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Video proof of HD's effectiveness

R

Radioman100

Guest
As an experiment, I did some driving around the Dallas - Fort Worth area tonight. Starting about 50 miles south of town, I tuned into one of the HD2s broadcasting from one of the big sticks in Cedar Hill. I listened to it all the way through the metro, and as I continued north out of the metro along 287. The signal never dropped out once until I was past Decatur, and it became pretty much unlistenable around Alvord.

I picked the station up perfectly until I was about 65-70 miles from the transmitter.

Since I figure nobody believes me, and the few that do believe me probably don't WANT to believe because it doesn't fit their agenda, I'm thinking about repeating the trip through DFW with a video camera trained on my mobile HD Radio (the JVC) and the road. I would record the audio via the radio's line out into the camcorder's line in, and make sure the camera is zoomed into the radio's display enough to clearly show any dropouts.

I'll shoot the video if someone wants to host it. Who's game?
 
Why not post to Youtube? There are currently 150 results for a search of "HD Radio"

BTW: I've viewed several already, and some of the comments are from Europe trashing their digital radio systems with the same braying that you encounter here ie: "not robust" "uneeded" etc.

Lino
 
What a terrific HD Radio marketing strategy. Ignore, berate and ridicule your customers, and try to force feed them an unwanted, unnecessary, defective product. A sure-fire winning plan that will definitely endear radio broadcasters in the hearts and minds of the public for many years to come. :D
 
SUPERCASTER said:
What a terrific HD Radio marketing strategy. Ignore, berate and ridicule your customers, and try to force feed them an unwanted, unnecessary, defective product. A sure-fire winning plan that will definitely endear radio broadcasters in the hearts and minds of the public for many years to come. :D
Click to expand...

--Hittin' the hootch a little early? I don't see where your remarks respond to anything "Radioman", or I said.

Lino
 
I'd love to see your video. Hell, I"ll host it if it's not too huge (I'm set up to stream Real Video by my web host, but I could probably twiddle and get Windows Media to work as well). I suspect most would rather stream than download.
 
YouTube might be an option, though I don't think it would offer enough quality to display the radio's display clearly and the road signs and mile markers to prove where I am. The anti-HD loonies would immediately start saying the video was doctored if it wasn't perfectly clear.

It would be a huge file. It would be over two hours long and need to be high enough quality to adress the inevitable claims of trickery.

As for Supercaster's remarks, I wouldn't be doing this for consumers. I'd be doing it to counter the claims being made here and elsewhere that it doesn't work, is defective, is a sham, whatever. It does work, and it works really well in my experience. I'm ready to prove it.
 
Radioman100 said:
As an experiment, I did some driving around the Dallas - Fort Worth area tonight. Starting about 50 miles south of town, I tuned into one of the HD2s broadcasting from one of the big sticks in Cedar Hill. I listened to it all the way through the metro, and as I continued north out of the metro along 287. The signal never dropped out once until I was past Decatur, and it became pretty much unlistenable around Alvord.

I picked the station up perfectly until I was about 65-70 miles from the transmitter.

Since I figure nobody believes me, and the few that do believe me probably don't WANT to believe because it doesn't fit their agenda, I'm thinking about repeating the trip through DFW with a video camera trained on my mobile HD Radio (the JVC) and the road. I would record the audio via the radio's line out into the camcorder's line in, and make sure the camera is zoomed into the radio's display enough to clearly show any dropouts.

I'll shoot the video if someone wants to host it. Who's game?
Click to expand...

I don't doubt your observations with a car radio, but according to David Eduardo, most radio listening is not done in a car.

Since you are in the DFW area, I'm sure you may be able to relate to this: A few months ago, I attended a SBE meeting at Crystal's Pizza on Highway 183 in Irving. Maybe you know where that is? The subject of the meeting was HD monitoring, presented by the nice folks at Aztec-Audemat who make the Golden Eagle test set. It is designed for very sophisticated off air monitoring of HD and/or analog signals. It is an amazing piece of equipment that any broadcaster would love to have, even if they don't have any need for its HD capabilities.

This location is about 10 air miles from Cedar Hill where all the transmitters are located on 1500-1800 towers. It should be a strong signal area, even inside a typical commercial building. Even so, this very fine receiver couldn't pick up a single HD signal inside the building, but it had no problem with analog signals on the same stations.

I have to think this receiver is light years better than anything a consumer is likely to use. I'm sure it would have worked great with an outdoor antenna, or even if we could have just taken the antenna we were using outside. The problem is, I just don't see many people running out to the store to buy an antenna. Radio Shack even discontinued their outdoor FM antenna. (Perfect timing.)

Installing an outdoor antenna seems to be low on most people's priorities. Many won't even do it for their new HDTV sets. To be honest, I'm amazed that they won't, since there is a lot to be gained by doing so. Still, human nature being what it is, not many people are willing to go to very much trouble for a few extra channels.

I think that is a very big problem for HD radio.
 
I have quite a bit of experience with the GEHD. Strangely enough, I've had the opposite experience. Analog performance on mine lacks but HD is very good.

Did someone from Audemat do the demo? Was it Tony? The reason I ask is the GEHD has seperate antenna inputs for analog, HD and its spectrum analyzer.
 
Radioman100 said:
I have quite a bit of experience with the GEHD. Strangely enough, I've had the opposite experience. Analog performance on mine lacks but HD is very good.

