Aldi (Tevion) Internet radio

ifconfig · 11-08-2007 2:10pm #1

I noticed that Aldi are selling an internet radio (Tevion branded) for
99Euro next Thursday.
I've tried to google as to its exact specs but to no avail. It probably
is a rebadged product from logik or similar using Reciva technology.
It also has an integrated FM radio which at least means it will be useful
when not near wifi coverage/broadband,etc.

Anyone got any insight into this product. I've seen good enough reviews
of the Bush internet radio which Argos have on there books (150Euro).
There is another brand (which escapes me at the moment) which I've
seen listed on amazon which gets good reviews too.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/special_buys/special_buys_pid_56850.html

macplaxton · 16-08-2007 9:48am

Just bought one and set it up in ten minutes. Works well enough. Not going to win any awards for sound or power output (obviously due to streaming limitations) but does the job.

I can now listen to BBC radio from the comfort of my bed

leex · 16-08-2007 5:27pm

Bought one in Galway (Headford Rd) at lunchtime. About 6 of them left. It's small but in a positive sense. Connected to wireless network using WPA and browsed stations without looking at manual - very easy to use.

You can browse over 6000 stations on the unit by browsing by genre or country. You can also register on the RECIVA site with the serial number of your radio. Stations can be browsed and linked to your profile here. When you select "My stations" on the radio it pulls these down over the net - very impressive.

It also picks up shares on your network containing music - didn't play much with this yet - so far very impressed.

DMC · 17-08-2007 8:37pm

I have the Logik IR100, (€139, or £49.99 up North in Currys/PC World) and its a great device. The Reciva technology is great, and the way you can interact with your radio (add streams and favourites)

This radio is in essence, the same. The only difference would be chassis itself.

mike65 · 17-08-2007 10:46pm

Soz for stupid query by old person, but does this just pick up from a router or does the PC need to be running? If the former I'll buy one.

Mike.

Rodent483 · 18-08-2007 3:38am

No need to have pc on for radio stations as it connects via router !

Sound quality isn't bad but it has an audio out jack on the back. Got mine rigged up to my hi-fi so streaming playlists etc is a breeze.

Really neat gadget for 65 notes.:D

DMC · 18-08-2007 7:56am

Just to add to Rodent's comments, the router obviously has to be switched on to get the internet connection, but not your PC. For initial setup, you do need the WEP/WPA key if you want to set-up a secure wifi connection, which can by got from your routers config webpage.

mike65 · 18-08-2007 11:23am

Righty, now the trick is getting one. I see Argos does'nt stock them at all and Dixons in the UK don't do export nor do Amazon any more (booooo!).

Also there's the bandwidth issue, I'm on a lowly 10GB cap and if streaming at say 96/128 k it won't take too long to eat up a large chunk of it.

DMC do you have the transformer "hum" issue I've read about?

Mike.

fixerman · 18-08-2007 11:36am

leex wrote:

Bought one in Galway (Headford Rd) at lunchtime. About 6 of them left. It's small but in a positive sense. Connected to wireless network using WPA and browsed stations without looking at manual - very easy to use.

You can browse over 6000 stations on the unit by browsing by genre or country. You can also register on the RECIVA site with the serial number of your radio. Stations can be browsed and linked to your profile here. When you select "My stations" on the radio it pulls these down over the net - very impressive.

It also picks up shares on your network containing music - didn't play much with this yet - so far very impressed.

I am also very impressed. However When I tried to register the radio on the RECIVA site it would not recognise the serial no from the radio. Any help appreciated!

DMC · 18-08-2007 12:05pm

mike65 wrote:

Righty, now the trick is getting one. I see Argos does'nt stock them at all and Dixons in the UK don't do export nor do Amazon any more (booooo!).

Also there's the bandwidth issue, I'm on a lowly 10GB cap and if streaming at say 96/128 k it won't take too long to eat up a large chunk of it.

