That's what I've asked myself the first time HD radio was announced. In medical we call that "me, too" technology, and this one essentially came too late.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Hi Joerg,
Agreed, but I wouldn't be all that unhappy if I were the CEO of iBiquity right now -- becoming Microsoft or Apple is great, but running a profitable company with ~150 employees isn't bad either.
They have a list here, although it's not entirely clear which models HD radios come standard on and which it's strictly optional:
I think it's going to be around for the forseeable future, although I don't think it's going to kill off traditional FM... ever.
RDS is largely a fizzled standard though, you know? -- And that seems like, at least today, it'd be dirt cheap to make standard on all cars.
---Joel
"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
In theory HD radio could give you the best of FM and satellite: Lots of high-quality sound choices and local news -- without paying $13/month.
In practive, as Joerg observes, it's not at all a viable alternative. At least not yet.
.
Who cares about HD radio? If you don't like it don't buy it. There are
*many* alternatives.
Yes, having landed a de-facto monopoly provides a plum position in the marketplace no matter how small that monopoly is.
Oh yeah, I always wanted to rent a BMW750iL but I guess the CEO of the client who ends up with that tab will want to have a word with me :-)
I vaguely remember one of the domestic car manufacturers offering it (Polk i-something) but I also remember seeing a $500 price tag there.
In Europe it hasn't fizzled AFAIK. They had similar things since a long time. I remember buying my Audi station wagon over there, via a dealer.
1987 model year (it's still on the road). Just as I wanted to leave the lot I inadvertently hit the brakes because the radio started blasting and I hadn't even turned it on. I thought something had come unglued. Turns out that when it receives a certain data code via some local transmitter it would let off traffic jam alerts unless you explicitly disable that feature. I asked a neighbor who had a similar Audi and he said they all come with it.I have no idea how it is over there now. They do have some sort of digital radio system on the FM band. Last time I was over there the programming was boring and when alone I tried to tune in to AFN.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Content is what it's all about. I know next to nothing about HD. Does it work in tunnels and underpasses? If so, subscription HD might be a viable answer. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Spice is like a sports car...
Performance only as good as the person behind the wheel.
...and still have all the range limitations of terrestrial radio. $15/mo (I think that's what I pay) is well worth it. ...and I don't even have it in a vehicle. ;-)
They might on the wrong side of the pond, but then over there they have to put warnings on the top of champagne bottles not to point it at your eye when opening and stamp the base with "open other end".
Panasonic kit sold in Europe will allow any amount of manual DTV tuning to add individual channels if you have the patience to do it. Autoscan tends to be more convenient when new channels pop (briefly) into existence. The most annoying thing is that several designs reset the favourites lists whenever you make a change using autoscan.
If your terrestrial DTV reception is so dire why don't you use Freesat or whatever it is called over there to get the free to air channels?
Regards, Martin Brown
On a sunny day (Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:52:27 -0700) it happened Joerg wrote in :
Oh, yes, now you mention it. sound like I heard that one. Douwe Egberts , well, I am into drinking thee lately.
OK a quick google solved the mystery:
Ikegami, I have worked with those cameras (not this one), was responsible for that in some big productions, been all over Europe with Ikegami:-) The old ones in my times still used plumbicons... Alignment was difficult, had to be done before each shoot.
I know, so can mine :-)
Yes see my remark above.
There are some more 'features' or maybe I should say 'modules' that fit onto VDR that I cannot talk about here because of the D M C A :-) I am a bit rusty on that, as I stopped the hacking TV when it became illegal, but there are people who are really into that.
Extern 1GB USB Seagate harddisk is full here...
Na ja, DVDs go for a few cents these days, Blu-ray is still relatively expensive. Need storage space too, huge harddisks are cool as long as you do not drop them. But if you buy a movie, and it is HD on Blu-ray, then you need a player at least.
Yes, and don't stick cork into mouth, and all that stuff.
