Paul Says the Logitech Squeezebox Internet Radio Isn't Ready for Prime Time

(Re-post)

Some readers have praised the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but Paul has a different story for the smaller model:

Last Monday amazon had the Logitech Squeezebox Radio on sale for a few hours for $129.99. I had gift certificates for that amount + tax, and so I bought it. It arrived a couple of days later. Here are my first impressions. 1. Very easy setup (wireless or wired). 2. No printed user manual; no user manual on CD. There is a PDF file of features which goes for a user manual on Logitech's web site, and a useless printed quick start guide, but that's it. 3. In terms of looks, this is one good looking radio. 4. While selection of Internet radio stations requires some repeated pushing of buttons, overall selection of stations is easy. The user interface could be better, but overall for a techie guy/gal there are no issues. 5. So far I've listened to KPCC on it for a few hours (I'm in Seattle) and the stream has been reliable. 6. However, I have been unable to have the radio lock on to and stream a number of foreign language broadcasts from Asia. I get a cryptic error message, which even Logitech support doesn't know much about. I can listen to these stations just fine on radiotime.com (Logitech's audio stream database provider), but I can't listen to them on the radio itself. 7. Logitech tech support was initially responsive on this problem, but after 5 or 6 emails back and forth they just gave up and the issue is unresolved. 

My last question to them has gone unanswered. They passed me over to Radiotime, and no amount of explaining did them any good (why should Radiotime care, when I can listen to these stations on their site just fine!?). 8. Looking around the web for a solution to my problem was not helpful either. The error I am getting is apparently among the rare ones! I came across the Squeezebox community forums:http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20 

And if you want to read about unbelievable headaches with this radio, especially after the latest firmware release (version 7.5), please be my guest and peruse the Squeezebox Radio forums there: http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32In summary, I am going to wait a few more days to see if I can find a solution or if Logitech comes through with an update that fixes this problem. Otherwise, it's going back. This radio does not appear to be ready for prime time, sorry.

Update:

The reason for the error I am getting has finally been pointed out by a good user on the Squeezebox Radio forums (and not by Logitech Tech Support!), namely, the Squeezebox radios do not support Microsoft's MMS streaming protocol. This is while a lot of radio stations, especially in Asia, use this protocol, and the Squeezebox Radio actually indexes them too (since Radiotime has the stations in its database and you can play them through Radiotime). But obviously nobody at Logitech wrote a simple script to go and automatically identify these stations and remove them from their radios' database! And Tech Support has no clue about the features (or lack thereof) of their product! Before I bought the radio I went to http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/products/squeezebox-radio.html and used the service they provide ("Check for your favorite station") to make sure some of these MMS streamed stations worked. Sure enough that service checks Radiotime and told me YES, you can listen to these stations! The radio is going back today. Between poor tech support, lack of an important feature (at least for me), and so many reports of bugs and problems on the radio's forums, I will look elsewhere.

Some readers have praised the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but Paul has a different story for the smaller model:

Comments

[Scooby214]

I have two MMS streams that I listen to on my Squeezebox Radio. I listen to one of them almost daily. The radio still has its hiccups at times, but it works well for me. I used it for a few hours yesterday, listening to old time radio show streaming while working on the house.

Brian

[Paul]

Are you listening to the MMS streams transcoded? In other words are you running Squeezebox server on your PC and running teh streams through there? Or can you listen to the streams without squeezebox server?

[Paul]

Panasonic RF-549 AM FM Radio $10 or better offer, plus shipping:

http://cgi.ebay.com/200489445823

[Scooby214]

I don't have Squeezebox server set up on my computers. I am streaming directly through the squeezebox. Here is one of the streams I stream directly through the Squeezebox:

mms://klvv.streamguys.com/TheHouse64k

It works consistently for me.

Brian

[Shawn Patrick]

The problem these wifi radios are going to have is that everyone can already listen to these stations on their PC's and laptops.

Then there's the problem these radios have, and that is the buffering times. That gets old real quick. If you listen to the same station everyday, not is not an issue.

wifi radios will always be a niche market.

[Bill Moore]

Paul, let RadioTime know specific stations you are not able to get - support@radiotime.com. Anything incompatible should be available on the Squeezebox matching the Logitech check station search check. mms stations are supported, but Asian stations especially are unreliable.