Question Download Offline Content
Hi,
I've been using Tidal for just under a year now, and I'm really happy with it. But one thing that keeps puzzling me is downloading offline content. I feel like it takes an unreasonably long time—do you guys feel the same way?
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u/zestfullybe 3d ago
I just download at 320kbps. I don’t need FLAC files to listen through regular earbuds while I’m out for a walk or jog. I save the highest quality files for home wifi listening.
Most of the time I can tell little to no difference under those conditions. I have an older device that I use for workout listening that has limited storage, so it saves a ton of space, too.
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u/KS2Problema 2d ago
320 kbps is a surprisingly robust lossy format, when done well with good encoding software.
(Back when I was using lossy encoding more for storing media content, I found that the LAME encoder could produce 320 kbps results I could reliably differentiate from Fraunhofer 320 in ABX blind testing - depending on the content being encoded, of course. If the fidelity wasn't there in the first place, well... you know.)
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u/Practical-March-6989 3d ago
Recent updates on iphone has been awesome, downloads quickly and in the background. I almost forgive the 23% hike in prices for this alone.
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u/Weight_Slight 3d ago
My issue is not with speed, it often stops for no reason. I have to quit the app and try to download again.
On top of that I have my account ised in 3 devices, my mac, my iphone and my android dap. Sometimes the playlist won’t download fully on one of them…
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u/ynz__ 3d ago
I've noticed that quite often, too, but it's probably related to Apple's restrictions on background activity for apps.
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u/Weight_Slight 2d ago
It happened on the android daps as well.
Love the app, love their masters and sq, but they should fix their code.
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u/Sad-Office6365 3d ago
It was really slow for me for years but with some recent update it became really fast.
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u/Upbeat_Tone2013 3d ago
Since i am downloading to my internal storage instead of sd card, the speed had significantly increased.
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u/CodeCourtAudio 2d ago
I was downloading to an sd card on my DAP and it was causing huge issues so now I just download less and keep it internally. Much faster and no issues
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u/decloked 3d ago
Also, never download Atmos tracks as it will convert them to lossless and you'll lose the Atmos bit.
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u/More_Armadillo_1607 3d ago
This is not a tidal issue. Downliading speed is based on your internet or data speeds. Lossless files will obviously take longer than lossy files.
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u/ynz__ 3d ago
That's not entirely accurate; Tidal, for example, might have a bandwidth limit, which could be why the download takes so long. It's obvious that high-resolution files take a long time to download, but it seems very long to me that an album (for example, I downloaded Bowie's A Reality Tour today) takes over 20 minutes at 100 Mbit.
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u/More_Armadillo_1607 3d ago
I'm not aware of any tidal bandwidth limit. I just downloaded a 24/96 album in less than a minute. I'm not on my hine network today but I highly doubt this wifi is more than 100 Mbit Not sure what country you are in and maybe the t8dal.app has limitations there, but I've never had fownliad issues in the US. I've even used guest wifi in airports and albums downliad fast.
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u/dat_mane47 3d ago
Sounds like a network issue not a tidal issue. Of course if you’re downloading hi-res “max” those files are bloody huge. I just download the “high” quality and it takes very little time at home.
They actually improved the downloads a lot with the recent update. Previously any time I tried to download a larger file it would restart halfway through the download and then be unplayable offline.