http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/ Engadget Comments for JVC unveils the KT-HDP1 "plug and play" portable HD radio http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 27th 2007 9:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/90 kbts mp3, which is quite a bit less quality than uncompressed FM stereo.
The company doing all this, with a monopoly sanctioned by the FCC is
ibiquity. They are not interested in providing better quality, just signing up
stations around the country, who have no other choice. They are the only
provider of HD radio. Who slept with who to get this done?

It's all about the money, not about provided the consumer with a better
listening experience. The idea of Broadcast Quality is now officially dead
with the advance of so called HD Radio. The very name is such a joke to us in the
industry the only thing we can do is salute the old days and say, at least
I was lucky enough to be around when good quality radio was important to
broadcasters. Those days are over my friends. This will drive more people
to their iPods and Internet radio than ever before.

Dan]]>Sep 27th 2007 10:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 27th 2007 11:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/I understand where you are coming from. Something is many times
better than nothing. And simple is also better than "futzing" to get the
job done. I'm betting in the future, you could buy an iPhone (version 2
with G3) go online to the internet version of WOXY, connect your iPhone to your
car system and listen in your car to internet radio. Pretty cool don't you think?

Dan]]>Sep 27th 2007 11:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/As a broadcaster who is doing HD, I would have to agree with you on some of those points, however, it's the system we're stuck with. It may not be the best technical solution but it does have a number of advantages to digital listeners like higher audio quality, reduction in multipath interference as well as 2nd and 3rd audio channels.

You mostly have the commercial broadcasters to thank for the fact that iBiquity is what it is. If they had their way initially we wouldn't even have HD2/HD3 channels! They were afraid of diluting the market...It really is the public broadcasters who are pushing the envelope on this one. NPR worked closely with iBiquity to invent that capability. Most Public broadcasters care enough about quality that their audio channels don't sound like crap.

Regarding the bitrate and sound quality, it really isn't fair to compare it to MP3. Apples and oranges. The codec used by iBiquity is HDC which is essentially an implementation of AAC+. XM also uses an implementation of this codec. At 96 kbps it sounds absolutely amazing. Better than FM quality and nearly CD quality. The biggest advantage over FM is not dealing with a pre-emphasis curve and corresponding de-emphasis.

When you split the 96 kbps HD channel into 48/48 or 48/24/24 to do HD2 or HD2 and HD3 it starts to get a little worse but still better than the bitrates that satellite radio is running on their channels...

Regardless of how you feel about HD Radio, it's here to stay.]]>Sep 27th 2007 11:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/You can set up your own internet radio station very easily on the Mac with
Nicecast. (Probably there is something on the PC too). All you do is
run iTunes into Nicecast and broadcast your stream on the internet.
If you have DSL you can easily have enough bandwidth for one or two
streams, so you can point your iPhone to your own internet radio station
and listen to your own mix, on the way to work and on the way home
and in the office, ( for 128 or higher bit rates, we'll need version 2 of
the iPhone next year... so be it). This is very simple and once people are shown how simple it is, they will most likely start setting it up themselves.
A few simple video tutorials on youtube and off you go. Maybe I'll do a few.

Broadcasters have killed the goose by putting 20 minutes of commercials
in a typical hour and also basically eliminated new and interesting music
because their consultants told them the 30 songs they MUST play to get
listeners. This is bad because where are new artists going to get
exposure going forward? Certainly not from the iPhone-iTunes-Nicecast
senario I mentioned above. The marketing of music is forever changed
and it seems like the last folks to understand the change are Radio folks.
How will new artists get exposure? I'm not a guru and don't have the answer.

I ask you this, if a new Elton John were to release an album next month,
(a 24 year old Elton that is) who would hear it? Only a very small sliver of
the listening audience, versus 37 years ago when the vast majority would have
had the opportunity to sample his music on various stations across formats.
Not today my friend. So how does it work today? That is not a simple answer.

40 years ago it was very simple. Broadcasters today have not even the
foggiest idea of how to do it, which begs the question..... what do we need
them for? They don't do news, they don't do local coverage of any kind
whatsoever like we used to. They don't cover local bands. They don't
cover local politics. What are they there for? Why do we give them our
airwaves free of charge? Are they serving the public interest as a public trustee?
Stuff to think about, no?

Dan]]>Sep 28th 2007 12:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/
The shell games that many commercial broadcasters play in terms of buying, selling and moving stations to turn a profit drive me nuts. The FCC has for some reason decided that these kinds of actions actually serve the public.

These kinds of games along with poor programming and too many commercials do indeed drive away listeners and do nothing to serve the public.

You seem to really like Internet streaming. I do as well, however, when you start thinking about the cost per listener it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a business model. It's a nice thing to offer but it will never be able to serve the same number of people as cost effectively as a large FM or AM transmitter will.

With traditional broadcasting the initial investment in hardware is only made once. There is no recurring cost per listener. It is inherently a one-to-many technology.

Perhaps as the Internet changes and mobile broadband becomes more and more common this will change, but for now, broadcasters still have an advantage in that regard.]]>Sep 28th 2007 4:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/
Greg
]]>Sep 30th 2007 12:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 28th 2007 8:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/
Satellite radio is the ultimate for the car. And for the home, we've got internet radio. HD doesn't improve upon that! There is no HD market, even in theory. It's a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Existing infrastructure doesn't allow for HD. HD is a giant step backwards. I wouldn't invest in it. ]]>Sep 28th 2007 6:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 28th 2007 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 28th 2007 7:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 28th 2007 7:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Sep 29th 2007 2:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Oct 1st 2007 2:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/
http://www.amazon.com/Plug-Play-SIRIUS-Satellite-Accessories-model/dp/B000E626K2]]>Oct 2nd 2007 12:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/
does that make sense?]]>Oct 4th 2007 12:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/jvc-unveils-the-kt-hdp1-plug-and-play-portable-hd-radio/Oct 23rd 2007 4:25PM