Audio streaming - (Very) basic questions

Thread Starter

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Audio streaming . Let me tell that besides knowing it runs "on line" I ignore most about it thus my eventually nonsensical questions.

Wikipedia cannot explain all this and googling brings too much advertising.

For your reference, I have never used iphones, ipads, tablets, androids and the like. My Nextel and my mobile are used just for SMS and phone calls.

a) Lately I started to listen music the day long but wondering if keeping a PC involved isn't excessive just for that. Is the buffer implemented on RAM or in the HDD? This last seems to be working often for minute periods. Increasing RAM would reduce the activity? WINXP's tasks manager shows what seems little activity there.

b) What would be the cheapest solution to have a dedicated "receiver" for the music? I Googled for AV receivers but they seem to require something else in between. Bluetooth is frequently mentioned.

c) Could I buy one that I could plug directly to my ADSL? Prices seem suprisingly high, at least for me.

Ah, while video could be involved, it is not my current interest. I do not even watch TV at all.

Brief and to the point answers will be much appreciated.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Don't all the new little flatscreen TV's pick up heaps of digital radio channels?

You just buy a $89 flatscreen 15" TV etc and set it to "radio". And if you are int he mood you can actually get TV channels too.
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
... Is the buffer implemented on RAM or in the HDD? This last seems to be working often for minute periods. Increasing RAM would reduce the activity? WINXP's tasks manager shows what seems little activity there.
Audio is not nearly the bandwidth hog that video is. The task manager you mention shows this clearly... don't worry about streaming audio it will not come anywhere close to taxing your processing power.

If you are experiencing lots of disk drive seeks and spurious spikes in activity via the task monitor while connected to a streaming audio server, then use one of the many free adware/spyware/malware blockers. I would suggest 'ghostery' since I use it and can vouch for its benefits.
 

Thread Starter

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Don't all the new little flatscreen TV's pick up heaps of digital radio channels?

You just buy a $89 flatscreen 15" TV etc and set it to "radio". And if you are int he mood you can actually get TV channels too.
Since I do not care of advertising I am ignorant of what is being offered nowadays. Have to look at that.

Gracias for replying.
 
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Thread Starter

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Audio is not nearly the bandwidth hog that video is. The task manager you mention shows this clearly... don't worry about streaming audio it will not come anywhere close to taxing your processing power.

If you are experiencing lots of disk drive seeks and spurious spikes in activity via the task monitor while connected to a streaming audio server, then use one of the many free adware/spyware/malware blockers. I would suggest 'ghostery' since I use it and can vouch for its benefits.
First time I hear of it. Giving a try now. Gracias.
 
Last edited:

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
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