Topic: iheartradio feedback

This is awesome!  Clear Channel typically broadcasts in WMA streams so I was pleasantly surprised to see 850 KOA on there.  Thanks!

Some feedback though.  I love the lyrics feature.  That is great!  I noticed that the 850 KOA station plays quieter than some of the others.  Are there plans to level the playing volume so if I change stations, I'm not needing to adjust the volume.

This is such great news.  Thanks again!

Re: iheartradio feedback

I also think this feature is great, with lyrics, album cover and playlists.

Just one thing about continuity - unlike My Streams, there is no stop button next to the play button; also, selecting the stream would play it automatically instead of requiring the play button to be pressed - personally I prefer it if there was a stop button, and selecting the stream then pressing play.

Also, it would be great to be able to reorder the stream list, so favourites can be on top with others down under.

Re: iheartradio feedback

blobby wrote:

I also think this feature is great, with lyrics, album cover and playlists.

Just one thing about continuity - unlike My Streams, there is no stop button next to the play button; also, selecting the stream would play it automatically instead of requiring the play button to be pressed - personally I prefer it if there was a stop button, and selecting the stream then pressing play.

Also, it would be great to be able to reorder the stream list, so favourites can be on top with others down under.

Hey blobby, I noticed that too, but the stop button is under the "controls" button, in the upper right.  It's also where the volume slider is.  I thought it would be nice to have a mute button, but the stop button works just as well.  When you push stop, it turns into a play button.

Re: iheartradio feedback

What I dislike is that after selecting a station it immediately jumps to the "now playing" screen. I usually start the first station that seems acceptable and then I search on if there is something better. This screen should be more an idle function or something like that.

Except that, it looks really great.

5 (edited by blobby 2008-11-19 11:45:49)

Re: iheartradio feedback

Yeh I do realise the stop is in the controls function; I just personally prefer the interface to be more continuous and standardised like the Shoutcast interface, My Streams interface et al where there is a play and stop button next to each other.

I also dislike the immediate play functionality too.

Re: iheartradio feedback

Fired it up and halfway thru the first song the Chumby spontaneously rebooted...

Re: iheartradio feedback

Made it thru another song and a half and it rebooted again sad

Re: iheartradio feedback

Which station were you playing?

Re: iheartradio feedback

General comments:

I like the album art.  The next step would be to do something when touching the album, like get more information about the album, or where it sits on the charts, or how popular it sits at the station.

I, too, wish the stop button would be visible.

I appreciate Christian's comment where he says he'd like to remain on the list of stations until the panel is idle, then move to the album cover/station art view.  This gives the user more control over the music by making it easy to choose, and it's easier to fix a mistaken choice.  Although it's not immediately important to me, anything that furthers choice would be mo' better.

I have not found a station with lyrics, but then I didn't try too hard.  I'd rather not see the Lyrics button if none is available.

I have not found a way to block stations from appearing.  Though I'm sure some stations are very good, talk radio in Houston, for example, is not very relevant in Boston, MA.

Personal comments:

None of these stations appeal to me, so my time spent beta testing this new feature is rather short.  If there was an RSS feed or similar that I could periodically visit to find out about new stations, I'd appreciate it.  It could then be a widget in my rotation -- an iheartradio news widget.

Re: iheartradio feedback

Most ClearChannel stations broadcast in WMA - these are the only stations that ClearChannel currently operates that broadcast in a format compatible with the chumby, typically AAC.

iheartradio also has an iPhone/iPod Touch application with exactly the same list of stations for the exact same reason - the iPhone also does not support WMA.

Hopefully as more of their stations broadcast in open formats, we'll see the station list grow, and at some point, I would expect the UI to adapt.

Re: iheartradio feedback

I wanted to add that while listening to iheartradio last night, my Chumby sort of rebooted.  When I looked over at it, the control panel was downloading and then it went straight to my widget stream.  I think I was listening for about 10 minutes when it happened.

Re: iheartradio feedback

Yes, that's the same bug reported by travisd earlier in the thread, where the Control Panel restarts - we're investigating that.  It appears that the iheartradio music source panel has some bug that causes it to lock up sometimes - if you play the music but don't leave it on that screen (ie go back to widget play, or indeed any other screen), it seems to work fine.

