Insignia NS-HDTUNE Take Apart/Exploration

What is HD radio?

My local BB has sold the tuner for $70 compared to the normal $99. I have been thinking of buying one for some time, what are your complaints and do you have a recommendation for a better unit?

To stupid to use Google, little man?

Hi!

HD Radio is the digital radio broadcast standard in the US. It's a development from a company known as iBiquity. iBiquity primarily functions as a licensor of the technology to others.

HD Radio broadcasts are delivered alongside the current analog AM or FM broadcasts, and on the same frequencies.

Outside of the US, other methods are used, such as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) or Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

William

Fuck off dickwad.

Hi!

I think they might be coming to the realization that perhaps the units aren't selling all that well. In my travels to Best Buy, I've never seen anyone buying one, nor have I seen anyone looking at the demonstrator unit on the shelf.

I bought mine from a liquidator for $30 as a scratch and dent item. It has a few scratches and one minor dent, so I was not disappointed. ;-)

It's (very) cheaply made. I also wrote a product review which I will be posting this afternoon. I'll post a link when I do.

But for now, and outside of the cheapness, I'd have to say that its tuner section is deaf in terms of sensitivity. It can't even pick up analog stations that numerous other radios in the vicinity (including a cheap boombox and a clock radio) had no problem receiving.

All of these stations are no more than 30-35 miles from my location, and many are closer. I moved my testing upstairs to see if it would produce any improvement and it did not.

Later, when I moved it to its final location, I noticed that whenever the NS-HDTUNE was powered, it caused a lot of interference with the FM tuner on the stereo receiver I intended to use it with. If that's the way things are, I'll just use the tuner in the receiver. It's a much better tuner anyway.

I was using a Radio Shack powered AM/FM indoor antenna with the unit, and that same antenna works well with assorted stereo receivers.

Sony is the only other company I know to be offering a standalone HD Radio tuner. I have not tried theirs yet, as I haven't seen it offered for sale other than online.

William

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD quality sound? Being one that listens to music on the road I got really disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials. Yes I know they make money like that but none the less it infuriates me. I moved to XM radio back in 2003 then on to Sirius in 2006. The fidelity is ok with me. The lack of commercial content is worth the monthly fee.

Hi!

I guess you could say that, but I'm not sure that a good analog FM signal wouldn't already qualify as "near CD quality" sound...especially on a good tuner.

I wanted to see what HD Radio was about (especially the subchannels), but I wasn't about to pay any $100 to do so! After looking inside, I'm convinced that someone is doing a pretty good job at inflating the price!

Me too. And it's hard to find what I want to hear on the radio anyway. Stations seem so mercurial in their format changes any more...what format was on the radio an hour ago might not be there later...

My solution has been to use an iPod, plugged into a cassette shell adapter or stereo miniplug to RCA connector cable. It's a beautiful thing to have on a long road trip. Before I had an iPod, I'd stick an old laptop under the seat and let it rip through the same cassette shell adapter. The battery held it for most trips, and when it didn't, I already had a power inverter handy.

I also never hear a bad song that way.

I haven't subscribed to satellite radio mainly because I can't listen to it on just any old receiver. So far as I know, I'd have to take the same receiver everywhere, and that's just an invitation for me to lose/misplace it.

William

I have a receiver permanently mounted in my SUV. It transmits it's signal over the FM broadcast band into the SUV's radio on whatever freq I want. On occasion when I travel other stations overpowered the sat receiver so I just took the FM antenna off the SUV. The sat receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna so it can transmit its signal further. When my vehicle is parked in the garage the signal transmits into my home and FM receivers in my bedroom and living room. Can't change the channels from the house but I listen to classic rock and roll or a channel that does album sides for classic rock and roll. I leave the Sirius unit on 24/7 in the vehicle. doesn't draw enough current to discharge the battery much if any. I like the pause feature also. I think it can hold up to 50 minutes. And Sirius is great for travel. Get the same programing across the entire country.

Here's the complete review:

William

Asked Meathead, the village idiot. What a moron, doesn't know what simple things like HD radio is. Hey, Meathead, try Google or Bing.

Hi!

Oh for cryin' out loud...don't you have *anything* better to do? Isn't the purpose of this group to ask electronics related questions and get answers?

Sure, a web search can answer the question. So can this group, and I don't think it unreasonable that they do!

I don't know how many people have heard HD Radio or even really care about it. I don't know anyone who has an HD Radio tuner, nor have I seen one in my adventures.

William

William, a resident net-nanny, lives a quiet secluded life, without any contact with the real world.

Hi!

Heh. Not hardly. Nice troll, though. Have a great day. :-)

William

Hi!

I had that happen with an iPod to FM modulator type of device, but it didn't wire directly into the antenna connection. Its output was quiet, which doubled the shock when something overpowered it.

I didn't pull the antenna because every time I have, it's proven difficult to get it back on tightly enough that it won't work loose. I'd hate for it to go flying off at speed. I already had the cassette player (what can I say, other than I'm "old school", having made mix tapes up until recently) so I just went to using a cassette shell as I always had for that direct line-in connection.

That's an interesting idea, especially since it is powerful enough to get into your house and play on radios there.

Perhaps one of these days when I have a little more money going spare, I might look into satellite radio. A few years ago I saw a nice Samsung satellite radio receiver/recorder but didn't buy it because it was so expensive. It had either flash memory or a small hard drive to record to, and they claimed it was good for several hours worth of recording, as well as timed recording.

I may try to climb up the disused TV antenna mast today and see what will be required to get it going again. If there isn't an FM trap up there, I expect it could be used as some kind of FM antenna for the HD Radio tuner.

William

Kill filter PeterD, he's a troll that can't handle intelligent conversation without turning a thread into a month long petty argument. He most likely has a big fat wife that warlords over him and Usenet is his vent.

My question about HD radio was to spark some discussion about it. I use Google a lot during the day and sure I could have searched there or Wikipedia. Nothing wrong with a little friendly discussion unless you're PeterD. His loss.

Yeah the transmitter in the Sirius is probably the legal limit for unlicensed FM transmitting apparatus. I forget how many milliwatts that is maybe around 600? It's plenty enough to get you a hundred feet using the wire antenna. I built a small FM transmitter for a 50's style drive-in restaurant about 15 years ago. Customers were advised to tune to a frequency that the restaurant transmitted 1950's rock and roll music on. The transmitter covered the entire lot and the music attracted customers. So the moral to the story is under the right conditions a QRP FM xmitter can perform very well.

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your garage? Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

Very nice. A photo of the unit before disection might be useful.

This might help with the Atmel tuner:

TI and Atmel partnered on the design. TI does the screaming media decoding. Atmel does the analog RF and conventional AM/FM decoding.

So, did it work when you put it back together? How many spare screws?