Dab to kill fm

devizes18193

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2483478/UK-prepares-for-digital-future.html
I see dab will be killing off fm . The thing that is not mentioned there is a hell of a lot of cars out there that have non standard slots for the car stereo. So will this mean in 2015 we'll all have to upgrade out kit from the main dealer and at main dealer prices ?
Just a thought

maninthestreet

Many cars have a radio built-in to the dash. Changing it would very difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

goldspanners

or you could just buy the DAB aftermarket unit?

i have an accoustic soloutions one,bit of work to fit it but it does work well.

Hintza

I don't know too much about it but I thought that they hadn't even decided whether the current DAB format would be in use in the future.

Anyone know what is really happening with DAB etc?

goldspanners

Hintza wrote: »

I don't know too much about it but I thought that they hadn't even decided whether the current DAB format would be in use in the future.

Anyone know what is really happening with DAB etc?

havent a clue,but i know the yanks have satelite radio,dont know if this is basically the same as DAB,or if this is different again.

Markyt

Last I heard DAB was in trouble. It hasn't had the take up needed to be commercially viable.

custardy

in car DAB has a long way to go before its viable
anyone i know who as tried it has had problems with stations dropping out a lot

i wouldnt worry,theres already DAB add on units
even on newer cars with non standard radio sizes can easily be converted with adapter plates

if its coming then radio manaufacturers and car makers will be making DAB standard fit before thenf

dieselhead

I can't see this happening any time soon, DAB coverage seems patchy at best where I live in the centre of a city there is no DAB at all.

thescouselander

There's a good reason why cars dont have DAB radio - it doesn't work too well. Unfortunately with digital you get all or nothing so in areas of marginal coverage you get nothing with DAB but with FM you just get a bit of a degraded but useful signal.

I know someone who had a DAB radio in their car and it is next to useless.

Killing off conventional FM is a huge mistake in my opinion and appears only to be motivated by the fact the government will be able to auction off the radio bandwidth used by the current radio stations.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

It will not be DAB, it will be DAB+.

And most modern cars may have a custom-fit radio socket, but all manufacturers sell replacement panels so that ordinary single-DIN units may be used.

Besides which, any radio that has an AUX socket would be fully compatible with a purpose-built DAB receiver, so you need not change the radio in your car.

Cat695

DAB will be alot better (just as will digital TV) when they turn off the analogue signal......as they are going to boost the digital signals

and I'm sure they will come up with some small device (just look at the digital sticks you can now get for TV's) so that you can still recieve the signal on your normal radio

SO after all the hype no one actually had to go out and buy a new "digital" tv (or even better a "digital" aerial....no such thing)

so its probably best not to be fooled into needing to buy a new stereo for your car.