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HD a bust at the CES in Vegas

J

JohnnyElectron

Very disappointed with the lack of anybody at iBiquity that wanted to talk about HD radio at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Got two really pretty color glossy folders and a two-page printout. Nobody knowledgeable at the booth. Color glossy mentions all the car BRANDS, but did not give specific models or quantities of models (says Ford, but how many models?). Only thing interesting at all is claim about how you can see weather forecasts on your car receiver as well as instant traffic updates on a couple of GPS models - look like 'simulated photos' - not real-life units in actual operation.
Oh, and it did show Audiovox with THREE, yes THREE new HD radios - one is a clone of the Best Buy Insignia FM-only HD portable rev B; the other two look like they each have a speaker in them (only 1 in one and maybe 2 on the other). Did not say if AM-HD was included, or even model numbers, just 3 photos.
No energy; no excitement. That's HD radio, January 2013.
 
Yes, All they wanted to do was give you the hand-outs and send you on your way! Maybe the 'people who know their stuff' were off at some other booth or eating chow then, but a lethargic disappointment. OLED TV's, now that was a different story!
 
I give the entire HD debacle 24 months max before people get wise, especially the stations shelling out the expense of licensing, equipment and utilities (electric) for a signal nobody cares about.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I give the entire HD debacle 24 months max before people get wise, especially the stations shelling out the expense of licensing, equipment and utilities (electric) for a signal nobody cares about.
Click to expand...

If iBiquity wasn't out there in force promoting the system, it is a sign that they have already given up. I sort of figured that out when they let their flagship station - WOAI - turn off HD. It hasn't been back for months.
 
Wish that were true, Bill - unfortunately I see a trajectory for HD which differs somewhat. The marginally functional, interference-spewing AM flavor will continue to wither rapidly - I would bet that in three to five years the number of HD -AMs will be limited to 100 to 130, mostly 1-A NDA clears whose owners have an ego/career investment. As is the case today, literally no digital listeners will exist for these AMs other than widely-scattered HF fans and broadcast engineers. The FM will cease growth for all practical intents and purposes, with a static number of originating stations who will keep the system going for five to ten years because of special-case multicasting needs (e.g., NPR.)

Web platforms like CC's iHeart and TuneIn will increasingly obsolete HD on FM.

HD will be present in cars, mostly as an unused and ignored function built into radios. The prospect that a significant number of broadcast radio listeners will be listening to digital streams in the future, AM or FM, via IBOC is practically nonexistent.
 
Savage said:
The prospect that a significant number of broadcast radio listeners will be listening to digital streams in the future, AM or FM, via IBOC is practically nonexistent.
Click to expand...

I cannot quote chapter or verse re: HD usage in vehicles but I will say it is ALL I listen to in my car. But it isn't because HD is "better" than analog FM but rather because the CONTENT I want to listen to exists only on HD-2.

After being disappointed by AM (reception issues) and analog FM (lack of content) I have found a home on HD-2 signals. Three of my favorite stations are broadcasting the music I want to hear either as subs or as simulcasts and I am enjoying radio like I haven't in years.

Should HD eventually go away, or they discontinue my personal content favs, I will resort to my MP3 player or my in-car DVD-audio player and, once again, be done with broadcast radio. Until then, however, viva la HD! (FM version anyway) ;D
 
Some of my favorite stations are HD-2 subchannels. Unfortunately, they're in other markets, so I can't hear them on my HD radio. I just like HD2 stations because there are no commercials, but there's a reason why there are no commercials on HD2s.
 
Nick said:
Some of my favorite stations are HD-2 subchannels. Unfortunately, they're in other markets, so I can't hear them on my HD radio. I just like HD2 stations because there are no commercials, but there's a reason why there are no commercials on HD2s.
Click to expand...

Plenty of commercials on HD-2 here, I don't care. At least the format I want is available. But the HD-2 dropouts are enormously annoying.
 
landtuna said:
Savage said:
The prospect that a significant number of broadcast radio listeners will be listening to digital streams in the future, AM or FM, via IBOC is practically nonexistent.
Click to expand...

I cannot quote chapter or verse re: HD usage in vehicles but I will say it is ALL I listen to in my car. But it isn't because HD is "better" than analog FM but rather because the CONTENT I want to listen to exists only on HD-2.

After being disappointed by AM (reception issues) and analog FM (lack of content) I have found a home on HD-2 signals. Three of my favorite stations are broadcasting the music I want to hear either as subs or as simulcasts and I am enjoying radio like I haven't in years.

Should HD eventually go away, or they discontinue my personal content favs, I will resort to my MP3 player or my in-car DVD-audio player and, once again, be done with broadcast radio. Until then, however, viva la HD! (FM version anyway) ;D
Click to expand...

If content is what you guys want, why don't you subscribe to Satellite? You'll never go back to OTO FM especially HD with it's drop outs. You can find just about ANYTHING you want on Satrad with no commercials usually.
 
One reason for not is that Satrad audio quality is generally below that of a mediocre FM station, especially if you have the Sirius system. There have also been new complaints about XM as well.
 
