HP de100c - Manual (Page 56)

54 hp digital entertainment center owner’s guide
understanding internet radio
Internet radio is an audio stream, sometimes accompanied by graphics, that you access over
the Internet. Thousands of Internet radio stations are available, and because signal distance is
not an issue, you can play stations from around the world as well as local favorites.
The following information will help you understand how Internet radio works.
connection
To play Internet radio stations, the digital entertainment center must be connected to the
Internet during the entire play session. If you connect via broadband, your connection is
always on; if you connect via dial-up, you need to establish the connection first.
At today’s transmission rates, both dial-up and broadband users will experience short pauses
while playing Internet radio — first as the device connects to the specific station, then as the
audio stream is buffered to the listening device.
buffering
Buffering is the method Internet radio stations use to help the music (or other audio) play
smoothly. Because the audio stream generally can’t be transmitted as quickly as it plays, a
certain amount of the stream is sent to the device before play begins. Once the playing device
has received enough data, it begins to play.
When listening to Internet radio on any device, you experience these buffering pauses from
time to time as the data works to catch up with the play rate.