Audio punishment

[qtpieislit]

If the quality of 5k analogue AM HD 1340/WHAT isn’t relentlessly incessant audio punishment, then I don’t know what is.

 

[Tom Wells]

Indeed, the HD in AM stands for the Hand of Death....or Hiss Distributor.

I remember fondly when the worst sound radio could make intentionally was "Continuous Soft Hits".

 

[hipporadio]

Living well out of the area—I can’t hear the 1340 analog signal, but then I doubt many in Philly can either. As for that AM HD "science fair project" and its circa-1997 RealAudio 2.0 “near-FM quality” audio... Most of those listeners are probably frequent visitors to the WHAT lobby :

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

The government has mandated all TV broadcasters go digital by 2009. Why? because they know it works fairly well without huge problems.

The government hasn't mandated any radio stations go digital. Why? Because they realize what a frase it is and how bad it is.

Your Friendly Terrestrial Radio Apologist
Friday Nights at 10pm on The Radio Racket
www.audio18.com and www.radioracket.com

 

[eatspaste]

The government has mandated all TV broadcasters go digital by 2009. Why? because they know it works fairly well without huge problems.

HDTV is a million times easier to sell because you can see it. The picture quality of HD TV is amazing. First rate movies on HBO and Showtime in HD, live sports on ESPN HD, HD PPV channels on cable, local programming in HD.

Walk into Circuit City or Best Buy (shutter in horror) and you see an entire wall of HD TV's - and it looks awesome! The mindless people buying stuff in the stores, not even thinking about buying a TV, go over and stare at them for 20 minutes. Where's HD radio? Well, if you go to Radio Shack, they're over there somewhere and you might be lucky enough to get the HD signals inside the store. Can't wait for Wal-Mart to start selling 'em!

The government hasn't mandated any radio stations go digital. Why? Because they realize what a frase it is and how bad it is.

HD radio isn't an easy sell because people don't seem to want to hear the same songs over and over in HD. There isn't a huge push of people running out to hear Delilah or After Midnight in HD! TV has cutting edge programming and movies while radio hasn't had an original idea in 10+ years. The people who should be all over cool technology like this are all pissed off at radio and have moved on (let's see, that would be the WDRE/Y100 crew, the old active rock WYSP audience, some smooth jazzers for good measure, classical music fans, hard core dance music listeners, kids who like uncensored hip hop, and people who like the countless little niches of music not found anywhere on the AM or FM dial).

Radio should be damn lucky that (a) XM and Sirius suck at marketing their products and services, (b) WiFi is still really limited to truck stops and hotels, and (c) it's doing just enough to keep thinking that a 2.8 12+ is a great share of the pie.

The day that KYW does HD is the day that I stop listening cold turkey. Hey KYW, I can get traffic reports on XM 212 and 6abctogo.com on my cell phone anytime I want, but I still check in on the 2's on my way to work (for now)!

 

[fredflintstone]

The day that KYW does HD is the day that I stop listening cold turkey. Hey KYW, I can get traffic reports on XM 212 and 6abctogo.com on my cell phone anytime I want, but I still check in on the 2's on my way to work (for now)!

Better go to Sirius for traffic reports. They get their traffic from Shadow Traffic - the same people who do traffic for KYW and most every other station in town, working from the same traffic center and using the same on-air traffic reporters.

XM gets their traffic data - not reports, data - from traffic.com's website. XM has announcers who don't know the area sitting in a studio in DC reading stuff for different cities off a computer screen. They don't have the traffic cams, like Shadow reporters, who are saying what they are seeing. They don't have all the mobile units and aircraft that Shadow has. Instead, traffic.com gets data from traffic sensors (when they are working), and selling traffic sensors to departments of transportation is traffic.com's main business. Of course, they haven't made a sale to NJ DOT, so if you cross the bridge with XM, also cross your fingers.

PS: What's a "frase?"

 

[8638]

The government has mandated all TV broadcasters go digital by 2009. Why? because they know it works fairly well without huge problems.

A little topic shift...from what I've heard/read, HDTV works pretty well if you live 25 miles or less from the TX. Those of us at a distance from the sticks are going to have real problems, unless the power levels are significantly increased. If you don't believe me, punch in my ZIP code (08721) at antennaweb.org, and see what digital reception is predicted....ZILCH! I currently get consistently good analog reception via rooftop antenna. When the changeover occurs, I am basically screwed. And no, I don't want to pay Comcast 60 bucks a month to watch TV. Thanks, FCC...always serving the public interest, yeah!

As for HD radio, the sideband hash on AM is simply unacceptable. I've not noticed the hash on the FM side. It seems that the principle of backward compatibility espoused by the FCC for many years (NTSC color interwoven into the B/W signal, allowing normal B/W reception; FM Stereo, AM Stereo) has been trashed. I suppose the electronics industry did need a boost to sell some new product.

 

[fredflintstone]

A little topic shift...from what I've heard/read, HDTV works pretty well if you live 25 miles or less from the TX. Those of us at a distance from the sticks are going to have real problems, unless the power levels are significantly increased. If you don't believe me, punch in my ZIP code (08721) at antennaweb.org, and see what digital reception is predicted....ZILCH! I currently get consistently good analog reception via rooftop antenna. When the changeover occurs, I am basically screwed. And no, I don't want to pay Comcast 60 bucks a month to watch TV. Thanks, FCC...always serving the public interest, yeah!

