£50-£70 android tablets as PV radio players?

This topic has 8 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated September 12, 2012 at 8:32 pm by Pat McDonald.

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June 17, 2012 at 8:34 pm #1053281
General Lighting
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CPC are selling various Android tablets from about £50-£70. Can one of these be used to run VLC or similar player and play back our radio station? Of course they would normally be limited to places where wi-fi is available – but one barrier I feel exists which stops more listeners is that especially with a group of friends around they might not want to be sat stuck to a desktop computer screen – also laptops have small speakers and connecting one to the main hi fi system often means running unsightly cables around the building with trip hazards, or putting the machine in a inconvenient place if its wanted for anything else – and/or folk accidentally unplug the cable whilst it still active on the amp which isn’t good for the loudspeakers. Then there’s the PSU noise and ground loops to deal with..

These cheaper tablets only have resistive screens so maybe some sort of custom player would be easier to use (or they might work with the flash player) but I reckon they are a good way of listening to Internet radio. Has anyone got one and tried this?
June 17, 2012 at 8:51 pm #1254816
barrettone
Participant
Well VLC for android is still in development, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t get a flash player on the device to stream the PV radio. It’d be incrediblyeasy to do so, in fact.
June 17, 2012 at 10:27 pm #1254815
thelog
Participant
many years ago I used to be able to download mp3 music from the archive with a nokia N95
June 17, 2012 at 10:28 pm #1254810
Techno Viking
Participant
I listen to the radio on my phone all the time. Winamp and TuneIn radio apps work very well on iOS and Android. Nokia phones have a stock app (below). We also have our own mobile radio page (HTML5) below:

Partyvibe Radio Stations – Mobile

Nokia app: http://store.ovi.com/content/5354
June 19, 2012 at 5:09 am #1254814
sinner69
Participant
I use the nokia internetradio app. and that works very well…even on a symbian 40 OS(not-so-smart-phone OS)
June 22, 2012 at 1:24 pm #1254811
General Lighting
Moderator
cheers 🙂

had a look at some “internet radios” sold in the UK but they were expensive for what you got and many only did mono (WTF? why on earth would we still listen to mono audio on a digital station? the only reason for this on Band II FM would be when the TX signal is too low to support this without being noisy).

These cheaper android tablets would be more versatile, easier to work with and connect to any existing hi fi system or loudspeakers…
September 11, 2012 at 3:25 pm #1254812
General Lighting
Moderator
after working out that it would cost me the same to buy a cheap tablet and a extra set of speakers and be left with the hassles of multiple connectors, finding a stand for it etc got one of these

Worked straight out of the box after I entered the wifi settings and picked up PartyVibe radio via the tunein directory straight away raaa

pleasantly surprised by how good the sound quality is on the small speakers, a lot of folk were cursing the design as “ugly” (it does look like a cheap Japanese transistor / clock radio from the 1980s but I actually like it – but what is even smarter is the bit what sticks out at the back has been also used as a bass reflex port..

its also got a 3.5mm jack output for connecting to larger speakers. Not the quickest of touch screens but it does what I want it to and has a lot of potential and also has a inbuilt battery so can be used as a “check receiver” anywhere there is a wifi connection..

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/16/review_archos_35_home_connect_android_internet_clock_radio/
September 12, 2012 at 10:32 am #1254817
Pat McDonald
Participant
If you look at the hardware inside an Android tablet (ARM processor, few hundred megabytes of RAM) it’s very much the same a mobile phone from 5 years ago.

Touch screen is bigger, battery should last longer, but in terms of bits making it go, it’s pretty the same as Microsoft CE hardware.

Buying a tablet is a lot easier than taking an old phone and installing Linux on it, which is another way of getting VLC.

One day they’ll probably build the lot into a belt buckle with quantum internet access. Hopefully without Microsoft being around to screw up good hardware.
September 12, 2012 at 8:32 pm #1254813
General Lighting
Moderator
this is basically what it is, 2010 mobile phone hardware with an amp and speakers connected to it..

just checked again and the place I got it from is sold out. Some places including Amazon are selling it even cheaper now. Still amazed at the sound quality you get – whoever designed the audio stage of this actually does appreciate good sound quality…. ok deep bass is attenuated and the max power is slightly limited but it doesn’t rattle or distort. its even got good stereo imaging for something 150mm wide! Was only expecting “squawk box” quality from them speakers but this is way better…
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