- General
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Requests/Ideas
Decrease in sound quality with version 3.0
Great job on the redesign of the app. The interface is cutting edge visually and very intuitive. It also displays very well on my 7 inch tablet. However, there is one significant issue with the new version I've noticed. This issue is sound quality.
I used the previous version for quite a long time along side TuneIn Radio Pro and the sound quality between the two apps was identical. I liked using XiiaLive as opposed to TuneIn because of the freedom in managing favorites and tags along with simple info about what's playing (no large album art or station logos).
In comparing the XiiaLive 3.0 with TuneIn, the sound delivered from XiiaLive sounds noticably more shallow especially when there's a lot going on the music (i.e. layered electric guitars, electronica with heavy bass, etc). TuneIn, in comparison delivers a more full and complete sound. I'm guessing this might be due to the XiiaLive's new sound engine with the equalizer and various effects. I've tried turning the equalizer off and on in addition to the various equalizer settings and although the sound does change, I'm still left with the impression that the sound engine is just not delivering the rich sound delivered by the previous version.
I would suggest fine tuning XiiaLive's sound delivered with the equalizer off so that it's identical to the previous version. Then, of course, users could still customize the sound to their liking by turning on the equalizer and adjusting it accordingly. I've been a big fan of XiiaLive, but sound quality is the #1 factor in my use of an app of this nature. So, in summary, kudos for the new interface, but bring back the great sound quality!
Answer
Thanks for your feedback on the new app! :) We put a lot of work!
Sounds quality could possibly be different because we use the devices global audio session. I think the main reason why the quality is different is because they are decoding the audio using software and not hardware. I would suggest you try using the stream engine FFmpeg. Change it under Settings->Stream.
Let me know if you notice any issues there. I will also investigate if I can notice any differences. I'm also very particular about sound quality! :)
Thanks for your feedback on the new app! :) We put a lot of work!
Sounds quality could possibly be different because we use the devices global audio session. I think the main reason why the quality is different is because TuneIn I believe are decoding the audio using software and not hardware. I would suggest you try using the stream engine FFmpeg to decode using software. Change it under Settings->Stream.
Let me know if you notice any issues there. I will also investigate if I can notice any differences. I'm also very particular about sound quality! :)
I did switch to the FFmpeg streaming engine and sound quality is noticeably better. Streams also start much faster when using this engine. I plan to use the FFmpeg streaming engine from now on. Thank you for the suggestion!
Thanks for your feedback on the new app! :) We put a lot of work!
Sounds quality could possibly be different because we use the devices global audio session. I think the main reason why the quality is different is because TuneIn I believe are decoding the audio using software and not hardware. I would suggest you try using the stream engine FFmpeg to decode using software. Change it under Settings->Stream.
Let me know if you notice any issues there. I will also investigate if I can notice any differences. I'm also very particular about sound quality! :)
There is no audiobuffer at all. Decoding in Android mode works much better but the radiostation has to deliver a prebuffer in the Icecastserver. 75 seconds works very well when the networks svitch beteeen 3G and Edge.
The audiomatch tool in Xiia Live works also well when you sometimes lost the IP-adress in mobile receiving.
Lars
Currently in the works a much more advanced stream engine that provides time-shifting/seek that is based on ffmpeg stream engine. This engine will have the smart recovery feature too. We really hope that it becomes the default stream engine later on. This stream engine will also take advantage of hardware decoding on newer Android devices making it very efficient and battery friendly. :) ETA soon...
Lars
No...FFmpeg decodes audio using software. This tends to use the CPU and causes the battery to be used slightly more. I want to support decoding using dedicated decoding chips already available on most devices. This is fast and very efficient.
Customer support service by UserEcho
Thanks for your feedback on the new app! :) We put a lot of work!
Sounds quality could possibly be different because we use the devices global audio session. I think the main reason why the quality is different is because TuneIn I believe are decoding the audio using software and not hardware. I would suggest you try using the stream engine FFmpeg to decode using software. Change it under Settings->Stream.
Let me know if you notice any issues there. I will also investigate if I can notice any differences. I'm also very particular about sound quality! :)