ABC to join the digital radio trial

Just picked up an Oxx radio via eBay and am very impressed by sound quality of AM stations. Great to have access to ABC on digital radio too, hopefully it won’t be too long until all are broadcasting via digital.

pete09 said :

RegGrundies said :

Digital Radio is such a scam and a technological step backward

Because of the digital signal timelag it will become impossible for example to go to the footy with your little headset & listen to a game – as the action will be a few seconds ahead of the radio call

Just the same as happens with Digital TV changeover – gone are the days of listening to ABC Radio while watching the cricket pictures on 9/WIN

Farcical situation where technology is going backwards and live is no longer live

This happened with analogue too?

I think people are getting confused between the broadcast delay and the electronic delay.

The broadcast delay is the 3-10sec delay broadcasters use for live feeds so they can hit a mute/censor switch should something occur.

The electronic delay is that caused by the characteristics of the transmission path, the signal and the receiver hardware. I don’t think analogue entirely escaped it, but it’s a very noticeable problem with digital signals. How much of a problem depends on the receiver which is where the delay occurs.

The digital radio signal consists of an AAC bitstream that has to be processed and turned into the analogue signal you can actually hear. It’s about 3 seconds on average, though it’s safe to say it will be worse for battery operated devices trying to make the chipset sip battery power as opposed to a plug in device.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/hometech/digital-radio-in-your-pocket-20100324-qwew.html

pete09 said :

RegGrundies said :

Digital Radio is such a scam and a technological step backward

Because of the digital signal timelag it will become impossible for example to go to the footy with your little headset & listen to a game – as the action will be a few seconds ahead of the radio call

Just the same as happens with Digital TV changeover – gone are the days of listening to ABC Radio while watching the cricket pictures on 9/WIN

Farcical situation where technology is going backwards and live is no longer live

This happened with analogue too?

No Pete, I’m sorry, you’ll have to look elsewhere for the reason. Broadcast signals travel at approximately the speed of light whether they are digital or analogue. One might argue that there are some digital-analogue conversion steps involved (may or may not be relevant because so many steps in the chain are digital anyway) but these can add at most milliseconds to the process.

RegGrundies said :

Digital Radio is such a scam and a technological step backward

Because of the digital signal timelag it will become impossible for example to go to the footy with your little headset & listen to a game – as the action will be a few seconds ahead of the radio call

Just the same as happens with Digital TV changeover – gone are the days of listening to ABC Radio while watching the cricket pictures on 9/WIN

Farcical situation where technology is going backwards and live is no longer live

This happened with analogue too?

Digital Radio is such a scam and a technological step backward

Because of the digital signal timelag it will become impossible for example to go to the footy with your little headset & listen to a game – as the action will be a few seconds ahead of the radio call

Just the same as happens with Digital TV changeover – gone are the days of listening to ABC Radio while watching the cricket pictures on 9/WIN

Farcical situation where technology is going backwards and live is no longer live

Holden Caulfield said :

switch said :

“Switch on date TBA”

Radio National and 666 are on now.

Cool, so any recommendations on a digital radio to buy?

Get a Sangean one from Bing Lee. It is the best brand and can pull in stations from a greater distance than most other brands. It also has an inbuilt recharge function. Install rechargeable batteries (NiMH), connect the recharger each night when you go to bed and take the radio around with you during the day. It also has five preset buttons so you can listen to your favourite stations without twisting knobs and needing to switch between AM and FM.

switch said :

“Switch on date TBA”

Radio National and 666 are on now.

Cool, so any recommendations on a digital radio to buy?

“Switch on date TBA”

Radio National and 666 are on now.

switch said :

patrick_keogh said :

The advantages are similar (better quality and more channels).

I think you mean “better quality OR more channels.” There’s only so much bandwidth available.

No I meant better quality and more channels. Digital broadcast is much more efficient in the use of bandwidth than analogue.

patrick_keogh said :

The advantages are similar (better quality and more channels).

I think you mean “better quality OR more channels.” There’s only so much bandwidth available.