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HD4?

D

dannykewl

I noticed WKSU now has an HD4 channel - BBC World Service as it's airing right now. I always read that 3 HD subs are the limit, so HD1, 2 and 3. hen did this change? Or is not HD1 classified as a sub?
 
Oops, I should have replied to this last night...Radio-Info's Tom Taylor picked this up and reported it as new.

No, WKSU-HD4 showed up way back in June:

http://ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/new-and-followup/

May I quote myself? Sure.

Kent State University’s WKSU/89.7 has announced the addition of the new HD4 “WKSU News Channel” stream to nearly all of the station’s full power transmitters.''
Click to expand...

I think it was the second HD4 - one of CBS' FM sports stations back east (WJFK/Washington, I think) had the first.

IIRC, HD4 was made possible by newer encoding equipment on the station end.
 
OK, thanks, I was assuming there was a "hard" limit, surprised my little Insignia portable even recognized an HD4 stream. That's good that new encoding techniques will allow more subs, but bad in the way, as it was pointed out with the bandwidth issue and all the subs getting crappier the more that are added. I know digital TV is like that. As for quality, hard to tell on my end, as the HD subs were coming and going, as the Insignia isn't that sensitive and I'm out near West Park.
 
Yes HD4 is possible. It's all about how they break up the bits ... Each station broadcasting in HD gets a limited amount of bandwidth for the digital..

From Wiki:

"The FM hybrid digital/analog mode offers four options which can carry approximately 100, 112, 125, or 150 kbit/s of lossy data depending upon the station manager's power budget and/or desired range of signal. The HD Radio also provides several pure digital modes with up to 300 kbit/s bitrate, and enabling extra features like surround sound. Like AM, pure digital FM provides a "fallback" condition where it reverts to a more-robust 25 kbit/s signal."

So they can take their say 100kbps of bandwidth and divide it up as they see fit... Mind you at lower bit rates (more channels) the lower the audio quality but for something such as an AM rebroadcast of mono programming it works..
 
Plus the Beeb is an almost exclusively spoken-word format, so WKSU can run it under 89.7-4's lower bandwidth without much problems. It would be a far different story if "Folk City" was on that subchannel.
 
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