DAB Switch over

[AndyRKett]

Have been seeing a bit recently about the end of FM radio with the government committing to beginning switch over from 2015 (less than 2 years)

These days many people have DAB radios in the home but apparently something like 25+million cars currently would be left with obsolete radios as still the majority of manufactures still fit non dab units as standard.

Fiat has to be one of the worst offenders with very few cars having a DAB radio usually a special model or expensive optional extra.

in the next year or so I plan to put a DAB in my MK2b punto just to update it more than anything an i see Pure have recently launched a couple of new head units with some pretty good features.

How will you deal with digital switch over? especially those with blue and me radios which aren't easily replaced? will fiat release something to aid these owners if buying a new car would you be prepared to pay the premium of an dab head unit ? will be interesting to see what people think of this as its likely to be the biggest pain in the arse for motorists over the next couple of years

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I can't see digital switch over any time soon, let alone 2 years. Government need to sort their flipping priorities out if you ask me!

 

[sludgeguts]

If it's anything like the digital telly, most of it will be pants anyway.
You sit there enjoying a film or telly prog & the pic starts to 'dither' or you get those damned blocky pixel things.

Despite my bus at work having an antique radio/cassette, I use a cassette adapter to play music from my phone via the main speakers & sometimes end up streaming a radio station - generally a couple of seconds' lag but better than crappy FM reception.

 

[M21MFS]

The DAB switchover is something that's been hanging over the industry for years now. Can't see it happening any time soon.

Can't comment on England, but up here the reception on DAB is poor. As a replacement for tried and tested mediums, it's just not there. FM has a good few years left, it's AM I'm less convinced about. It's an ailing medium and most likely the band which will go sooner.

I'm not sure the technical differences, but I'm sure DAB+ is becoming the standard in mainland europe but as usual there's no indication if/when it would ever come to the UK.

FM will not turn off in 2015. If I remember correctly DAB accounts for around 25% of radio listening. It's not enough to justify pulling the plug and until that figure is higher it would make no sense to make the switch.

So yeh, enjoy your FM

 

[AndyRKett]

The government has to make a plan on this by the end of this year so an official announcement is due before December.

The industry target is to have fm levels of coverage by 2015 to allow the beginning of switch over expected to complete by 2017.

Fm will not be switched off as with analogue tv but instead will be handed over to local radio stations only with all national stations being moved over to dab.

So this is coming, is it sensible to ignore it?

 

[M21MFS]

2013 was a target for planning the switchover - based on a 50% listening threshold. We're no where near that at present, so it's all but certain to be delayed.

To give you an idea of the challenge here, switch digital have been running an ad campaign on uk commercial stations, promoting listeners to switch to digital radio. This has been ongoing for the best part of 10 years.

 

[ChrisUK]

Our DAB in the office is a pile of **** on DAB mode. I listen 100% to my own choice of music using Blue&Me so I couldn't care less about analogue FM.

 

[Focus Owner]

i have a dab radio n its crap, if i move it 2 inch it dont even fuzz ,meaning i sleep in

 

[mark65]

I have got dab radio in my car and ive done it on the cheap.i got a personal dab radio from tesco direct a technika for about £15 and plugged it in to the aux port.i used it up to the lake district and back and had absolute 80ies all the way and it worked perfectly.all you need is the cable to plug in from the dab to the aux and a couple of rechargeable batteries

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I have got dab radio in my car and ive done it on the cheap.i got a personal dab radio from tesco direct a technika for about £15 and plugged it in to the aux port.i used it up to the lake district and back and had absolute 80ies all the way and it worked perfectly.all you need is the cable to plug in from the dab to the aux and a couple of rechargeable batteries

Got a web link to it?

Might be worth a punt at £15.

 

[mark65]

Got a web link to it?

Might be worth a punt at £15.

tbh ive no idea how to put up a web link sorrybut if you go on tesco direct it is in the dab radio section .i am getting another one delivered to my local tesco this afternoon for my oh's car but now it is £18 but still worth it

 

[scout]

Is it this one

 

[mark65]

Is it this one

yes thats the one not the not the sleakest bit of kit but it work for me.even if you find it doesn't work too good in your car you will still have a decent little personal dab radio

 

[mark65]

Just put the dab player in oh's car and its fine picked up the cable i needed in tesco for 99p

 

[The Beard]

This was one of His Tonyness's ideas. Alongside the switch to set top boxes for television. My Mother-in-Law has never really got to grips with all these new channels. Neither did my parents. They all only watch the 5 channels they've watched for years.

DVB and DAB have never changed the world, yet for some reason they were touted as being important. As important as invading Iraq?

After speaking to some audiophiles, it seems that much of the information on a disc is lost in the compression of the audio signal that's necessary to get the piece of music into such a narrow bandwidth. It might not affect Jay Zed or Tichy Strider but for those who listen (especially to classical music) critically will lose quite a lot of the audio information that would have been present on the original recording.

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think I can notice a difference when I listen to my MP3 player.

 

[dtwidle]

DAB seems to have terribly unreliable signal even on fixed unit radios. I've never seen car DAB in action but I bet it's not great.