HD Radio spinners claim a breakthrough year
Pulling a fast one
THE HD RADIO Alliance has been attempting to claim that 2007 was a breakthrough year for the technology.
HD radio sales need to be quite high if the radio stations are going to be able to convince advertisers go buy space.
According to a press release from the Alliance 330,000 HD receivers were sold last year. This is a 725 per cent increase from the 40,000 sets purchased a year earlier and therefore 2007 was a 'breakthrough year' for the technology. In 2008 they will sell a million of the things.
Well, not really. InsideMedia points out that while the figure was better than last year 330,000 is a drop in the ocean when it comes to this sort of thing. And when Best Buy and Wal-Mart drop to the new low price of just $99 it is sign that things are not going that well.
The Alliance is hoping that prices will drop further and kill off analogue sets. If that happened then perhaps the technology will go somewhere. But generally things like satellite radio or even plain old analogue are giving the technology a good kicking.
More here. µ
Comments
HuhD
So HD radio is to simulcast normal radio and 'mp3' level compression signals? so you get digital, but in worse quality than FM if you prefer, (plus they don't seem to even advertise it much) and then you wonder why it doesn't take off?Duh
HD Radio won't compete with sat/terrestrial radio until it becomes integrated with new car head units on a large scale.With car mfr's starting to put things like hard drive mp3 players and ipod/aux jacks into their new models, why would anyone bother with HD radio?
It doesn't have the selection of sat radio and it lacks the quality of in-dash mp3 players.
XM/Sirius
In the US paid satellite services XM and Sirius are the main competition to HD Radio. Both of these services combined have over 16 million subscribers. 16 million people are willing to pay for content (some do get it free with car purchase) and only 330,000 people want to pay the one time cost of buying a HD reciever. Offer content and they will come.be patient...
It'll happen. It just takes a while. It'll probably take another 5-10 years to really take off.little orphan annie
I cant wait until the whole family can gather around the radio and listen to the adventures of little orphan annie in HD.....oh wait its 2008.Still waiting for XM and Sirius merger to finish.
A funny technology
When our large AM news station, KNX, moved into its new -high tech studios a couple of years back they dropped their stereo broadcast (yes -- stereo AM, who'd have thought it?) and went HD. The result to the listener is an annoying hiss like the station's being broadcast from a budget 1970's era cassette boombox. It goes away at night because AM broadcasters can't use the technology at night (too much interference). Its on FM as well, rumor has it -- you will lose SCA (not a great loss for everyone) and you're probably lose stereo (that's not right...).I thought I might have to buy a receiver when our commercial classical station was switched out for country and western, being relegated to AM (!) and HD. That's when I discovered that to all intents and purposes HD radios don't exist.
You might as well use streaming. Its more reliable.
Reception Issues
Reception issues are definitely an issue with HD Radio but there are things that one can do to improve reception.Check out http://www.radiosherpa.blogspot.com/
for some hints.
Why do digital radios use 5x as much power as anaolgue?
Why do digital radios use 5x as much power as anaolgue?My wind up radio that does both Analogue and DAB runs 5x longer on Analogue than DAB, why?
Why does digital use more power?
Doesn't that make DAB BAD for CO2?
Too much can be useless
And HD radio falls squarely into that trap. Vendors are trying to push 7.1 surround, soon we'll probably see 9.1 or more, and I am still happy with my TV hooked to my stereo.Sure, I know 5.1 is better, but I'm in no hurry to get there.
HD radio seems like even more of an albatross. At least with Dolby, I know there is an improvement. With radio, I fail to see just why I should be excited. If there isn't any improvement in sound, why bother ? And even if there is, why care ? It's radio, meaning I listen to it when I have nothing better to do. What I get now is perfectly enough for me. I do not need another newfangled gadgety thingamajig just for the sake of it.
HD Radio is a Farce!
HD/IBOC jams our airways and simply doesn't work, with maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the coverage of analog, with severe dropouts and adjacent-channel interference. Digital radio is failing all around the word (UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, and now DRM for shortwave). After 2 - 3 years, consumers have zero interest in HD Radio:http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/