That's why it's still beta smile

Re: iheartradio feedback

i can see that there are clear channel radio stations on this app, is there any chance of being able to access all the clear channel stations (i have been trying to access a radio station (G105.1, (durham- realigh)) on clear channel for months now) or if there was a way to find the url to type into the chumby.


thanks

Re: iheartradio feedback

arock0930 wrote:

i can see that there are clear channel radio stations on this app, is there any chance of being able to access all the clear channel stations (i have been trying to access a radio station (G105.1, (durham- realigh)) on clear channel for months now) or if there was a way to find the url to type into the chumby.

see my reply here

http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=3265

/mdkail

Re: iheartradio feedback

This is a great feature.  This is the solution for finding good talk radio stations that I have been looking for.  I am hoping that eventually all of the iheartradio stations will be available. 

Operation of the software has worked quickly and reliably for me.  Excellent job, Chumby.

Re: iheartradio feedback

travac wrote:

Operation of the software has worked quickly and reliably for me.  Excellent job, Chumby.

We can't take too much credit for it - what you see was created by the fine folks at iheartradio.

Re: iheartradio feedback

It's a fun, but, not stable yet. Crushes frequently when I listening to WSIX Nashville and goes back to the default channel automatically.

18 (edited by arock0930 2008-12-11 16:22:29)

Re: iheartradio feedback

iheartradio is great, but just wish for all of the clear channel stations, that would be THE BEST!!!!! if you did this, i would have NO need for a radio, and would buy more (for other places which i currently have a radio ie. bedroom, and kitchen, plus i would get one for the office.) if you could do this you would have more of my buisnes, but overall i love the app, as of now there isnt much live talk radio and this solves the problem, i like the lyrics part, and it has worked crisp and clean for me, tell who ever made this GREAT JOB and keep working on it (to add all the stations) but SUPERB!

Re: iheartradio feedback

Are there any plans for making it possible to search or browse the stations via genre? I love the widget, but it really is a teaser with only a handful of the hundreds of stations at iheartmusic.

Re: iheartradio feedback

WMA should be supported. Isn't there a way for a user to create the support, since Chumby is against it?

Re: iheartradio feedback

nofix wrote:

WMA should be supported. Isn't there a way for a user to create the support, since Chumby is against it?

We're not *against* WMA - it requires a patent license from Microsoft, and we've tried to minimize the number of licenses required in the product in order to keep it as Open as possible.

If we add WMA, we'd have to close more of the source code than we currently do.

Feel free to add WMA - the source code for BlueTune is posted, and it's possible to add it - this is what we call "hacking". Be sure to get that patent license, though, if you're in the United States.

Re: iheartradio feedback

Keep the source open, just don't include the content that breaks copyright. Why should end-user support, which should be priority, be neglected to support the crazy idea that people are buying this device to do nothing more with it than 'hack' it, as you put it?

Seems like the compromise, in your case, is simple. You know the device better than anyone. I'm struggling to reunite with Linux for the sole purpose of adding additional content that should, or could, already be provided.

Re: iheartradio feedback

It's not a matter of copyright - it's a matter of patents.  The Microsoft patent license for WMA *explicit* excludes implementations released under "copyleft" licenses such as the GPL - this is a rather extraordinary condition they place that one doesn't typically see in the other codec licenses.

There's *plenty* of code that implements WMA, even under the GPL, however, as a commercial enterprise, we can't distribute it (at least in the US and Japan) without obtaining the appropriate *patent* license.  As you probably know, we can't withhold source to GPL components (most of the system) if we ship binaries, and we can't create a derivative work that combines both GPL and code released under an incompatible license, as would be the case to comply with Microsoft's patent license.

So, to support WMA, we'd have to rewrite the entire music subsystem and codecs without using any open source code, just to support the one codec, and even *pay* an ongoing royalty to Microsoft for the privilege of doing so.

So there you go - it's not for grins and giggles that Linux distros do not include WMA support built into their free-as-in-freedom distributions. They're typically added post-install from third-party repositories with a "wink/nudge" approach that won't work for chumby's architecture. You'll notice that the iPod family doesn't support WMA either, even though, in some cases, the processors support the decoding in hardware - they don't include the patent license.

If you have issues with this, it's not Linux or us at fault here - we all *want* support for WMA out of the box. It's Microsoft, for attempting to leverage their patent portfolio against other companies and operating systems. Take it up with them.

24 (edited by wayn3w 2008-12-31 11:41:24)

Re: iheartradio feedback

I hate to nitpick, but the WMA discussions have been held in other threads.  This one is for the iheartradio beta music source.

As for Linux, feel free to ask questions... just start a new thread.  There's plenty of knowlegeable people kicking around the forum.

wayn3w

Re: iheartradio feedback

Yes , you're right - this issue has been discussed ad nauseum in other threads.  "Search" is your friend.