HD Radio is a big sham on the American public. The quality is less than 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.
I agree with everything you said...up to the point that there's nothing of quality to listen to anymore. Our local NPR station here in Cincinnati just started broadcasting its NPR content on HD channel 1 and simulcasting a formerly Internet-only alt-rock station, WOXY.com, on HD channel 2. This is positively huge because WOXY, which had the terrestrial frequency of 97.7 until the owners retired a couple years ago, was about the highest-quality alternative station you could find (consistently recommended by Rolling Stone, etc.) and it has managed to retain a pretty good version of itself through its transition to online-only. So, to be able to hear WOXY again in my car and home without futzing with HTPCs and other wonky net tuner gadgets will be really nice. Worth $130? Yeah...I think it is.
I stand corrected and defer to the gentleman from Ohio. 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 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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan @ Sep 27th 2007 10:40PM
HD Radio is a big sham on the American public. The quality is less than
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
Craig @ Sep 27th 2007 11:15PM
I agree with everything you said...up to the point that there's nothing of quality to listen to anymore. Our local NPR station here in Cincinnati just started broadcasting its NPR content on HD channel 1 and simulcasting a formerly Internet-only alt-rock station, WOXY.com, on HD channel 2. This is positively huge because WOXY, which had the terrestrial frequency of 97.7 until the owners retired a couple years ago, was about the highest-quality alternative station you could find (consistently recommended by Rolling Stone, etc.) and it has managed to retain a pretty good version of itself through its transition to online-only. So, to be able to hear WOXY again in my car and home without futzing with HTPCs and other wonky net tuner gadgets will be really nice. Worth $130? Yeah...I think it is.
Dan @ Sep 27th 2007 11:31PM
I stand corrected and defer to the gentleman from Ohio.
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
Shane @ Sep 27th 2007 11:39PM
@Dan
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.