Rave reviews for the Insignia portable HD radio!

[nd2023]

"I saw the portable HD radio in Best Buy and wanted to try. In my area I could only find one FM station with an HD alternate channel. It was a rock station that just played different rock records on the two channels, so no real advantage unless you want to continually switch channels. If it had an AM radio and was an mp3 player I would have kept it."

"I cannot pick up the HD channels for stations that I can pick up the analog channels."

"I was planning to plug this item into the AUX IN option on my car stereo and home stereo. Only problem is that by doing so, you essentially have no signal. The headphones that come with it are the antenna. This is great for someone who wishes to use it at the gym... on the bus... or jogging or something... but makes it worthless if you plan to plug it into anything else. I bought this on sale for $40, and for the money liked the headphones and the rechargable battery and the arm band. But, when I plugged it into the car... pointless! No signal without its headphones!!! I was not about to buy a splitter to test to see if that would work... so it went back to Best Buy."

"The conclusion based on my usage is that this device might be great for grandma who is looking to replace her old portable FM radio anyway, may occasionally browse onto an HD station AND barely knows enough about USB to charge with it instead of a regular outlet. For someone who's got an active lifestyle and is actually looking to add HD radio on the go when you don't have the time to constantly update the music in your MP3 player, this device is not ready for you yet. For me, this is going in my pile of useless gadgets that I've purchased and tried to use maybe once or twice."

"It's great that you can hear HD, but it's not all it's hyped up to be and the reception is barely acceptable, The sound quality is poor with it going in and out with the "wash out" effect."

"Bought this on a Saturday and returned it Sunday. Not worth forty cents, let alone forty bucks. Couldn't hold HD signal, audio output was weak into mp3 input on my car and screen is difficult to see. Plus, I bet if you dropped this thing just once, it would stop working - with a 90 day warranty, there isn't much room for error. If this were twenty bucks or less, I would have kept it; I suspect we'll see these for sale at deep discount very soon. Still waiting for a decent portable HD radio receiver - this is definately NOT it."

"I bought this radio to check out the HD radio rave...I am disappointed with this radio. this is supposed to be an armband radio so you use it when you are on the move, right? I walk for a living and this radio will not even hold the HD signal of any of the Connecticut stations beyond three or so steps.This is the main reason I decided to purchase it for HD. Needless to say it's going back. Now I may have the "bad" unit so I'll exchange it. It was dead out of the box and had to be charged and the positive reviews I have read here say theirs worked right out of the box...so here's hoping."

"Field tested for several days. There are at least 18 HD stations/channels in my area. Number of HD stations this device can receive while moving/driving = 0. Number of HD stations this device can receive while stationary = 2. When you can get a station the sound quality is good but not astonishingly better than regular analog FM radio. The device does switch between analog and digital signals when HD is available but the switch is not clean .. usually a delay of 2-5 seconds where there is absolute silence .. that's right .. no sound whatsoever. I would only recommend considering this for purchase if you live in the heart of a major metro area where HD towers are very nearby .. otherwise don't waste your time or money. If they really want to make this HD Radio thing fly they will need to have much better transmission of the signal."

"I was excited about this radio when I read about it. It was hard to find, but finally found one at local Best Buy. Unfortunately it's going back. It picks up the analog FM stations just fine, but reception of HD channels is sporadic to non-existent. I can see the local radio transmission towers from where I jog, yet it couldn't lock onto over half the HD stations. The ones it does receive are intermittent, even when used at the same location from one day to the next."

 

[Savage]

Hmmm. Wonder why the Insignias are appearing as "refurbished" markdowns at overstock.com??

(See the "Oops" thread, on this here HD board.)

Of course, 6 dB more digital is going to fix EVERYTHING. (On the 35 stations that pull the trigger in the next year.) :

 

[hubcity]

Elsewhere on the Best Buy site's Insignia portable page: "73% of customers would recommend this product to a friend (82 of 113)." Now who's cherry-picking data? Are *all* the positive reviews shills?

