Why bother with HD?

[tomservo]

Most of the HD2s and HD3s stream, and if you have a smartphone (Which 48% of cell phone users do, projected to be near 70% by the end of next year) you can download free apps like TuneIn and listen that way anywhere.

And how many of them have the necessary data plans to stream radio on an ongoing basis?

Or, for that matter, how many have a reliable enough connection to stream without getting any more dropouts than they'd get with HD?

I hate to keep beating a dead horse but streaming is not the answer everyone thinks it will be, unless there's a huge paradigm shift in the near future. Home users may or may not have data caps but for the most part don't, so streaming will continue to grow in that arena. But mobile? It's moving the other way. Just about all the major players have data caps of some sort, whether it be by the megabyte (AT&T) or throttling (T-Mobile). The carrier I'm on, C-Spire, has an even more dastardly plan for new users: the unlimited data plan does not include streaming, period. You have to pay per hour for that, or another $30 on top of the $30 for data to get unlimited streaming. I'm grandfathered in on the old $30 everything plan that does include unlimited streaming, but when the contract is up, adios, jerkwads. I ain't doubling my cost just to listen to the damn radio. I'll go elsewhere and pay more and at least get some 4G out of it and a better phone.

So look at the reality: you're either going to pay by the hour, or have to watch your megabytes and risk getting hammered with extra fees if you pass the threshold, OR get throttled to slow EDGE speeds where streaming doesn't really work at all.

The most casual of data users won't see a big change, but the heavy ones will have to curb their internet-heavy activities and decide what's more important, uploading photos to Facebook or listening to rock music from across the country.

With a free analog radio either on the phone or in the car, they will likely choose that route.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Audio streaming ain't nothin'. Video streaming is the killer. At 32Kb/second - a pretty typical audio stream rate - it'll take you about 4 minutes to use up 1MB of your data plan. A month has 43,200 minutes. So, if you stream 24/7/365 for 30 days, you'll use about 11GB. If you stream an hour a day, every day, you'll use about 450MB. That any gonna stress most people's data plans.

HD has proven to be of dubious reliability in moving vehicles, and expensive for both the user and provider. That equals a lose-lose situation. Not only that, but HD channels dilute the audience for the main channels, which already may be overpopulated, and cause interference with other stations.

The answer is simple. Drop HD as a technology, and go back to wide-band AM with AM stereo. It worked, and so does FM.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

The answer is simple. Drop HD as a technology, and go back to wide-band AM with AM stereo. It worked, and so does FM.

Unfortunately this is a non-starter. For wide-band stereo AM to have a ghost of a chance, two things must happen:

1). The AM band must be thinned by at least two-thirds, possibly more. Levels of interference from other stations make wide-band operation impossible.

2). The FCC must start enforcing Part 15 against the manufacturers of electronic equipment, said enforcement being essentially non-existent these days.

 

[mmnassour]

What do you mean essentially? (See: Pirate Radio/Austin)

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

What do you mean essentially? (See: Pirate Radio/Austin)

Exactly what I wrote. If you read the list of Enforcement Bureau actions, you will see a few Part 15 violations in there, once in a great while. But it's not close to making even a small dent in the problem.

 

[mmnassour]

Sorry...should have had the sarcasm logo up! I completely agree.

 

[tomservo]

Audio streaming ain't nothin'. Video streaming is the killer. At 32Kb/second - a pretty typical audio stream rate - it'll take you about 4 minutes to use up 1MB of your data plan. A month has 43,200 minutes. So, if you stream 24/7/365 for 30 days, you'll use about 11GB. If you stream an hour a day, every day, you'll use about 450MB. That any gonna stress most people's data plans.

Ugh. 32 kbps mp3 on my phone sounds worse than HD. I try to shoot for the vbr aac formats and our EVDO rev 0 can usually sustain that at 38-45 kbps.

I tried streaming some Coast to Coast AM last night in Milton, Florida but there was only 1x there. Since I happened to have my HD radio, I fired it up and was able to hear the show from WRKH-HD2 in Mobile, whose transmitter was about 50 miles away. Once I was heading west toward Alabama the dropouts were so few I was stunned, especially at that great distance. This is with the headphone cord as antenna, strung up in ghetto fashion over the rear view mirror. I would hope a properly wired HD car stereo with proper external antenna could do even better.

Depending on one's carrier, slow internet is a way of life. Sprint's native 3G is very limited and who knows how much roaming data they let you have. Verizon and AT&T are worlds better but so expensive. T-Mobile doesn't have ANY 3G for a hundred miles, but their 4G is in a few nearby towns and is supposedly a good 7 Mbps, faster than anyone else. It just drops to EDGE in rural areas like my suburban town. The MVNOs are all throttled and buggy and a good case of "you get what you pay for" so I wouldn't even try long term (>30 min.) streaming on any of those carriers.

If you have fast 3/4G then yeah, I can see where HD radio is a dud. But in the sticks and in small towns like mine, it's actually kind of nice to have as a backup, or it would be if the formats were better.