Did someone from Audemat do the demo? Was it Tony? The reason I ask is the GEHD has seperate antenna inputs for analog, HD and its spectrum analyzer.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was someone from Audemat. Sorry, I don't remember his name. Nice guy though... I'd have to dig around to find his card. He did know a LOT about his product. It still didn't pick up any HD signal in the pizza parlor meeting room.

Incidentally, the room is on an outside wall and the demo was set up just a few feet from that outside wall. As I recall, here is an emergency exit door on that same wall, maybe 10 feet from the demo area. Somehow it just didn't look like a tough RF environment. My cell phone works OK in there. I've had the dreaded "We're off the air" call while attending one of these meetings in that very room.
 
Radioman100 said:
YouTube might be an option, though I don't think it would offer enough quality to display the radio's display clearly and the road signs and mile markers to prove where I am. The anti-HD loonies would immediately start saying the video was doctored if it wasn't perfectly clear.

It would be a huge file. It would be over two hours long and need to be high enough quality to adress the inevitable claims of trickery.

As for Supercaster's remarks, I wouldn't be doing this for consumers. I'd be doing it to counter the claims being made here and elsewhere that it doesn't work, is defective, is a sham, whatever. It does work, and it works really well in my experience. I'm ready to prove it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't waste alot of effort jumping through hoops for these people, even if you post video and swear on a stack of bibles types such as "supercaster" will claim fraud.

I continue to post airchecks when convenient and I feel it serves a purpose, also, being part Irish I'am allways up for a fight.

Whatever happens to iboc, the doings in this little sandbox don't affect the rest of the playground.

Lino
 
LinoNYC said:
Radioman100 said:
YouTube might be an option, though I don't think it would offer enough quality to display the radio's display clearly and the road signs and mile markers to prove where I am. The anti-HD loonies would immediately start saying the video was doctored if it wasn't perfectly clear.

It would be a huge file. It would be over two hours long and need to be high enough quality to adress the inevitable claims of trickery.

As for Supercaster's remarks, I wouldn't be doing this for consumers. I'd be doing it to counter the claims being made here and elsewhere that it doesn't work, is defective, is a sham, whatever. It does work, and it works really well in my experience. I'm ready to prove it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't waste alot of effort jumping through hoops for these people, even if you post video and swear on a stack of bibles types such as "supercaster" will claim fraud.

I continue to post airchecks when convenient and I feel it serves a purpose, also, being part Irish I'am allways up for a fight.

Whatever happens to iboc, the doings in this little sandbox don't affect the rest of the playground.

Lino
Click to expand...

I wouldn't waste my time either, and I'm a "HD Doubter."
 
How big is the file Radioman, pm me I might be able to host it for a while I'll be out untill Saturday night so I might not get back to you till then. I'll be on dialup between now and then.
 
jras20 said:
How big is the file Radioman, pm me I might be able to host it for a while I'll be out untill Saturday night so I might not get back to you till then. I'll be on dialup between now and then.
Click to expand...

I haven't made it yet. I'm just thinking about doing it. The file would be huge though.
 
SUPERCASTER said:
Why do you fantasize my (or anyone's) posts here must be limited to responses to "Radioman" or you?
Click to expand...

Well you did title it "Reply to video proof of HD radios effectiveness". I guess it's beyond expectation to have the post be about the title subject or something posted before it, rather than a semi-incoherant rant about marketing.

And no one is trying to limit what you post here. God knows you've posted enough defective deceptive quasi-technical junk in the past, why change now? :)

You are obviously much more intimate and familiar with rot gut "hootch" then I am, otherwise you would not be so obsessed with it, and deliriously promoting defective HD Radio.
Click to expand...

Again, when asked a question, albeit a pointed one, about why the maketing rant in the "Video Proof" thread, you respond with a variation of "You must be drunk to like HD radio."

Nice.

Clouseau
 
Radioman,

I have no doubt that you had a positive experience with your HD radio test. Even with video proof, your experiment of one particular scenario is still anecdotal evidence. We'd need to see hundreds of similar tests with repeatable results to draw a scientific conclusion.
Regardless, I'm more than willing to believe your report is accurate. However let's remember, HD's real challenge is the programming. Broadcasters are going to have to generate consumer demand to sell HD. That's got to come from the content. I've been in this biz for more than a few years and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many calls I've gotten complaining about the technical quality of my signal (Now AM is another matter). From a consumer viewpoint FM is simply not that broken. It works just fine, thank you. It's the HD2 and 3 channels that will drive the sale of the radios IF there's something on there worth listening to, they will buy the receivers.
 
TowerLamp, I appreciate your position on programming. Generally, I've been pleased with the HD2 stations I've heard. If I find one that plays a style of music I like, generally find the mix of music to be on par with regular FMs. Air talent is another matter. I haven't listened to one yet that had any. I know they exist, but they're few and far between. Some would argue that the lack of jocks on most HD2s is a strength. I wouldn't necessarily agree, but I wouldn't necessarily argue either. Different strokes for different folks. People that want music in the morning might find HD2 programming to be a refreshing alternative to yak fest morning shows.

On the technical viability of the demonstration (might as well call it that now, I've already conducted the experiment and I'm more than certain it can be repeated) I realize different people might get different results in different cities. You'd get different results with diferent technical facilities with regard to analog stations too. The purpose would simply prove that the system does work much better than claimed by the usual naysayers on this board and others. People who typically haven't even tried it for themselves.
 
Radioman,

Agreed...and I hope you can find a host for your video. It will be interesting.

I still have old cassette airchecks (remember those?) of WFIL-AM broadcasting in Kahn AM-Stereo. So I'm always up for a good demo of new technology!
 
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