all radio as some know are going digital by 2012 so all box tuners wont be no good what do you think and how do you feel about it

is that world-wide, or just in the U.K?

I assume there will be some kind of "tuner" available that we can just plug into our "line-in"? Hopefully:

i wouldnt be suprised if it dont happen, DAB radio hasnt cought on that much IMHO,

thats the same thing they said about tv 2005 everybody was suppose to be hd but 2008 and there are still old tv for sale out there so with that said it will be a loooong time before we really see any detremental changes

quote:

Originally posted by ramon:
thats the same thing they said about tv 2005 everybody was suppose to be hd but 2008 and there are still old tv for sale out there so with that said it will be a loooong time before we really see any detremental changes

you hit the nail right on the head ramon

IF the lawmakers decide that all stations MUST convert, and licenses are not issued for analog broadcasting after that time, then people will be forced to either switch or buy set-top "converter boxes". There is a lot of money spent by the industry to lobby lawmakers to do this, and the government leaders like it because they will be able to squeeze more channels into the same bandwidth, generating more licensing revenues for government. These voices are loud in the ears of the lawmakers, whereas consumer voices at this stage are weak.

Eventually, they WILL force it down our throats, whether we like it or not. The process may be delayed somewhat, however, if there is enough outspoken resistance by consumers as the time approaches.

It is only a matter of time before our boxes are as useless (as radios -- they'll still work as amps for iPods, etc...) as a betacord or elcassette machine without recording media to use with them.

The same thing is happening with television. Here in Hong Kong, we now have parallel analog and digital broadcasting, and in 2012 analog broadcasts will stop. For television, at least it means clearer picture reception, not a bad thing. TV has never had outstanding sound quality, anyway, so there is no real loss there. BUT for radio, it's a different thing altogether. A GOOD analog signal on FM stereo radio, picked up by a GOOD receiver with a GOOD antenna, exceeds the sound quality of CDs over all but the very best high-end systems. And it has been available very cheaply to anyone for years, although station programming has tended to deteriorate and many stations have already switched to inferior digital recordings in recent years. Our children will never have the experience of hearing the same sound quality, unless they improve the technology a lot from where it is at today.

As a lover of things analog and a collector of vintage gear, it makes me almost sick, and very, very, very sad... more "progress" that moves us at least as far backwards as it does forwards.

Gott-verdammte Bureaucrats!

they will never do aways with regular radio stations all together.
i mean people in the central areas of the countries in wich we live are not going to go out and buy new digital recievers. just not going to happen.
in fact i will say that beyond anyshadow of a doubt it would not happen.
i mean the ebs is a important means of communication to rural areas in the even of a emergency.

there is probably several hundred million people in the us who use radios to get thier news in the rural and poorer areas.
i mean i just dont see it happening.

quote:

Originally posted by billpc55:
they will never do aways with regular radio stations all together.
i mean people in the central areas of the countries in wich we live are not going to go out and buy new digital recievers. just not going to happen.
in fact i will say that beyond anyshadow of a doubt it would not happen.
i mean the ebs is a important means of communication to rural areas in the even of a emergency.

there is probably several hundred million people in the us who use radios to get thier news in the rural and poorer areas.
i mean i just dont see it happening.

This is the best argument ive heard and completely accurate if for nothing else than the "safety" aspect of it. I hope that this point is "thought of" when the parties recommending this change are brought to the decision making table.

I think they will switch from Analog to Digital radio at some point. I also think they will have the converter boxes for us - just like they have those for tube TVs. I hope it won't ruin the stereo FM reception though

quote:

Originally posted by vladi123456:
I think they will switch from Analog to Digital radio at some point. I also think they will have the converter boxes for us - just like they have those for tube TVs. I hope it won't ruin the stereo FM reception though

I agree Vladi, I think the switch is inevitable. When it will happen is another matter and seems to vary between countries however, I wouldn't be surprised to see the change in the next 10 years.

quote:

Originally posted by MasterBlaster84:
I agree Vladi, I think the switch is inevitable. When it will happen is another matter and seems to vary between countries however, I wouldn't be surprised to see the change in the next 10 years.

Ya, same here - I think there's too much money involved. So lets just hope they will come up with some decent converter boxes - I listen to the radio about 65% percent of the time, so good FM stereo is pretty important to me!

it's weird, there's a huge station here in toronto, 104.5 ChumFM. And I remember them saying there broadcast is now "digital". This was a couple of years ago. And there station is noticibiliy better/clearer sounding then the other stations. Yet we pick it up on all our analog stereos. Maybe there's a different type of digital fm in the near future?

same applies for tv boxes im afraid digital is aload of rubbish in my opinion there is always interferance just think of old sheit sky digital aload of crap

i am not one hundred percent certain but i seem to remember them changing thier minds about this whole switchover thing

quote:

Originally posted by billpc55:
i am not one hundred percent certain but i seem to remember them changing thier minds about this whole switchover thing

I've heard of a lot more resistance to the HD radio switch over than TV but what I've heard is that it's simply delayed indefinately. That just means they haven't made any decisions on when to implement it in the U.S.

quote:

Originally posted by billpc55:
i am not one hundred percent certain but i seem to remember them changing thier minds about this whole switchover thing

Not sure if your comment was for radio broadcasts, but for TV broadcasts in the US it is definitely coming next year. They will have vouchers for Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. so that you can purchase a digital converter for your "old" TV at about $10 cost to you.

To be honest, I hadn't really thought about the gov't doing the same thing to the RF bands, but it would make sense if the RF bands are as inefficient.

