What do you think about the DAB switchover? Your views needed....

[plastic penguin]

Wot riles me is that digital via Freeview is fine with BBC stations but the commercial ones are still atrocious. It has been said elsewhere that the commercial stations will improve their SQ once the switchover takes place. For some reason I feel slightly jittery about the claim.

 

[Diamond Joe]

Wot riles me is that digital via Freeview is fine with BBC stations but the commercial ones are still atrocious. It has been said elsewhere that the commercial stations will improve their SQ once the switchover takes place. For some reason I feel slightly jittery about the claim.

I think it's highly unlikely the commercial stations will change anything after DSO, sadly. I'm sure the jittery nature of these channels is more to do with their chosen bit rate rather than the power of the transmission, although the latter should go up post DSO, which can't be a bad thing.

BTW, are you still cycling PP? I've finally managed to get out on mine.

 

[plastic penguin]

Had to give the bike back to the bro-in-law last week. Absolutely love it though.

Back to the DSO, the bitrate has to be changed by the commercial stations - it is truely awful. The sibilance is so prominent, and compared to FM it can't hold a candle to it. Are we being short changed? Me thinks we are... Why should we stand for sub-standard SQ? J)

 

[audioaffair]

There's no denying the choice available on DAB but there are so many classic tuners out there, i will be devasted when the swtich off happens !

 

[Frank Harvey]

I think analogue broadcasts should've been left alone so people can continue to use their existing radios, and audiophiles their high end tuners.

Internet radio is the future, DAB isn't. This is just a waste of time and our money.

 

[ultraminiature]

DABs was adopted too early. Even if DAB2+ became common by 2015 or later this isn't better than the national radio stations available on Freeview and Freesat.

I have yet to get a good signal on a portable DAB radio and in some areas of the county there is no useful signal.

Perhaps internet radio is the future of both radio and TV but there is still a need for a cheaper broadcast radio service for people driving and away from mains and broadband.

DAB should be killed off before it drains more money. Digital radio from Freeview and Freesat already covers or will cover once the TV switch over is complete the country.Anyone with a Freeview enabled TV already can pick up a strong and high quality signal for all national radio without the need for DAB or a DAB radio.

The quality is higher than on DAB but can't be changed to a better format any more than DAB can be easily upgraded to DAB2+. This is not a problem for a computer based streamed radio service.

Local radio should be put on Freeview as part of a roll out of Freeview for mobile devices (smaller image, more compressed TV - the opposite of offering a limited number of HD channels by compressing further the other channels) for news reporting current topic, discussion and sports. This leaves high quality HD films, dramas and documentaries to HD Freesat and media on demand from iPlayer and subscription services.

With Android TV boxes providing smart TV to old sets for under £70 costs are falling rapidly and these can get away with software upgrades before needing more powerful hardware. 3D movies are going to muddy the options increase the bandwidth and low the image quality (compared to 1080p HD 2D programmes).

 

[davidlu]

As this government is backtracking on green issues i don't think they give a toss about how many fm radios go in containers to India or China. I recall a few questions on t' radio to politicians regarding landfill problem but they were ignored or sidestepped. Thats something they learn in politician school.

All a chancellor sees is a pile of cash on his desk from selling of airwaves.

A lot of people will want to use battery dab radios. I tested my dab portable that i bought for use abroad and then found out there were no dab stations that i could pick up over there. The batteries last half a day back in wonderful blighty.

The Chinese economy will be greatly boosted from selling the gadgets that make fm car radios recieve dab.

This country has been going backwards for years in terms of quality that the BBC used to uphold.

THE GOONS recording of "Walking backwards to Christmas" comes to mind.

Quite frankly i am fed up of the lot of them.