iPhone Internet Radio App Bug

[Penetronn]

Interesting bug I believe I've discovered with the program. Unlike most iphone music streaming apps, the SiriusXM app doesn't automatically rebuffer when the phone switches from 3G to Wifi and back again. Consequently, I've been able to reproduce rather consistently a 128 kbps sound quality stream (only supposedly available via Wifi) over 3G when I begin the stream in a Wifi environment and walk out of range into 3G coverage. The reverse seems to be true as well.

The native 3G sound stream is okay for small speakers, but unacceptable in my opinion for even the cheapest of headsets. I don't blame SiriusXM for the crappy quality, although adopting different codecs for compression would help this a lot. It's really an AT&T thing.

Anyhow, just interested to see if anyone else has encountered this or is interested in attempting to confirm my suspicion.

Pen

[GoHerdGreg]

I have discovered the opposite when using my original iPhone (Edge Network aka slow-moving he!!).

I fire up S-XM app sniffing off my home's wi-fi, and get the great 128k feed. I plug it into the home stereo and it sounds great.

After about 30 minutes...it kicks off the wi-fi and over to Edge. The sound quality nosedives to probably 64k. Sounds awful.

I have to go in and fire it back up, stop the music, then re-start. 128k for another 30 minutes.

[James]

Has it been confirmed that the stream off of Edge/3G is of lower quality than the WiFi stream? One of my early observations was that the sound quality on the Iphone using 3G is inferior to that of a Stiletto 100 on the premium internet stream. I had assumed that the stream on the 3G was 128K, but if not, that would explain why it seems the Stiletto sounded better.

[Penetronn]

James, I'm pretty sure it's not 128k over 3G. There is a noticeable difference in audio quality between the 3G and Wifi which would explain your observation. 3G sounds very hollow and tinny compared to a much fuller sound field with Wifi. As 128k is their highest bit rate feed, I'm assuming that's what we hear over Wifi.

GoHerdGreg, interesting note about the original iphone behavior. Unfortunately there aren't many places on the net I've found that people are as particular as me about the sound quality issues with SiriusXM. It seems that most people don't care about sound quality, which amazes me frankly.

[GoHerdGreg]

I hear you, Penetronn.

There is a very noticeable difference between the wi-fi signal (128k) and the signal you get when you time out (about 30 minutes). It goes down to probably half, or 64k. Sounds awful.

I just hate having to close down the app, then open it back up so it sees the wi-fi signal again, giving us the good audio.

It takes much effort to put down the margarita/wine/beer and go inside for 10 seconds.