I would tend to think, however, that this is not the case.



There has recently been cases in central Florida of "pirate radio", where drug dealers and others have been broadcasting over the FM band illegally. I wonder if they can make the leap to the "digital" era if the change were to occur.

Think Bill's talking about our local Toronto 104.5 Chumfm station.

I had a phone call from a mate a couple of weeks ago, he told me he'd heard somewhere that the FM radio signal won't be switched off.

quote:

Originally posted by Panasonic Fan:

quote:

Originally posted by billpc55:
i am not one hundred percent certain but i seem to remember them changing thier minds about this whole switchover thing

Not sure if your comment was for radio broadcasts, but for TV broadcasts in the US it is definitely coming next year. They will have vouchers for Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. so that you can purchase a digital converter for your "old" TV at about $10 cost to you.

To be honest, I hadn't really thought about the gov't doing the same thing to the RF bands, but it would make sense if the RF bands are as inefficient.

I would tend to think, however, that this is not the case.



There has recently been cases in central Florida of "pirate radio", where drug dealers and others have been broadcasting over the FM band illegally. I wonder if they can make the leap to the "digital" era if the change were to occur.

television for sure i can see. i mean it makes sense as in order to deliver the new hi def stuff they need a better signal.
as for radio i just cannot see how they can do digital.
i mean that would also mean pretty much all the countries making radios would have to change over as well.
i dunno i just cannot see how radio stations would go for this as well.
i just dont see them doing this with radio communications.
that would mean a massive pocket of people would be without information.
ok as silly as it seems radio still has a huge impact on things.
if all of a sudden every car radio didnt work i can assure you there would be chaos on the roads.
i also think if you told several hundred million people that when they wake up the next morning they are going to have to replace all thier gear people would flip out.
i just dont see it.

tv sure but radio nah i am not worried about that happening in the least. not while i am alive anyways. radio is here to stay. digital radio hmmm i dunno i mean how is it going to work anyways nope i just dont see it

If the analog transmissions stop , there's one thing you can do. Just buy a FM transmitter and feed this with the analog out from the digital radio. I listen to digital radio all day trough
my boxes at the exact same way. ( Internetradio)

HD Radio

HDTV Fact



See the link above. Analog is going nowhere anytime in the forseeable future. The dangerous part for any country in when they decide to sell bandwith. This is why the federal government is pushing HDTV down our throats. And instead of manufacturers keeping up by offering affordable alternatives to standard CRT TV's they've kept building them knowing they would sell because of affordability. Now everyone rush out and get a new TV!!! And thanks for the money we made you believe is wasted. Guess what..."You will still get your analog braodcast!" Oops, I bet how many didn't know that dirty little secret! Only terrestrial braodcasting will be affected. This will allow the FCC to sell the bandwith to cell carriers, etc. for a profit. Yes U.S. citizens, your tax dollars hard at work. The links are from Wikipedia whiich I generally don't use for absolute fact but they are very good articles. Do the homework. Us old codgers aren't dead yet. (I'm only 38, redbenbanana is a codger I believe though. )

so if you see that info it states clearly that portable hd radios are not manufactured because of a chipset not being able to be battery opreated, its in the works but for now we are safe and when the time comes we will add the converter to our radios more than sure someone will come up with a brillant idea on this matter

Perhaps in the future we will have fm transmitter which can transmit on multiple frequencies simultaneously.Then we could stream internet radio stations continuously and have a full analog radio band of the transmissions of our choices.It seems to me that would be way better than having to pick through stations playing bad music on the radio as we have to do today.

quote:

Originally posted by pacwestuk:
all radio as some know are going digital by 2012 so all box tuners wont be no good what do you think and how do you feel about it

Even when (& if) it does change so that you can't hear your favourite radio stations on FM anymore, buy a DAB radio & plug in a decent FM transmitter, just like Eddy.
Sorted

quote:

how do you feel about it

How do i feel? Hmmm well i feel kinda excited and aroused lol!

Radio broadcast quality went down the tubes for the most part years ago when vinyl was phased out..I'm sure there are exceptions but it's mostly "digital media" now, who knows how many times the song's been altered before broadcasting, I'm sure their speeding up the songs (like TV movies) to cram more commercials in.

We're in a whole new frontier these days, sure the governments want digital broadcasted radio so they can auction off the old bands but how long will we need the new bands....wireless internet can provide millions of stations from around the world at any hotspot....I foresee the next generation of radio as more of an computer terminal with speakers, broadcasting as we know it will cease to exit...

As a footer I was watching the financial news this morning and they were talking about how the large radio conglomerates were down huge this year (the beginning of the end?)

quote:

Originally posted by Fuzzyduck:
I had a phone call from a mate a couple of weeks ago, he told me he'd heard somewhere that the FM radio signal won't be switched off.

I heard that too, Fuzzyduck. It was a couple of months ago one of my mates told me he'd read on a website somewhere that there were no plans to ever switch off the analogue FM signals in the UK. Reading the first post of this thread though, almost made my heart skip a beat! - "2012?! That's not far off!! " And for all these people who say digital is better, they can look at us in 20 years time listening to FM Stereo on our very old boomboxes, and we can say to them "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!"

My Grandad just told me that he'd read that they may be switching DAB off! He said they're considering shutting down some of the DAB stations because of bad reception, people not being able to recieve stations at all in some areas, and the radios themselves being too expensive. That's very good news for us boomers! If anything, DAB will be scrapped, not FM!