On 1/16/2012 3:40 AM, RHF wrote:
On Jan 15, 9:33 am, wrote:
On 1/15/2012 6:17 AM, J G Miller wrote:

On Sunday, January 15th, 2012, at 12:11:07h +0000, Richard Evans wrote:

Add to this the fact that most HD-Radio broadcasters, don't actually use
any bit rates higher than 40k. At 40k even aac+ sounds poor, and
presumably the HD-Radio codec will sound even worse.

And that is the sad reality of the situation.

Thankfully that is not the reality at all.

If you look at table 5.2.1 at
http://www.nrscstandards.org/DRB/Non-NRSC%20reports/NPRmultiple_bit_r...
you can actually learn where listeners begin to not like the audio quality.

The question listeners and radio stations should be asking is, what
digital system could be developed for future use, rather than
continuing with the present failures of DAB and HD(tm) radio.

- Only clueless listeners and radio stations
- would be asking that question. Those living
- in the real world know that the digital system
- in use in the U.S. is going to be around for
- a long time. And as HD continues to be deployed
- in other countries, there will be pressure for
- the ROW to go along with it as well.
- That's the actual reality of the situation.

OOPS! -sad-reality-:-but-very-true-

It's not sad at all. IBOC was chosen in the U.S. for some very good reasons:

1. Expands content choices with no additional bandwidth
2. Improves audio quality (or at least perceived audio quality) to radio
listeners
3. Provides a clear path to all-digital while protecting existing
broadcasters.

Do you think that both broadcasters and the FCC was not aware of the
drawbacks of the IBOC approach during the transition to all digital FM?
In fact they clearly stated what the drawbacks were and decided that the
benefits were worth it.

Personally I think they might have just left AM alone and let AM
continue its slow decline rather than make another attempt to improve
it. We saw where "AM Stereo" went. However, to be fair, AM-HD is simply
piggybacking onto the success and desirability FM-HD, something that AM
Stereo did not have the advantage of doing.