Digital Car Radio (Receivers)

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addo
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Digital Car Radio (Receivers)

Post by addo »

I want to start by loosely describing the situation in Australia.

Essentially, the Gov't have said that by some date (sooner than later; can't remember exactly) we will only have digital audio broadcasting. Most stations already broadcast in parallel with the analogue signal.

However... You cannot buy a "punter priced" digital head unit for cars. It's just not offered. As in, pretty much what many of us fit now: CD/USB/Bluetooth/tuner in a single or double DIN package depending on whether it has a screen or not.

I'm puzzled; not looking at this from a political viewpoint, just wondering what is the UK situation with digital radio broadcasting?
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Post by Xaccers »

When 51% of listening is done via digital, the BBC national FM channels will be switched off leaving more bandwidth for local rubbish.
The BBC decided to go with DAB technology which even at the time was outdated.

The BBC is running a campain to encourage people to buy digital radios by only telling them the good bits, while the commercial stations are refusing to run the same ads and threatening to run an anti-DAB campain so that consumers get to understand they may not actually be able to use their DAB radios without standing on their beds facing Mecca while holding the radio up to the ceiling, and even then the sound quality will probably be lower than FM.

Nigel brought this subject up at the end of last year.
If you've got a smartphone with decent connection and unlimited data usage, you could use that to listen to internet radio via a bluetooth handsfree device with FM transmitter, or if you've got a bluetooth head unit.
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Post by addo »

It's more about "kleine gelt" than anything else. :lol: Our broadcasts are apparently in some format described as DAB+ but not sure how different this is to regular issue DAB.

I've been a little concerned that if I buy a new replacement head unit for any of the cars, it may end up obsolete in short order - doesn't sound likely though. :? I still have a stupidphone - old man got the full monty iPhone4 that came with my last contract, because I hate gimmickry.

If you buy a new high end car in the UK, what types of signals does the receiver recognise?
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Post by Xaccers »

Normally just FM/AM
DAB+ is at least an improvememt on DAB, with better sound at lower bitrates
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Post by KP »

Well I can confirm that there are good and bad for it. I got one in the disco4 I had for 2 months and the signal didn't slowly breakdown like you get with fm, it just dropped without warning. On the other hand the BBC and other national stations were crystal clear when driving 240 miles cross country each way I'd not a little quiter than fm and the highways station was sometimes useful. I also have a dab alarm clock that drives me crackers as it tunes into stations that are outside of it's supposed reach and won't pickup local ones now!!! When wimax and lte rollout I think I'll avoid dab and just get a data streaming device. :-)
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Post by addo »

It's been very fulfilling to hear independent UK opinions on this stuff. :)

In many ways I live under a rock, and we (Australians) are also somewhat gun-shy about getting "end of an era" products dumped on us - it happened with large TVs not so long ago.

Honestly from what you are telling me, and other sources around the 'net - it seems like a long time before there is anything remotely approaching a replacement (OEM fitment or aftermarket) for the head unit with AM/FM tuner.
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