The current support (for AAC and MP3 streams) was a massive improvement over no internet streams, and I believe it covers the majority of streams; but there exist streams using other codecs, and while there aren’t many public FLAC streams extant, I believe increased support for them would help set up a build-it-and-they-will-come situation. I know that I’d be way more strongly motivated to see if we could spare the bandwidth for a FLAC stream at my little radio station if my favorite music software could play them.
BBC testing lossless flac streaming:
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Does anyone know the URL that will work with Roon?
Thanks
Don’t think that’s publicly available. I think only the BBC iplayer is able to stream this.
I sure would like to see Roon support for FLAC internet radio streams!
I’m currently listening to an android phone with USB Audio Player Pro play the FLAC stream from JB Radio2 and the fact that I can’t turn on my main system and listen to this using Roon (and HQPlayer!) just seems…wrong. 
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Hi
I have just discovered BBC Radio 3 is running a FLAC trial.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-04-radio-3-high-quality-flac-dash
It currently only streams in Firefox. Any chance this can be made to work with Roon?
I think I figured out the URL
https://vs-dash-ww-rd-live.bbcfmt.hs.llnwd.net/al/lossless/A1/388666512.m4s
thanks
This URL:
https://vs-dash-ww-rd-live.bbcfmt.hs.llnwd.net/al/lossless/client_manifest.mpd
will play in the beta version of VLC - if that’s any help 
BBC will be streaming the upcoming Prom concerts in flac.
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When I subscribed to a second year of Roon an improvement of the Radio facility was promoted. This would be an excellent starting point. Proms in high quality flac would be a great tester for the Roon fans. Is this possible.
I think you will find that they were referring to the automatic selection of tracks at the end of your queue not the internet radio stations
Is this post in the correct thread?
Obviously not 
Sorry☹️Interesting thread though.
Hi
Sorry to spam this, I did post originally in software section.
I have just discovered BBC Radio 3 is running a FLAC trial.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-04-radio-3-high-quality-flac-dash15
It currently only streams in Firefox.
Support, Any chance this stream can be made to work with roon?
thanks
Any feedback on this. This is an exciting development and it would be great to add it to the Radio updates. I’m a big Radio 3 fan.
I’ve shifted the threads about the BBC trial and FLAC support to this Feature Request as we’re trying to keep Support as an Emergency Room.
Let’s flag @brian and see what the prospects are. It may depend on whether the BBC trial is succeeded by regular streaming.
The BBC stream uses MPEG-DASH–it’s not like the other FLAC streams mentioned earlier in the thread. Much more complex to support–both technically and commercially.
The BBC has a penchant for piloting a new streaming technology every few years. I remember when we added MMS support to Sooloos solely because of the BBC. I remember when we added HTTP Live Streaming support to Roon solely because of the BBC, too. It’s pretty perplexing why they are using DASH for this–since they already support HTTP Live Streaming, which offers essentially the same functionality.
(My theory: The BBC is prone to influence by the people who make these streaming technologies, since those companies know that once the BBC is using something, a lot of people will feel compelled to support it. Microsoft got them to use MMS. Apple got them to use HLS. And now MPEG is trying to get them to use DASH).
DASH is heavily patent encumbered, like most MPEG technologies.
In any case, we’ll be keeping an eye on this to see if DASH/FLAC streams are just an experiment or if it gains real ground. If it becomes pervasive, we can start looking into what it will take to support it, what licenses might be required, and so on. If it’s just the BBC, and just a short term experiment, I’m not sure the time to move is now.
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The BBC is prone to influence because they are given it free and offered unlimited support to get it working. In what is a cash strapped environment they are more than happy to accept the offers. This then ties into the threat of FM going away and poor DAB support in the UK which has radio users scrabbling for any higher quality alternative.
If I were to experiment with putting up a FLAC stream for the radio station where I work, the first thing I expect I’d try would be FLAC in an Ogg wrapper. Does that seem pretty mainstream (as far as a FLAC stream can be mainstream)? I’d be super-stoked if I could play such a thing back with Roon.
(I’d immediately be trying Ogg/FLAC at 48 kHz sampling rate, with my client-side playback via a Linux RoonServer)
Yeah, when I read the articles about tech involved in this new BBC streaming project my first thought was, “Gee, MPEG-DASH sounds like it’s doing pretty much the same thing as HLS already does!” Glad I wasn’t completely confused.
I guess an HLS-like thing pushed by a standards consortium instead of mostly a single vendor could be a long-term win, if there turns out to be wide adoption. But how that will play out still remains to be seen.
I’m playing the BBC FLAC stream using Picoreplayer and the LMS plug in. Sounds great. May not last but nice to be able to play this through my system.