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GM No Longer Installing HD Radios
- Thread starter Barry
- Start date
My 2026 Honda Civic, 2026 Mazda CX-50, and 2024 VW Atlas are all satellite ready and have HD Radio.
Receivers with FM HD sometimes have subpar analog FM quality, based on my experience. In other words, the manufacturers cheapen out on the analog FM guts.
I'd much rather have a receiver that lacks FM HD but offers strong analog FM audio fidelity than one that offers FM HD but cuts corners on analog FM.
I'd much rather have a receiver that lacks FM HD but offers strong analog FM audio fidelity than one that offers FM HD but cuts corners on analog FM.
This is true of AM radios too (AM HD is a thing too). I find AM car radios, particularly older ones with a fairly generous bandwidth of 5 to 6 kHz, actually sound better overall.
Ever since HD became a thing, I think manufacturers have skimped on analog bandwidth, in part to avoid IBOC hash noises, but also to maximize digital bandwidth.
If all but a handful of stations were HD only, that probably wouldn't be much of a problem. But they're not, so the reduced bandwidths and extra IBOC noise really degrades the analog listening experience.
The radio in my 94 GMC truck, for example, must have a pretty good bandwidth on AM and FM, because tuning between the two, the AM and FM sound almost indistinguishable (the differing processing becomes the identifier), and when there's an AM Stereo signal (I have a small hobbyist-level C-QUAM-capable transmitter that I use for testing), the bandwidth opens up even wider because it's AMAX-compliant.
My 97 Ford truck is similar, but I don't know if the bandwidth widens on AM Stereo or not.
My other, newer cars sound progressively worse the newer they get.
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The radio in my 2024 Nissan has neither HD Radio nor satellite, but it does have RDS on FM.
The AM tuner is narrowband (about 5 kHz audio bandwidth), but has excellent sensitivity, no noticeable internally-generated RFI (unlike the 2018 VW I had previously), and a well-processed AM stations sound fine for voice and tolerable for music.
The FM tuner sounds very shrill -- I wonder if it's using 50 µS de-emphasis instead of 75 µS? And unfortunately just like previous Nissan radios I've had experience with, it responds to weaker FM signals crowded between stronger adjacent channels by narrowing the IF bandwidth to the point of causing objectionable distortion to the audio, almost to the extent of making speech unintelligible. Here in central NJ where there is a signal coming in on nearly FM channel, that severely limits its usability on anything less than local signals.
The AM tuner is narrowband (about 5 kHz audio bandwidth), but has excellent sensitivity, no noticeable internally-generated RFI (unlike the 2018 VW I had previously), and a well-processed AM stations sound fine for voice and tolerable for music.
The FM tuner sounds very shrill -- I wonder if it's using 50 µS de-emphasis instead of 75 µS? And unfortunately just like previous Nissan radios I've had experience with, it responds to weaker FM signals crowded between stronger adjacent channels by narrowing the IF bandwidth to the point of causing objectionable distortion to the audio, almost to the extent of making speech unintelligible. Here in central NJ where there is a signal coming in on nearly FM channel, that severely limits its usability on anything less than local signals.
That is absolutely interesting
With all due respect how would a blind person know where to find the sub channel.
And also are these sub channels still around on TV or was that back in the analog days.
It kind of reminds me of Wisconsin public radio's use of SCA feeds which were available to the blind but they had to have a special radio to get it and I think it only picked up three channels.
I was talking about some TV subchannels broadcasting the feeds of radio reading services for the blind. I don't know what feed IPTV's tv subchannel uses but someone could probably email them and find out.
Please forgive me but how on earth would a blind person be able to access it on a TV.
Many folks who are blind would need their TV to be setup with accessibility settings turned on before it comes into their house.
Not everyone is lucky to have a caregiver or a family member or friend to help set it up.
I think you're getting confused by the word "subchannel". It is a regular TV channel. There is nothing extra a blind person needs to do to find it. They access the TV channel same way a sighted person would. They hook up the antenna to the tv, then turn on the tv and use the remote to change the channel. @ted chittenden or other blind users here might be able to explain whether or not voice commands setup is able to be done by a phone app or something. There might also be online stores that sell TVs with those options automatically turned on for blind and low vision people.
Note that most blind people aren't totally blind. They can navigate their way around an interface with the aid of high magnification and high contrast.
In the analog TV era, the second audio program (SAP) of PBS and other public TV stations often carried reading services for the blind. And sometimes on commercial networks SAP would provide additional descriptive narration to aid blind people in understanding what's going on in a TV show.
In the analog TV era, the second audio program (SAP) of PBS and other public TV stations often carried reading services for the blind. And sometimes on commercial networks SAP would provide additional descriptive narration to aid blind people in understanding what's going on in a TV show.
I have a 2025 Mazda CX-50 Turbo with HD and SiriusXM. We pulled into the campus of Long Island University where there is a station at 88.1 and it is 0.25 miles from where we parked and I was able to tune in 88.3 WBGO which transmits in HD from 4 Times Square (around 20 miles away) without any interference and in HD. I believe the radio is made by Panasonic as I saw the FCC info in the car’s user guide. You cannot beat that for Adjacent Channel Selectivity. The sound quality in HD and Analog is phenomenal with my 12 speaker Bose Surround Speaker system, so I must disagree that radios that are equipped with HD have poor FM. The AM does lack Treble and there are no AM HD stations in the area to test.
My 2026 GM does have Apple Carplay and Android Auto but no HD.
I have subscribed to SXM since 2011 and frankly that's all I listen to. HD was interesting years ago when there were unique formats but they eroded away and anything unique is now on a translator stuffed into the FM dial.
And the AM band is barely usable.
As if there was anything left on it that's not also on an FM translator.
It seems the most prevalent use for HD today is to allow companies to feed more FM stations in a market than they would normally be allowed.
I have subscribed to SXM since 2011 and frankly that's all I listen to. HD was interesting years ago when there were unique formats but they eroded away and anything unique is now on a translator stuffed into the FM dial.
And the AM band is barely usable.
As if there was anything left on it that's not also on an FM translator.
It seems the most prevalent use for HD today is to allow companies to feed more FM stations in a market than they would normally be allowed.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, SXM is the easiest way to listen in a car. It's simple and straight forward. It's like using cable TV vs slogging through all kinds of apps and unwanted choices. And there's plenty of content ... much more than SXM.
If OTA stations would agree on a simple way to present all their streams, with car manufacturers adding a simple app to their infotainment systems, and fix issues like sound levels being all over the place, I think they'd leap ahead of SXM.
The importance of the user experience goes hand in hand with content.
If OTA stations would agree on a simple way to present all their streams, with car manufacturers adding a simple app to their infotainment systems, and fix issues like sound levels being all over the place, I think they'd leap ahead of SXM.
The importance of the user experience goes hand in hand with content.