Come on, guys. You don't like HD Radio, *especially* on AM. I get it. But I listened to Shore Alternative in my car for 20 minutes of my 35 minute commute today on exactly this radio, and I got past the technology and enjoyed the format. With the power raise, if they go for it, I expect to hear it for the entire trip. It's my opinion that format counts (though I've got some fit and finish pointers for the Shore Alternative guys.)

Full disclosure here: I have a reason to be biased, because I hope to be using HD2 to promote a different format myself. Radio's at the point where FM HAS to make LOTS of money, and there's no other option for it; HDx (where x = 2 through n) is where the experimentation will happen. We, from a pop culture perspective, need that. I wish it could've been a more solid platform from a technical perspective, but it is what it is, and I'd like it to stay on, because frankly it's the only shot left for non-mainstream radio. You know, the kind of radio where people *enjoy* standing on one leg in the right spot in the room to get the station to come in? That kind.

So here's where you tell me not to bother. Thanks.

 

[DaveBayArea]

So here's where you tell me not to bother. Thanks.

Nope - I want you to bother. I don't think much of HD. The audio doesn't sound very good compared to analog FM when you play it on a good stereo, and the interference has compromised most of the stations we used to listen to in the San Francisco Bay Area. But you're right. Programming is key. Our HD-2 and HD-3 channels are boring jukeboxes, sometimes having highly compressed source material - where the result of layered encoding sounds like a PA speaker in a barrel. But if there's something interesting, people will seek it out. Maybe they won't stand on one leg in the corner of a room, but you might see diversity HD radios (like Toyota & Lexus have done for FM since the 80s) or HD Master Antenna Systems in apartments.

Something is going to happen. If it isn't HD it's going to be mobile multicast via IP. Or Digital TV subchannels. Don't give up on your format. It's better to listen to something interesting with a little lower fidelity than CD's of the stuff we get on mainstream radio today.

Dave B.

 

[Carmine5]

So here's where you tell me not to bother. Thanks.

Something is going to happen. If it isn't HD it's going to be mobile multicast via IP. Or Digital TV subchannels. Don't give up on your format. It's better to listen to something interesting with a little lower fidelity than CD's of the stuff we get on mainstream radio today.

Dave B.

Dave's right. There are other technologies that will fill the void should HD-FM fail (and it's assumed HD-AM has already reached that point). One of the most exciting is ATSC M/H. In addition to radio and television stations forming partnerships, an independent programmer, like hubcity, could also lease such a channel for providing audio content on devices that support mobile DTV. The audio quality and bit rate is about equivalent to an HD-2 side channel (assuming a station is running only a main and one side channel).

What I find most exciting is that, at a time when Ibiquity, CE manufacturers and the NAB have basically abandoned AM on portable HD Radios, ATSC M/H provides AM stations a digital means of putting their content on newly emerging handheld devices, thereby extending the reach, profitability and longevity of these stations.

c5

 

[audioguy]

What I find most exciting is that, at a time when Ibiquity, CE manufacturers and the NAB have basically abandoned AM on portable HD Radios, ATSC M/H provides AM stations a digital means of putting their content on newly emerging handheld devices, thereby extending the reach, profitability and longevity of these stations.

c5

Carmine is right. I think the main problem faced by the radio industry is the mindset that their equity is in transmission hardware, when the opportunities are really on the content provision side. The TV folks are having to come to grips with this in a big way-- and this will be especially true if the FCC should decide to eliminate or drastically reduce over-the-air broadcasting.

At the end of the day, it's not so important how your content reaches your audience, so long as there is a way to transport it and people are tuning in. How important is a big stick and a 50 kW AM signal if ultimately, you have more listeners walking around listening on their iPhones? And that could happen!

 

[KeithE4]

Carmine is right. I think the main problem faced by the radio industry is the mindset that their equity is in transmission hardware, when the opportunities are really on the content provision side. The TV folks are having to come to grips with this in a big way-- and this will be especially true if the FCC should decide to eliminate or drastically reduce over-the-air broadcasting.

Stations may become silent by going out of business, but I can't see the day when the FCC eliminates OTA broadcasting, AM or FM. Neither band is of any use to other services, especially the AM band, and treaties preclude reallocating them anyway.

