My HD Wish thread

I second your wish! And add one of my own: I wish more car manufacturers would include HD Radios (and put good antennas on their cars)

I wish for a pocket HD radio, or at least a battery operated portable NOW! I know they're coming, but I wish they were HERE!

Stores exist to sell subscriptions and the hardware to enable them. So, don't expect anyone to try very hard to sell "no-pay" radio (or OTA TV).

I don't know of a single store that exists solely to sell subscriptions or the hardware to enable them. Subscription radio is only six years old. Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Wal Mart, etc...all existed long before that time. And with only fifteen million satellite subscribers TOTAL in the entire country, they'd go broke quickly if "subscription services" was all they sold. They make money by selling WHAT THERE'S A DEMAND FOR, whatever that is.

And what makes them the most profit and subscriptions are profitable.

WalMart, Best Buy, etc. don't really make anything on the Subscriptions. The subscriptions all go to Comcast, XM, Verizon, whomever. The reseller might get a kickback or something for each unit sold, but there's no recurring revenue stream for them.

So, aside from a difference in markup, there's no benefit to a store to sell you a subscription radio vs. HD Radio, or even a plain old-fashioned FM Radio.

I think the biggest problem is that the buyers and the salespeople aren't being trained enough on HD Radio, and someone (probably Ibiquity, maybe Sony now that they're in this field) needs to do more to raise awareness among retail channels.

My wish list is add DRM digital mode to HD radio reciever, and extra radio bands like LW and SW.

Here's more informations on DRM www.drm.org and it's amazing that the shortwave broadcaster is now tranmsitting digital stereo and still pictures and HTML information all at the same time!

6-19-07

yes but what an unfortunate name, DRM. It makes me think "Digital Rights Management"....

I agree about the need for a multiband, MULTI-SYSTEM (HD and DRM) radio...preferably portable. I'd buy it instantly.

I am actually trying to see about incorporating FMeXtra into our HD radios as well. Anyone know anything about that?

The DRM-40 would be a good start... add FMextra and IBOC for the US market...PLEASE!

http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...ble/0040a.html

Master.... DO IT! While your at it, throw in AM Stereo; Dolby FM and FM-X would be nice, too Hey... it's all software, right?

You'll be one step of the competition and two steps away from the... oh. sorry. I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel.

Wow! That is still up? We can't do it yet. The HD module still consumes to much power for battery power. Wait unti labout this time next year. Then we can talk.

But I will tell you, other than being only one speaker the DRM-40 has a wonderful set of options, Line-in, Optical out! And sounds wonderful!!It as it stood with DRM and DAB would have had a market price close to $400. Even if we made it for the US it would be like $299-$349

I think FMExtra and all the rest would be great. But there are NO FMExtra stations anywhere around here (northwest North Carolina, southern Virginia, eastern Tennessee). Now there's plenty of HD!

My HD wish list is from the programming side. How hard would it be for a cluster with a newser to add a low-bandwidth constant traffic-and-weather sub on one of its FMs?

I've already heard about one MRN affiliate running all of the MRN programming on a sub, saving only the big races for the main. More of this would be nice. CNN, FNC, CNBC.. heck, I'd like to see local TV audio ported to an O&O's subchannel.

But that's just me.

Hardware wish: DVR functionality.