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NPR Drops QuickTime Support
Magnetic Confinement writes "NPR has decided to drop QuickTime from its available streams. Their help desk response is: 'NPR.org had been offering some of its audio in the Apple QuickTime format under an arrangement with Apple QuickTime. We regret that we were unable to reach mutually acceptable terms for a new arrangement with Apple QuickTime. As a result, NPR is unable to continue offering its content in this format."
This is a duplicate
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
That must be why they cite and interview folks from the American Enterprise Institute so often, right?
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
KUER
There are a few under iTunes' radio list and Google could find more.
Of course this won't let you listen to backstories. But so long as they don't start using WMP9 who cares?
NPR has to purchase NOTHING for this. QTSS, and their existing equipment with QuickTime frameworks, is all they need to stream this, and they don't need to pay for any codecs to do it. Either:
1.) They now want (more) money from Apple to do it, or
2.) Apple must not want to pay them to do it (any longer).
Please point me to where I or anyone else is required to "purchase" codecs from Apple for QuickTime either for streaming or playback (other than MPEG-2).
(This assumes NPR is using QTSS on Mac OS X Server, the only platform where it is supported by Apple.)
A few reasosn not to use MP3:
No multicasting
No native RTSP support
No good loss recovery mechanism
It's amazing that MP3 works as well as it does for pseudo-streaming, but a true streaming format it ain't. Personally, I'd like to see them adopt a MPEG-4 AAC-LC stream, which QuickTime, RealOne for Windows, and other ISMA MPEG-4 compliant players could tune into. Better quality at lower data rates than MP3.
Pretty soon we'll have AAC High Effeciency, which can do ~FM quality at 32 Kbps for 44.1 stereo. Astonishingly better than other propritary codecs in head-to-head at these low bitrates.
My video compression blog
I just registered a piece of software called Audio Hijack Pro which means I can grab this stuff and convert it to mp3. I love it, I take it with me on my 10 gig iPod, it's great. Now, I don't care if it's real or windows media or whatever.
Here's a reply that I got from NPR asking for more information:
From: NPRHelp1
Date: Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:29:08 PM America/Chicago
To: "'Dave Schroeder'"
Subject: RE: QuickTime
Dave:
I've talked to our business affairs manager and this is the response he
asked me to give people who wrote in looking for additional information:
This outcome is the result of business and legal negotiations and we do
not discuss those negotiations. If you are asking whether this in any way
reflects on Apple QuickTime's technology, the answer is no -- business and
legal issues, not technological ones, led to this outcome.
I apologize if that's not the answer you're looking for.
Paul
> From: Dave Schroeder [mailto:das@doit.wisc.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 1:59 PM
> To: nprhelp@npr.org
> Subject: Re: QuickTime
>
> > NPR.org had been offering some of its audio in the Apple QuickTime
> > format under an arrangement with Apple QuickTime. We regret that we
> > were unable to reach mutually acceptable terms for a new arrangement
> > with Apple QuickTime. As a result, NPR is unable to continue offering
> > its content in this format.
>
> I'd like more information about this. Since the QuickTime Streaming
> technology is free and has no licensing restrictions, what do you mean
> you were "unable to reach mutually acceptable terms for a new
> arrangement"? There is nothing that needs to be arranged with Apple, or
> purchased from Apple (unless they were subsidizing your broadcast, or
> providing facilities and/or equipment, and did not wish to do this any
> longer).
>
> Awaiting your reply,
>
> Dave Schroeder
> University of Wisconsin - Madison