KB1OKL said:
If content is what you guys want, why don't you subscribe to Satellite? You'll never go back to OTO FM especially HD with it's drop outs. You can find just about ANYTHING you want on Satrad with no commercials usually.
Click to expand...

I've got satellite, too. I go back and forth. I notice that the bandwidth to channels I DON'T want on satllite is great, the sound is great. On other channels, highly compressed and low bandwidth. So they are robbing some channels to get more bandwidth for others. NOT an ideal situation for listeners to those formats.
 
KB1OKL said:
If content is what you guys want, why don't you subscribe to Satellite? You'll never go back to OTO FM especially HD with it's drop outs. You can find just about ANYTHING you want on Satrad with no commercials usually.
Click to expand...

Over the past year and a half I have had two new cars each of which had freebie sat radio. I tried listening but never found a format I enjoyed as much as the three HD-2's now broadcasting in Phoenix.

Perhaps if I spend a significant amount of time in my car I would appreciate sat radio more but I don't so I won't.

My experience may be different due to the geography of my market but I do not have drop-out issues. A trip through the high-rise section of downtown last night was accomplished with nary a drop-out or stumble.

Right after I got the car I did experience drop-outs at one specific intersection but as I never go through that intersection it is no longer an issue. I have not found another area where I can generate an HD drop-out. I have been as far away from the antenna site as 60 miles and still suffer no loss of signal.
 
mmnassour said:
One reason for not is that Satrad audio quality is generally below that of a mediocre FM station, especially if you have the Sirius system. There have also been new complaints about XM as well.
Click to expand...

I think that's an insult to mediocre FM stations all across this fruited plain. :D

Sirius and XM both sound worse than AM HD, worse than Real Audio circa 1994. Their best channels make FM HD sound like it's coming off a bleedin' CD, for goodness sakes. Satellite's poor sound quality is why I cancelled my subscription years ago (that and they deleted a dozen channels that I listened to after the merger.)

Back in ye olden days before XM got in the sports race and picked up the MLB, the sound quality had balanced out nicely and actually sounded better than FM HD radio on selected channels, then they added 20 channels of lo-fi sports and it all went to hell.

They did a free preview before Christmas and I dug out my old radio and was re-reminded of just how bad it sounds. In this day and age of high fidelity digital audio, good quality car stereos and 'audio anywhere' from smartphones with high speed internet, SiriusXM sounds like a throwback relic to a time when technology was still run by deaf engineers who trusted their equations more than their ears. It's an abomination to audio quality and, post-merger, to anyone who like diversity in their music.

(end rant)
 
Zach said:
mmnassour said:
One reason for not is that Satrad audio quality is generally below that of a mediocre FM station, especially if you have the Sirius system. There have also been new complaints about XM as well.
Click to expand...

I think that's an insult to mediocre FM stations all across this fruited plain. :D

Sirius and XM both sound worse than AM HD, worse than Real Audio circa 1994. Their best channels make FM HD sound like it's coming off a bleedin' CD, for goodness sakes. Satellite's poor sound quality is why I cancelled my subscription years ago (that and they deleted a dozen channels that I listened to after the merger.)

Back in ye olden days before XM got in the sports race and picked up the MLB, the sound quality had balanced out nicely and actually sounded better than FM HD radio on selected channels, then they added 20 channels of lo-fi sports and it all went to hell.

They did a free preview before Christmas and I dug out my old radio and was re-reminded of just how bad it sounds. In this day and age of high fidelity digital audio, good quality car stereos and 'audio anywhere' from smartphones with high speed internet, SiriusXM sounds like a throwback relic to a time when technology was still run by deaf engineers who trusted their equations more than their ears. It's an abomination to audio quality and, post-merger, to anyone who like diversity in their music.

(end rant)
Click to expand...

The sound on satrad has gotten better lately it was mono for a while but no more. A good FM station does sound better but who really cares in a car anyway... and especially who cares when all you hear is the same old classic rock tune that was burned out in 1983 from excessive air play? I'll take quality programming over a marginal increase in quality sound in a car.
 
Commercial FM stations have better frequency responses, but I will not tolerate a VU meter that rarely drops below 98%.
 
Likewise - a VU meter that never drops below 98% on a damn CD - even the 'old school' artists, like Paul Simon, who had a recent CD with balls to the walls processing and next to nothing dynamic range. The only artist that "gets it" is Neil Young - he actually records on an analog multitrack and doesn't process the living crap out of his recordings. In fact, Neil was working with fellow analog vinyl nut, Steve Jobs, to make a high-quality "analog vinyl replacer" that ate-up tons of memory, and would download to your device overnight, but was super high quality - unfortuanately, that project was likely shelved with his passing.

XM Radio sounded damn good 10 years ago - now music sounds like crap on all but 4 channels, and Sirius is just a plain bad 'dial-up' 16k swirly-sounding MP3 at best in my newer Chrysler.
Now my other Chrysler with the Stereo AM radio - that's another (good) story.

PS: Free 60 channels of XM for former subs the next 2 weeks so you can hear for yourself on your old equipment.
 
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