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HD Radio Recording In the US?
unreceivedpacket writes "The public radio stations I listen to have been advertising their conversion to HD Radio format for some time. They advertise multiple channels, their second channel playing all classical, all the time. I am interested in purchasing a receiver so I can listen to this extra content, and was also hoping to find a receiver with a built-in recorder so I could time-shift programs that are not otherwise available as legal pod-casts. My initial queries have returned few models that support any kind of digital recording, and the existing ones seem out of production or sorely lacking features. Is this the state of Digital Radio in the US? Are there any legal recording devices for HD Radio? Any good solutions for recording and time-shifting, perhaps through Linux?"
Liberate the specturm or you will suffer digital restrictions. Vista's checking of line voltages to make sure no one has clipped on an analog recording device should tell you where all of this is going. The RIAA has been screaming about "radio pirates" for 50 years. Digital broadcast gives them a way to close the "analog hole" they so dread. If the makers colude with broadcasters, only "authorized" players will have keys to decode "HD" signals. If the specturm is liberated, everything will be high quality because no one but big publishers wants to degrade music.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
If you know of a solution, don't write it in this discussion!
Please be aware that not everyone who browses slashdot has our best interests at heart. Any commercial method to circumvent DRM will be jumped upon by our broadcast content overlords. Any non-commercial method will be legislated out of existence... the longer the media cartels remain in the dark, the longer we have to enjoy our right to timeshift content.
Like usenet... the first rule of usenet is that you don't talk about usenet.
Sorry for the pessimism and tinfoilhattery, but this entire ask slashdot question just screams "honeypot" to me, even if that wasn't its intent.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
say you have a hand-held "walkman" style player, you could just buy a 1/8" stereo to 1/8" stereo cable and plug it right in to the Input on your sound card, then use your favorite recording software to record and export as your favorite audio file type (mp3, ogg, etc.). If your tuner is a home stereo type, then you could buy a RCA to 1/8" adapter to connect to your computer. There are several different styles of adapters out there and they all do the same thing, so there is no need for the "Adapter for iPod" special cables that come with a special price, unless it makes you feel better paying more for the same thing.
XM and Sirius have significantly less bandwidth to use per channel compared to digital radio. The sound quality of digital radio is much better as a result.
I wouldn't mind recording digital radio, because it sounds as good as or better than a lot of MP3s you find on the 'net.
The downside is of course that while Satellite radio works everywhere, HD radio only works if you're within 50 feet of the transmitter. I live in an area theoretically covered in HD channels, but actually pulling any of them in reliably requires a substantial antenna and a very good tuner.
I really think the FCC screwed the pooch by giving Ibiquity a monopoly on HD radio with their halfassed system. Now you can pay a licensing fee to build the receiver for a service that barely works at all. I was originally excited about HD radio too because I thought it would be like Digital TV, where you can distribute a crystal clear picture out to where the channel would normally get a bit fuzzy and deal more elegantly with having channels directly adjacent to yours (a big problem around here, where sometimes stations will have stations on either side of the dial and most radio receivers will end up mixing your signal with the adjacent ones randomly when you're driving down the road). Instead we have a system where you practically never get an HD lock.
I read the internet for the articles.
First of all, HD radio is a new technology and one that isn't being very actively marketed. I have a feeling that the main reason for this is that most people are just fine with the audio quality of normal radio. Also, the medium of radio has been destroyed over the last few decades so now 99% of the people who listen to radio these days just have it on as background music in their cards or at work. You don't need high definition and a fancy receiver for that kind of use. People who want actual content coming through their speakers subscribe to satellite radio although I hear the (content) quality of that is starting to go downhill too.
Probably the best solution for the sumitter for now is simply to buy a regular receiver and plug it into the sound card of a PC. Use an IR blaster for changing the channel, turning the receiver on and off, etc.
Many Linux-compatible TV tuners come with FM tuners built-in, I suspect it's only a matter of time until they start putting HD radio tuners on those too.
You mean digital streaming radio. It's silly to call WCPE's 20 bps stream "HD".
My own favorite source of streams is the Aussie ABC network (90 bps!). Their "classical" channel is particularly refreshing because they define the term very broadly. Also a lot of good podcasts.
I hope this isn't too off topic. I have a Polk Audio XM reciever. It has both S/PDIF and Optical digital out. I just plug into either of the digital outs and record directly to my audio haddisk recorder. Any Mid-Fi device (HD Radio Reciever) shouod have atleast one digital out.
Can Vista "check the line voltage" ?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
What these streams are is the "HD2" channel's content being streamed at whatever bandwidth they can afford to give it. Nearly every station that has an "HD2" has an Internet stream of it.
It doesn't mean BluRay, HD-DVD, DVD-A or SACD quality audio. Just CD quality audio. Most terrestrial radio stations simulcast in "HD", you just need a receiver.
Bull. At best, it's like a low-bitrate MP3. That's nowhere near "CD quality".
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Heavily-compressed audio is obnoxious when you're listening to it in a quiet environment, but most people listen to radio in their cars, where there's a huge amount of background noise and a relatively small loudness 'window' between the noise floor and the maximum desirable volume.
If radio stations didn't compress their audio, especially for classical music and other programming with lots of dynamic range, people would have to constantly adjust the volume.
What would be better would be if the radios had the compressors built into them, so listeners could change the amount of compression/expansion they want. People in very quiet luxury cars could keep it turned down, while people listening with the windows down at highway speeds could crank it up to keep the speakers working nonstop.
Unfortunately, automobiles are far from an optimal place to listen to high-quality music, but they're the place where most radio listening is done, and tailored towards.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
HD Radio is particularly nasty because of the high licensing fees and the noise produced by sticking digital where it doesn't belong.
http://www.ham-radio.com/k6sti/hdrsn.htm
http://www.am-dx.com/amiboc.htm
This whole shenanigan is about control. We don't *need* HD/Digital radio but as soon as the broadcast flag becomes mandated it's all over for us consumers. No more recording at all. The fair use we have always enjoyed just went out the window. You can't even buy a DVR (or DVCR for that matter) to record OTH HDTV anymore, you must rent it from your local cable/dish monopoly. It's sickening. The government sold all the analog spectrum and mandated DTV to keep us all in line, the same way the internet is headed if we don't revolt.
Hmmm, I don't know where you're listening, but in my neck of the woods, I can get 8 or 10 different HD stations over a pretty wide area. I drove from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM (about 50 miles) yesterday, and I don't think I lost my lock on the HD station I was listening to more than once. The tuner you buy makes a big difference, as some tuners are much more sensitive than others, and can lock on to a weaker signal. They don't have to be insanely expensive, though--my car radio is quite reliable, and only cost about $150. It probably helps that all of the transmitters in Albuquerque are on top of a mountain that rises 4500 feet above the city. Still, I enjoy the HD channels, especially since our community radio station recently made the upgrade.
Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?
I'm particularly upset about the use of the term "HD Radio" which people may associate with High Definition. The fact is that HD stands for Hybrid Data which actually sounds quite crappy. I prefer analog FM for it's higher fidelity. Ain't that sad?