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Normal radio and HD radio

RichP

RichP

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Effort, Pa
Looking at new head units, now I know the TV industry is going HD next year or so and they won't be selling normal analog TV's after that pretty much. Is it the same story with commercial radio, are they also going to switch off and move to HD only ?
 
XBoBJ said:
is there really a difference with hd radio and regular radio, then going to make us pay for hd radio soon?
Click to expand...

The difference is the tuners, analog vs digital, thats the difference.
 
Think of the difference as being stereo vs multi-channel and low quality mp3 vs cd quality. HD radio is multi-channel and cd quality vs regular radio which is stereo and a lower quality of sound since the signal is analog and subject to static and other interference.

Eventually they are planning on switching to all digital, but that's still years away.
 
kunaji said:
Think of the difference as being stereo vs multi-channel and low quality mp3 vs cd quality. HD radio is multi-channel and cd quality vs regular radio which is stereo and a lower quality of sound since the signal is analog and subject to static and other interference.

Eventually they are planning on switching to all digital, but that's still years away.
Click to expand...

OK, so it's not being pushed by the FCC like it is for TV, correct ?
 
I spent over a year explaining the changeover to digital programming to every customer who walked into our department (I sold electronics on commission). The biggist thing that most people don't get at first is that not all digital TV is HD!!! The changeover to digital is NOT a changeover to HD-HD is a souped-up version of a standard digital program. Even after the changeover, your "digital" signal will NOT be HD unless both-
(A) your TV (and tuner if it is seperate)
AND
(B) You are PAYING them for HD programming

Sound confusing? It is :looney:
 
T3hk1w1 said:
I spent over a year explaining the changeover to digital programming to every customer who walked into our department (I sold electronics on commission). The biggist thing that most people don't get at first is that not all digital TV is HD!!! The changeover to digital is NOT a changeover to HD-HD is a souped-up version of a standard digital program. Even after the changeover, your "digital" signal will NOT be HD unless both-
(A) your TV (and tuner if it is seperate)
AND
(B) You are PAYING them for HD programming

Sound confusing? It is :looney:
Click to expand...

I get 4 HD over the air channels here but am waiting till the prices come down more on the bigger flat panels, I want a 60 or 61. I know about the over the air because I set my neighbors up when he got it. What I'm going to hate is when I have to retire my replay 4508 and lose it's ability to edit commercials out on the fly when it records. Hoping myth will leave that feature in. It also has no built in DRM in the hardware like the new stuff thats out.
 
Oops, that's right, there are some local channels in most cities that display HD.
 
As for HD radio I guess I'm deaf cause I can't hear a difference in regular and HD radio.
 
I can't either without a full 5.1 surround system.
 
"HD" Radio is just digital, the "HD" is hype. The advantage is more channels in the same bandwidth. So for a single analog channel, you can have a number of digital channels. This is a big deal in large cities where bandwidth is limited, but more companies want air time. No, there is no mandate to change over, but I think the forces of ecomomics will push analog to the curb so that more commercial time can be sold on the same bandwidth.

You honestly won't heard the difference between the two. Bob and Tom will sound just as annoying in digital as analog. Well, maybe more so because you paid more for the radio ;)

Ron
 
I think one problem they're having already with HD radio is that it is not very good in fringe areas because beyond a certain range it simply goes blank or mutes. Until there's an improvement either in the signal strength or the number of transmitters, people will still prefer a noisy signal to one that's not there at all, and there will continue to be a need for analog radio.
 
Matthew Currie said:
I think one problem they're having already with HD radio is that it is not very good in fringe areas because beyond a certain range it simply goes blank or mutes.
Click to expand...

Well, that is exactly the problem folks are finding out about digital over the air TV.
Folks that have been getting away with rabbit ears and a loop for years, just a few ghosts, now find that digital picture freezes, pixalizes or just goes blank, same with the sound. They make a call to the sales person and find out that the local HD station is only running 10K watts and the normal analog station is running 50K watts.

They also find out what you just stated, it is all or nothing. Either the reciever recieves enough packets to put to make up the rest and put together a picture, or it doesn't.

Hey! They say, "Well I got a picture on my old set". Well, yah, but one full of multi-path reception (Ghosts). Digital hates getting packets out of order or having them clobered by other packets. Reception must be strong and must be free of multi-path signals.

What can we do? They ask, then the sales person sells them a "HD ready" outdoor antenna and installation by a professional installer which "Specializes" in HD.

Problem is for TV, there is no going back. It should be an exciting year ;)

Ron
 
Last edited:
OH, an 'hd ready antenna is it, LOL.... sounds like one of those 'cyclones' you put in your throttle body to increase fuel efficiency. I think I'll go buy some stock futuristic rabbit ears and dip them in that plastic stuff I use for tool handles and start selling them as HD ready at the local flea market... dam, that actually sounds like a good idea. I"ll use two colors, blue for normal HD and red for xrated.
 
Last edited:
Zuki-Ron said:
Well, that is exactly the problem folks are finding out about digital over the air TV.
Folks that have been getting away with rabbit ears and a loop for years, just a few ghosts, now find that digital picture freezes, pixalizes or just goes blank, same with the sound. They make a call to the sales person and find out that the local HD station is only running 10K watts and the normal analog station is running 50K watts.

They also find out what you just stated, it is all or nothing. Either the reciever recieves enough packets to put to make up the rest and put together a picture, or it doesn't.

Hey! They say, "Well I got a picture on my old set". Well, yah, but one full of multi-path reception (Ghosts). Digital hates getting packets out of order or having them clobered by other packets. Reception must be strong and must be free of multi-path signals.

What can we do? They ask, then the sales person sells them a "HD ready" outdoor antenna and installation by a professional installer which "Specializes" in HD.

Problem is for TV, there is no going back. It should be an exciting year ;)

Ron
Click to expand...
I'm waiting for this one. I live in a fringe area, where most of the watchable TV is over 50 miles away. Don't watch much except PBS these days anyway, but it's nice to get some semi-local network news occasionally too, and it's going to be interesting. The only stations closer are an analog repeater not too far away, which is fairly decent and plans to stay analog, and a nearby station that is so situated that it comes in with about 15 ghost images despite being very strong. No cable is available out here, and we're not about to get a satellite dish to watch the occasional TV show, so we might just end up with nothing much at all.
 
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