Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
1110 posts
I'm looking forward to it...
For example, if you like the song you're hearing, just look at the radio's screen for the song's name and the singer. With some radios you can rewind to the start of the song, or to the start of a news item you've come in on midway. You'll also be able to pause the broadcast.
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Digital radios are expensive [$300-$1k] because Australia is going with new broadcast technology called DAB+, which crams more programming into available bandwidth. This means that if you buy a digital radio in England, where they've been operational for years, it won't work here. Along with Switzerland, we're the pioneers of DAB+ although several other countries are interested in taking it up, including India and China. If they go with it prices will tumble.
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Commercial radio stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide will start broadcasting digitally in May and the ABC and SBS will come on line some time later - the ABC is forecasting July.
The source |
thermite
Brisbane, Queensland
1117 posts
Hopefully once this system is in place, the free radio stream online will also display the track info, and someone will make a thing that automatically records the stream so you can pause it, that's not hard.
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
1111 posts
Hopefully once this system is in place, the free radio stream online will also display the track info, and someone will make a thing that automatically records the stream so you can pause it, that's not hard.
lol, did you read the first sentence?
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Dan
Special text
Brisbane, Queensland
9118 posts
You'll have to speak up, I'm not running clear-type fonts.
In a time where mobile internet is becoming affordable and the abundance of web streaming stations, digital commercial broadcasts seem pretty futile and uninteresting, but then different strokes I suppose.
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thermite
Brisbane, Queensland
1118 posts
lol, did you read the first sentence?
I'm talking about the free stream you play through winamp. I wish it had some of these digital radio features, so I'm hoping once they actually need to have some sort of database with the song names it will be easier to get it over the net as well.
Basically I don't want to pay for this new radio.
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
1112 posts
lol, did you read the first sentence? I'm talking about the free stream you play through winamp. I wish it had some of these digital radio features, so I'm hoping once they actually need to have some sort of database with the song names it will be easier to get it over the net as well.
Basically I don't want to pay for this new radio.
Ah right. Well when I was in Europe I noticed that most (new?) cars show the track info on the radio while the song is playing. Just seemed like regular FM radio to me though - maybe that was digital already and I didn't notice.
I agree with Dan, but radio to me is what I listen to for the one hour drive to work and then one hour home. If mobile data plans were affordable I'd like to stream radio in my car, but radio is free now and it's not something I want to spend $30/mth on.
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
1113 posts
I just crunched some numbers for streaming radio in my car.
192kbps stream for 1 hour trip twice a day = 86.4MB/h = 864MB/wk = 3456MB/mth.
Telstra Bigpond Wireless plan speed is 550kbps - 3.0Mbps (so well and truly suitable for this job) but the cost is $89.95/mth (!!!) for 5GB, which is the plan that you would need.
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thermite
Brisbane, Queensland
1119 posts
Yeah I guess internet radio is only practical when you're already on the net for some other reason, plus the net radio seems shit quality - doesn't mean this won't improve as bandwidth and wireless prices go down. Digital radio might have the advantage for a few years.
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
1114 posts
Yeah I guess internet radio is only practical when you're already on the net for some other reason, plus the net radio seems shit quality - doesn't mean this won't improve as bandwidth and wireless prices go down. Digital radio might have the advantage for a few years.
Yeah, I'm gonna be hanging out for FTTC (Fibre to the Car) as part of the NNNBN initiative (next next national broadband network), hehe
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Raven
Melbourne, Victoria
3511 posts
It's pretty similar to DVB - basically instead of a video frame/chunk broadcast once, the same audio frame data is broadcast repeatedly. Difference is because the data requirement of audio is low, they just throw the last hour or so of data out, and they don't need to keep retransmitting the new data as much - it might buffer say 30 seconds, with 10s chunks transmitted every 1/10s, and other data in the remaining time slots.
Shoutcast and WMA streams are more like your DVB type stream, where you only get the data you need once.
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trillion
Brisbane, Queensland
563 posts
trillion
Brisbane, Queensland
564 posts
but you notice in the fineprint
"This streaming player in no way represents the audio quality or mutli media features available on digital radio plus services when listening via a DAB+ receiver."
So what, can we expect better through a DAB+ recvr?
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Superform
Netherlands
5394 posts
or internet radio is for people with real internet connections that are 20mb+ uncapped...
i always listen to ABC radio.. i even have a widget for it
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Spook
Brisbane, Queensland
24622 posts
my alpine headdeck in the car does DAB
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trillion
Brisbane, Queensland
578 posts
So you can do something like DUB DAB? Rub a DUB DAB?
