Tunein quality Wiim vs Airplay

[Elsalo]

Dear Team
I bought New Wiim Pro Plus in order to have complex solution and drop having phone as source But I am surprised that this issue is still there. Why is such a cut in quality of streamed radio Station? I checked over Tunein and also VTuner.

Is that really not possible to have it on LAN connection higher bitrate?

Attached comparison phone (Airplay) vs built in Wiim app on the left.

That makes me puzzled if I want to keep that hardware making limitations any chance for improvement?

 

[slartibartfast]

Dear Team
I bought New Wiim Pro Plus in order to have complex solution and drop having phone as source But I am surprised that this issue is still there. Why is such a cut in quality of streamed radio Station? I checked over Tunein and also VTuner.

Is that really not possible to have it on LAN connection higher bitrate?

Attached comparison phone (Airplay) vs built in Wiim app on the left.

That makes me puzzled if I want to keep that hardware making limitations any chance for improvement?

Is that 256kbps stream from TuneIn? I only found up to 128kbps when I Googled.
I found it on RadioNet but the bitrate isn't reported.

 

[hgo58]

Dear Team
I bought New Wiim Pro Plus in order to have complex solution and drop having phone as source But I am surprised that this issue is still there. Why is such a cut in quality of streamed radio Station? I checked over Tunein and also VTuner.

Is that really not possible to have it on LAN connection higher bitrate?

Attached comparison phone (Airplay) vs built in Wiim app on the left.

That makes me puzzled if I want to keep that hardware making limitations any chance for improvement?

The bitrate reported by AirPlay is probably just the converted rate used by the AirPlay protocol, not the original radio bitrate?

 

[merifon]

Airplay2, except for rare cases I think also Apple doesn't know, converts anything to AAC 256Kbit.
Commercial radios, generally are not astounding with the bitrate.
Also on Bluos, Arabella doesn't shine...

 

[Burnside]

The bitrate reported by AirPlay is probably just the converted rate used by the AirPlay protocol, not the original radio bitrate?

I’d say so.

If you look for radio arabella on https://streamurl.link/ all you see are 128kbps stations. The OP could always copy the appropriate link into Open Network Stream to increase the TuneIn default rate, which to be honest doesn’t surprise me in third party access to TuneIn.

 

[Elsalo]

Ok so I got the point that 256kbs is upscaled by Airplay giving false impression.Clear

But if Arabella sends 128kbs why that Wiim is cutting down.. BTW Thanks for update from BlueOS so at least that Tells me there are no other better options in place...aeh

 

[hoohoohoo]

It seems like a change in TuneIn quality from source and nothing to do with WiiM specifically.

TuneIn reports 64 kbps for my setup for an audio stream:


When playing a TuneIn commercial, it goes up to 320 kbps:

 

[Burnside]

But if Arabella sends 128kbs why that Wiim is cutting down..

WiiM’s not cutting it down, that’s all its TuneIn interface is delivering which as I said isn’t uncommon for TuneIn third party implementations.

BTW Thanks for update from BlueOS so at least that Tells me there are no other better options in place...aeh

There is a better option - use the Open Network Stream option using the radio station URL from the link I posted earlier to get 128kbps. Just go to that webpage, search for your station then use the copy icon and finally paste that into the Open Network Stream page in the WiiM app.

 

[slartibartfast]

Ok so I got the point that 256kbs is upscaled by Airplay giving false impression.Clear

But if Arabella sends 128kbs why that Wiim is cutting down.. BTW Thanks for update from BlueOS so at least that Tells me there are no other better options in place...aeh

It depends which stream format is used. MP3 is 128, AAC is 64. AAC is meant to be better than MP3 at lower bitrates. It is annoying that radio stations don't provide AAC at higher bitrates though.

 

[Burnside]

It depends which stream format is used. MP3 is 128, AAC is 64. AAC is meant to be better than MP3 at lower bitrates. It is annoying that radio stations don't provide AAC at higher bitrates though.

Also, what TuneIn plays in its app isn’t necessarily the same as what TuneIn will deliver to third party interfaces like WiiM’s.

 

[Elsalo]

WiiM’s not cutting it down, that’s all its TuneIn interface is delivering which as I said isn’t uncommon for TuneIn third party implementations.

There is a better option - use the Open Network Stream option using the radio station URL from the link I posted earlier to get 128kbps. Just go to that webpage, search for your station then use the copy icon and finally paste that into the Open Network Stream page in the WiiM app.

Ok now I understand as I did not get where to paste.

 

[slartibartfast]

W

Also, what TuneIn plays in its app isn’t necessarily the same as what TuneIn will deliver to third party interfaces like WiiM’s.

Well we don't get many opportunities to use TuneIn in the UK any more so I've no idea what the app provides

 

[hoohoohoo]

W

Well we don't get many opportunities to use TuneIn in the UK any more so I've no idea what the app provides

Did Tunein put the UK in the bin? I used to stream a UK station frequently and suddenly it stopped working a year plus ago, so I went the direct stream route with VLC player.

 

[Burnside]

Did Tunein put the UK in the bin? I used to stream a UK station frequently and suddenly it stopped working a year plus ago, so I went the direct stream route with VLC player.

The BBC certainly withdrew its stations from TuneIn a few years back on many platforms. Also, following litigation by Sony and Warner Bros against Tunein UK, we in the UK no longer have access to most non-UK radio stations

 

[Elsalo]

Ok now I understand as I did not get where to paste.

Thanks once again. The workaround worked. Wonder why they cannot implement it into app as it is really not so complicated to get full speed.

PS
I jumped out from Marantz with built-in vtuner only and always had plug'n'play music streamed. Here many more options indeed and Thanks to this forum still making easy to go plug'n'play ) Thanks Guys

 

[Burnside]

Thanks once again. The workaround worked. Wonder why they cannot implement it into app as it is really not so complicated to get full speed.

As I said before, there’s every chance TuneIn only provide low resolution streams via the interface they supply to third parties like WiiM, keeping the higher resolution streams for their own app/webpage.

 

[hoohoohoo]

The BBC certainly withdrew its stations from TuneIn a few years back on many platforms. Also, following litigation by Sony and Warner Bros against Tunein UK, we in the UK no longer have access to most non-UK radio stations

Urk! That's corporate interests first...

It's a global internet world, but the media world still has their silly fiefdoms. TuneIn used to be such a good service, but now I rarely use and have been uninstalling. And Hollywood wonders why Netflix and Amazon are taking over

 

[Burnside]

Urk! That's corporate interests first...

It's a global internet world, but the media world still has their silly fiefdoms. TuneIn used to be such a good service, but now I rarely use and have been uninstalling. And Hollywood wonders why Netflix and Amazon are taking over

Yeah, bring back global long wave radio

 

[harkpabst]

TuneIn often allows to choose between different quality streams per station. The TuneIn music service integrated into the WiiM Home app doesn't seem to support this but the Android app definitely does.

The available quality might depend on if you're logged into TuneIn or not.