Closure of FM Radio

[BillB]

Originally Posted by chunderground

the government is planning to end FM transmissions in 2015 to force us to buy digital radios. The problem is reception on FM is better than DAB radio so nobody is buying the digital radios and the broadcasters are getting nervous and delaying transmitting on digital as nobody has a DAB radio. In short it looks like consumer power is winning this battle and the government will have to scrap this stupid idea. So in short dont be blackmailed into going digital unless FM gets switched off.

Exactly. Those in favour of DAB should study a good technical article comparing FM with DAB. With the current DAB sampling rate and compression algorithm there is no contest i.e. FM sounds better - it's truer to the original source, stereo separation is better, receivers use less power etc.etc. It's another case of the triumph of style over substance. We simply don't need 100 channels of crap like we have on digital TV.

I will strongly support any campaign to keep FM radio. Regards.

[John_C]

Yes at the high end FM sounds brilliant, I used to have some proper audiophile quality stereo kit and a decent FM aerial and the quality you could get from good broadcasts was startling. However the vast majority of people don't have anywhere near that sort of kit and the difference is simply not noticeable unless you are listening on decent kit to a decent signal.

It's the same with Freeview - a good strong analogue signal on a good set watched with an eye for quality still beats a Freeview signal for picture quality, but most people just don't notice.

I still don't think it's anything to really get upset about, but then I moved my primary music listening away from radio a long time ago and DAB will do just fine for Today, The Now Show etc on Radio 4

More than you could ever want to know about digital radio, it's advantages and shortcomings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcasting

[RoyMacDonald]

I do query Volvo's logic when it comes to the radio entertainment system it fits in it's cars. My car has the combined CD and Minidisc unit. Now the thing about the minidisc was that it was a recordable format when CD's wern't. So could be nice and still usefull except that Volvo fitted a unit that can't play recordable minidiscs, only pre-recorded ones. So now there is no reason to buy a mindisc that would only be able to be played in the car.

Why don't they make the radio units eaily upgradable with plug in modules? In fact with all the electronic stuff like the phone and sat nav. The new sat nav unit goes some way towards this but only accepts one type of sat nave. The TomTom with HD traffic and IQ routing is so far ahead of anything else on the market that no way would I consider any other sat nav however well integrated.