Is HD Radio Dead?

[picopir8]

I was reading a thread at http://www.orbitcast.com (satellite radio blog) and there was an entry questioning if HD radio is dead.  That site has an obvious anti-terrestrial radio bias so I was wondering what people here feel about it.

Perhaps it is just bad timing but HD tuners are not selling well at all.  Most people are opting to listen to portable media players while at work/school/on the go.  They then connect these devices to their car stereos or listen to MP3 CDs.  A smaller, yet segnificant group of people have moved to satellite radio since it offers commercial free music channels tailored to specific tastes, and content that is not available from terrestrial radio.

HD radio tuners start at around $250 which is not to pricey when compared to many personal media players or sattelite radio w/ subscription. In order to buy one, the general public must see a need or benefit.  At this point there does not seem to be one. FM radio works fine in the car, any gain in audio quality is likely to be lost in the noise generated by the car. At home, people have access to their personal music collections, FM radio, music channels on satellite/cable, internet radio stations, etc.  Many of which have quality on par or better than HD radio.

HD radio appears to be too little too late.  I am sure it will not fail though.  It will replace FM just as FM has replaced AM.  However, it will not recapture any of the lost listeners.

[kevbeck122]

I tried an HD Radio in my car for awhile.  I got it at Crutchfield for $175 plus there was a $25 mail in rebate.  The sound wasn't very impressive to me, except for the AM stations.  FM sounded a little better, but AM sounded a lot better.  I guess the cool thing I see about it is the multicasting, though there weren't many stations multicasting when I had mine.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so I just sent the radio back to Crutchfield.

[waterhead]

I guess you missed my post about WUWM's new digital broadcast:

WUWM HD Radio

Paul

[John L]

From information I gathered, I am to believe that HD radio requires a lot more bandwidth as compared to the analog FM signal. Thus the FM band is not big enough to support several digital FM stations.  So I am not sure what is going to happen.  There are very few if any digital FM receivers in the market for the many FM stations transmitting already a HD signal that hardly anyone listens to.

As a FM DXer distant stations normally heard next to a local station have been wiped out by white noise. The wihite noise is the transmission of HD FM signal.  WMYX analog transmits on 99.1, their digital is on 98.9 and 99.3.

-John L.

[picopir8]

It is more difficult to pick up distant channels and once everything goes digital it will be even worse.  Get too far from the transmitter, the signal to noise ratio will drop below a certain level, and the station will just disappear.  That will suck for those who listen to the radio while on road trips.  With analog we can at least find a station and listen until the noise gets unbearable.  HD radio wont give you that option.

I can see HD radio working great in places like the UK where they have national radio stations.  Then if you get too far from one transmitter, you will pick up another.  However, we dont really have national networks broadcasting the same content nation wide anymore.

I went down to KY one year and listened to the Packer game all the way to Indianapolis.  I wonder how much longer that will be possible.  Though I now have Sirius which broadcasts all NFL games so I wont be affected if the range of terrestrial radio drops.

[kevbeck122]

I don't think analog signals are going away anytime soon.  With the radio I had, if the digital signal got too low, it switched to analog right away.  It doesn't go back to digital until it can lock the signal in.  Some stations' analog broadcasts aren't synced with their digital, so once it switches the analog is a few seconds ahead (I noticed this on WKLH and WRIT).

[Bebop]

Most of the auto companies are now advertising iPod or satellite option. It not a good sign if auto companies are ignoring HD radio.