 

[audioguy]

Stations may become silent by going out of business, but I can't see the day when the FCC eliminates OTA broadcasting, AM or FM. Neither band is of any use to other services, especially the AM band, and treaties preclude reallocating them anyway.

I don't think the FCC will eliminate AM/FM radio; I just think that the value of a lot of these stations will eventually go way down and that many of them will end up doing time-brokered foreign language broadcasts when all of the mainstream listeners have migrated to more modern program distribution systems.

Broadcasters think they are in the broadcasting business, when in reality they are in the content creation business. Just like railroads thought they were in the railroad business, and had to learn that they were in the transportation business.

 

[Chuck]

I had to drive from East Texas to Dallas today. After I got past the range of my own station, I became bored with what I could find on XM or O.T.A. I decided to pull into a rest area, unpack my Dell Netbook computer, plug in my wireless access card (Verizon EVDO) and connect the headphone output of the computer to the AUX input on my car stereo.

You know what? I went to my station's web site, and immediately, I could hear myself talking through the speakers in may car. (I love my automation system.) I finished my drive into Dallas listening to my station's stream via the Internet. I did my errands in Dallas and then drove home, listening to my web stream all the way. It never dropped out, re-buffered, or did anything strange. The only problem I had was the 120-volt inverter kept falling out of the power socket. Whoever thought a cigarette lighter plug was a good power connection should be drawn and quartered, but fixing that problem is very minor. Since the laptop also runs on internal batteries, even a power outage was no big deal. It worked great. It was way beyond my expectations.

The point is not to say that Internet technology is better than HD (although it worked perfectly and is much more universal) but to say that the future of broadcasting is in providing content. How it gets to the listener may becomes less and less relevant as technology improves. I suspect that HD is about 10 years late coming to the current party.

 

[Savage]

Let me chime in here and emphatically tell hubcity - yeah, I want you to bother, too. I sincerely wish you the best with your new format.

As a broadcaster, I am simply offended by junk technology that unfairly hurts some broadcasters while others get away with harmful interference. The whole idea of regulating broadcast radio is to preserve order on the RF spectrum. HD represents the equivalent of issuing special drivers' licenses to politicians and public-sector workers which permits them to exceed the speed limit and drive drunk.

It's ethically and technically wrong. And the listeners are getting, quite literally, the fuzzy end of the stick.

Consider launching your format on the web. It will work better, sound better, and you'll actually have listeners. Good luck, hub.

 

[Play Freebird]

IThe only problem I had was the 120-volt inverter kept falling out of the power socket. Whoever thought a cigarette lighter plug was a good power connection should be drawn and quartered, but fixing that problem is very minor. Since the laptop also runs on internal batteries, even a power outage was no big deal. It worked great. It was way beyond my expectations.

Chuck,

Have you tried Powerpole connectors? These are rapidly becoming the standard for 12 VDC interconnection in amateur radio and they're much more reliable (and more compact) than lighter plugs. They'll handle up to 45 amps in the small size. I've installed them in both of my vehicles and on nearly every 12 volt-powered item I own, and I highly recommend them. I usually buy them in bulk from a distributor like Allied, but here's another source:

http://www.powerwerx.com/anderson-powerpoles/powerpole-sets/

http://www.powerwerx.com/powerpole-power-splitters/

http://www.powerwerx.com/assembly.asp

To keep this on topic, let me conclude by saying "IBOC is the bulky, unreliable, cigarette-lighter plug kludge of the digital radio world"

 

[Chuck]

Have you tried Powerpole connectors? These are rapidly becoming the standard for 12 VDC interconnection in amateur radio and they're much more reliable (and more compact) than lighter plugs.

The Power-Poles would be a much better choice. The inverter I used cost less than $20 and the real reason I got it was to use the "seat power" on airplanes. In the car, it wouldn’t be any big deal to actually install an inverter and AC outlet, so you didn't have a big kludge of power adapters etc. It is bad enough with a GPS, radar detector, ipods, etc. When I got my car, it came with four "power ports" which I thought was silly. Nobody would ever use all those. I was wrong. It is easy to fill them up.

