V Tuner in general

[rabscal...@rocketmail.com]

Picking up on the changes to BBC URL's and the possible end/diruptuion to BBC services on BB1 and B2. I note that the B2, at least, can be tuned via a different service from the front panel.

Prior to getting my excellent B2, My hi fi used a Denon Server/Internet radio seperate. Approximately  a year ago V Tuner took away the service unless owners paid (the admittedly small) an annual fee of $3.

Is that likely to happen to Brennan in the future?

[Mark Fishman]

Apparently vTuner's revenue source has been a fee paid by hardware manufacturers for each unit sold. Some of their former licensees decided to switch to other providers for new hardware, as a result of which vTuner revenue dropped. They decided to try charging the end-user subscription fee to make up the lost revenue, but so far they seem to be charging only people who contact the service through intermediary servers run by companies that have dropped them on new hardware, e.g., Denon, Yamaha, Marantz.

vTuner is an aggregator. They don't provide content, and they don't funnel the internet streams through their servers. They collect and provide the URLs that connect your device directly to the originators of that content, and then get out of the way. That way you don't have to find and update all the individual stream URLs you use. The only way they get paid for convenience (their service) is by charging either the hardware manufacturer or the user.

Unlike almost all the other internet radio hardware on the market, Brennan's devices are general-purpose computers with software loaded from an SD card. Other radios have limited formware, and sometimes it can't be upgaded to use a different provider (at which point, like Roberts radios that use Reciva, they become useless bricks). As long as Martin Brennan is willing to write new software releases, though, the Brennan devices can probably all be upgraded if necessary, even if that means changing to a different service such as airable.

[PMB]

Hi All,

I followed this up and it appears we pay vTuner on a per unit basis so we should be future proof.

Paul

Brennan Support.