On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:58:08 -0800, Laughing... laughing... LMFAO!!!
wrote:
I’m guessing that
RadioShack paid iBiquity a fortune for the license, cheaply put together
a subpar product, and passed the licensing cost on to consumers."
http://www.markramseymedia.com/2007/...y-of-hd-radio/
I never took a look at the iBiquity fee structures. I just now went
online and did that. I didn't immediately find the $50 chipset royalty
for radio receivers but did find the broadcaster license fees. Wow.
I installed a Pioneer HD Radio receiver in my car. The Pioneer adapter
was $100, and I guess half that was the royalty. Geez. The device's FM
section works pretty well but isn't nearly as good as the "Supertuner" in
the main receiver chassis. As well it works very poorly on AM -
unacceptable. I complained strongly to Crutchfield, and they sent me a
replacement, but that sample was also lousy.
Creatively, I arranged a Motorola Y adapter and pigtail so that I can use
the Supertuner for analog radio and only use the HD Radio adapter when I
need it.
The Pioneer system and the full length car antenna does receive HD Radio
pretty well on FM, but now I realize that if I couldn't have come up with
the Y cable arrangement, I'd again have a crappy radio overall since the
Pioneer adapter is poorly nuanced compared to their analog tuner.
When I lump my experience with two HD Radio receivers - the Radiosophy I
got free and the Pioneer auto receiver - with knowledge of this evidently
outrageous iBiquity fee structure, I see that HD Radio is DOA as a
product.
HD Radio manufacturers, retailers, and the automakers are all trying to
screw the consumers by passing along iBiquity's royalty fees.
This is all quite a marketing bummer and blunder. It's a real jaw
dropper.
Actually, I don't use the HD Radio in my car anymore. I plug my DroidX
phone into the Pioneer's audio jacks and listen to streaming audio from
the Internet. Maybe I'll just remove the HD Radio kludge from the car
since my Y-adapter slightly degrades the analog FM performance.
--
Semper Factotal