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PEW RESEARCH POLL: HD RADIO "PROSPECTS IN DOUBT"
- Thread starter Savage
- Start date
Chuck said:
Simply put, the cost isn't an issue, fragmentation isn't an issue, programming isn't an issue, sound quality isn't an issue, and any other excuse anyone can come up with isn't an issue. The bottom line is people ain't buying the danged receivers. There isn't a thing anyone can do that will change that.
And this problem isn't restricted to HD radio. The only area of growth in satellite radio is in the car, where the radios are installed as standard equipment. No one's rushing out buying those cute little Stiletto radios that Elton John used to hawk on TV. And no one's rushing out to buy tabletop internet radios. In fact, unless the radio comes with a phone, a car, or a computer attached, people just ain't buying radios. And that's a bigger problem for radio people than the folks at Pew seem to understand. And it's really a problem for AM radio, unless their owners have seen fit to stream.
spunker88 said:
My 2000 Cadillac DeVille is one of the rare late models with AM Stereo. In addition, it has weather radio (numbered in the old style). I could care less for HD and AM Stereo but anybody know what cars have weather radio?
I like my 2002 Toyota Camry for its simplicity with the lack of MP3 and USB inputs and one of the last cars to have a cassette deck along with a CD player. A weather radio would have been nice for my work car but it's too bad only luxury cars have that feature. That and a diesel engine (and maybe hybrid too) to take advantage of the fuel economy would lead me to pick out my next car.
Just a few months ago iheartradio was introduced to the mocking of many people. Now it is being touted as a big selling point by automakers. Why? Because it quickly became popular and familiar on the internet. When the peeps discover that many of these formats are on local HD 2s and 3s -- WITHOUT excessive data charges-- HD radios will quickly appear in new autos.
gosmith123 said:
I'm wrong about something… on the internet… and I'm labeled a phony and a liar? Wow, you must have some really high standards for whoever you converse with. Oh god, I just ended a sentence with a preposition. Send me to the gas chamber. :
I just looked at the Dart splash page at Dodge's terrible website and it's true. No mention of HD anywhere.
But while combing through my history I see that I had read an article suggesting that HD radio would be standard in Cadillacs with the CUE system, so that may be where I saw it.
Cal Stymes said:
Well, it certainly is a draw to have bulletproof reliability and familiarity; I'm not knocking Hondas in that regard. They're just part of a Japanese trend of avoiding new technology until it's fettled out properly.
As an aside with the RDS, they have sold cars in Europe for decades and I'm not sure they even use RDS there, where it is bog standard. (Although, to be fair, the last time I saw inside some Euro Hondas in pictures was years ago.)
I've heard that even the pirate stations in Europe use RDS, and you can't even get Cumulus to have dynamic RDS here. Likewise, AM/MW pirate stations in Greece, Italy and France run (CQuam) analog AM stereo (when you care enough to send the very best) !
Weather radios are a no-brainer in new cars with a chipset that is an easily programmable feature to add, as is CQUam AM stereo, and they can use the FM whip for reception. If the radio has an alphnumeric display, you could even program the county and have the text from the NOAA WX radio on your display (tornado watch) etc for the county that you program the radio for.
I've wondered why local broadcasters don't use their RDS and HD-PAD to show weather alerts when the EAS has been activated? They could scroll thru multple counties as well. What a public service! ie: "Severe; Thunderstorm; Warning; FULTON CO; until 9:30p; Rock104.7;"
Weather radios are a no-brainer in new cars with a chipset that is an easily programmable feature to add, as is CQUam AM stereo, and they can use the FM whip for reception. If the radio has an alphnumeric display, you could even program the county and have the text from the NOAA WX radio on your display (tornado watch) etc for the county that you program the radio for.
I've wondered why local broadcasters don't use their RDS and HD-PAD to show weather alerts when the EAS has been activated? They could scroll thru multple counties as well. What a public service! ie: "Severe; Thunderstorm; Warning; FULTON CO; until 9:30p; Rock104.7;"
JohnnyElectron said:
If you're referring to scrolling text in the PS field, that's not recommended by the RDS… er, forum, or whatever they are. It's considered a distraction and is frowned upon heavily in Europe, although some stations do it anyway.
Long text should be reserved for the R-Text field. Unfortunately many radios still don't support that secondary field.
Neel Mehta said:
Every review I've read on the Genesis has been positive. It seems the Koreans are the new Japanese.
My parents in the market for a post-retirement CUV and they're looking at a Mazda CX-5 with the SkyActiv motors, and I noticed the model I saw yesterday had an HD radio in the top trim line as well.
