Directed Electronics intros HD Radio add-on for car stereos
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 12th 2007 4:57PM
posted February 12th 2007 4:57PM
Directed Electronics looks to be doing its best to help out the HD Radio Alliance in its big-budget efforts to raise awareness of the fledgling HD Radio standard, introducing the DMHD-1000 HD Radio add-on unit to bring those digital broadcasts to existing car stereos. Unlike previous HD Radio add-on devices from the likes of Kenwood and Alpline, Directed Electronics' unit will work with any old car radio, using either the built-in FM modulator or RCA output, with a separate control panel catering to your station selecting needs, displaying the relevant information on its "multi-line" backlit display. While it is an add-on, the device unfortunately costs about as much as most are likely willing to pay for a standalone radio, setting you back an even $200. If that's not too much for you, you should be able to get your hands on one now.
You must be kidding me! An add-on should not cost more than an entire HD radio! I could get a new radio, installed for less than $200.
http://www.wholesaleinc.net/Wholesale-car-electronics_c16
Err...so let me get this straight, you get all the beauty and joy of hidef sound by...pumping it through an FM transmitter??? LOL. funny stuff. If anyone buys this and utilizes FM over the RCA's they are wasting their money.
Now i can hear 10 minutes of car refinancing commercials in high definition! YES
Woo-hoo. $200 for the same crap with shorter range and the same number of ads. No thanks. Sticking with XM. Forever.
Doesn't the FM mod defeat the whole purpose of having HD radio?
I've known about this for a while now. iBiquity has been selling them to broadcasters (as well as 2 other receiver models) on a promotional basis for months now.
I bought some of the Sangean HDT-1 tuners and was pretty impressed. I'm not so sure about the quality of these add on receivers but at least its a start.
Yes, in some cases it will be the same commercial crap in pure digital clarity but in other cases you can get at least one or maybe two additional channels of programming from each digital station.
This is especially true of the public radio stations on the dial though many commercial broadcasters are offering HD2 and HD3 programming as well.
True, it's not the best terrestrial digital radio system we could have had and it doesn't offer nearly as many "niche" channels as satellite but it also doesn't carry a monthly cost. It also will carry local content which is something satellite radio is prohibited from doing (aside from the local WX and traffic for major markets).
It could be a great shot in the arm for traditional broadcasters if they don't screw it up by pushing away the listeners with extra commercials or poor audio quality and even poorer content...
They couldn't make it any uglier? If I'm gonna spend $200 I want it to clash with everything on my dash. Give me some neon green buttons, dammit!
I don't live in my car so getting this is so NOT happenin' anytime in my lifetime.
+1 to Stephen. Let's get great sounding digital radio to the masses via analog FM transmitter! Brilliant!
The primary advantage of HD Radio is the additional channels that can be received in the FM band. In my area, I can receive an additional 10 FM channels - all non-commerical with no subscription fees. Also, the local public station has all NPR/BBC talk programming on its second channel.
You think commercials are not going to come to satellite music - think again (look at CATV channels and their commercial content load).
coop writes:
"I can receive an additional 10 FM channels - all non-commercial with no subscription fees."
So the question begs... if this music is coming from an FM radio station where the reason why it's free is due to advertisers and sponsors, how are the 10 channels of HD Radio commercial-free? Who's paying to have this broadcast?
Regardless, I'm with Sirius for the long haul. Besides the ability to get a better equipped radio at half the price, there's more than just 10 channels to listen to.
FWIW, I don't mind some commercials on stations like Howard 100 and CNN, but when it comes to music, it's so nice to be commercial-free.
The HD in HD-Radio doesn't stand for "High Definition", it doesn't stand for anything but a marketing ploy to get money from consumers, if anything it should stand for "Highly Distorted" because that's what it is. It sounds worse than analog FM radio, not better.
Just because it's digital doesn't mean it sounds good. Analog FM still is superior because it offers far more bandwidth, and it doesn't suffer from the horrible compression artifacts that "HD" radio does.