As for HD radio, the sideband hash on AM is simply unacceptable. I've not noticed the hash on the FM side. It seems that the principle of backward compatibility espoused by the FCC for many years (NTSC color interwoven into the B/W signal, allowing normal B/W reception; FM Stereo, AM Stereo) has been trashed. I suppose the electronics industry did need a boost to sell some new product.

I heard there were people still on watching terrestrial TV but I didn't believe it. What's even more surprising is someone with a computer and Internet access who only receives terrestrial TV. Luddites are generally luddites across the board. I hear there are also people still listening to LPs on systems with vacuum tubes, too. I used to work for a guy who insisted on using a Selectric typewriter to prepare copy.

I checked the antennaweb website. It does not accurately "predict" my HDTV reception. As with radio-locator.com, these are computer estimates and need to be taken with a grain of salt. If you are getting good off-air reception of the UHF channels now, you should be OK with HDTV once the switch occurs.

Comcast has a basic plan for people who only want terrestrial TV, which includes the HD channels. HD converters or receivers will only be needed for the off-the-air reception. Lower cost options are also available from Verizon FIOS, DirecTV and DishTV - any of which provide more channels (and better picture) for the buck than Comcast. Comcast is the most technically primitive (especially channels 1-99), so that might appeal to those who resist new technology.

Backward compatibility is why Windows is such a mess - crash prone and a resource hog. All so a handful of people can run some DOS program they won't part with. Backward compatibility is why the FCC adopted the grossly inferior RCA standard for color TV, which delayed the adoption of color TV for more than a decade. Well, backward compatibility and some well-placed bribes and exercise of political influence by David Sarnoff (the same SOB who delayed adoption of FM by almost three decades).

 

[qtpieislit]

Seriously, if in retrospect we overlook the limited total bandwidth of 42-50 Mhz, then we would have wound up with even greater limited allocated FM frequency positions and stuck with potentially even more monopolistic music media concentration, at an even earlier date. Oh wait, perhaps that would have set the stage for an earlier undercurrent desire for alternative media. Nevermind.

 

[8638]

A little topic shift...from what I've heard/read, HDTV works pretty well if you live 25 miles or less from the TX. Those of us at a distance from the sticks are going to have real problems, unless the power levels are significantly increased. If you don't believe me, punch in my ZIP code (08721) at antennaweb.org, and see what digital reception is predicted....ZILCH! I currently get consistently good analog reception via rooftop antenna. When the changeover occurs, I am basically screwed. And no, I don't want to pay Comcast 60 bucks a month to watch TV. Thanks, FCC...always serving the public interest, yeah!

As for HD radio, the sideband hash on AM is simply unacceptable. I've not noticed the hash on the FM side. It seems that the principle of backward compatibility espoused by the FCC for many years (NTSC color interwoven into the B/W signal, allowing normal B/W reception; FM Stereo, AM Stereo) has been trashed. I suppose the electronics industry did need a boost to sell some new product.

I heard there were people still on watching terrestrial TV but I didn't believe it. What's even more surprising is someone with a computer and Internet access who only receives terrestrial TV. Luddites are generally luddites across the board. I hear there are also people still listening to LPs on systems with vacuum tubes, too. I used to work for a guy who insisted on using a Selectric typewriter to prepare copy.

I checked the antennaweb website. It does not accurately "predict" my HDTV reception. As with radio-locator.com, these are computer estimates and need to be taken with a grain of salt. If you are getting good off-air reception of the UHF channels now, you should be OK with HDTV once the switch occurs.

Comcast has a basic plan for people who only want terrestrial TV, which includes the HD channels. HD converters or receivers will only be needed for the off-the-air reception. Lower cost options are also available from Verizon FIOS, DirecTV and DishTV - any of which provide more channels (and better picture) for the buck than Comcast. Comcast is the most technically primitive (especially channels 1-99), so that might appeal to those who resist new technology.

Backward compatibility is why Windows is such a mess - crash prone and a resource hog. All so a handful of people can run some DOS program they won't part with. Backward compatibility is why the FCC adopted the grossly inferior RCA standard for color TV, which delayed the adoption of color TV for more than a decade. Well, backward compatibility and some well-placed bribes and exercise of political influence by David Sarnoff (the same SOB who delayed adoption of FM by almost three decades).

Fred:

I'm as much of a techie as they come, I'm even an associate Certified Electronics Technician! Self taught in Windows (a poor excuse for an OS) and Mac (OS X....rocks!). I fired Comcast a few years ago after they banged me extra for the YES network (I'm in Central Jersey, and lots of NY transplants now live here, and need their Yankees!). Plus, they had a ground loop in their system that induced a 60 Hz hum into my audio when using my DVD player. Verizon isn't here yet, won't be until 2008. Besides, why should I have to pay to view commerical TV? I kinda like getting it free. I get good to excellent UHF reception here (WTXF is the best, WPSG and WYBE are the worst), so hopefully it will work ok. If you think that NTSC color is inferior, I don't know why you sing the praises of 8-VSB digital transmission. It isn't the best thing on the block.

I do agree w/you about Sarnoff and the FM band shift. He had a vested interest in keeping AM viable, what with all those RCA transmitters and all-American five receivers that they produced and held patents on. He really was a ruthless bastard who drove Maj. Armstrong to an early demise.