Drastic measures must be taken to help HD take off...some suggestions

[oasisrulz]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

 

[qtpieislit]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

And you will have to buy health insurance......And you will have to pay a special excise tax on all soda.....And you will have to pay a fine if you eat salt.......And you will have to offer your first born for sacrifice.....And.....

 

[qtpieislit]

What if they built it and no one came? Oh wait,..... That's already happened.

 

[oasisrulz]

And you will have to buy health insurance......And you will have to pay a special excise tax on all soda.....And you will have to pay a fine if you eat salt.......And you will have to offer your first born for sacrifice.....And.....

Didn't Osama and NUTter take care of that already


What if they built it and no one came? Oh wait,..... That's already happened.

I think that is because the signal goes nowhere, sets are expensive and the programming is still shaky and on and off most of the time.... I almost gave up today in the CH Mall, trying to pull in RFF/OGL and BEB's HD-2's, which are the 3 HD's I listen to most of the time...btw does tropo effect the HD-2's the same as the T-FM's

 

[Tom Wells]

Round tires will no longer be permitted.
Instead, a slightly elongated hyper-elliptoid shape designed to save gasoline will be required.
It will shake your car apart in 80,000 miles, and itself, it only lasts 40,000 miles, so you only need to change them once in the life of the car.
They'll save a lot of gas, because you won't want to drive a car that shakes that much.

Is anyone buying into this? I see no difference.

What else have you got? Got any ideas for something that actually works?

Besides "All Must" ?

 

[Tom Wells]

No, No round tires at all. Illegal.
Newer models of vehicles will have active anti-shake technology. You DO want a new car, don't you?
They go so well with the vibrate-y tires, you know. You almost won't notice the throbbing.

What's that? No throbbing? How Quaint. What a fossil! You really want that old-school smooth ride?
Get lost grandpa, and take your 20 inch rims with you.

 

[Dancerev889]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

I'd say for the last 5 years I agree with what you are saying at least the fact that the FCC needs to step in and have manufacturers make HD radio the standard receiver, especially in car radios because thats where most people are listening to radio anyway. However, they have to fix the IBOC and stations need to be able to provide quality programming. Too many stations can not do that on the regular channel. HD is going if its not almost there now the way of technology that was a good idea but a little too late

 

[imhomerjay]

Um, no. The FCC needs to be nothing more than a traffic cop, not given more authority like telling auto manufacturers what standard" they must abide by. There is zero reason for forcing people to go with so-called HD radio.

 

[athegymtday]

Seriously,
I am in the process of replacing a radio in my 2004 Nissan one channel is out, and the speaker checks out good and a few other things on the radio no longer work. I have an HD radio in my other car and hate the way I can't disable HD especially AM when I am in a fringe area FM stations (a fringe area is like 5 miles away from Roxboro in most cases), Then again most HD signals are like a flee fart. I know the FCC is granting most stations a power increase but even with all of that, do I bother buying a radio that is HD capable just in case HD sticks around or do I go with a standard radio with IPOD input SD card reading USB port with GPS and blue tooth capability or better yet I think I will dust off my old test equipment, troubleshoot the broken radio and then discover I don't have any source for parts?

What did he say?

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

HD radio should be dealt with by giving it two in the hat.

No, your scheme won't work. It would result in the total ruination of the radio business. You don't triple the number of available signals in a stagnant economy and pretend there won't be any consequences.

 

[mmnassour]

Nobody besides Ibiquity and it's cohorts wants it.

The end.

 

[InSearchOfGear]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

I agree the commision should put some pressure on receiver manufacurers to start producing HD capable radios. And, if they don't take the hint, then mandate it. BUT, the recent power increase for HD hasn't solved it's issues, I would wait until the digital signals have coverage parity with their anolog counterparts. The FCC's intervention in making FM viable after almost 3 decades of little to no penetration is a matter of record. It worked, and it would've worked for AM Stereo as well had they chosen a technical specification and done the same. The only sticking point, and someone rightfully brought this up in another post, is forcing unique programming on the side channels. Duplication of AM programming, especially on bad facilities would actually be a plus and help grow the new platform. If they get the bugs out, resolve the coverage issues and get the receivers out there, at some point in the future it will have a chance. To expect analog broadcasting to last forever is not realistic in the digital age, but I don't like the idea of a cut-off date for analog in the mold of HDTV. Some listeners, who are not in any position to update their hardware, would be left with zero service.

I invite all opposing points of view.

