DAB RADIO Tesco offer

Sybarite

I wouldn't dream of upsetting Radio 3 listeners, being one myself I couldn't handle the long silences that might result.

I bought the Evoke thingy to listen to Radios 4&3 and infrequently 7 and world service, although it occasionally gets switched to Xfm, at which point I shout profanities or leave the room. To expalin - the ads on commercial radio are usually so innaine that they make me want to perforate my ear-drums rather than hearing them.

Essentially it's used as a bedside alarm and it was a bargain at £50 so I've been as happy as a Frenchman with an EU subsidy.

I was thinking of purchasing a new Sony DAB tuner for my main system, the STSDB900 to be precise as my FM reception for Radio 3 can be variable. Has anybody had any experience of this machine?

Re the poor choice of DAB, well I do get more stations that I'll probably never listen to, so I'm not sure what exactly is being referred to here. I live in an apartment where everything in wired into to a single aerial and the signal is then split between flats - the DAB thing has therefore been very useful, as indeed has Digital TV, as it enables me to receive BBC1 without terrible ghosting.

Re digital TV and receivers though, my Philips one freezes usually with the first 5mins for about a minute, before sorting itself out, which apparently is normal(ish).

I've considered buying an integrated digital TV (esp as the CRT widescreens are so ridiculously cheap because of the dreadfully overpriced, but must-have and poor resolution LCD and Plasma screens).

But, I'm so annoyed with the 'you have to be watching the same digital channel that you want to record' situation that it puts me off. Apparently I can link up a freeview box to solve this problem, but for love of scart leads, why can't the manufacturers simply slap an additional decoder in the set, I'd happily pay the price if it mean't i got what i actually want which is very simple - a TV where I can watch one channel and record another.

On the technology issue, does anyone know how I can install a firmware upgrade for my Sony DVD recorder (an RDR GX7) without having to send it to the local agent who will charge me £40 for the privilege?

Thanks

droopsnout

Your choice of DAB stations is limited to those offered almost exclusively by the big, station-owning groups to whom OFCOM decided to award the contracts, plus the Beeb. In other words, the station owners also own the multiplexes, and so there is little chance of any outside station getting a DAB position.

On AM and FM there are just a few other broadcasters who don't belong to GCap, EMAP, etc. (And note that these groups are still exploring ways to amalgamate and form even stronger groups). Newly-arrived stations like Radio London (1395AM and Sky 940) and planned stations like the one from the Isle of Man (279 LW), would love to have a DAB frequency, and this may well happen when the new frequencies are allocated, especially if the new multiplexes are kept out of the hands of the existing big groups.

DRM should allow other broadcasters, albeit probably from outside the UK to offer a greater choice of programming, probably more spoken word.

If, of course, you're quite happy with the musical pap with which the present ILR stations pollute the airwaves, and the inane drivel which many BBC local radio stations treat us to, then by all means buy a DAB set.

For most, FM currently provides a similar choice of stations with better quality audio.

Sybarite, I understand that your FM signal is being affected by its division within a block of apartments, but don't understand why a stand-alone DAB set would work better than a stand-alone FM set.

Unfortunately, radio is set to die a fairly slow death, I think, as the one-eyed monster in the corner takes an even stronger hold on our lives, as Sybarite's post indicates, talking as s/he does of TV in a thread about radio. The two are completely intertwined now, and with the arrival of the Sky Gnome device, it will become even more difficult to separate the two media.

Interesting times for broadcasting, and it will be interesting, too, to watch the development of the satellite radio systems currently on offer in the US.

Sybarite

I'm not sure either but it does, I tried stand alone FM first and had too much interference. The DAB was a reluctant purchase - see the Pure Evoke comments earlier and like most things in life a bit of a compromise.

I also used to use the online BBC radio facility, but the signal quality seems very variable and sometimes downright dreadful - I understand this is something to do with how the BBC compresses the audio and the bandwidth invloved.

Evidently there are some strong feelings regarding DAB - which I certainly haven't encountered before. I just want to listen to the Today Programme without having to wave an aerial about.

droopsnout

Sybarite wrote:

I just want to listen to the Today Programme without having to wave an aerial about.

Yes, you and me and many others!

But I'm also after someone's take on the news, and preferably not George Dubbya's! So I still like to listen to a non-UK news broadcast, and that is where DRM may be useful in the future. Living in France, I do at least get a French take on things, but I'm still left with a Western European view of the world.

Well, it seems you have a solution that works for you, and that's what counts in the end.