I do have to say, at least where I live, All the HD2 channels have no commercials. Granted that's probably because there are so few listeners per antenna (maybe forever). Yes, it's also broadcast at 10% power vs. the main analog channel, but if you're in or around the city you should be ok. I guess you are right you'd have to get a new radio... And yes, ClearChannel and the rest of big radio opted for the expensive licensed and proprietary solution which kept out new players and kept the radio spectrum real estate firmly controlled.
But don't totally nock it. Eventually when Apple owns all the radio stations, we'll talk about having close to what the europeans have.
coop writes:
"You think commercials are not going to come to satellite music - think again (look at CATV channels and their commercial content load)."
And why will Satellite radio have ads on music channels? They're supporting themselves with subscription fees and they get to run ads on talk stations. I'm unsure where your logic is going there.
Cable TV has ads because there are new shows that they know people will tune in to watch. Satellite radio is about making all the music we've been listening to for years available (finally) without commercials.
Open mouth ... insert foot.
XM has already started putting commercials on some channels.
And NOONE ought to be bragging about the sound quality of XM.
This thing though, is stupid if you're just going through an FM modulator.
I have a real HD receiver and I think the sound is MUCH better than FM. To those that say it isn't, have you tried it?
And, most of the second channels are commercial free and play different playlists than the main channels. It's definitely worth the $179 I paid for mine, not counting that it also got me an MP3 disc player.
But I live near Boston where we've got a lot of HD channels - every big station but 98.5 is running HD and HD2.
For what it's worth, I have this thing, and you can do it 2 ways: FM modulator or RCA inputs. When you use the RCA inputs, it sounds MUCH better.
HD radio does stand for High Def, and it is MUCH higher quality. I was never impressed with satellite radio, and the audio on this sounds MUCH cleaner and "brighter" than FM or Sat. More on par with a CD; at least for me, it sounds better then the CD deck in my car.
The primary advantage of HD is the quality. The side channels are a close second. (Some HD recievers can't get the side channels, but most do now.) The side channels are interesting. Like was said before, the side channels have less/no commercials. Plus, it's easy to use: if the signal fades such that it can't hold the HD stream, it automatically (and in sync) fades back to the analog stream. The HD comes back when it can.
Yeah, driving this through an FM modulator eliminates the primary advantage, and doesn't really make sense. If you have the ability to take RCA inputs, though, it will sound really good.
I'm in NYC, and all (PLJ, KTU, Z100, Q104, except for 1 notable exception: KRock) broadcast in HD, and almost all of them have side channels.
I think the radio stuff will parallel the TV adoption. The HD is better, and free, but physically localized. The main problem with HD is that many people don't know it exists and that it's free. As that spreads, more people will use it. As more and more cable boxes / car radios come with the HD built in, the more people will find themselves using it. Satellite's primary advantages are physical coverage (anywhere in the country where you can see the sky) and range of content.
The quality is like the whole HD TV movement too: most people were like "my TV is fine, why do I need HD?" but once you see it, you can't imagine being without it. I was fine with satellite and regular FM, but now that I've heard HD, I find them both wanting. I'd love it if Sirius/XM would start doing HD streams, or at least something better than what they have now. I travel a lot, so I have to keep the sat, but I tend to use the HD more and more when I'm local.
HD does not stand for High Definition, that is only for TV, it stands for Hybrid Digital on radio even though iBiquity is trying to distance itself from that fact in a ploy to fool more consumers into thinking it does in fact stand for High Definiton. It is going over like a lead balloon and anyone that buys one is buying a soon to be obsolete appliance.
I have one of these -and do NOT use the RCA audio output terminals, unless you want distortion for the first 10 minutes of use!
FM tuner is decent, HD2 and HD3 on FM are cool, but HD-AM doesn't work so hot at night, and tuner AGC is very poor.
Also, the FM modulator is bad too, as it is slightly off frequency, causing slurring of SSSSSS sounds on HD-AM as well.
This radio COULD be good if they would go back and fix the bad FM Mod, the AGC, the RCA distortion and the excessive heat this baby gives off.
I'd spend $100 for this, but not $200 again.
J