The ironic thing is these peripheral devices seem to be selling quite well, unlike HD. That is probably because they provide a demonstrable consumer advantage. For instance, I've always prided myself at being good at reading maps and never thought I'd want a GPS for any reason other than figuring latitude and longitude for a specific antenna site. I was wrong. It is a device I didn't know I needed until I got one and now I hate being without it. I even take it when I fly. It is a huge help when you are visiting an unfamiliar city, but I use it every day, even when I am in very familiar territory.

I bring this up because the buying public is used to quickly adopting technologies that provide a real benefit for them. Five years ago, a dash mounted GPS was an oddity. Now you see them in a high percentage of cars. It didn't take long to catch on in a big way. HD has had about the same time frame in existence. Without beating a dead horse, I think the results speak for themselves.

 

[Play Freebird]

I bring this up because the buying public is used to quickly adopting technologies that provide a real benefit for them. Five years ago, a dash mounted GPS was an oddity. Now you see them in a high percentage of cars. It didn't take long to catch on in a big way. HD has had about the same time frame in existence. Without beating a dead horse, I think the results speak for themselves.

I agree, but Radio World's "Guy Wire" is still clinging to his hopes and dreams. In his latest "Predictions for a New Decade" column (while finally admitting AM IBOC is toast) he contends "... HD Radio for FM offers entirely too many impressive new improvements and features to be ignored or rejected."

So exactly what features are we talking about here? iTunes tagging? (which is much more practical on the new iPod Nano with RDS) HD-4? Seriously, what are we missing?

He then goes on to say "There really isn't much of an excuse anymore not to buy an HD receiver."

Other than the obvious reason: The great majority of radio listeners are perfectly satisfied with conventional analog FM.

Read Guy's latest commentary here:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/rwee_20100217/#/4

Then, flash back to his 2003 predictions:
http://www.radioworld.com/article/1850

 

[hubcity]

Re: "There really isn't much of an excuse anymore not to buy an HD receiver."

"It's still not playing anything I want to hear" is a pretty good excuse.

 

[Savage]

"There really isn't much of an excuse anymore not to buy an HD receiver?"

Here we go again with the pro-HD types: standing on their heads, barking at the rest of the world that they've got everything upside-down.

Consumers don't need excuses to not buy things. Broadcasters don't need excuses to not install HD exciters. The burden is on HD Radio to provide a useful and economically advantageous system which offers sufficient features and value to motivate people to invest in it, not on the public and radio operators to defend their disinterest in IBOC. If the positives aren't there, people will just ignore HD. They won't "make excuses" - HD won't even be on their radar screens. (Check it: most people still have no clue what HD Radio is, nor do they care about it. In fact, most RADIO people don't own HD radios.)

Unless you reach a critical mass of positives in this department, you're going nowhere. NOWHERE: precisely where HD Radio has lived since 2003 (and isn't THAT Guy Wire piece a howler. If you notice, he's chanting precisely the same talking points, save for HD-AM, he was seven years ago.)

 

[Savage]

Note for dingbat Guy Wire: he opines that dominant AM stations will "extend their branding and presence" by simulcasting on HD-2 and HD-3 subs.

If you subscribe to the controversial position that the only way AMs can survive is to find a simulcast outlet:

A more sensible (or far less nonsensical) solution - how about simulcasting AM news/talkers on analog FM translators? The coverage is comparable, nobody needs new receivers and the cost is a fraction of doing FM via HD. The program material is "spoken word" so there is no advantage to the much-vaunted alleged superiority of digital sound (put me in the "skeptics" column about that HD issue.) Plus there is no Byzantine tuning procedure for listeners to puzzle out, as is the case with many existing HD radios.

If AM needs CPR, let's make the transition to FM as easy and painless as possible - for everyone. Simulcasting AMs on FM HD subs is the programming and engineering equivalent of tying your shoes using long-nose pliers and a Vise-Grip. If you want your AM on FM, put it on a signal someone's likely to hear.

 

[Carmine5]

"There really isn't much of an excuse anymore not to buy an HD receiver?"

