On Jan 15, 2008 9:18 AM, The Other <sstubbs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello All, > > What is HD radio? A local radio station is advertising they are the > first HD radio station in my listening area. Is HD supposed to mean > High Definition? no, that's a clever rhetorical trick, meant to capitalize on the success (?) of HDTV, which does, in fact, provide more dots. > Now this make sense to me. Rather than having a radio broadcasted > recording go for "LOUD", the powers-that-be in radio broadcasting have > finally discovered that the radio audience actually prefers to hear > the subtlety in the music. that's overly optimistic, and far from the mark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio simply, it adds a few program streams to the broadcast by digitally encoding and compressing (data-wise, not dynamically) them into the unused bits of an AM/FM station's designated portion of spectrum. this means that, instead of broadcasting one set of programs, a station can broadcast two or three sets simultaneously. it requires upgrades to the transmitters that cost major moolah, and it requires a new receiver at home / in car / on person. i'd be dumbfounded that the FCC went for a completely proprietary system, if i weren't already so accustomed to consistently disagreeing with their decisions. unlicensed spectrum, such as the ranges used for wifi and garage door openers, is where it's at. > Took the powers-that-be long enough. Now if they would just use the > same techniques for television commercials. I *hate* it when the > commercial is louder than the television program. i don't - the stupidly excessive dynamic compression of commercials is one of the indicators do-it-yourself PVRs (mythtv, sagetv, etc.) use to flag and remove commercial breaks for me. big business' ways shall be their own undoing. proceed as normally. :) -- daneasley@xxxxxxxxx http://burntpossum.com _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
