OT Digital Radios

[Steve Firth]

Radio 3 is OK, better than FM IMO.

Err that's it.

BBC seems to think that "choice" is better than "quality". As they do with TV at the moment. I saw some stupid advrt on BBC ranting on about "more choice", I'd like an end to wall to wall s**te and would be happy with just one channel if the content was worth watching.

I've bought bloody hundreds of DVDs in recent months, it's the only way I seem to be able to watch something that doesn't suck your brain out and gob it down the pan.

Hmm, I think I'll go watch Futurama.

[Dave Plowman]

The Falklands War film followed by the Clark diaries on BBC 4 were well worth a watch tonight.

[tony sayer]

If you want digital radio for home fixed hi-fi use you'd just as well get a Freeview or Sky box, at least the bitrates are higher....

[tony sayer]

Its about on par if you dont mind Digital artefacts and that MPEG metallic sound that crops up on some programming, but good well received FM with a good aerial signal still sounds more natural IMHO too:-))

Agreed!.....

We don't have a DVD player yet and I don't think I'm getting one either:-(

[Dave Plowman]

Only snag is these aren't available in a portable radio. And DAB will sound fine on one of these.

[Mike Barnes]

Good idea... a Freeview box would save money as well, being about half the price of a DAB tuner. But does anyone know:

- is the sound quality going to be OK?

- is it more likely to manage with an indoor aerial, less likely, or the same? (the FM tuner gets a good signal with a bit of wire stuck in the back)

- how practical is it to use it as a radio tuner without a TV? (I could take it to the TV room for setting-up first).

So many questions. It ought to be easier than this.

[Toby]

If you happened to get your broadband down NTL's cable (or Telewest I believe), they add quite a lot of FM radio to the feed in most regions. You can tee-in and wire to a radio, hit seek and find all sorts. 5live in stereo is just the job for me. If you subscribe to a basic NTL TV package there are all the radio stations available as channels, but this does not strike me as very user friendly.

[Dave Plowman]

Yes - as good as you'll get.

Pretty unlikely to work without a decent outside aerial, I'm afraid. It's not designed for mobile or portable use.

No problems. Once it's stored the stations it can be moved.

Nothing 'digital' ever is easy. The public wouldn't like it if it was.

[Mike Barnes]

Nice idea but NTL's cable stops about 15 metres short of this house and they refuse to connect us... so BT ADSL it is. The Internet radio is pretty good but I'd prefer a dedicated receiver.

[John Stumbles]

As I understand it that analogue feed is only available to existing customers: new customers need a set top box and get digital. That's for TV but I assume analogue FM follows suit.

So presumably they'll ditch the analogue feed to existing customers at some point, too :-(

-- John Stumbles

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-+ Women always generalise

[tony sayer]

Its certainly better than DAB on most stations the only sizeable station missing is Classic FM but I believe that may be added before long.

The Freeview is more likely to need an outside TV aerial rather than a bit of wire stuck in the back > This bit of wire often sods up FM from what it can be:-(

No problems at all we have our on a lot of the time for Jazz FM which is a tad awkward to receive here.

The joined converged tech eh?......

>

[tony sayer]

Unfortunately the quality on an ntl feed can be very variable depending on how they set the head end up etc.

[Owain]

"Dave Plowman" wrote | > - how practical is it to use it as a radio tuner without a | > TV? (I could take it to the TV room for setting-up first). | No problems. Once it's stored the stations it can be moved.

And even easier to use if it's got an LED channel display on the front. An old OnDodgy box could be ideal.

Owain

[Mike Barnes]

[I couldn't find anywhere better to follow-up]

I tried a Freeview box and, as someone predicted, it simply wouldn't work with a length of wire for an aerial.

So I took it back and got an Acoustic Solutions SP110 tuner from Curry's for GBP 89.99. It's a lot better than I expected for the price - solidly built, good sound, works well with the supplied indoor aerial, four preset buttons on the front panel. Whinges are (1) it's huge, but has a small scrolling display (but other tuners seem to be the same) and (2) the remote would be an extra 19.99 (as it happens I don't particularly want one, but at 109.98 the total would still be a lot cheaper than the competition).

Thanks to everyone who advised.

[tony sayer]

What do you consider the competition to be?....

[Mike Barnes]

Other boxes that caught my attention (sometimes very briefly) included:

Pure DRX601ESM £229.99 Aria A-4000 £199.99 (not yet available AFAIK) Sony ST-D777ES £518.33 Videologic DRX601ES £280.00

That's not an exhaustive list and I've just grabbed model numbers and prices from random web pages since I'm no longer interested, but you get the idea I'm sure.

Any other suggestions welcome because now that she's seen mine, SWMBO wants something for her study as well.

[tony sayer]

Right, I thought you were comparing DTV Freeview boxes as an alternative to DAB. You're quite OK in your choice of DAB receiver as its not worth spending that much on because of the poor audio quality. I bought a fine PACE Freeview receiver for a friend for Xmas for around 60 ish quid and it gives fine BBC radio plus some other EMAP stations and extra TV channels and worked fine of an existing aerial!.

Get her a Freeview TV card for the PC, its keeps my SWMBO occupied for hours!.....

[Mary Fisher]

What would you suggest for a decent mains digital radio, please?

Mary

[The Natural Philosopher]

[tony sayer]

In article , Mary Fisher writes

I don't know if anyone's making one yet other than a portable such as the evoke and or roberts with a mains adapter.