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scuzzy
Brisbane, Queensland
13342 posts
I fucking wish we had satellite radio like the yanks do, Sirius XM would be fucking awesome.
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Spook
Brisbane, Queensland
24631 posts
hey, i listen to stuff on sirius!
dj icey!
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
2136 posts
Sorry to dredge old thread - Digital Radio went to air large scale last week - anyone bought one yet? Experiences?
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reload!
Brisbane, Queensland
4714 posts
I would say the future is now but I blame it for you deleting the last thread I wrote it in.
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scuzzy
Brisbane, Queensland
13528 posts
I'd love to get a Digital Radio module for my car, I don't see me needing digital radio around the home however.
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trog
AGN Admin
Brisbane, Queensland
27597 posts
I'm talking about the free stream you play through winamp. I wish it had some of these digital radio features, so I'm hoping once they actually need to have some sort of database with the song names it will be easier to get it over the net as well. I am pretttty sure that feature has existed in shoutcast servers for a billion years - its just that most radio stations don't do it. It's really not a complicated thing.
It's possible it's actually against APRA licensing agreements to do this. They're definitely not allowed to announce their playlists in advance. I suspect it's just technical stuff that stops it from happening tho.
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lewd
Brisbane, Queensland
196 posts
^ wow i never knew they coudnt post there playlists in advance.
there ya go.........
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SquarkyD
Brisbane, Queensland
6056 posts
If they announce tracks in advance it would make recording a track too easy, lame reason but no doubt why they arent allowed.
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infi
Brisbane, Queensland
13068 posts
can you get digital radio through your digital tv tuner on pc?
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SquarkyD
Brisbane, Queensland
6057 posts
no its the wrong format, we're using some brand new DAB+ or something
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mongie
Brisbane, Queensland
6554 posts
Two things...
Ah right. Well when I was in Europe I noticed that most (new?) cars show the track info on the radio while the song is playing. Just seemed like regular FM radio to me though - maybe that was digital already and I didn't notice.
Thats probably RDS... Although it could be DAB.
my alpine headdeck in the car does DAB
We use DAB+ here... not DAB. |
Le Cock
Brisbane, Queensland
5191 posts
So will AM stations sound better on digital?
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tequila
Brisbane, Queensland
2911 posts
they shoulda called it DRAB+, who gives a fluzerwassun about radio anymore
my phone can stream video, radio is old news
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Fn
Brisbane, Queensland
5471 posts
yes much the same as fm is now.
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Hogfather
Cairns, Queensland
3354 posts
If they announce tracks in advance it would make recording a track too easy, lame reason but no doubt why they arent allowed
Haha if that's the reason then it must be a seriously archaic regulation.
I think I was in school the last time I saw someone taping shit off the radio ...
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Triamks
Brisbane, Queensland
2286 posts
I think I was in school the last time I saw someone taping shit off the radio ...
It's done on computers now.
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trog
AGN Admin
Brisbane, Queensland
27599 posts
Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
2138 posts
Another pro-tip about recording (YouTube or other streaming audio) - just go to your audio options in Vista where you can set your inputs and outputs and add the input (new input) called 'Stereo mix' and make it active. Now you can use the Windows sndrec32 or Audacity or whatever you like to record.
So, does anyone have a digi radio yet?
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mongie
Brisbane, Queensland
6555 posts
$299 for an in-car unit.
Fuck that.
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trog
AGN Admin
Brisbane, Queensland
27604 posts
classic example of early adopter tax really... but yeh, not something i'm interested in really
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mooby
Brisbane, Queensland
4984 posts
was out for years in the UK, was a massive flop. So annoying when your driving along and the spam your radio with traffic warnings.
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Pinky
Melbourne, Victoria
2145 posts
Yeah, I can't understand the cost either. What's the exxy component in a digi radio?
And because of the very high frequency, range is an issue. Ok, not for me, I rarely go outside these areas anyway for fear of rednecks like CHUB, but for a blanket adoption it's a significant problem.
Brisbane coverage map (small) <-- what a considerate guy I am.
Coverage map for Melbourne:
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Syco
Brisbane, Queensland
536 posts
I'll be interested when there's actually worthwhile radio being put out over the air. Till then zzzzz
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Spook
Brisbane, Queensland
25899 posts
FUCK YER, SALISBURY IS COVERED KIDS
outer inner city throw your hand sup
 last edited by Spook at 14:34:36 13/Aug/09 |
Syco
Brisbane, Queensland
537 posts
Why is the home reception a smaller area then mobile? I'd have assumed a home setup would have a better antenna?
Edit, oh it says indoor, maybe they mean taking a portable indoors?
last edited by Syco at 14:46:04 13/Aug/09
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