Griffin RadioSHARK Review

UPDATE 12-21-04: The most recent software update for the RadioSHARK fixed the problems I was having and added some nice new features. I think most users will have a good experience with the product now.

UPDATE: As I've had more time with the RadioSHARK, I am seeing some problems with the scheduling functionality. I will be checking with Griffin - hopefully these can be fixed with a software update soon. The RadioSHARK does not seem to wake the Mac from sleep as the ElGato EyeTV does. The RadioSHARK intermittently fails to record - even when the Mac is awake. The RadioSHARK doesn't automatically load software when the Mac restarts - even though it is supposed to.

I picked up a Griffin Technology RadioSHARK at the Apple store this evening. Quite simply - it kicks butt and exceeds all my expectations.

The Griffin RadioSHARK is Tivo for radio.

You can schedule recordings of your favorite radio shows. The interface supports hourly, daily and weekly recurrence making recording your favorite shows on a regular basis very easy. i.e. TiVo for your favorite NPR shows.

It uses AppleScript to move recorded shows into a special iTunes playlist called RadioSHARK (can be renamed). Each time you synchronize your iPod, the shows are effortlessly transferred. The user experience is simple, iPod synchronization seamless. It doesn't seem to append the date of the broadcast to the song name - but hopefully they will add this soon.

You can also record live radio (including pause, fast-forward, rewind) and save the recordings to iTunes as well. There's currently no interface for song editing which makes live recording less useful. However, if you just want to record an hour of your favorite radio station to listen to at the gym - it's great for that. There's also no integration with a song identification service. If these two features were ever added in and automated, the  copyright lawyers would go even more crazy. The RadioSHARK is a counter-attack on the recording industry and its draconian file sharing lawsuits. I'm glad to see Griffin had the balls to release this product.

It has a radio user interface with presets for your favorite stations which is very easy to set up and use. I'm more likely to listen to live radio now that I can control tuning from my desktop.

The industrial design on the USB RadioSHARK is nice too. When playing live radio, the lights glow blue but change to red when recording. It fits in nicely with the iPod and the JBL Creature Speakers.

Radio just wasn't ready for the RadioSHARK - there's no online schedule aggregator for radio as there is for television. So, you have to know when shows are on if you want to schedule them for recording. Essentially, we need something like TitanTV for radio. I use TitanTV with my El Gato EyeTV television recorder. Or, perhaps some RSS variant that allows stations to publish their own RSS schedule feeds that can be parsed by a future RadioSHARK schedule application upgrade. I haven't had much luck getting my podcasting working - but RadioSHARK seems more compelling to me at the moment - primarily due to content and ease of use.

It allows you to record songs from the radio in AAC format which you can then edit and trim with separate applications. Quality is radio broadcast quality - but they are essentially free to add into your iTunes collection. Reception is fine - even near my computer. Spoken word programs can be recorded in the more compact AIFF format.

The Griffin RadioSHARK is PC/Mac compatible. At $69.99, it will make a great holiday gift for the NPR junkie in your family.

Link to Walt Mossberg review.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed with Griffin Technology's product line. They seem to be the most innovative accessory company in the business right now. I've been extremely pleased with my iTalk and continue to be impressed with the creativity of their entire product line e.g. iBeams, PodPod, EarJams, SightLight and iMic.

Alternate index: Griffin Radio Shark, RadioShark

Comments

[Jalexster]

"It allows you to record songs from the radio in AAC format which you can then edit and trim with separate applications. Quality is radio broadcast quality - but they are essentially free to add into your iTunes collection. Reception is fine - even near my computer. Spoken word programs can be recorded in the more compact AIFF format."

I think you got AAC and AIFF confused. AIFF is full quality, and AAC is compressed. You wrote it the other way around.

[Wing]

AAC is the compressed audio format. Can be lossy or lossless for full quality. Also contains DRM to prevent playback on systems in the case of purchased music. AIFF is just a sound format that predates AAC, MP3, etc. It is often associated with recording high quality sounds or low quality sounds, depending on what sampling rate you shoose. Neither one is inherently low or high quality.

[Brian]

AAC is not lossless. Ever.

[enjoilax]

AAC does not include DRM.

.m4p does. Not to be confused with:
.mp4(mpeg layer 4), ..m4a(itunes encoded mp4), .m4b (Bookmarkable iTunes encoded mp4)

[Nick]

"AAC is not lossless. Ever."

There is an "Apple Lossless Format" available in iTunes, useless for me though because my older iPod doesn't support them.

White on black micro-text does not a friendly website make.

slashdotted!

[Ali]

Anyone used this on a PC? Is it the same software on the PC?

the windows software is crap. doesn't support aac compression contrary to how it's advertised on the box

[camperslo]

It's a good review of an interesting product, but I'm a little amazed just how far removed people have become from caring about actual performance capabilities. Does this support an external antenna? How free is it from spurious responses in the presence of strong signals? What's the signal to noise ratio like? How about the alternate and adjacent channel selectivity? How about the stereo separation? How's distortion at normal modulation levels (and a bit beyond - some U.S. stations do overmodulate to sound louder, in spite of F.C.C. rules). How is the sensitivity? How good is the AM (noise) rejection? Can the receiver bandwidth be controlled? (Wider bandwidth gives the lowest distortion on stronger signals, but a narrower bandwidth helps when there are strong adjacent or alternate channel signals)
The audio processing used by the vast majority of stations makes the audio a dense constantly loud wall of somewhat distorted sound, definately not an ideal source of files to keep around for that iPod. And the ethics and prograamming practices of the companies dominating U.S. broadcastling have lessened radios' appeal. But this is still a great product for catching certain sports or news programs, and features on P.B.S. At this price I'll likely buy one in spite of the apparent disregard for people that actually care about performance. Granted there's far less reaason to care than there once was, with the exception of P.B.S., radio has mostly become a vast wasteland.

