DTV audio - will my radio still work?

[Shecki]

When digitial TV is implemented..........will a radio which currently can receive TV audio still function? Thanks.

[Don Phillipson]

No: only a digital radio receiver will receive the digital audio component of a digital TV signal. (When TV stations cease analogue transmissions, there will be no signal on the frequency now picked up by your superhet analogue radio.)

[---MIKE---]

Don, you have given a lot of bum information. A digital radio will only provide digital sound from an FM station that is broadcasting a digital sub carrier. The TV audio is part of the analog TV signal BUT it is frequency modulated. To answer the OP's question - the radio will not work.

---MIKE---

[Phisherman]

If that is so, I'll be listening to much less TV when/if that happens. Currently I listen to TV on a portable radio, maybe I need a government-issued radio coupon?

[AZ Nomad]

You're joking, right?

[Shecki]

No joke. However, to be more clear I should have asked if my radio would continue to receive the audio of the digitally broadcasted TV stations, as opposed to making it sound as though I was asking if my radio would cease to function entirely. Based on the responses it appears that the useful answers understood my intended question. Thanks for those useful answers!

[mm]

How does this make anything Don said incorrect? If you had quoted him and pointed out what he said that was wrong, I'd know what not to believe, but since you didn't, I still believe everything he said.

[mm]

Yeah, I have one of those too. I especially like it at work, with an earphone. It only gave VHF, but that was usally what I wanted. I think it has AM and FM bands, so I can't even throw it away.

[mm]

It was a decent question.

[Ralph Mowery]

Yolu will not be able to hear the sound of the digital stations when the switch is made. If you get one of the converter boxes you can use it to hear the sound . Just set your radio to chanel 3 or 4 and the sound should come in. Also I think the audio will come out of the audio outputs of some of the converters but have not checked that part out.

[AZ Nomad]

no it wasn't. You might as well ask: My friend is blind. Will he be able to hear the his analog tv after the switchover? I listen to my analog tv set from another room. Will I be able to hear it after the switchover?

Sheesh. I can't believe I have to spell it out. If the radio uses an ANALOG tv receiver then it will stop working when the ANALOG tv signal is shut down.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 2/9/2009 3:21 PM Ralph Mowery spake thus:

Are there any DTT boxes that *don't* output audio? I wouldn't think so.

[Mark Lloyd]

It (the digital converter) would be really hard to set up without video.

[trader4]

I think what Don meant was that to pick up a digital ATSC TV station's audio requires an ATSC tuner. The confusion comes in when he said you need a digital radio. It's true that what you would need is indeed a digital radio, but in general terms, digital radio means a consumer product that you can buy today for your home, car, etc to pick up digital radio being transmitted from RADIO stations. AFAIK, they will not pick up TV audio being broadcast viat DTV (ATSC), though it's possible some might exist with the dual capability.

I don't know of any product made specifically to receive only ATSC TV audio. But you could use one of the free converter boxes.

[Joe]

Despite the end answer, your means of getting there and insults along the way deny you any credibility. Try not implying people are idiots before you answer them (even if you think they are).

[AZ Nomad]

You think the OP wasn't joking (or a troll) and thought TV played on a device lacking a picture tube was receiving some mystical frequency band not used by regular TV sets?

Nah. Nobody is that stupid.

[mm]

It's precisely because some people know that the audio on tv has been FM while the picture has been AM, and afaik on very differet frequencies, that it seems possible that they are only changing the AM portion to digital.

They already have a long-term precedent of not using the same transmission method for sound and picture, and the FM sound is already in a different frequency band, and no one has said anything about two different bands being freed up.

It was a decent question, that he was smart enough to think of, and others here weren't.

In reply to another post, the problem with using a digital converter is in my case and probably the OP's, that the radio becoming obsolete is a portable radio. One could listen far from an AC outlet.

When I listened to TV at work with an earphone, everyone thought I was listening to music. They would have doubted I could do my work if they knew I was listening to tv. Using a digital converter box at work would mean I was listening to the tv and would attract negative attention. I got the tv-radio for free from a friend. I will have to wait a few years or maybe many years until they sell digital, and then it may or may not be worth spending the money.

[Art Greenberg]

No, it is not.

It is true that there are two separate carriers, one for sound and one for video. And it is true that the sound carrier is FM modulated and that the picture carrier is AM (actually VSB) modulated. The sound carrier is offset from the video carrier by -4.5MHz, but it is in the same band.

[makolber]

it's +4.5 MHz... at RF ...

to the OP, you can get a DTV converter and a small FM transmitter (like the kids use for Ipods but a little more powerfull, they are avaialbe) , connect the audio from the DTV converter to the small FM transmitter and then you use your FM radio to listen to the TV.

Mark

[Art Greenberg]

Ooops ... my mistake. Thanks for correcting.