As a matter of interest, will you feel slightly cheesed that your DAB portable may be unable to receive the latest frequencies? Or is it just radio anoraks like me who would be very peeved?

Sybarite

I'm not so sure that the two are so intertwined, despite digital radio being available through my freeview box. Not because the broadcasters wouldn't like it to be, but because of the way people listen to radio v the way they watch TV.

I wanted to have a stand-alone radio as I don't like having the TV on all day and a TV isn't really very portable. Similarly I wouldn't leave the TV on as background burble in the same way i do with radio as a)daytime TV makes you want to buy Cilit Bang! b)I don't want to have to concentrate on watching the screen every so often c)There's not usually anything worth concentrating on.

In the same way I don't really give two hoots about the increased selection of available channels, especially on TV, 70% of which just seem to be more pap that I simply have no interest in. I take your point regarding access to the media and would add in the advertising revenue factor - as this is what Digital does seem to have brought us - even more ads.

As for local radio, who does, and I think quotation marks are justified here 'listen' to it, apart of course from Dave in Sydenham who thinks that other people are simply desperate to hear his fatuous, tabloid informed opinions, spouted off on whatever phone-in he listens too. I've never really understood how local radio keeps going.

droopsnout

Sybarite wrote:

a)daytime TV makes you want to buy Cilit Bang!

Who the hell is Barry Scott anyway?

Intertwined ... Well, it's not just Freeview, it's also Sky Digital.

Fewer youngsters are listening to the radio these days because they're watching MTV (etc) where they can see their heroes as well as hear them. But there are brother/sister TV/radio stations, like Kerrang! and so on.

Adults listen to the news on the radio much less nowadays because they have rolling 24-hour news channels on digital TV. But BBC news on TV is rolled out to us by the same teams basically as the radio news. Sky News does the news bulletins for much of the commercial radio sector.

There are something like 80 radio stations on Sky Digital, all with a pathetically small share of the market, many carrying no commercials, and I don't understand how they survive, but they do ... Most of them, anyway.

Radio used to be listened to during the daytime, as there was no TV during the day. Now it's largely 24-hour TV, but a lot of it is received through the same technology, a set-top box. So it's easy to swap from radio to TV. And the Sky Gnome will be transmitting those stations around the house, too. And I guess Sky wouldn't be investing in such technology if they didn't see radio as a money-earner.

So despite my own doubts as to the future health of radio, it is certainly bound up with the future of TV and Sky, and probably Freeview, too.

droopsnout

Interesting though our discussion is, I'm afraid we're not helping Derrick much with his original enquiry. Sorry, Derrick!

Sybarite

I totally agree re the news thingy and the George W Gump/Sky/Fox/ITN and even BBC news durge which focuses on national minutiae but rarely gives a fresh or interesting perspective on world events. It strikes me that there are a fewer 'real' things in the news in general and there's a lot more PR produced stories - which I have little interest in (I used to be in PR so they're easy to spot). Oh and pointless graphics - there are tons of those too.

Re the technical issue, I'm a fairly typical and habitual radio listener so my order of preference would be; reception, longevity of the unit, facilities, cost, added features.

The £50 spend on the Pure will probably do what I want and the radio should last for 10yrs which is fine by me.

I really object to having to upgrade for relatively pointless reasons, ie, not enough scart sockets, incombatibility, lack of a headphone point, that sort of thing. If you can't get the stations you want to actually lsiten too, when that's the main reason for having the radio so I can understand why you'd wait.

I also try to buy reasonably expensive technology when I've decided I want something and plan for it to last 5-10 years, depending of course on what it is - eg. my hi fi separates are 12yrs old and I'm perfectly happy with them, but would add a decent dab tuner. This seems the most money-saving way of owning the stuff, and I also have issues regarding throwing consumer durables away before their lifespan is exhausted. The fact that it's also impossible to recycle them is an added annoyance.

What really ticks me off is that portable audio things do seem to breakdown after a few years and are impossible to have repaired cost effectively - I've been through 4 CD walkmans each over £100 and each have died due to the laser assembly failing - this is an uneconomic £70 to have replaced. It's very exasperating

belleooo

derrick wrote:

Has any one got any ideas re this radio from Tesco, opinions views,reliability good price?

Didn't buy it from Tesco but I have this radio and can confim that it is a cracker.

nemo183

Sybarite wrote:

In the same way I don't really give two hoots about the increased selection of available channels, especially on TV, 70% of which just seem to be more pap that I simply have no interest in.

Hey, let's be realistic here...... surely the "pap" figure should be closer to 85%?