Apple to jump on the HD train?

[Carmine5]

"I can't even play one of my own mp3 files from a file off the network storage on my wife's MacIntosh without it being sucked into the itunes directory. "

That's because your ITunes is set to auto organize and copy the file to the "Itunes Library." This can be changed in preferences and has nothing to do with Apple spying on your collection. It's based on the assumption that some people would like to consolidate copies of their files into one single library that can be easily managed and located through ITunes.

One disclaimer here: I am no great fan of the iTunes software or ecosystem. I find it clunky to use and oppressively restrictive. But the software has a good multi-format encoder and it's free.

c5

 

[Mike Walker]

I'd say the INSIGNIA HD01 is the device that has proven HD CAN work just dine and fandy in a portable device, and work for many hours. I've never actually used a Zune HD, but comparisons between it's tuner and the one in the Insignia conclude that the Zune's sensitivity is poorer, and battery life worse.

I have heard that the Zune produces a nice 720p picture on your HDTV, with the requisite adapter. But I have ZERO interest in being locked-into the Zune marketplace, or whatever they call it. Why would i, when Rhapsody on my Sandisk player gives me access to tens of millions of songs for 14.99 a month...and they sound great?

 

[Carmine5]

Now here's where FMeXtra missed the boat.

If DRE could have added an iTunes tagging component to it and convinced Apple to install a receiver in every iPhone and iPod, FMeXtra could well have become the dominate digital standard for FM regardless of what the FCC wanted.

c5

 

[tomservo]

The Insignia has proven that HD can work, and work well on a portable. I get amazing reception at my deep-fringe location on my Insignia. Perhaps more important for now, it uses DSP processing to vastly improve the reception of analog FM Stereo.

With the antenna/cable strung up over my car's rearview mirror, it actually gives the OEM stereo a run for its money, sensitivity wise (or it did when the car's amplified antenna still worked.)

But I wish they'd use that gee-whiz DSP to mitigate the terrible, terrible intermod the HD01 suffers from.

I live in an area with few locals and nothing over 50 kW. And those locals aren't even really local as the towers are all out of line of sight from the town… And this is about the only area where I don't get harmful intermod on analog signals with this unit.

The trip up I-55 to Memphis is about 100 miles and there's only one other small stretch of that rural highway where the radio has no major intermod issues (near Senatobia, where there are no more local FMs). The problem is, even if I wanna listen to a local, the signal is almost useless through the whole trip because there's always an FM tower within 20 miles or so, which is apparently close enough to really screw up reception with the Insignia.

This makes analog reception in pretty much any city of size (like Memphis) impossible because FM transmitters are scattered throughout. But even in smaller towns like Batesville (pop 4,000 and change) it's a problem because there's 5 FM station towers all clustered outside of town, from class A to C and they wreak havoc as I pass through the area on the highway. They're not even line of sight, for goodness sakes, but they really muck things up!

Oddly, HD reception in these areas is never subject to intermod interference. I wonder why that is?

Between that and the buttons issue (the seek up button often selects the menu, for some reason, or seeks down instead of up, or all of them just plain don't respond) it's a frustrating unit to own. Which is a shame, because it has so much potential. I'm getting much better battery life out of it than I expected, for example, and it does do well with HD signals. There's just no way this could be my primary radio because it's so buggy. Oh, and why is the RDS implementation SO BAD? It never decodes anything right if there's scrolling text in the station name field, which makes it impossible to DX with RDS. :-[

(PS: Mike, you'll appreciate this, at least: I got a brief HD decode of KTEG-HD from Santa Fe, NM via e-skip for several hours yesterday. ~980 miles, not bad!)

 

[nd2023]

Zach, you have a bad unit. Return it and get another one. I have an Insignia portable HD radio and I don't have those overload issues. I can stand under the tower of a 100 watt 90.3 and pick up 89.9 and 90.7. The HD performance isn't good, but that's because HD is flawed, not the radio. I used it during this week's e-skips and found the RDS to be really helpful. I even picked up a couple e-skip stations in HD.

 

[Mike Walker]

I think Nick may be right (about a bad unit), Zach. I live in an area where poorly designed portables suffer terribly from overload. I'm in the deep fringes of every FM statiion except WKBC-FM, with 100,000 watts and a very tall tower right on top of me. It's astounding how strong their signal is at my house, and how much havoc it can wreak. And yet they don't cause any overload or "intermod" on my HD01.

I suspect that a good number of initial HD01s were defective in one area or another. My first one wouldn't take a charge on the battery. No matter how long I left it plugged in, the "charging" indicator never went out. But after a trip to Best Buy, and a swap, I'm trouble-free.

Being a guy who keeps and uses radios a LONG time, I'm a little disturbed by the lack of a user-replacable battery on the thing!

Nick and I may be wrong. I don't know about Nick, but I've never used my radio in a situation with multiple HUGE FM's breathing down it's little neck. But usually if a portable is going to overload, it'll do it at my house. Lots of well-respected portables supposedly free of these problems yell "uncle" at my place.

Yes, that HD skip was quite interesting. I have yet to hear any HD skip, on AM or FM.

 

[tomservo]

I'm outside the store return window, unfortunately. I've posted here previously about some of these issues and was told that the intermod is normal for this model.

 

[Mike Walker]

Well, I've been told HD won't work in a deep-fringe area, and won't work on a portable. Lots of "wisdom" isn't very wise! I disprove both claims every time I turn on my Insignia.

Good luck!

 

[jhardis]

The Internet is full of half-truths that people don't bother to check out...

I'm only going to leave one message on this subject -- here, because this is where I left the original message.

It never ceases to amaze me what of what I write attracts attention, and what doesn't. This post has, within two days, been cross-posted all over tarnation in a context that implies bad motives on the part of IBOC promoters. That's not how the message started out.

There is a subculture among Apple groupies that watches for publication of Apple's patents and patent applications, hoping to glean insight on future products. (See, e.g., http://www.patentlyapple.com/.) Just because they read this one expansively doesn't make it an IBOC conspiracy.

Furthermore, "accessory" doesn't necessarily mean an add-on dongle for the PMD. It also means a table-top radio, or even conceivably a well-equipped automobile.

- Jonathan


P.S. -- I myself pointed out the synergy between iPods and IBOC radio in FCC comment five years ago (July 14, 2005).

 

[pocket-radio]

Well, I've been told HD won't work in a deep-fringe area, and won't work on a portable. Lots of "wisdom" isn't very wise! I disprove both claims every time I turn on my Insignia.

Good luck!

It works so long as you don't move! HD TV works great too.. But radio is designed to be mobile..

 

[tomservo]

It works so long as you don't move! HD TV works great too.. But radio is designed to be mobile..

From the Memphis FMs, I get 90%+ solid decoding of HD from most stations out to ~25 miles, and standing still out to about ~35 miles. That more than covers the entire population center, even if the digital signals aren't totally solid through the entire county-line-designated metro area. But the truth is, the analog signal isn't perfect that far out, either.

Mind you, this is with what is apparently a defective HD01 portable, with the cassette tape adapter/antenna wire strung up around the rearview mirror. I'm sure a competently installed HD receiver attached to a proper working antenna would bring those numbers up significantly, and possibly reduce dropouts.

As much as I hate AM HD, the FM HD system seems to work okay as is, even while moving in a car. It has some serious technical issues, but it works well enough within the primary service area of a station. And that's where the advertising sells.

Just because WMC-FM's 260,000 watt signal reaches nearly 80 miles out, it doesn't mean they're selling advertising or even caring about listeners in those far flung locales.