DMC do you have the transformer "hum" issue I've read about?

Mike.

The Logik IR100 is exclusive to Dixons/Currys/PC World (in other words DSGi Group)

Interesting point, Mike. The one I have, and the one I bought for a work colleague does not have a low hum from the speaker being so close to the mains transformer that a mate of mine did have. Incidentally, he bought it in PC World in Swords, whereas I got my two in Currys in Enniskillen (with the reserve and collect)

More on the inner workings of the Logik IR100, and brilliant resource page for Reciva errors too.
http://logikir100.tripod.com/Logik.htm

fixerman wrote:

However When I tried to register the radio on the RECIVA site it would not recognise the serial no from the radio. Any help appreciated!

Check that its not the serial number that's on the back of the device that you are using to register. Its one that's in the "configure" menu on the display.

ifconfig · 19-08-2007 10:22pm

I bought one of the Tevion units on Thurs AM.
Initially I'm quite impressed with it. Very nice indeed.

glitches though...

A few negatives (and possibly these are due to firewall or wireless
LAN mis-config on my part) are:

uPNP or NetBIOS shared folder streaming of mp3s,etc :
I find the appliance is slow to register the existence of a server sharing
content. Is this a general reciva firmware issue ? Maybe I need to
open more ports on my firewall? (hmm). I'm using a netiva wireless
router courtesy of eircom.net.

quite a few streams which are on the reciva list of stations (which play fine
on a wifi connected PC client) timeout and cause the appliance to
hunt again for a network connection rather than gracefully timing out
and returning the appliance menu to allow the user choose another station.
i.e. the appliance effectively reboots the entire wifi connection when it
gets wrong footed by certain streams. It seems that if the stream
is temporarily interrupted the recovery by the appliance is poor (it
chooses often to assume the entire wifi connection has died rather than
a little glitch in the stream from the internet).

On the plus side.. the ability to add podcast URLs on your personal reciva
account (free) is quite cool.

Anyone got good pointers to good internet radio stations?

-ifc

DMC · 19-08-2007 10:38pm

Just a quick question, ifconfig... I presume, as you can add Podcasts, that you have access to "My Stuff" on the main menu, as well as "Location" and "Genre"?

If that is the case, you probably have the latest firmware. The Logic IR100 I had needed to have the firmware updated straight out of the box. I've not used mine for streaming my MP3's, mind.

Oh, as for suggestions, what music are you into?

ifconfig · 19-08-2007 11:11pm

Hi DMC,

Yes I do have "My Stuff"/"My Podcasts" on my tevion unit so guess I have
the latest f/ware.

Can you access streamed audio via uPNP or windows XP shares on your
logik ? On the tevion I'm finding that the unit is very slow to recognize
the uPNP server setup via Windows Media Player 11.

Does your unit cycle the network reconnect when it encounters a stream
which can't sustain the published bitrate ? One stream which puzzles me
is Kaya (Johannesburg). It can play fine for me on my laptop connecting
via wifi but not on the tevion (just seems to connect for ages and never
completes the connection). It's a stream listed on reciva.com.
I used to have a worldsat receiver so this is where I came across Kaya.

As for musical interests mine are all over the place. I relax to Jazz,
I still have a nostalgic enjoyment of classic rock and indie music.
I play guitar so I like to listen to stuff as diverse as bluegrass/folk,etc
also. Having said that my staple choice of stations at the moment seems
to be BBC R2/6 Music/World Service/R4/theJazz/Phantom FM/NPR.
Pretty conservative stuff with a tinge of indie/rock/jazz/classical thrown
in for a bit of spice

-ifc

DMC · 20-08-2007 10:41am

ifconfig wrote:

Can you access streamed audio via uPNP or windows XP shares on your logik ? On the tevion I'm finding that the unit is very slow to recognize the uPNP server setup via Windows Media Player 11.

I've not set it up, so I can't say, and I'm not near it at present.