[Frank]

Does it beat my WinTV with FM tuner that I've has for.... 6 YEARS?!?!?!

[Anonymous]

Dlink has had a usb radio for 3-4 years now. It only has an FM tuner, and the software was horrendous, but it only cost 20$ instead of 70$!

I think the addition of AM stations, and improved software that has TIVO like capabilities for radio is a long overdue step in the right direction, but give me a break on the price, especially with the advent of satelite radio! This should not cost 70$ - get real people!

[PeggyHill]

If you're worried about SNR, stereo separation, sinusoidal deplenoration, you should probably go with a high end tuner rather than a radio to hook up to your computer. If it will record Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, and Sean Hannity while I'm at work, I'm happy.

Does anyone know what version of OS X does the RadioShark require?

[srewolf]

The software is more like VCR for radio (anyone who thinks hand specifying frequency and time is "TiVo-like" doesn't know TiVo). The PC version was missing features (like AAC) compared to the Mac version. In contrast to earlier vaporous announcements, it does not handle internet streaming.

The hardware had poor reception in my marginal reception area. (But it does have a jack for an external antenna -- but why should I need an external antenna when my cheap clock radio doesn't).

The lack of technical specifications and pdf of the manual on the web serves to hide the product behind a veil so you can't tell what it is (and is not) without buying it.

I was very disappointed and returned it. See more in my response to MacWorld's "Hands on With RadioShark" forum.

[Bill Moore]

Our brings a TiVo experience to radio with a program guide covering local and Internet radio (but no song splitting). Soon we'll have radioSHARK support ready. www.radiotime.com

[Richard Hudak]

How does this handle fast user switching? What if I want to record while someone else is logged in?

[Timothy Killian]

I've been looking for a simple Tivo-like solution for radio ever since I became hooked on Tivo for my TV. I've gotten so used to being able to go back 8 seconds to catch something I missed on TV, that I've found myself expecting to be able to do the same thing on Radio; and now I can.

I think the price-point is acceptable. My AM radio reception is not great; I'll look for an external antenna. If anyone finds any that work well, let me know.

After using radioSHARK for two weeks, I've decided that it's unreliable and I'm waiting for a software update. Recordings are sometimes made as scheduled, other times not (tho my Mac is awake and the background server app is running). It's disappointing to come home to find that a recording was not made. Once, a recording was made of the wrong station. Another time, there were skips in the recording so that a scheduled 59-minute recording ended up being 34 minutes long. Other than these pretty major problems, it's a neat product.

Response to 13 Oct posting:
Short answer: Requires OS X 10.2.7
Long answer: I had 10.1 and bought radioSHARK from apple.com, whose specs for radioSHARK at the time indicated that it required "OS X." When I received the product I was disappointed to find out that it required 10.2.7. I had to buy Panther/10.3 for the install to work.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/software/software_radioshark.html
has a software update 1.0.3 that appears to solve the problems I noted 15Nov.

[Mark Thompson]

I apologize for asking but could anyone explain exactly what sinusoidal deplenoration is? The sinusoid part I kinda get trigonometric reference but I don't have any clue what deplenoration is at all. How exactly does one become plenorated let alone deplenorated? Is it any fun?

The only other reference I could find - was here http://media.ebaumsworld.com/retro.wmv. This seems sorta kinda funny and apparently available soon from the good folks at Rockwell Automation.

Sincerely,

Mark T.

[Chapin]

Bummer about RadioShark's mediocre reception; I live in an outlying area, where reception isn't THAT great to begin with, and in a basement to boot. I haven't given up on the fin though (yet).

I bought an arial from RadioShack, along with all the proper gear for grounding and shielding, etc., and mounted it on my roof. Even without a signal amplifier, my new FM feed is remarkable; I pick up many stations that I didn't think that I EVER would.

Despite this success, only my stereo receiver seems to register the signal, not the RadioShark. After giving up on the headphone/aux. out jack on the base of the fin (I tried soldering my lead to the ground vs. the left/right channels of a 1/8" audio plug, as Griffin tech suggested), I pried open the top of my RadioShark fin, and straightened out its internal FM antenna so that it sticks straight out the top (even this minor alteration seemed to improve the fin's reception markedly). Then I hooked a 75 to 300 ohm transformer to my coaxial arial antenna feed, and ran the lead wire to the tip of my RadioShark's exposed antenna. Although the signal DOES improve, slightly, station reception, across the band, isn't nearly as good as from my Harmon/Kardon AVR 100 stereo receiver.

Shouldn't a clear FM signal, with the proper 300 ohm impedance, improve the RadioShark's reception as well as it improves my receiver's reception? Thanks for everyone's help with this post!

[Snaptune]

Windows XP users of the RadioSHARK now have a new option for recording software.

Snaptune (www.snaptune.com) records shows according to a schedule you set but it also indexes all the radio you record and finds individual songs and talk show segments automatically. You can see a complete list of all the songs (interviews, talk segments, ...) it has found on any radio station and play them in any order.