[moki]

The Radio Shark is, in a nutshell, TiVo for the radio. It lets you tune any broadcast radio station in, playing it through your computer via an iTunes-like program. It can also record the audio you're listening to, or schedule recordings to you don't miss your favorite audio programs (perhaps talk radio, etc).

We picked up a Radio Shark the other day, in part because we want WireTap Pro to work well with it, and also in part because it looks like a very cool product.

I unpacked the box, took note of the interesting "Shark Fin" design of it, plugged it in, installed the software, and I was up and running. There really was no setup of any kind to do. If you can tune a radio, you can use the basic features of the Radio Shark.

In that sense, it's a Mac product through and through. Plug it in, run the app, and you're done. Here's a video of me dorking around with the Radio Shark on the first launch:

http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew...adio_shark.mov

I tried recording the audio from it, and though it took me a moment to find where it put the audio files, everything worked fine there too. I've not tried the schedules or other advanced features, so I can't comment on those yet... but an initial two big thumbs up!

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=168557

[moki]

Cool, thanks for the link. I figured people who had not seen it in action might be interested in the video of it.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

What is with that X and - in the title bar? looks rather PCish.

[moki]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
What is with that X and - in the title bar? looks rather PCish.

Those would be the close and minimize buttons -- they roll their own UI, likely to keep the product looking the same on both platforms.

It is a well written Mac application though.

They did an excellent technical job designing this product. It shows up as an audio device, and it also uses HID for its configuration functions. Translation? WireTap Pro will be able to record directly from it, letting you set the station and band too.

In a nutshell, they made all of the right technical choices in designing it -- we were suitably impressed.

[moki]

WireTap Pro's newly-added radioSHARK support:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/ind...si&img=286

[Mr.Clicky]

Looks good and seems to work well but tell me, do you listen to live radio through the shark or through whatever mac it's plugged in to? or both? If through the shark what's the sound quality like? Griffin website is a little shy on detail. Obviously you can record and whack it on an iPod for example but I'm not sure how the device outputs live/time shifted audio.

Want one though

[moki]

Originally posted by Mr.Clicky:
Looks good and seems to work well but tell me, do you listen to live radio through the shark or through whatever mac it's plugged in to? or both? If through the shark what's the sound quality like? Griffin website is a little shy on detail. Obviously you can record and whack it on an iPod for example but I'm not sure how the device outputs live/time shifted audio.

Want one though

It does both -- outputting time shifted audio as well as live audio. It plays through your Mac's speakers (or whatever sound setup you have your Mac connected to). I've not used the time shifting functions yet, but I can try it if you like.

The sound quality is very good, as is the reception (for me anyway).

[Mr.Clicky]

I'd be interested to know what you think and what limits there might be, for instance is there a limit to how long can you apply a 'time shift'? If the device writes to its own HD presumably that would max out after a time. Perhaps it justs writes to a specified external HD though (Note to Griffin: please put some nerdy tech specs on your site for Detail Tragics like me! )

Originally posted by moki:
It does both -- outputting time shifted audio as well as live audio. It plays through your Mac's speakers (or whatever sound setup you have your Mac connected to). I've not used the time shifting functions yet, but I can try it if you like.

The sound quality is very good, as is the reception (for me anyway).

[Weezer]

ahhh good old WHAM

[badtz]

how does scheduling work with the radio shark?

does it get it's information from a 'guide'-like website like titantv for eyetv?


or do you have to enter in the times and hours yourself on what shows you want to record?

[moki]

Originally posted by badtz:
how does scheduling work with the radio shark?

does it get it's information from a 'guide'-like website like titantv for eyetv?


or do you have to enter in the times and hours yourself on what shows you want to record?

You have to enter the times and hours yourself... there's no database of local programs and times that it draws from.

[brettcamp]

Just got one and I'm impressed at how good the signal is and how easy it was to get going -- 4 minutes max. However, although setting up a scheduled recording was a snap (1 minute at most to figure it out and set it) my first try at a scheduled recording apparently didn't work. When I came back after it was scheduled to record, no recorded item appeared in the recordings window. But when I looked in my Music folder, there it was, in a RadioShark folder. I was able to play it via QuickTime, and add it to the radioshark playlist as instructed in the manual and then play it via RadioShark, but I'm still mystified why it didn't show up as having been recording in the RadioShark window.

