Why isn't DAB the future?

RumRat

J_B wrote: »

Nope, not a clue sorry

Never felt the need to 'invest' in such things - we have a decent radio in the house and one in the car ... ain't broke = don't fix!

The two systems are entirely different so the not broke, don't fix axiom doesn't really mean anything.
If you have no clue about how they work, how do you know the investment isn't worth it..;)
Reality is, if you like music, it doesn't really matter how you get your fix. If just radio is enough........Enjoy..:)

Stoke

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Thats a real bonus. Avoiding the occasional interference on a waveband I haven't used for 20 years.

DAB will be around for years but will become the MW of the future. Lots of stations but limited sound quality due to bandwidth splitting.

The electrical interference is usually caused by the 12v socket, so if you want to charge your phone, it's just pure noise. As for not using it for 20 years, there are some stations you cannot get on FM.

I think DAB has plenty of life in it right now.

thescouselander wrote: »

Medium Wave? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

If you want to listen to 5Live......... I'm not aware that it's on FM yet.

wongataa

patman99 wrote: »

I can see the UK following France and withdrawing DAB with it's bandwidth hungry MP3 codecs and moving to DAB+ with the much more efficient ACC codecs instead.

A 128 bit stereo stream using ACC takes the same bandwidth as a mono MP3 stream at 48 bits does.

As yet, there are no plans to introduce DAB+ in the UK, but with enough pressure things might change.

Though there a couple of DAB+ only stations.

almillar

One reason is (AFAIK) DAB is mono audio whilst FM is (usually) stereo.

Some stations (mostly the talk ones I thought) are Mono. Nothing wrong with that IMO, it's the bit-rate I don't like - Absolute Radio is 80kbps (and it's MP3 level technology) - alright for background listening, but decent FM will spank it for quality. In the same way as Freeview (pre HD), but worse, DAB has too many stations squeezed into too little bandwidth. Having said all that, I do use it in the car, but at home the internet has it beat.

Poor quality audio for example is a common complaint, as it's about 128K mp3 if I'm thinking right?

It varies. 128kbps is about the BEST you'll get. They can use more if they want, but it would mean fewer stations.

DAB+ uses AAC type encoding, rather than MP3, making it much more efficient at the low bitrates they allow themselves. But since the UK got in early, we're stuck with lots of people with 'MP3 DAB' radios, that wouldn't be compatible with the newer 'DAB+ AAC' codec. Lots of other countries have gone with broadcasting only DAB+.

Stoke

Does hospital equipment interfere/block DAB?

Norman_Castle

Stoke wrote: »

Does hospital equipment interfere/block DAB?

Yes. After buying an MRI scanner I struggled to get radio 4 in the kitchen.

RumRat

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Yes. After buying an MRI scanner I struggled to get radio 4 in the kitchen.

:rotfl::rotfl:

Stoke

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Yes. After buying an MRI scanner I struggled to get radio 4 in the kitchen.

Funny. Point is I've found a single deadspot which is right by the University hospital in Manchester. It's not just a bit rough, it's completely dead when you drive around the hospital. Draw a square around the hospital, that has no DAB, at all.

Just wondered. No need to be sarky

Jivesinger

Meanwhile, over in the USA, people are clamouring for FM functionality to be enabled in Smartphones, following the hurricanes they've had lately.

As mentioned, DAB is very power-hungry, so when the mains power is off and you're trying to tune in to local radio on batteries to find out important local info, what you need is FM.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/28/fcc-urges-apple-to-activate-fm-radio-chip/

Stoke

Jivesinger wrote: »

Meanwhile, over in the USA, people are clamouring for FM functionality to be enabled in Smartphones, following the hurricanes they've had lately.

As mentioned, DAB is very power-hungry, so when the mains power is off and you're trying to tune in to local radio on batteries to find out important local info, what you need is FM.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/28/fcc-urges-apple-to-activate-fm-radio-chip/

Despite the fact that FM would be absolutely useless in a genuine disaster situation, hence emergency broadcasts, historically, were broadcast via shortwave and medium wave......

Not saying I disagree. I think there are genuine reasons to keep analogue radio transmitters in service, but to say it's because we need emergency FM transmissions is somewhat disingenuous.

As for phones, well, many phones have FM radio receivers built in.... they're either disconnected and/or disabled via software.