Cheaper to buy a Chrysler made in Illinois, Ohio & Michigan and add a $100 HD radio and keep a few more Americans employed. Just buy the extended warranty and you'll come out ahead!
JohnnyElectron said:
My dad would sooner die than buy another Chrysler product. I tried to steer him towards the upcoming Dart, which I think holds a lot of potential, but he would have none of it.
Plus, all their vehicles are total gas hogs. Show me a CUV they make that gets 30-33 mpg (real world, not mfg claims) and I might could sway him.
As for me personally, I would be happy to shop the American automakers but they don't offer anything that can match my current VW. I want a small diesel hatchback and they don't offer anything close in this country. Meanwhile I keep trundling along in my Golf, which just hit 280,000 miles today. Last tank was 51.5 MPG. The Americans still don't "get it" as far as I'm concerned.
JohnnyElectron said:
Extended vehicle warranties are the biggest ripoffs around. Extremely high profits for their companies, marginal if any benefits to the buyers. There are other ways to keep Americans employed: Buy a car made in America with a decent repair record (Toyota, Honda, VW, just to name a few) that doesn't fall apart after 70,000 miles (as it seems most current Chrysler products do), and you won't need that extended warranty.
And if you want to keep the car in one piece, don't put an HD radio in it. The distraction of trying to find a steady HD signal that's not within ten miles of the transmitter, the all-too-often-heard non-alignment of the HD and analog signals, and the no-fallback HD2s and 3s that drop out to nothing, will cause you to wreck that new American-made car.
I don't understand how the dropouts of HD2 and HD3 stations to silence are deadly, but no one says a peep about satellite radio dropouts or streaming internet radio. Back when I had my XM there were plenty of dropouts if you were in cities without repeaters… Vicksburg/Jackson, Mobile, Savannah. All those trees covering the roads in the latter two towns meant minutes, not seconds, of silence whilst driving.
And streaming radio is no better. You're either going to have coverage hiccups in less populated areas like where I live, or congestion issues on some carriers in major urban areas. The last time I streamed programming (from a distant FM talk station) it dropped out several times during a 35 mile drive, to the point that I had to kill it at the end because it simply wasn't working in the city at all.
It still performed better than my little HD portable, but that's depending on an antenna in the headphone cable, inside the car. I think a properly installed HD headunit with functioning car antenna would easily outperform streaming in my market.
And streaming radio is no better. You're either going to have coverage hiccups in less populated areas like where I live, or congestion issues on some carriers in major urban areas. The last time I streamed programming (from a distant FM talk station) it dropped out several times during a 35 mile drive, to the point that I had to kill it at the end because it simply wasn't working in the city at all.
It still performed better than my little HD portable, but that's depending on an antenna in the headphone cable, inside the car. I think a properly installed HD headunit with functioning car antenna would easily outperform streaming in my market.
Zach said:
Ain't that the truth? My primary vehicle for the past year has been a Jetta TDI wagon which averages better than 45 mpg. It's fun to drive with nice torque in the 1500-2000 RPM range, has plenty of room for me and my tools, and I've retrofitted it with VW's latest RDS radio which has good AM/FM performance and Bluetooth, as well as MP3 playback capability.
I would really like to find a small Diesel pickup; these are commonplace in Asia and much of Europe, but we can't get them here in North America. Years ago, there were some legitimate concerns about soot emissions, but Corning recently developed a filter that greatly reduces this problem (many European Diesels are now equipped with this device).
As for extended warranties, I consider them just another form of legalized gambling -- and as usual, the odds always favor the "house".
Zach said:
I've had Satellite radio in my car for three and a half years, drop outs are very rare and last seconds, they are nowhere near being an annoyance. I used to drive a 200+ plus mile trip monthly through the sticks of VT and I don't remember satellite dropping out at all. My cellphone would stop working but my satellite receiver, nope.
KB1OKL said:
I don't know if it's any better these days but for years Vermont was a notorious cell phone black hole. It's a combination of the terrain and the strong anti-company/NIMBY attitude there.
You also live in the New England area where satellite radio repeaters are plentiful. I used to get dropouts every time I went through downtown Birmingham because the repeater would go off the air for some reason. And I experienced about a 7 minute dropout on one of the rural Virgina interstates (I-81, I think) going down a long deep valley. But Savannah and Mobile are in a league by themselves. Or were, as I haven't had XM since shortly after the hostile takeover.
Today I tried to listen to my favorite out of market FM Talker again whilst parked in the lot of a local superstore. I got 5 minutes of audio in 20 minutes of listening. What a joke. So I went back to WRKH HD2 and listened to Sean Hannity until I was ready to scream. But it never dropped out. :
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