I wonder if had anything to do with the fact thatI left the application running while I was away rather than closing the RadioShark window. I didn't find anything in the manual about whether you can leave the radio on, or even whether it's OK to let the computer sleep, while waiting for it to record. I wondered if it's like a VCR -- you have to turn it off so it'll turn itself back on when the scheduled recording time occurs. But I guess it's OK because it apparently recorded as scheduled even though I left RadioShark running, yet for some reason the recording didn't get listed in the app window. Or maybe I just missed that part in the manual.

The explanation of the time shift thing in the manual is a little convoluted for me, too, but I'm sure I'll figure it out when I have time to actually think about it and need to use it.

The tuner on the receiver in my study died a few months ago (though the amp still works), and I dawdled at replacing it. Now I'm glad I did because the shark will substitute for the tuner, and also allow me to record some music shows that I often have to miss and aren't available on the internet. Sure sounds nice to hear radio over my stereo system again instead of a little boombox!

[brettcamp]

Quick update: I just downloaded a software update for RadioShark which purports to fix a problem with waking from sleep -- and then the next recording I scheduled worked fine. So, that must have caused the problem I mentioned above, and it seems to be scheduling fine for me now.
It is a little annoying that I can't find a way to jump into playing back a recording anywhere but at the beginning via the RadioShark app, but it's no prob to just open the recording file in iTunes or even QuickTime and then use the slider to get to wherever I want in the recording.
In sum, a very nice combo of well designed hardware and intuitive, easy to use software that saved me from buying a new receiver and has already let me record several programs I would have hated to miss.

[macintologist]

What was the song on 95.1 FM?

[Nivag]

what file type does it record to? can you choose different settings like bit-rate?

[brettcamp]

what file type does it record to? can you choose different settings like bit-rate?

AAC and AIFF. I haven't noticed anything about bit rate and other modiifications.

[brettcamp]

Here's a couple more reviews, one negative , one positive . FWIW, the negative reviewer was using a PC with his Shark. I have to agree with some of his assessments about the UI, but once you figure it out, and download the update, it's mostly fine, or has been for me. Then again, I haven't tried time shifting. I hope Griffin reads his slam and corrects the problems in future updates.

[Diggory Laycock]

I got one!

It's pretty nice - but there are some really annoying things:

No AppleScript Support - not even a keyboard shortcut for changing between the presets.

The s/w made my powerbook freeze when sleeping.

I have made a GUI script to hack around changing channels - but it's horrible.

Code:
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "radioSHARK"
		tell window "radioshark"
			tell pop up button 1
				click
				--				get every UI element
				tell menu "otherViews"
					get every UI element
					--					click menu item "100.0 (Kiss)"
					click menu item "98.8 (Radio 1)"
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
end tell

[moki]

Originally posted by brettcamp:
what file type does it record to? can you choose different settings like bit-rate?

AAC and AIFF. I haven't noticed anything about bit rate and other modiifications.

You can use WireTap Pro to record from your RadioSHARK directly into .mp3 (as well as other file formats), and have control over the bit rate and other settings too. Nothing earth-shattering, but it's kind of neat, because you can use the same program to record programs from streaming audio as you use to record from your radioSHARK.

You can use it to schedule recordings of RadioSHARK programs too.

[Dougmc]

Ok, I'm reviving an old thread because I've spent this evening searching the net (and these forums) for a more compact solution.

I'm simply wanting to have a radio in my office. Sure, I can go buy a nice, cheap, clock radio at Target. But, I have a nice Mac that should do it all, right?

The Radio Shark seems to be the only solution I'm coming across. Although, I've seen hints of another device or two...but they lack Mac support.

One device that I'd love to find in the States resembled a USB flash memory stick and it was simply an FM tuner—which is all I'm wanting.

I want to be able to listen to some radio programs without having to have an internet connection to stream from.

I was hoping to find something more portable than the Radio Shark. Possible PCMCIA or a nice, small USB dongle.

Alas, I'm having no luck.

Help?!