When I did see it, I was more interested in other radio stations etc. and not my MP3's. The other thing to remember with my radio is its monotone, which I can live with for low bitrate streams, but not for MP3's. Winamp still does the biz for me.

ifconfig wrote:

Does your unit cycle the network reconnect when it encounters a stream which can't sustain the published bitrate ? One stream which puzzles me is Kaya (Johannesburg). It can play fine for me on my laptop connecting via wifi but not on the tevion (just seems to connect for ages and never completes the connection). It's a stream listed on reciva.com.
I used to have a worldsat receiver so this is where I came across Kaya.

Its worth checking to see if Reciva have the latest link in their software. If not, tell the forum, and see if you can add the stream into your streams links.

Another thing of note is that some stations are moving to using Flash media to broadcast on the net, á la Myspace, Bebo etc. 98FM and Spin 1038 are offenders here in this country. In some cases, if you look at the source code of the webpage, you might be able to see a real media or a WMP link.

ifconfig wrote:

As for musical interests mine are all over the place. I relax to Jazz, I still have a nostalgic enjoyment of classic rock and indie music. I play guitar so I like to listen to stuff as diverse as bluegrass/folk,etc also. Having said that my staple choice of stations at the moment seems to be BBC R2/6 Music/World Service/R4/theJazz/Phantom FM/NPR. Pretty conservative stuff with a tinge of indie/rock/jazz/classical thrown in for a bit of spice

Dang, I was going to suggest some of the above! A good "classic hits" 70's/80's station is WSFM Sydney. Very good stuff from there, as is Classic Hits Auckland, but thats to fulful my Split Enz/Crowded House desires.

National Radio from the ABC and RNZ are good listens, as well as NPR and CBC Radio 1 in Canada.

If you are out of broadcast range of Phantom, its worth getting it alone for getting Sinister Pete in the morning without having to wake up your PC.

One beautiful addition is the radios ability to get the BBC's "listen again" streams available, that's what I spend most of the time using it for.

ifconfig · 20-08-2007 5:00pm

Hi DMC,

Thanks for the extra pointers on Internet radio sites

I found a link to a discussion over at digitalspy which goes through some
of the minor glitches observed with the Tevion model.
I think you may be spot on about the flash URLs,etc which some radio
stations are using for their internet radio services on webpages,etc.
I've snagged the correct .asx stream URL for Kaya via some javascript
snagged by using the view source option on my browser. The newer
firmware includes provision for "My Streams" under "My Stuff" so I'll see
if I can access that stream that way. Apparently Reciva have been
quite slow to update URLs and add stations so the "My Streams" option
might be worth a shot.

I'll try out those Aussie stations you mentioned later tonight

best wishes

-ifc

Radio Mad. · 20-08-2007 5:30pm

DMC wrote:

The other thing to remember with my radio is its monotone, which I can live with for low bitrate streams, but not for MP3's. Winamp still does the biz for me.

Hello DMC,

I also have the Logic IR100 and absolutely love it. Someone recently gave it to me for my birthday.

I use it, in the main, to listen to news/talk radio. BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, NPR are just some of my favourites. The 'on-demand' option is really useful.

As the speaker is mono, I didn't bother with music radio. That is until I found, thrown in the back of a cupboard, a pair of old computer speakers. I've hooked them up to the radio. They're small (great as radio is on bedside locker) and the sound is not only very reasonable, but comes through in stereo as well.

mike65 · 20-08-2007 5:39pm

Yep there's a line out so you could feed the signal via your hi-fi amp if you have a proper amp using
http://www.zzounds.com/item--HOSCMR2

Mike.

ifconfig · 21-08-2007 6:10pm

An update on the Tevion/ALDI Internet Radio.

I've figured out that the "My Stuff/My Stations" functionality is buggy
and rebuffering of streams (or other streaming protocol issues) can cause
stations to terminate and cause the unit to cycle into a "full network
connect/receive updates from Reciva".

