Digital radio

[Maverick]

Maverick you know the names clip, not chip (but if that's a reference to the fact that I have a modified Tig, then I would much prefer the correct terminology which in this case would be "remap" or "reprogram", but certainly not "chip"). But please explain "slow adopters" before I give you a "reasoned response" .

Slow adopters refers to the fact that Australia is a slow adopter of new technologies. The digital TV take up is a clear indicator of this and the cutover has been delayed something like 4 times now.

As far as technology goes this country is way way behind and the market for the DAB+ upgrade for the RNS 510 is going to be very limited and might only number in the 10's for retrofitting.

[clip]

chances are it will most likely be compressed and not even sound as good.

that's the really funny thing at the moment and indicates just how gullible we can be. For years and years we have been striving to produce better recording formats for listening to music. We had LP's, tapes, CD's, DVD Audio, etc etc. Now we have little choice in our music but a lossy, compressed format that sounds average at best. But we are now happy to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on amps, speakers and players - just to listen to mp3's! It's hilarious

[mickofoz]

that's the really funny thing at the moment and indicates just how gullible we can be. For years and years we have been striving to produce better recording formats for listening to music. We had LP's, tapes, CD's, DVD Audio, etc etc. Now we have little choice in our music but a lossy, compressed format that sounds average at best. But we are now happy to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on amps, speakers and players - just to listen to mp3's! It's hilarious

Clip! As much as I hate to admit it, you are 100% right.
Can someone explain the difference between DAB and DAB+?
Is the signal heavily compressed?
In terms of quality, is DAB+ compareable to mp3 or CD or better?

As for overpriced... if a map update for the rns510 is over $400 (which is overpriced) then I don't have much hope for a reasonable price on the DAB+ add-on.

[G-rig]

Yeah i now try not to listen to compressed music at all. Defeats putting a lot of effort into a good sound setup. But on a good system MP3 will still sound ok (at <256kbps) but just not amazing.

You'd want the radio stations to transmit over 96kbps or higher preferrably.

The MDI and my ipod with apple lossless sounds quite good enough for the car, worth it for the convenience.

[Maverick]

Clip! As much as I hate to admit it, you are 100% right.
Can someone explain the difference between DAB and DAB+?
Is the signal heavily compressed?
In terms of quality, is DAB+ compareable to mp3 or CD or better?

DAB+ used a more efficient audio code that can transmit the same or better audio quality using a bit rate that is a third of DAB.

DAB = MPEG Audio Layer II (MP2)
DAB+ = High Efficiency AAC v2 (MP4/AAC+)

DAB generally 128 kbps.
DAT+ generally 40 kbps which is equal to or better than 128 kbps.

As for overpriced... if a map update for the rns510 is over $400 (which is overpriced) then I don't have much hope for a reasonable price on the DAB+ add-on.

What is the correlation between the two, I fail to see how a DAB add on that will work with all the third generation headunits correlates to the price a dealer charges for map updates (especially when some dealers do them at no cost).

The option in the UK is only 200 pounds. Most additions are a similar price in Australia so I would expect around $500 for the parts.

[G-rig]

It's a bit like having digital TV with only 5 free to air stations, what's the point if there's nothing on.

I dont really listen to radio but would if we had a whole variety of genres like in the UK and internet radio stations. But i'd want over 128kbps at that sounds rubbish to me. 192 is listenable.

[G-rig]

As far as technology goes this country is way way behind

Sure is, Korea developed Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) years ago and almost all their standalone sat nav units have this feature so enabling you to watch TV and pretty cheap too.

People in japan also watch tv on their phones (not chewing up data like here).

We pay a premium here for old technology.

[Arctra]

OK, so I've found out a bit, and have some more questions.

If you go to this link you'll see most stations are allocated 192kbps channels: http://www.digitalradioaustralia.com...lex%20info.pdf
According to Sept 2009 issue of APC magazine, broadcasters are given 128kbps for each of their analog stations though. Of the allocations, the stations can choose what they want to push through, so for instance Austereo has split it's 128k pipe into two 64k pipes to push 2dayFM and Pink Radio. But because DAB+ can transmit data along with the audio stream, realistically the 64k stream is split further into 40-56k audio with the remainder used for datacasting (weather, breaking news, etc).

OK, so that's background info. Now as far as DAB+ for the car, I enquired with old Oskar about DAB+ support in the WD6050 replacement. Now Mav, I know you aren't a fan of this unit, but please humour me here. Oskar reckoned if you opt for the headunit with the built in digital TV tuner (DVB-T) it would support digital radio too. Now I don't have a digital TV tuner at home to test this, but hopefully someone can test this and tell me if it's true. Does an Australian DVB-T decoder support DAB+ broadcasts?

Thanks in advance for your responses

[Swallowtail]

No I don't believe so... I was setting up a DVB-T card in a PC yesterday, and when it scanned it found all of the TV stations and the 4 usual audio only channels that have been there for ages - DiG, etc. I think he's dreaming...

[G-rig]

64k would sound rubbish, what's the point unless you want to listen to the cricket..

[Swallowtail]

That's what I was thinking too... I know a 64k MP3 sounds pretty crap.