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The Real Deal: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions?
- 10/31/06 3:49 PM
Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions?
by acedtect - 10/31/06 3:49 PM
More and more radio stations bill themselves as available in HD. What's this HD radio? What does it mean? Ask your questions here.
is it high definition radio?
by aribeiro2 - 10/31/06 5:10 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
what is the difference between digital radio and high definition radio? is it the same?
why did it take so long for radios to start broadcasting in a digital format? is it that hard? I mean, it seems that we had digital TV before digital Radio... isn't it strange?
TV & Radio are totally different models (in U.S.)
by punterjoe - 11/1/06 6:06 AM In reply to: is it high definition radio? by aribeiro2TV stations who committed to go digital got a ''free'' license for a second broadcast channel for their digital signals. Part of the deal was that they had to shut down and surrender their old analog channel ...eventually. While digital TV uses the same 6Mhz TV spectrum as analog, it's either analog or digital. Radio's model was always ''In Band On Channel''. Theoretically, the analog & digital signals exist in the same space, in ways that the two signals don't interfere with each other. That's one of the primary reasons it took so long for HD Radio to launch. It was a formidable technical challenge. Actually the digital & analog channels coexist, but not quite in the same space. The Digital footprint is MUCH wider - which is easily heard on AM by tuning 2 channels to either side. As for HD Radio & Digital Radio - HD Radio is a brand, kind of like ieee1394 being called firewire or ilink. But Digital radio is a broader term. There is Eureka Digital Radio in use in most places but here. That's a totally new service on a totally new band. No compatibility problems, but everyone needs a new radio. There's also Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) - a far less proprietary digital service for existing bands. Like our ATSC TV it fits in the footprint of an existing analog signal, but replaces an analog signal. Again, that's used in the rest of the world - but not the U.S. 
thanks!
by aribeiro2 - 11/4/06 7:05 PM In reply to: TV & Radio are totally different models (in U.S.) by punterjoei did a little research, and i found out that brazil is testing IBOC... i guess it has already been chosen as the brazilian digital radio model...
Satellite "Killer"?
by RUGUNIT - 11/1/06 3:03 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
My biggest concern as a Sirius share holder and XM subscriber is that HD will take away the usefulness of satellite radio. My XM has become like my cell phone, I hate to leave it behind. Is HD Radio a direct competitor to satellite or will there still be room in the market for both once HD is fully rolled out?
Tom: Sirius Vs. XM
by RUGUNIT - 11/9/06 2:12 PM In reply to: Satellite "Killer"? by RUGUNITTo answer your question, i subscribed to XM way before i became a shareholder for Sirius, but i never made the switch mainly because Sirius doesnt have a punk only station, as XM does (Fungus 53). I mainly bought Sirius stock because i saw it as a good investment for the future (I see a merger somewhere in the future). But i know i should be supporting it myself. All they need is a punk station and im there.
-Rug
Have you compared the audio quality of Sirius vs XM?
by punterjoe - 11/10/06 5:15 AM In reply to: Tom: Sirius Vs. XM by RUGUNITWhen I initially chose a service, the offerings were close enough that it finally came down to audio quality & ironically enough, the traffic/weather service - which uses such a low bitrate as to be nearly unintelligible! However, on the channels where they don't skimp on bitrates, XM seemed to sound a bit better to my ears (fewer artifacts). ..Although it was difficult to tell in the noisy bigbox store. XM reception is quite spotty in northern New England, often merely driving north of a ridge will wipe reception, to say nothing of any building over 2 stories in a town too small to have a repeater. Despite all that, I'm happy enough with the service that I don't see cancelling anytime soon. :}
A few...
by netmasta - 11/1/06 3:03 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
Good idea. I've been wondering what it is. I suppose I could go to their site, but a podcast is cooler.
1. It's free now, at least online. Will it always be free?
2.Are any HD radios already out, and what kinds(Car, stereo system, portable mp3 player?
3. Will old radios become obsolete sometime in the future like with sdtv's?
Peter in MA
Quality claims?
by robear2k7 - 11/3/06 9:25 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
Proponents claim the sound is "CD quality for FM, and FM quality for AM." I've read, however, that the HD FM stations broadcast at 96 kbps at best, which is a far cry from CD quality (1440 kbps). Analog radio is already way too compressed for music to sound right... how is this going to be any better?
Is this an HD Radio?
by AndyInTN - 11/7/06 4:11 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
In the two vehicles my parents have, one is a 2002 Jeep Liberty and the other one is a 2006 Dodge Dakota. The head unit in the vehicle will sometimes display the song title and artist's name. You can also choose what type of radio station you want to listen to and it will scan through the available stations until it finds one that is of that genre. Is this an HD radio?
text display is digital svc for analog radio
by punterjoe - 11/10/06 5:37 AM In reply to: Is this an HD Radio? by AndyInTNThere are lots of new technologies they've been using to trick-out the 60+ year old FM service. I think what you're talking about is RDS - Radio Data Service or it's 1st cousin RBDS (just wiki them). FM stations have lots more bandwidth than they need for plain audio. (As does TV). They used to use this for other analog services like subscription elevator-type music services, or reading services for the blind. Digital technologies have let them add lots of new services like beaming to pagers, offering stock info or other realtime data services, and even beaming the signals to Microsoft's SPOT data watches. Most of these services are not "public", but the RDS/RBDS services are intended to be public. The technology has been around since the 90s but is slowly trickling into the market as auto companies finally start to offer it on pricier models. I think the fact that no one's seen a way to turn this into a huge revenue stream may explain why it slowly seeped into the market as an evolution, instead of exploding in a revolutionary "ditch your old radio" marketing push.
If you want to see some of the interesting things clever engineers can still do with analog FM, search for "FMeXtra".
(NT) Thanks for the informative episode!
by shawnlin - 11/7/06 7:38 PM In reply to: Next Episode - HD Radio, Got Questions? by acedtect
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