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Topic: 'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet (Read 4202 times) previous topic - next topic
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'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Anyone aware of the quality/source provided from the digital music channels?
Seems like you could build a good variety song library (eventually) if you setup a pc
to record 24/7.

Also,  any known apps that could make use of the song data thats displayed? Giving a
way to tag the music?

Any information or direction is appreciated.

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #1 –
I've experimented in the past with recording the "Music Choice" channels thru SPDIF from my cable box to PC with a reasonably decent outcome.  A frequency analysis shows a cutoff at around 20280 Hz so I would assume some sort of psychoacoustic compression is being used. It's probably some sort of proprietary format.

I switched to Dish Network when I moved, but I haven't played around with recording their audio channels. The company that currently provides the Dish audio content is Muzak (www.muzak.com). Maybe you could email somebody at that site. I have overheard at other forums that when the Sirius music channels become available at the end of this month they will be broadcast at 192kbps.
No particular format was mentioned though.

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #2 –
Well thanks much for your info!

I am surprised that out of this huge forum of audio geeks/enthusiasts your
the only one that bothered messing with it. (Or that noticed the post anyway)

So is it your belief that the DSS/Dishnet quality/bitrate be higher or lower currently
than the 192k to be used on the Sirius channels?

You would think they themselves would make use of the the data with the inclusion
of  Receiver/DVR's as an added feature giving you the ability to record audio using the same remote/setup giving you housewide jukebox.

Definitely need the song data though since I noticed the silence between songs is
very very short so if you decided to record to one HUGE file and split later that theres
no way to guarentee an accurate split unless you did it manually which obviously then
makes it all not worth the effort.

P.S. Interesting to see Muzak being the dish digital music provider.. So used to relating
Muzak with your 'general quality grade' music on hold, elevator/department store
ambience put you to sleep/get you to buy tunes. Maybe Ill have inquire there however would think they would refer anything to back to  'their' customer, Dish.

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #3 –
Some of us audio geeks are on the other side of the world! This means we have no experience of your satellite systems!

I know that in Europe (and elsewhere) it's easy to stream DVB-S content onto a HDD without transcoding it. The audio format is MPEG-1 layer II (mp2).

I haven't seen software which can parse song names, though there's  good software which can automatically record entire radio and TV programmes and correctly name the resulting files.

I think creating a music library from MusicChoice type broadcasts probably counts as music piracy, and so is off topic for Hydrogen Audio.

Cheers,
David.

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #4 –
Yea I keep forgetting that U.S. geeks always have to do things different because (in there mind they they think or know) its better even though sometimes proves to be otherwise. (Just a blurb regarding the U.S. finally adopting GSM as THE cellular standard which would of saved all a lot of $$ and time had we listened to you Euro guys.)

Well I know if split 'Musicbrainz' works extremely well in many instances for unknown
song data, however never knew such existed that could take a single stream and do
so as well split.

Didn't know the VCR was illegal as well as portable mp3 players w/record and car
audio head units that can record to cd and the list goes on, so as far as being
considered Music Piracy, I think is a questionable statement.

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #5 –
Quote
Anyone aware of the quality/source provided from the digital music channels?

all of them use MUSICAM which is an mpeg 2 derivative. i don't know the specific bitrate but i think it varies with different channels (i.e. HDTV premium channels get more bandwidth since it's needed while less important channels get less bandwidth).

Quote
Seems like you could build a good variety song library (eventually) if you setup a pc
to record 24/7.

well, if you have a good quality soundcard and a big hard drive then yes but as i mentioned above you're not really getting an original copy.
Be healthy, be kind, grow rich and prosper

'Digital' Music from DSS & Dishnet

Reply #6 –
Quote
well, if you have a good quality soundcard and a big hard drive then yes but as i mentioned above you're not really getting an original copy.


So sounds like we will be compressing a compressed stream, basically transcoding
then, which I know isn't ideal. I would hope still better than a FM radio stream, yes?
For things I really like I can either d/l a Hq version or buy the cd. The idea behind it all
was just to get a variety of music to have something for everyone.

Is the SB Live series stuff good enough for this task or would a Terratec or ESI or some
other card be better? Could I really tell the difference considering the source?


Still need to figure out if anyone knows how you could parse the data stream or if theres
even track data in it.