Out here it's only he dumbed-down variety, only auto-scan. So the drill is to wait for a weather pattern that will show most DTV signals, peek outside and listen to the scannner to make sure no Fedex freight aircraft is on the approach, hit auto-scan and hope that as many DTV channels as possible stick. Then delete the flakey ones.
I don't think there is any free satelluite this side of the pond.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Lately, I frequently get one channel that stops. Sometimes if I go up a channel, then back, it will work again.
I wish they would have presets on remotes. They do it with everything else.
I can't figure out how to have more than one cable box in the same room. Maybe 3. Many watch TV on one channel, but thats crude. I need at least two TV to watch. It happens all the time trying to switch back and forth channels. When I asemble my home theater/entertainment room, I want at least
3 TV's.Maybe this is easy. I know my brother has several boxes on a shelf for the TV's in the sports bar.
greg
Another problem is turning off TV's in the same room or very large room. The answer is, some remotes have both off and on buttons.
greg
G > WHO designed this new USA TV standard G > and why did the FCC not catch the considerable G > problems BEFORE committing us to it?
JT > A system designed by bureaucrats ?:-)
You're right, I was silly to forget that even for a moment.
I can see that being really annoying. We have trouble whenever there is heavy rain - a bunch of marginally OK stations at the top end of the band deteriorate to the annoying pixelate and freeze mode with the odd blast of ultrasonic clicks and chirps out of the speakers (unwatchable).
I wonder if there is a market for a combined rain detector and variable gain low noise block for terrestrial DTV aerials?
Digital (DAB) radio is worse still - every unit I have tried will intermittently crash to silence once a week and there is a random variable time delay in the decoders about 1s behind realtime.
HD TV is about 1s behind ordinary definition TV showing the same channel presumably because the encode decode step takes more CPU.
Wiki seems to think that you do have free to air on satellite though you might need to mess around a bit to find them. It could still be a lot cheaper if you count your time spent fighting this kit and completely immune to terrestrial multipath distortion.
I find it useful for getting stuff like NHK. It isn't hard to set up.
Regards, Martin Brown
True... the problem with iBiquity is that the FCC let them have the entire market. At least with, e.g., Apple, while they get a cut of every (non-free) app that ends up on a (non-jailbroken) iPhone, there are plenty of other GSM phones out there.
The car manufacturers have incredibly inflated ideas about how much radios ought to cost -- even a simple AM/FM/CD player radio is often >$200... that fact probably really helps the JVCs, Kenwoods, Sonys, Pioneers, etc. of the world who sell an awful lot of aftermarket car stereos.
Many people purposely orders their car with either no radio or the cheapest one available, as they intend to immediately replace it anyway.
---Joel
It's an all-digital standard, so as long as there's still "enough" SNR it'll keep pumping out audio just fine. Hence I'd expect that at least for any reasonably local stations that don't noticeably fade on traditional FM in tunnels and underpasses, it'd be fine, but I can't personally vouch for how well that works in practice: I have an HD radio at home, but not in a car. ...and in southern Oregon here the only HD radio stations available are a couple of public radio stations that mostly play classical music, although occasionally they'll head for the blues and touch upon jazz a bit, which isn't bad -- but I'm not going to drop Sirius any time soon either! Phoenix is rather better, however:
---Joel
That's pretty poor... Firefox claims _92_ "Radio Broadcast Companies" in Mesa alone... which I doubt... maybe 30 active AM and FM that I can think of.
I have Sirius in the Q45, but I do web radio in my office...Roku Soundbridge. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Spice is like a sports car...
Performance only as good as the person behind the wheel.
"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
Did the Q45 come with the Sirius receiver built-in, or did you add an aftermarket one to it?
Came with.
My #1 son gave me a Panasonic head (for my truck) and I have a matching Sirius plug-in. But with a 10-year-old truck with only ~30,000 miles I can't rationalize the ~$13/month.
Anyone want to make an offer ?:-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Spice is like a sports car...
Performance only as good as the person behind the wheel.
"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
Which model Panasonic head unit is it?
Perhaps you'd like to trade for an HD radio head unit! :-)
---Joel
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