Author Topic: DAB Radio  (Read 10724 times)

DAB Radio
« on: 25 February, 2015, 07:22:35 am »
I am finding this to be frustrating to say the least. Crackle and pop is my listening experience. R4 the channel

Is it just me or is it like that for you too.

Also if you are in the east mids see my other thread.

PH
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rogerzilla

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #1 on: 25 February, 2015, 07:48:02 am »
Never had a problem with DAB reception but the sound quality sucks due to the low bitrate.  My DAB kitchen radio is only ever on FM.  Both Radio 4 and Classic FM sound better in analogue if I flip between DAB and FM on the same station.  Pure D2 so not a really cheap radio.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #2 on: 25 February, 2015, 07:58:20 am »
Quality aside, try a re-scan / re-tune.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Wombat

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #3 on: 25 February, 2015, 08:19:09 am »
It seems to be very area dependant.  its a total waste of time at home...
Wombat

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #4 on: 25 February, 2015, 08:28:53 am »
I have a pure one which has no problems. Cambridgeshire area.
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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #5 on: 25 February, 2015, 08:45:21 am »
We now use DAB only here in Rugby.   The consistency and reliability has risen massively since the early days of DAB and it's fine.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #6 on: 25 February, 2015, 08:47:49 am »
Oh we have DAB on all our radios at home (South Bucks) and it's generally fine. and I have it in my car and that has worked fine so far (my first long journey will be May down to Cornwall so we'll see how it copes then). Very occasionally at home R4 can sound like its underwater - I put that down to atmospherics/weather.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Mr Larrington

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #7 on: 25 February, 2015, 10:17:13 am »
Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) used to run his analogue tuner from the roof aerial so when he got a DAB tuner it seemed sensible to do likewise.

It was not.  Mahoosive error rates which came and went at random.  To the extent that he practically gave up on it.  Then we found the original box in the motor-house, and in it the supplied indoor aerial.  A few minutes of creative swearing and insulting tape later and he now gets a signal as close to error-free as makes no odds.  For reasons comprehensible to the Kims of this world, DAB wants a nice vertical piece of Anbaric String rather than the "any old lump of metal will do provided it's big enough" approach that, or so I'm told, works for less picky bits of the RF world.

The only promble now is that because his original tuner was replaced under warranty, it is silver while the rest of the stack is black.  One day I will find the person responsible for the random changes of external finish of consumer anbaricks and ask the BEAR to do the trick with the screaming, blood and ravens feeding on the scraps.
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Biggsy

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #8 on: 25 February, 2015, 10:46:12 am »
Might be worth trying a different radio if a re-tune doesn't work.

DAB reception is always perfect in my part of Londonton.  I don't notice the low bit rate in my DAB listening room: the bog.  For serious radio listening, I use a TV Freeview receiver connected to a hi-fi.  Radio 6 is not on FM!
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Mr Larrington

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #9 on: 25 February, 2015, 11:26:19 am »
I am told that using an Anbaric Distascope to listen to the wireless consumes a lot more voles than does any kind of radio outside a minicab office.  This costs money and kills kittens so anyone regularly indulging in this sort of behaviour should be ashamed of themselves, no matter where on the anbaromagnetic political spectrum they find themselves ;)

We used to do it via Freesat in the Gulag, but then we were worthless drunks and/or junkie wastrels.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #10 on: 25 February, 2015, 12:24:30 pm »
Retuned times and the rad is a Roberts.

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #11 on: 25 February, 2015, 12:38:52 pm »
DAB always used to be a bit iffy where I am, so I consume all radio through my phone these days. Connected to the hifi via bluetooth, the sound's acceptable - not sure if it's better or worse than actual DAB - but far more flexible than an old-fashioned radio.
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hellymedic

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #12 on: 25 February, 2015, 01:02:06 pm »
Is this an opportunity for me to RANT?

I have two DAB radios. One is a wood encased PURE and the other is black plastic in the kitchen.

#1 does not feed its stereo out properly.
#2 takes about 30 seconds to tune in when switched on and the black plastic has turned from 'velvet' to Incurably Sticky. Radio 4 is usually unavailable on this receiver.

I am unimpressed.

Partner says it's a small sample but two out of two costly FAILs do nothing to boost my confidence...

tonycollinet

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #13 on: 25 February, 2015, 01:15:01 pm »
Internet - is how I listen to radio in the house now.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #14 on: 25 February, 2015, 01:29:14 pm »
In a general rant, I do feel that the cost vs quality (of build) is completely out of whack. DAB radios are waaaay too expensive IMO. And the (mainly Chinese I believe) hardware is crap. Roberts and Pure are serial offenders.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #15 on: 26 February, 2015, 08:25:13 pm »
I also have a network music player which does Internet radio.  The bitrates on that are mostly crap too, no better than DAB.  I think there's a conspiracy to make us buy music rather than listen to it on the radio.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

tiermat

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #16 on: 26 February, 2015, 08:36:08 pm »
I have to stand up as a supporter of DAB (although I do wish that the UK had settled on DAB2, or even better 2+).

