Digital radio...a big con trick??

[Dom Tuk]

read a week ago that some watchdog has finally concluded that there is no evidence that digital radio is in any way superior to analogue. Digital radio apparently now states that the only advantage it has over analogue is on choice. So were we conned all this time?

[Ralph]

It can be better than FM, but due to mainly financial reasons, it's only ever going to be "similar". It's all about bandwith. If they were to broadcast at 320 or 192kbps it would be as good as listening to a MP3 from your hard disk or ipod, but would use a lot of bandwith. If they broadcast at 64kbps instead of 192, they can fit 3 stations into the same space. If they just broadcast speech, they can use 32kbps in mono, so can fit 12 such stations into the space taken up by a single stereo 192kbps station. Bandwith costs cash as the price difference between a 512k and a 2meg broadband connection shows, so the lowest bandwith a station can get away with will be what they use. If you want more, complain. If they get enough complaints, they may decide to up the quality.

There's also concerns over piracy from the recording industry. If all songs were broadcast at 192kbps stereo, we could just save them as MP3's on the computer and never buy a CD or legal download again!

[BillyNoMates]

Of course those that developed it say that it was basically to improve choice - true to an extent.

When I first started using it, the quality was better as many stations have had their bitrated reduced for the reasons mentioned above. R3 I think is the only one with a decent bitrate now.

Quite a few of other European broadcasters stations have gone with different standards as they regard DAB as 'inadequate'.

I personally find it a litlle 'flat' to listen to despite having a high quality receiver which can 'warm' up the sound with a button.

I like it because it does allow me to listen to stations from outside of my area. I could however, live without it, some stations are little better than an Internet stream with a good soundcard and decent pair of headphones in my opinion.

I am certain it is/has not been been the success it was supposed to be. But Digital is better than analogue right ?

[c00ky83]

Around a year ago I switched to Radio 1.  Soon after I thought I'd get a DAB...but luckily it broke so I sent it back!  As a R1 listener, there was just no point to it, as it sounded the same, but occasionally broke up.  Also, it ran 3 seconds behind my hi-fi (a pain if you like listening to two radios...).  The choice of stations only annoyed me, as they were all southern commercial stations.

[garyyokel]

Well I love BBC 6music and BBC7, plus thanks to Five Live Extra I could hear every minute of the recent Ashes series perfectly clearly and without the shipping forecast. If DAB is the only way I could get these stations WITHOUT using my computer, then I don't feel conned. However, the technicalities about quality issues are a little lost on me and I might be missing the crux of this question.

[Joe Shmoe]

Personally I love DAB radio. The only problem is like Freeview not everyone can recieve it. The best thing is it cuts out interference from pirate radio stations and aeroplanes.

[sunnycrest]

Virgin Radio is really good and it is on Medium Wave normally, which is so crackily. So it is great to have it through DAB.