Instead I've gone to the trouble of adding favourites under
"My Stuff/My Streams" by actually going on the net and figuring out the
WM/streamed Mp3/RealPlayer streaming URLs and adding them as
personal streams (which can be managed on the reciva website once
you've registered yourself and your radio). Stations played this way
are much more robust and on the odd occasion when they need to
rebuffer the recovery is much more forgiving.

Obviously a firmware update will fix the problem of My Stations
but until then I think I'll access my stored favourites (apart from
BBC listen again/dynamic services) via the "My Streams" option.

I've not played much with streaming personal music from my PC
(using uPNP or windows shares) - I'm just enjoying the units ability
to stream live radio for now

-ifc

craze7 · 27-08-2007 12:29pm

was going to get one of them me self, but i figured the old xbox with xbmc and shoutcast is all i need!!!!

ifconfig · 27-08-2007 3:00pm

Just a quick update regarding some of the quirks with the Tevion internet radio,

According to the Aldi/Tevion/support forum:
Forum Link
(scroll to bottom)

there is a firmware update in the pipeline and the support folks have been
testing it.. I'm guessing this addresses some of the reboots which happen
when accessing stuff via My Stations and for some of the Beeb content.

-ifc

bmaxi · 03-09-2007 10:38am

I was following a thread on bargain alerts when I came across this. Thanks for the link to the firmware upgrade but I have to report, in my case anyway, it made absolutely no difference. My radio reboots to the main menu if ever it drops a link, BBC live radio (the main reason I bought it) is a real pain. I don't know whether I have a dud or not as the support line is permanently busy. So I'm afraid back to the shop it will go. A pity because some of the features are pretty good.

Lennoxschips · 05-09-2007 7:09pm

Hi, anybody know if this radio can play content from a last.fm account?

Fergal Crehan · 17-09-2007 4:57pm

This tells you how to stream your last.fm to a reciva radio:

http://www.bugeyed.me.uk/2007/02/streaming-lastfm-to-reciva-internet.html

Hasn't worked for me though, nor has any of the "My Streams" function. I've also been trying to add the JK Ensemble on Lyric to it, but no luck. It just keeps "connecting" then "re-trying". What should the url's look like? This is what I've been using (for the Tuesday show only, obv.):

http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-lyr-johnkelly-Tuesday.smil

Any ideas? My radio's a Logik IR100

DMC · 17-09-2007 8:44pm

The trick is with an SMIL file is to open it in Notepad, and extract the URL inside it.

rtsp://streaming2.rte.ie/2007/0911/11092007rte-lyr-johnkelly.rm
or
http://www.rte.ie/smilfiles/2007/0911/11092007rte-lyr-johnkelly.rm

should work, but only for the one episode as mentioned.

DMC · 01-10-2007 5:08pm

The Logik IR100 as previously mentioned in this thread is now £39.99 in Currys up North.

mike65 · 01-10-2007 5:57pm

Feck it why don't they export!?

Mike.

byte · 01-10-2007 8:58pm

DMC wrote:

The Logik IR100 as previously mentioned in this thread is now £39.99 in Currys up North.

Ooh, now I'm getting more tempted!

anotherlostie · 06-10-2007 6:25pm

I bought the Logik IR100 when it was £49.99, and I have to say that it is a great buy. Now I can go to sleep on the timer listening to French electronica music (guaranteeing a fast send off to sleep), and a quick station change in the morning gives me a choice of proper breakfast radio from the UK, and none of the Colm and Jim-Jim crap we have to put up with here. Still defies logik (sic) that the price is so different here; it's like the 80's all over again.

By the way, I had to go to Sprucefield to get it because on three separate checks, the Newry branch was always out of stock. It's an extra 25 miles, but there is a great Sainsbury and M&S flagship store in Sprucefield to look around when you're there.