Here we go again with the pro-HD types: standing on their heads, barking at the rest of the world that they've got everything upside-down.

Consumers don't need excuses to not buy things. Broadcasters don't need excuses to not install HD exciters. The burden is on HD Radio to provide a useful and economically advantageous system which offers sufficient features and value to motivate people to invest in it, not on the public and radio operators to defend their disinterest in IBOC. If the positives aren't there, people will just ignore HD. They won't "make excuses" - HD won't even be on their radar screens. (Check it: most people still have no clue what HD Radio is, nor do they care about it. In fact, most RADIO people don't own HD radios.)

Unless you reach a critical mass of positives in this department, you're going nowhere. NOWHERE: precisely where HD Radio has lived since 2003 (and isn't THAT Guy Wire piece a howler. If you notice, he's chanting precisely the same talking points, save for HD-AM, he was seven years ago.)

"There really isn't much of an excuse anymore not to buy an HD receiver?"

The phrase has a kind of guilt-driven "buy it because you know it's right" sound to it, doesn't it? As you point out, Mr. Savage, consumers don't need excuses to buy or refrain from buying a product--they need reasons to buy. And, so far, the pro-HDR crowd have given no compelling reasons for consumers to buy a new digital radio.

c5

 

[nd2023]

One compelling reason for HD radio is the availability of a format not heard on HD1. If every market had a dance station on HD2, a lot of the people who subscribe to Sirius XM exclusively for BPM will instead get an HD radio.

 

[Carmine5]

One compelling reason for HD radio is the availability of a format not heard on HD1. If every market had a dance station on HD2, a lot of the people who subscribe to Sirius XM exclusively for BPM will instead get an HD radio.

And how is that working out? Are consumers beating down the doors of their local Best Buy or Shack to purchase an HDR so that they can hear these jukebox formats or do they believe that the best playlist is still the one on their iPod?

Guy refers to the over 100 HD Radios available for purchase but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds, if not, thousands of products sold in the US that contain analog-only radios. If anything, after seven years, I would think it a defeat that HDR is available in only 100 or so products--and only about 2 million sold so far. CE manufacturers are clearly not convinced that HDR has traction with consumers.

Here's what Ibiquity should have done: when the CAPS system was first being developed, they should have paid off whoever was developing it to claim that CAPS would only work with HD Radio thereby forcing the FCC to mandate HD Radio conversion for all consumers and broadcasters. Just kidding. As it is, a station just needs a converter and CAPS will work with existing equipment and can be heard on existing radios.

c5

 

[Carmine5]

Note for dingbat Guy Wire: he opines that dominant AM stations will "extend their branding and presence" by simulcasting on HD-2 and HD-3 subs.

If you subscribe to the controversial position that the only way AMs can survive is to find a simulcast outlet:

A more sensible (or far less nonsensical) solution - how about simulcasting AM news/talkers on analog FM translators? The coverage is comparable, nobody needs new receivers and the cost is a fraction of doing FM via HD. The program material is "spoken word" so there is no advantage to the much-vaunted alleged superiority of digital sound (put me in the "skeptics" column about that HD issue.) Plus there is no Byzantine tuning procedure for listeners to puzzle out, as is the case with many existing HD radios.

If AM needs CPR, let's make the transition to FM as easy and painless as possible - for everyone. Simulcasting AMs on FM HD subs is the programming and engineering equivalent of tying your shoes using long-nose pliers and a Vise-Grip. If you want your AM on FM, put it on a signal someone's likely to hear.

Bob, I'm totally on board with AM stations getting FM translators--if they can get them. But let's face it, in urban areas translators are either not available or prohibitively expensive. Although working in television, I would love to see radio get Ch. 6. It makes total sense for FM to have it and for AM stations to migrate to it if they choose to.

Barring that, ATSC M/H is not a bad alternative for AM stations to consider, especially since it has already been developed and is slowly being rolled out. Mobile devices are already available and more are to come. More than that I think it is good for local radio and TV stations to team up, share resources and synergize (although remaining separately owned). Given the growing forces that are against broadcast media I think both will ultimately need each other.

c5