 

[nmoore6676]

HD radio should be dealt in the same way HD-TV was. The Standard receiver should be eliminated in a few years and all must buy an HD radio because standard radio as we know it now will be discontinued. This would force everyone to either buy a new HD radio or do without or get the Government coupon to receive one for free. Then all stations must provide at least 3 HD channels with full power the same as the main signal....and have a good variety of formats.....Is anyone listening or buying into this......it might work at that....

I might agree with you in regards to the AM band. Having a mish mash of mixed signals and the resulting interference is not helping the band. However others have brought up that forcing people to buy new receivers is not a good thing and in the case of FM I have to say it is totally unnecessary. FM sounds good and there is no compelling reason to change it. If stations want to do HD and sub channels then they do it at their own risk. If they aren't going to do a drop dead date for AM radio then the HD system should be abandoned completely.

I suppose that requiring receivers to have HD capability would be reasonable however if the medium dies then it leaves a bunch of expensive receivers that would no longer be be fully functional. Then if they do require that what if someone wants to also require W-Fi capable reception as well, the price goes up again. They had good reason way back to require TV receivers to have UHF tuners and more recently Digital tuners. They never mandated stereo on FM radios though, that one was totally consumer driven as I have to hope the demand for HD radios should also be .

There were some technical justifications for converting TV, especially if high resolution pictures are to be transmitted. However the biggest reason was that big chunk of spectrum coveted by the cell phone and wi-fi carriers. Digital radio doesn't free up any usable spectrum and in fact clutters the existing frequencies.

 

[kenglish]

How about making all new radios (at least anything that can call itself "Digital") Software Defined radios (SDR) and make them so that the next generation (and the next, and the next, and the next) of software and firmware can be downloaded to them. Make them "infinitely upgradeable".

Then, no matter what systems and formats come along, the hardware doesn't become obsolete. These new devices are costly. No one can afford to just keep buying new radio and TV receiving hardware, and tossing the old stuff in the garage.

 

[mmnassour]

Simple....end the manufacture of analog receivers, and any commission Ibiquity gets on the manufacture of digital receivers.

Within 24 months you'll be at 50%+ penetration.

And then people will see it doesn't work.

 

[LynnW]

If the government pulled that crap on me, I guarantee I would not be buying any damn Iboc radios. I might buy a satellite radio. I might buy a Slacker radio (I'm listening to that now on the computer). I might buy a smart phone and stream music. I might even buy an MP3 player. But I sure as hell wouldn't buy a digital radio. And I wouldn't be the only one.

 

[KB1OKL]

HD is deader than a door nail, no government edict is going to save it.

 

[Carmine5]

Over at RBR there is a nice summery of the NAB show. But what I especially appreciated was this comment on HD Radio:

"Creativity, though, is still lacking. Come on guys, now that the balance sheet is looking better, how about giving some enthusiastic young programmers a chance to strut their stuff on HD2 (or 3 or 4) channels, along with Web streaming to find new ways to interest the youngest demos in what radio has to offer? If you give lip service to HD Radio, how about some financial backing as well? [something I've chided HDR-boosters for in the past] You can’t harvest new listeners unless you plant some seeds."

Having commandeered my friend's HD receiver in his new VW, I auditioned the HD-2/3 stations in the L.A. area. To say the content on these side channels is underwhelming is being charitable.

http://www.rbr.com/media-news/23441.html

I think it was H.L. Mencken who said that "there's no there, there." This statement truly applies to HD sub-channel programming. Technical problems aside, those broadcasters who have invested heavily in HDR technology have failed to make a case for it in terms of programming.

c5

 

[d21ofnj]

Well, finally HD did a smart move. I heard the first Zune HD commercial with their signature HD Radio PSA.

 

[Carmine5]

Over at the LA Radio website, Bob Fox, who is a former station owner and now consultant, wrote an essay on digital radio. Although he mostly writes about the "other" digital radio, web radio, he made some interesting observations about HDR:

"...AM radio doesn’t seem to have a future in HD. Further, there aren’t that many HD radios that have been sold. At this time, the number is under 2 million and there are over 600 million analog radios out there. Also, keep in mind that HD radio does not do for the listener what color tv did for the viewer in transitioning from black and white tv. Most listeners cannot discern the difference between a well modulated analog fm signal and an HD signal."

http://www.laradio.com/

So when you consider the task of having to seduce consumers into replacing those 600 million analog radios with a radio that doesn't sound much different from what they had it isn't hard to come to the conclusion that HD Radio is nearly dead. Two million HD radios sold with only 598 million to go.

I can't imagine what drastic measure would work in helping HD Radio take off beyond a give-a-way or a gun to the head.

c5