DMC · 07-10-2007 7:48pm

anotherlostie wrote:

By the way, I had to go to Sprucefield to get it because on three separate checks, the Newry branch was always out of stock. It's an extra 25 miles, but there is a great Sainsbury and M&S flagship store in Sprucefield to look around when you're there.

And I for one can't wait for John Lewis to open near there too.

DMC · 13-10-2007 1:15pm

Looking at the Currys and PC World websites for the Logik IR100 Internet Radio, there are less than 5 in each of the stores across Northern Ireland, that is, the ones that have stock. It seems the best place to get these now are in Belfast city centre, at Donegal Arcade, Castle Place. PC World in Derry appear to be the only PC World shop that has them.

And if they are down to the last one, you can take it as read that its the one on the shelf.

Or you can pay the €129 in the Irish stores.

ifconfig · 13-10-2007 2:30pm

anotherlostie wrote: »

I bought the Logik IR100 when it was £49.99, and I have to say that it is a great buy. Now I can go to sleep on the timer listening to French electronica music (guaranteeing a fast send off to sleep), and a quick station change in the morning gives me a choice of proper breakfast radio from the UK, and none of the Colm and Jim-Jim crap we have to put up with here. Still defies logik (sic) that the price is so different here; it's like the 80's all over again.

Hi Anotherlostie,

Out of curiosity which French electronica station(s) do you tune into
on the Logik ?

-ifc

byte · 13-10-2007 5:27pm

DMC wrote: »

Looking at the Currys and PC World websites for the Logik IR100 Internet Radio, there are less than 5 in each of the stores across Northern Ireland, that is, the ones that have stock. It seems the best place to get these now are in Belfast city centre, at Donegal Arcade, Castle Place. PC World in Derry appear to be the only PC World shop that has them.

And if they are down to the last one, you can take it as read that its the one on the shelf.

Or you can pay the €129 in the Irish stores.

I finally got one last weekend, in Curry's, Derry.

It was the last one on the shelf sealed in a box, other box was empty, presumably for the display model.

And yes, a fantastic wee unit for that price!

anotherlostie · 14-10-2007 7:06pm

ifconfig wrote: »

Hi Anotherlostie,

Out of curiosity which French electronica station(s) do you tune into
on the Logik ?

-ifc

It is called Cryosleep, Zero Beats Guaranteed (lame, I know).

This hyperlink should bring you there; if you have the radio you can add it to your stations and then you can access it from the radio.

https://www.reciva.com/index.php?option=com_cloud&action=station&stationid=7991

DMC · 16-10-2007 10:41am

Logik IR100 watch...

They are back to £79.99 on the Currys website, but still £39.99 on the PC World site.

Early bird etc...

mike65 · 17-10-2007 11:27am

Just got mine (cheers DMC), but I can't get a network!

I'm using digiweb metro, the troubleshooting guide says it needs to access IP number.

Any digiweb users out there who can help?

Mike.

DMC · 17-10-2007 11:38am

Nay bother squire... let the fun begin

Whereabouts does it hang? Does it "Scan for network", do you get your wireless routers SSID displayed?

mike65 · 17-10-2007 11:48am

I press the select knob to scan and it says No Networks Found, using the View Config
I get

IP address none, mac addy, network device RT73 and an intermittent low signal warning,

In edit config I get DHCP failure or wrong key

Mike.

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:02pm

Ahh... is the radio near your wifi router? The wifi antenna inside the Logik isnt the strongest, how far away is the radio from the wifi router? And what router have you got?

mike65 · 17-10-2007 12:09pm

I'm right besides the bloody thing!

Its a Thompson box for digiweb. Looking at the guide it talks about needs a certain number of ports open. I've just started using Vista so if anyone can point me to the list of open ports that would be handy.

Mike.

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:17pm

The radio doesn't interact with Windows at all, so opening ports on Vista is not required. Unless you want it to stream MP3's, but we'll get the wifi radio working first.

