No DAB reception in cars near BBC Television Centre!

On 20 July, 23:50, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article ,
* *DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

You don't half pick your arguments: sticking up for the use of mono in
the 21st century and sticking up for them not upgrading DAB when they
could easily have done so prior to properly launching it.

Don't remember you on here criticising the system when it started - so
hindsight is a wonderful thing.


The BBC slashed the bit rate levels on 21st December 2001. The 3rd
post in the first thread following the BBC slashing their bit rates
mentioned that MP2 shouldn't be used at low bit rates:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...n&dmode=source

"MP2 was designed as a high-bitrate codec, below 192kbps it becomes
very inefficient and isn't best suited."

So hindsight doesn't apply.


And of course if they had changed things a
couple of years down the line you'd still be moaning about them not
getting it right first time.


But they didn't change anything - if you haven't realised it yet,
we're still using the same DAB system that has remained unchanged
since it was designed in the late 1980s.

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:33:09 +0100
"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote:
Radio 7 is permanently in mono on DAB,

Which is pretty pathetic given that most of the old radio comedies they
broadcast were recorded stereo up to 30 years ago.

and the Asian Network is also permanently mono on DAB

If its bit rate went down to zero than would be even better.

B2003

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:08:48 +0100
Ian Jackson wrote:
No. They are simply taking advantage of the fact the most users of DAB
are probably receiving it on ridiculously small portable, 'kitchen'
radios on which stereo is virtually indistinguishable from mono. Radios
of this size can in no way be considered hi-fi. And weren't some of the
early DAB radios mono only (one speaker)? Maybe they are still selling
them.

I had (it broke) a small Sony DAB "kitchen" radio to listen to in the bedroom.
It has a stereo headphone socket which I used when the missus is sleeping.

B2003

wrote:

I had (it broke) a small Sony DAB "kitchen" radio to listen to in the
bedroom. It has a stereo headphone socket which I used when the
missus is sleeping.

Bit small for that, wasn't it?

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:45:53 +0100
"Norman Wells" wrote:


wrote:

I had (it broke) a small Sony DAB "kitchen" radio to listen to in the
bedroom. It has a stereo headphone socket which I used when the
missus is sleeping.

Bit small for that, wasn't it?

Ho ho

Anyway , point is all DAB radios have a stereo output even if theres only
one built in speaker.

B2003

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Radio 4 goes to mono most days of the week at 5 pm regardless of
what's on
R5.


There are plenty of stereo programmes on Radio 4 after 5pm, but which
have to be broadcast in mono on DAB whenever Radio 5 Sports Extra is
on-air.

The R4 audience is tiny during the evening.

--
*I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article
,
wrote:
No. You said it was in stereo when you listen to it. Or is this just
another mistake on your part?


Radio 7's Internet radio stream and the streams on teh digital TV
platforms are permanently stereo whether the content is produced in
stereo or not. That was what I was referring to - i.e. whenever there
is stereo content on Radio 7 it is always broadcast in stereo because
the streams are stereo streams.

Right. I suppose you watch B&W films in colour?

(I'm now forced to reply to Plowman's posts via Google Groups because
when I try replying via my newsreader replies to his and only his
posts are unable to be sent)

If only it applied to Google too...

--
*Taxation WITH representation ain't much fun, either.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
My reference to the BBC being grossly incompetent was to the fact that
they added 5 digital-only stations to their national DAB mulitplex
even though they knew full well that doing so would lead to the audio
qulaity being massacred, and in Jenny Abramsky's own words they had
"always intended" to add a load of new stations, yet they didn't
upgrade the DAB system despite AAC being standardised in 1997 and
development of AAC began in 1993/4 (and BBC R&D engineers will have
been aware that AAC was being developed - they took part in a
listening test comparing it with MP2 in 1996 for example).

How often has it to be said that all those now so interested in radio
quality completely ignored DAB at its introduction. So quite naturally the
powers that be decided to increase the choice on it. Which appears to have
worked - since far more adopted it after this.

--
*I didn't drive my husband crazy -- I flew him there -- it was faster

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

There are plenty of stereo programmes on Radio 4 after 5pm, but which
have to be broadcast in mono on DAB whenever Radio 5 Sports Extra is
on-air.

The R4 audience is tiny during the evening.

You sure about that? My brother's 6ft 3.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message

In article
,
wrote:
No. You said it was in stereo when you listen to it. Or is this
just
another mistake on your part?


Radio 7's Internet radio stream and the streams on teh digital TV
platforms are permanently stereo whether the content is produced in
stereo or not. That was what I was referring to - i.e. whenever
there
is stereo content on Radio 7 it is always broadcast in stereo
because
the streams are stereo streams.

Right. I suppose you watch B&W films in colour?


I was clearly referring to the fact that the *streams* on Internet
radio and on the digital TV platforms are in stereo.

Congratulations for steering the conversation away from your defending
the indefensible, though, because if you recall you were sticking up
for stations that broadcast stereo content in mono - which is utterly
indefensible in the 21st century on a supposedly "new" digital radio
system that's meant to replace FM.


(I'm now forced to reply to Plowman's posts via Google Groups
because
when I try replying via my newsreader replies to his and only his
posts are unable to be sent)

If only it applied to Google too...


Oh, I've said plenty of times before that I'd love to never
communicate with you ever again in my entire life. To say that you're
a pain in the arse would be the understatement of the century so far.



--
Steve - www.savefm.org - stop the BBC bullies switching off FM

www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - digital radio news & info

"It is the sheer volume of online audio content available via
internet-connected devices which terrifies the UK radio industry. I
believe that broadband-delivered radio will explode in the years to
come, offering very local, unregulated content, as well as opening a
window to the radio stations of the world." - from the Myers Report