Really hate to respond to LW's rant ...

If the product is the programming, then HD radio doubles the available free channels. Last time I checked (about a year ago) there were very few if any commercials on the HD-2 stations (this may have changed).

I wish I had one of your magic "static-free" FM radios. Our radios here in the real world may have static if the reception is less than perfect (signal strength, not multipath). HD radio buffers a few seconds of audio so that it can tolerate the signal dropouts you mentioned above.

While HD radio is not HiDef (or even CD quality) the absence of background noise (aka static) makes the sound much more pleasing (at least to me). I don't do any critical listening in my car due to the relatively high level of background noise, nor do I share my music with the rest of the block by playing at hyperloud volume, so the fidelity level of the HD signal works very well for me and my listening habits. I might agree with your HD compression complaints if this was an in-home tuner hooked up to a decent receiver/speakers, but that's not the application being discussed here.

BTW, still looking for clarification on the rebate issue. Anyone contacted Fry's yet?

Huh. So FM is static proof, and therefore when we hear sounds like static, that are annoying and interrupt programming, it's not really static. Well gee, thanks for correcting our terminology, but it sure seems like static to me, and I think it'll make it easier for everyone involved if we continue to refer to it as static, because we all have a general idea of what static is and it's an easier way to communicate than referring to "multipath distortion". And I get it all the time- especially at night, when for some reason a country station from mississippi clobbers over my local classic rock station, and all I get is static fuzz and whining.

This HD radio seems like a huge pain in the ass to install. If it was easier (a window mount antenna and an aux jack?) I think more people (myself included) would give it a shot. (Especially because said local rock station broadcasts in HD, and I figure a digital receiver would be able to lock onto the signal through the distortion).

got one instore yesterday and Frys prints out a rebate receipt for products that have rebates and it does not have the price of the item but all other details including the MIR amount. We should be sending that rather than the other receipt and I guess we should have no issues with the rebate. but I did not check with anyone regarding the terms of the rebate ($51 or more) and have sent other MIRs in the past with just the rebate receipt and they have all been fine.

linuxworks said:I'm not going to argue RF radio theory with you. go study FM and AM modulation styles and you draw your own conclusions.

you hear NOISE but its not static.

you want to argue, go argue with the guy who invented phase shift and frequency shift modulation.

I'm telling you, when I first learned about FM modulation (more than 20 yrs ago) we compared AM and FM and FM, due to its shifting of the center frequency, you do NOT get the noise bursts of static because static is AMPLITUDE BASED noise and the amplitude (level) is kept constant for FM. its the center freq that shifts and the amount and rate is what causes us to hear audio frequencies. you can vary the amplitude and that should NOT matter to a proper FM receiver.

go study the stuff and stop arguing about things you don't understand.
You ought to practice what you preach. From your responses it is obvious that you have never listened to HD radio. There is no comparison to the sound quality between HD and standard FM. And for the AM side HD gives you stereo reception that makes it pleasurable to listen to AM stations. Besides that the extra information on the HD signal can give you weather and traffic alerts as well as radio station, song and artist info. While technically FM is static free in a perfect line of sight reception, in the real world of obstruction to line of sight reception the multipath distortions to the FM signal do result in hiss, pops, dropouts and noise that is and has been referred to as FM static. This is eliminated with HD radio reception. As for commercials, the main channel which is usually the same as the standard FM station has all of the programming of the standard station including the ads. But the multichannels HD-2 and HD-3 in many instances are commercial free as the advertising revenue for the broadcaster is coming in from the standard FM channel.

For those who live in a rural country setting HD radio makes all the difference in the world as to car radio sound quality.

FM is analog. it has no digital compression.

HD radio is compressed like an mp3, but worse.

you don't have to listen to this to know what it will sound like. I'm not an mp3 snob (I listen to fraun. encoded mp3's with a commercial encoder I bought about 10 yrs ago) but you can count on their compression getting WORSE over time (mark my words; just like directv have made HD 'hd-lite' with extra compression to fit more channels in.) and unlike FM, which has a fixed deviation (frequency sub-band 'depth') - they CAN turn the quality down on HD as they choose. and they will.

during roll-out, they'll try to get as many suckers to pay their entry fee for the hardware by keeping the bit rate higher. artificially. count on it getting worse over time and also the content being more advertising driven (its a 'free' service).

also count on them making less and less free over time since there is a DRM component that have not turned on (yet). yet. but they will, once they (think) they get enough buyers locked in.

this is another failed tech like s0ny's minidisc. if you want to throw money at a failed experiment, go right ahead. but go there with a full understanding of what you are buying into.

paying for MORE clearchannel 'content'? you like that????

Just FYI, WAMU HD channels will not be available from 10am to 3pm for next several days due to maintenance.

neoterikos4 said:SleekWallet said:J3T said:SleekWallet said:johnfw said:kaiotes said:

true, but with HD radio you can get a lot more channel and most are commercial free.

hu?

/me thinks somebody might be confusing this with satellite radio

hahaha just a little bit

No, I believe he is correct. A radio station is allocated a certain frequency range by the FCC
in which to broadcast, and it will hold one analog channel. But with digital radio, they can
fit more than one channel in their frequency slot. For example, WAMU in Wash DC has one
analog channel (News). But with an HD radio, you can pick up the digital channels, so
you also get WAMU-2 (Bluegrass channel) and WAMU-3 (BBC, NPR, WTMD). With an analog radio,
you get one broadcast, but with an HD radio you get three. (All three channels are at 88.5 FM.)
I believe they were making channels commercial free to encourage adoption of the tech.

HD radio link

HTH

vickh said:nationwide?
HD Radio - yes (varies by region though)

FAR Fry's tuner - sale ended yesterday.

ATTENTION! I called the rebate center [(563) 259-0100] and they said it would probably automaticlly get regected since purchase price is below $51 before tax. The nice lady on the phone said if I mailed it to her directly they would make sure that the rebate is valid and she gave me her PO BOX, I suggest anybody that hasn't sent in the rebate to do the same!