We have a Roberts in the kitchen, fantastic as it mounts under a wall cabinet, thus doesn't take any worktop space and the sound is spot on (I sue it mainly for Planet Rock, which I listen to whilst cooking).

Mrs T has a Fiesta with a DAB in, though that car doesn't go any further than Darlington, she has no problem with drop out or sound quality.

I have (as you may have noticed) just recently bought a CMax and I have no problem listening to 6Music, R4, TeamRock, Planet Rock whilst travelling from NTR to Swansea, only losing the signal, albeit briefly, on the roads where there are high hills/mountains either side.
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #17 on: 26 February, 2015, 10:47:27 pm »
Not great in North Hertfordshire. We've had two bedroom radios of different makes that both did the same thing.

The radio switches itself on as an alarm, to Radio 4. We get about twenty seconds of talking. Then all goes quiet. After a minute or so, it seemingly rebuffers enough to give us some sound.

From there it may work OK, or more often it will break up a lot. Sometimes turning over in bed may make it worse. There may be further periods of silence lasting tens of seconds or longer.

It's often better by the time I've been for a shower, possibly because I've not been in the room to spoil the signal, I don't know. However, then I can't hear it over the hair dryer, and then I go down for some breakfast.

Complete waste of time, basically.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #18 on: 27 February, 2015, 07:07:33 am »
I've a Bose Wave in the kitchen.
I vacillate between R4 and BBC6 Music which I acquire (mostly) via the interwebs.
I've, for a while, been thinking about replacing the (perfectly functional) Bose, with a digi bit of kit.
Reading drossall's post ^ disinclines me from upgrading the kitchen Bose to a digi model.
I'll stick with turning up the volume on the Mac to achieve ground floor coverage.

hellymedic

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #19 on: 27 February, 2015, 12:16:24 pm »
Well jurek, my kitchen DAB can't get Radio 4 consistently.
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Kim

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #20 on: 27 February, 2015, 01:32:58 pm »
If I were still in the habit of listening to the radio, I'd use a DVB-S receiver (for that is the platform with the least-worst bitrates), and stream it around the LAN.  Because if you're going to use a hammer to crack a nut, you might as well get some genuine rocket science in there too.

As I'm not, I make do with occasional listening to one-off programmes, streamed over the interwebs.

clarion

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Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #21 on: 06 March, 2015, 02:21:58 pm »
I listen to DAB radio pretty much constantly in the house.  We have radios in the bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen.  And we take a DAB portable with us when we go camping.

I listen to R4, R4Ex, R6M, & Planet Rock, with occasional excursions to other services.

I agree that the signal can be iffy, but we can usually get something usable when we're camping.  At home (South London), we get a good signal.  OK, so the sound isn't great, but it is certainly good enough for the speech stations I listen to, and I'm happy with the quality for music (I'm no audiophile geek).

Where DAB frustrates compared to other broadcasting is that the signal doesn't fade; it just drops out.
Getting there...

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #22 on: 06 March, 2015, 04:16:19 pm »
Where DAB frustrates compared to other broadcasting is that the signal doesn't fade; it just drops out.

Thats the way of any digital transmission system. You can read the data or you cant that's it no half way house. Digital TV is exactly the same.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #23 on: 07 March, 2015, 08:03:38 am »

Where DAB frustrates compared to other broadcasting is that the signal doesn't fade; it just drops out.

Adding a minor rant.....the designers of my car radio (DAB) considered that it would be more... ELEGANT ... to fade a DAB signal that is disappearing, rather than just mute any squelch. With the result that you can, actually, can have perfectly articulated but deeply faded sound for some minutes.... grrrr. AAAAND (seeing how I started) they also added a feature where, if a channel becomes unavailable in DAB, it switches to the FM version. You can count the times that's been useful on the fingers of one finger, without troubling a finger. Why? because they mated the whole of this wonderbox up to a sharkfin aerial with as much gain as a day old kitten. Over designed, under engineered.

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: DAB Radio
« Reply #24 on: 07 March, 2015, 08:19:16 am »

Where DAB frustrates compared to other broadcasting is that the signal doesn't fade; it just drops out.

Adding a minor rant.....the designers of my car radio (DAB) considered that it would be more... ELEGANT ... to fade a DAB signal that is disappearing, rather than just mute any squelch. With the result that you can, actually, can have perfectly articulated but deeply faded sound for some minutes.... grrrr. AAAAND (seeing how I started) they also added a feature where, if a channel becomes unavailable in DAB, it switches to the FM version. You can count the times that's been useful on the fingers of one finger, without troubling a finger. Why? because they mated the whole of this wonderbox up to a sharkfin aerial with as much gain as a day old kitten. Over designed, under engineered.

Agreed, apart from not all DAB stations are available on FM (R6M and Planet Rock to name but 2). Having said that the more recent Ford DABs are better, even, than those from a couple of years ago. No shark fin and I doubt they have developed a dual aerial, so I have no idea where the DAB aerial is on my car, but I do know it just works!
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State