I would go onto your routers config page and make sure that Wireless is enabled, and if it is, turn off all security. Do you have WEP/WPA enabled? If so, knock it off, for now.

As for the inner workings of the Thompson device from Digiweb, /me does a search and scan for watty....

mike65 · 17-10-2007 12:23pm

Watty popped into my mind too.

Router page, you mean in Vista? When I plugged the router into the network card Vista recognised it immediatly so I never had to look for any diagnosic panel.

Mike.

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:32pm

Whats the full model number of the Thompson router? I'll look at its config page for you...

watty · 17-10-2007 12:35pm

How does you Vista & Radio connect?
The Thomson on Metro is ONLY a modem, not a router. You can't expand it with ethernet ports or WiFi of a DSL router or hub or switch.

You must add a router (with or without WiFi) that has a separately labled "WAN" ethernet port. That WAN socket then becomes SOLE device connected to Thomson. Set the WAN port on router Web page (192.168.1.1 for netgears, 192.168.0.1 for others or what ever the manual says) to DHCP, not PPPoE. Unplug Thomson, count 10, plug in again for it to give public IP to the Router.

You then set Gateway & DNS of all devices on your LAN to the Router web page address (typically 192.168.0.1) or Automatic if you decide to use DHCP for WAN.

Set any WiFi to off or using a > 20 character written down mix upper, lower case letters & numbers WPA-PSK AES key.

Argos call Ethernet routers "cable routers". www.komplett.ie do them. Possibly expansys and dabs too. PC-World will try and sell you an ADSL router (no use) though SOMETIMES they have ethernet WAN routers.

Metro does NOT come with a Router. Just Modem + phone ports.

If a Router has an ADSL phone line in port then it won't ever work for ethernet WAN. You can get ethernet WAN routers with phone OUTLETS, that is for VOIP, like the outlets built into the Thomson.

watty · 17-10-2007 12:37pm

Also there are NO settings AT all you can change on the Thomson modem. (Except one, which would make it have no signal for 10mins perhaps).

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:40pm

Thanks watty, I was thinking as such.

As I'm on Net1 FWA now, I can recommend this wifi router from Dabs.ie

Linksys WRT54GS

watty · 17-10-2007 12:43pm

yep that will work.

mike65 · 17-10-2007 12:48pm

Thanks Watty. Hang on I have a Netgear ta612v will that do? (I bought it cos someone said digiweb phone service was a bit hit and miss but I have'nt needed it).

Mike.

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:52pm

As for how this radio and windows work, (on a basic level) it doesn't interact with Windows at all. For wifi radio to work, it just need to talk to the wifi router. You would need to look at the routers config page for your WEP key etc and you can use the Reciva website to add stations and streams. But there is no application to install in Windows to make this radio work.

You can stream MP3's from your PC, as per instructions in the Logik's manual, but for basic listening to radio stations, it doesn't need to talk to an operating system, just the wifi router.

DMC · 17-10-2007 12:54pm

mike65 wrote: »

Hang on I have a Netgear ta612v will that do? (I bought it cos someone said digiweb phone service was a bit hit and miss but I have'nt needed it).

Nope, sadly no mention of 802.11b/g on that device.

mike65 · 17-10-2007 12:57pm

Bugger. Okay I'll put that up for sale, as mentioned I've not needed it. I'll shell out on that router above.

Mike.

watty · 17-10-2007 1:01pm

It's got no WiFi. Otherwise nice.
It *IS* a WAN router (but no WiFI) and you can plug an Airpoint (dedicated WiFi base) into a LAN port or just use ethernet.
Or use an old ADSL WiFi router on it with the ADSL router's DSL modem disabled & LAN DHCP disabled, then it's just a 4 port switch + WiFi. Then you have 7 ethernet ports left, 6 after you plug in PC.

The Netgear is floggable for anyone that wants VOIP on Breeze, Cable etc. Not good for where there is already a Firewall or Router as the VOIP won't work.

Aldi (Tevion) Internet radio

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