.

I thought the cut-only mode just avoided any overall boost. It doesn't lower the overall gain to prevent positive gains causing clipping.

 

[harkpabst]

I thought the cut-only mode just avoided any overall boost. It doesn't lower the overall gain to prevent positive gains causing clipping.

Ok, what's the difference then? If the output of all PEQ filters combined is <=0 dB for all frequencies then PEQ cannot cause digital clipping. It doesn't take I to account pre-gain, of course (which is a good thing, I think).

 

[hgo58]

Ok, what's the difference then? If the output of all PEQ filters combined is <=0 dB for all frequencies then PEQ cannot cause digital clipping. It doesn't take I to account pre-gain, of course (which is a good thing, I think).

I don't see how this is relevant for the OP post about podcast support?

 

[harkpabst]

I don't see how this is relevant for the OP post about podcast support?

Agreed.

Let's continue the discussion why music streaming would be different from podcast streaming. I didn't get that yet.

 

[hgo58]

Agreed.

Let's continue the discussion why music streaming would be different from podcast streaming. I didn't get that yet.

WiiM themselves advertise with "WiiM Ultra - Digital Hub for Your Music"

I really don't see any benefits of having podcast integrated into the WiiM Home App, with all the additional logic needed. Standalone apps dedicated to podcasts will do a much better job and the WiiM team will not wast resources on this.

 

[castalla]

WiiM themselves advertise with "WiiM Ultra - Digital Hub for Your Music"

I really don't see any benefits of having podcast integrated into the WiiM Home App, with all the additional logic needed. Standalone apps dedicated to podcasts will do a much better job and the WiiM team will not wast resources on this.q

With that logic, all the music services could be stripped out also, allowing the devs to concentrate on even more esoteric technical features for twiddlers

 

[hgo58]

With that logic, all the music services could be stripped out also, allowing the devs to concentrate on even more esoteric technical features for twiddlers

I have no idea what you mean.

 

[slartibartfast]

With that logic, all the music services could be stripped out also, allowing the devs to concentrate on even more esoteric technical features for twiddlers

That's how I use it anyway

 

[castalla]

That's how I use it anyway

Well, yes, I use the Wiims with Lyrion, so music services are pretty much redundant for me, also. Others, would probably appreciate amazon music, etc. which LMS doesn't have. But ignoring all spoken voice services would exclude not only podcasts but 1000s of radio services.

In this respect, the variety of media, Sonos still leads the field

 

[Burnside]

While it may not meet the exact requirements of the OP, WiiM devices already have a modicum of podcast support via TuneIn viz.

 

[Audacity]

While it may not meet the exact requirements of the OP, WiiM devices already have a modicum of podcast support via TuneIn viz.

Indeed, I previously had a Sonos setup and I used to schedule TuneIn radio stations in my office via alarms at certain times when a radio show I like is scheduled. This was the TWIT podcast network when they had a scheduled daily show (Tech News Today) and I'd listen to it live, and I've done this for years. I could do the same with WiiM.
But TWIT was the exception where they maintained a "live" feed. Most podcasts don't have live scheduled showtimes, they just push out new episodes when they're ready. This is why I'd really like is to pick a podcast that I like which comes out regularly, and then at a scheduled time have WiiM play the latest episode in the podcast feed. Or even better, I can pick my top favorite podcasts and then at the alarm time, make a playlist of whatever is new and then play that playlist. This would be difficult/annoying to write the code for if you're going to integrate with other intermediate services, but if you simply make your own Podcast software that reads RSS feeds directly? That trivializes the problem.

To all the people who are saying that features for Podcasts/Audiobooks aren't important and what really matters is esoteric HiFi, all that tells me is that you have no idea just how big Podcasts are. For every person who cares about "EQ regain", there are probably between a thousand and ten thousand people who care about listening to podcasts.