West.Coast.Skippy
06-12-2009, 07:46 AM
about three weeks ago i bought a year's subscription to ron and fez via audible for $35.
the reasons i subscribed were: xm charging for online access, the show lengthening and starting an hour earlier, replays starting an hour later, and the replay schedule on the weekend. listening on audible addresses the last points by allowing on-demand listening with the ability to pause and replay.
the audio quality is fine, but more grainy and dynamically compressed than through my marantz xm tuner. it's great having the commercials omitted. just imagine- not enduring obnoxious commercials in premium content you pay for. i really like that the files are encoded with section breaks typically aligned with the commercial breaks. someone (tanley?) goes to the trouble of writing a thorough rundown that covers 90% of the show... handy. each file is about 35 MB. the download and streaming buffer is very fast. and due to the cumbersome audiblemanager windows client, i usually stream the show.
the desktop software is a weakness of the services. i had two mp3 players handy before subscribing, one from sony and one from iriver. both of them are recent models. neither is 'supported' by audible. understand that the audible files have use restrictions that require the host to implement a propitiatory mechanism. i have ordered a sansa clip that is advertised as audible-compatible. if you hope to podcast your subscription, check first if your device supports audible. and speaking of podcasts, the automatic downloading helper app is unreliable. it usually doesn't grab the show and when it does, the file isn't loaded into audiblemanager's library (think itunes), despite this option being enabled. could i browse forums and uninstall / reinstall the software? yes, but if it takes hours to function correctly, it doesn't function correctly!
there are a number of bugs and inconsistencies that speak to a niche or hurried product. for some reason, the audiblemanager progress bar doesn't display the length of the show correctly. the progress bar keeps inching along past its right boundary, and you can't click within the progress bar to seek the audio. there must be an issue with escaped characters in the download manager because 'ron & fez' always shows up just as 'ron ' (and the label doesn't include the date of the show, either). back in audiblemanager, the file names are inconsistent in the formatting for the date and show name, making sorting a pain. a nice touch in the client is remembering your playback position on the current file if you close and reopen audiblemanager.
if you're listening from a pc, you can stream the show and sidestep the clunky audible manager. a helper app from audible appears to give section break controls. although this isn't perfect - the stream has caused windows media player to crash about once a week - it is the easiest way for me to listen throughout the day.
assuming 6 weeks vacation a year for the show, each new episode costs 15 cents with a year's subscription. a topic that's made rounds many times over online is micropayments. a micropayment could be a fraction of a cent to check the weather, 2 cents for a new york times editorial, or a quarter for an episode of the office. i think audible's subscriptions represent this concept well. but truly, siri must recognize the demand for ip-delivered, live and on-demand original programming. if they have any brains, they are developing a platform to 'out audible' audible, itunes, amazon, and others in the very near future.
the reasons i subscribed were: xm charging for online access, the show lengthening and starting an hour earlier, replays starting an hour later, and the replay schedule on the weekend. listening on audible addresses the last points by allowing on-demand listening with the ability to pause and replay.
the audio quality is fine, but more grainy and dynamically compressed than through my marantz xm tuner. it's great having the commercials omitted. just imagine- not enduring obnoxious commercials in premium content you pay for. i really like that the files are encoded with section breaks typically aligned with the commercial breaks. someone (tanley?) goes to the trouble of writing a thorough rundown that covers 90% of the show... handy. each file is about 35 MB. the download and streaming buffer is very fast. and due to the cumbersome audiblemanager windows client, i usually stream the show.
the desktop software is a weakness of the services. i had two mp3 players handy before subscribing, one from sony and one from iriver. both of them are recent models. neither is 'supported' by audible. understand that the audible files have use restrictions that require the host to implement a propitiatory mechanism. i have ordered a sansa clip that is advertised as audible-compatible. if you hope to podcast your subscription, check first if your device supports audible. and speaking of podcasts, the automatic downloading helper app is unreliable. it usually doesn't grab the show and when it does, the file isn't loaded into audiblemanager's library (think itunes), despite this option being enabled. could i browse forums and uninstall / reinstall the software? yes, but if it takes hours to function correctly, it doesn't function correctly!
there are a number of bugs and inconsistencies that speak to a niche or hurried product. for some reason, the audiblemanager progress bar doesn't display the length of the show correctly. the progress bar keeps inching along past its right boundary, and you can't click within the progress bar to seek the audio. there must be an issue with escaped characters in the download manager because 'ron & fez' always shows up just as 'ron ' (and the label doesn't include the date of the show, either). back in audiblemanager, the file names are inconsistent in the formatting for the date and show name, making sorting a pain. a nice touch in the client is remembering your playback position on the current file if you close and reopen audiblemanager.
if you're listening from a pc, you can stream the show and sidestep the clunky audible manager. a helper app from audible appears to give section break controls. although this isn't perfect - the stream has caused windows media player to crash about once a week - it is the easiest way for me to listen throughout the day.
assuming 6 weeks vacation a year for the show, each new episode costs 15 cents with a year's subscription. a topic that's made rounds many times over online is micropayments. a micropayment could be a fraction of a cent to check the weather, 2 cents for a new york times editorial, or a quarter for an episode of the office. i think audible's subscriptions represent this concept well. but truly, siri must recognize the demand for ip-delivered, live and on-demand original programming. if they have any brains, they are developing a platform to 'out audible' audible, itunes, amazon, and others in the very near future.