I heard this week that only digital broadcasts will be available on car radios from 2015.

Does this mean we're all going to have to purchase a new wireless? :eek:

Sorry, but I'm really not into this ICE malarky. :rotz:

Don't rate this DAB nonsense in any shape or form tbh, and that goes for radio and tv. Flaming great con imo.:(

Get better reception on 'steam' airwaves rather than digital on our new fangled 'tranny' in the kitchen...apart from 5 Live.

Sorry, but I'm really not into this ICE malarky. :rotz:

Its what you put in your Gin & Tonic

HTH

Andy

Yes, it appears that the switch off will be at the end of 2015. The government wants all new car radios sold to be digital by the end of 2013. So you should have a 2 year window to get sorted ready for digital. At least I might stand a chance of listening to Radio 5 live in the octy, the AM is pretty poor in a lot of areas.

Yes, it appears that the switch off will be at the end of 2015. The government wants all new car radios sold to be digital by the end of 2013. So you should have a 2 year window to get sorted ready for digital. At least I might stand a chance of listening to Radio 5 live in the octy, the AM is pretty poor in a lot of areas.

So I ask again. Will this mean all current radios including aftermarket units will be destined for the tip after 2015? :eek:

Someone is going to be making an absolute fortune out of this twoddle, and I suspect HMG will be having their sticky grubby fingers in the pie for their share, if only for the vat!

The reason for the change is that the digital bands will take up far less "space" in the spectrum of usable communications frequencies than analogue - so government can sell off the bands to comms firms saving us taxes....

In all seriousness, don't knock DAB till you've tried it, although I must admit I don't know how well they work on the move.... anyone used a car DAB radio?

Besides, with tesco now selling desktop DAB tuners for 25 quid, I can't think that it'll be too long till it becomes standard in aftermarket HUs.

i have a dab unit in my furby and i couldnt go back to analog radio

The reason for the change is that the digital bands will take up far less "space" in the spectrum of usable communications frequencies than analogue - so government can sell off the bands to comms firms saving us taxes....

In all seriousness, don't knock DAB till you've tried it, although I must admit I don't know how well they work on the move.... anyone used a car DAB radio?

Besides, with tesco now selling desktop DAB tuners for 25 quid, I can't think that it'll be too long till it becomes standard in aftermarket HUs.

DAB radios are truely awful. Not because of the concept - the idea is sound - but because of the implementation in the UK (as is typical).

Just trying listening to Radio 1 or 2 with headphones and the artefacts of the 128kbps mp2 compression really come out. Makes it unlistenable, to me. Radio 3 has been given enough bandwidth (either 160 or 192 kbps, I can't recall) to make it listenable, but there's not enough space on the multiplexes to make that possible for all stations. Talk stations, for example, are down at 64kbps.

The trouble is, had we waited a copuple fo years and done it properly like mainline Eurpe, we'd be using the DAB+ system which, by all accounts, is fantastic. The problem is compounded by the installed base of the outdated DAB radios - I just can't imagine the Government adopting the correct standard now.

In all seriousness, don't knock DAB till you've tried it, although I must admit I don't know how well they work on the move.... anyone used a car DAB radio? .

Got a DAB wireless in our kitchen, and generally speaking ...as said previously...I'm not overly impressed, apart from 5 Live is now clearer.

Wishy washy reception, and the aerial has to be pointing in exactly the right direction all the time.

Anyway, for the THIRD time, are we all going to have to purchase a new radio for our cars? Yes or no? Anyone know? :confused:

By 2015 no chance, possibly by 2020 but wait and see, there is no real discernabele benefit to the consumer as with digital telly so less people will be minded to switch up front making a change over more difficult.

UK DAB is poor. Rushed in and not well thought out.

The rest of Europe has skipped DAB and is aiming for DAB2. Which is nicely incompatible with DAB.

We've got a DAB radio in the office. Yes it lets us get Virgin in stereo but it also regularly cuts out for hours on end with no warning.

cuts out for hours on end with no warning.

Sounds like our tv digi box/dvd/vcr recorder machine.

Appeared to suddenly die completely last Friday. Took the plug out as a last resort, after trawling through pages and pages of gobbledegook, reconnected, and it

re-initialised itself miraculously!.

Hate the ruddy thing though tbqh, and can't listen to the footie on the radio and watch it on the telly at the same time, because of this annoying time difference between analouge (sp) and digi. :thumbdwn:

It's the transmitter here. No idea if it's unscheduled maintenance or just breaking down but it's not reliable.

A friend of mine who is occaisonally spouting nonsense has said he heard that after a certain date it would be illegal to posess an FM receiver either in the car or in the house and we would all need to buy new radios or possibly be able to get existing DAB/fm receivers modified to only receive DAB.... as i said he has a habit of making stuff up so i dunno....

. Took the plug out as a last resort, after trawling through pages and pages of gobbledegook, reconnected, and it

re-initialised itself miraculously!.

And that's the first thing any self respecting service engineer would have done ,especially with modern electronics .Now by comparison ,got my parents old superhet AM radio ( got to get round to finding an octal rectifier valve ) -it's had three faults in it's lifetime ( and my grandfather bought it for my parents when I was a twinkle in their eyes ,or rather if it was a person it would be close to getting a TV licence free) .

Three faults - on/off switch faulty ,then some forty years ago rectifier valve and now I strongly suspect same .

Apart from that -switch it on , it recieves .

I have 3 DAB radios, office, kitchen and alarm in the bedroom, all work great. The best thing about DAB is 6Music. I've stopped listening to Radio 2 now apart from the drive into and home from work.

A pity its Sarah Kennedy & Chris Evans on, but there's nowt else worth listening to.

I'm thinking about a DAB for the car. During the drive home from night matches 5Live reception is bloody awful, just when you want to listen to the phone ins.

By 2015 no chance, possibly by 2020 but wait and see, there is no real discernabele benefit to the consumer as with digital telly so less people will be minded to switch up front making a change over more difficult.

Don't know about DAB but digi tele is a vast improvement where I live as analogue reception was really cr*p (no channel 5 at all) + I get extra channels. FM is ok round here so possibly less benefit but still more channels available may be a plus.

Yeah 6 radio is good so thats a plus

The problem with digital radio is the there or not there aspect. We are all use to a bit of static and distortion going through mountaings etc but with digital it ... be ...case.....here......gone.

I'd be amazed if the switch is that soon - I really wouldn't worry about it now.

can't get DAB in the hoose, sometimes no FM in the valleys, what hope for DAB in the car........

Anyway, for the THIRD time, are we all going to have to purchase a new radio for our cars?

No need to be arsey.... who knows, who cares. Probably not. Buy some CDs.

Interesting reading:

BBC now testing AAC/AAC+ Internet radio streams at higher quality than DAB