Audi of America will be including HD Radio technology in "many" of its vehicles starting with the 2011 model year.The vehicles that will be equipped with HD Radio will be those featuring top-of-the-line audio systems. No specific model lines were announced, but it was pointed out that these vehicles will arrive in dealers in 2010.
The news further underscores the legitimate competition that HD Radio serves against Satellite Radio, but also illustrates exactly how slow automakers are to react. This announcement comes out a full 2 years before the feature will even be available to the public.
It also shows the automakers are waking up and seeing satradio is over. Smart consumers will not pay for radio from a MONOPOLY especially one that is a complete failure.
HD Radio
HD Digital Radio • IT’S TIME TO UPGRADE!
HD Digital Radio. It's here. It's local. It's free. DISCOVER IT!
www.hdradio.com/
Uggg, your still here anon. The merger went through, get over it.
HD RADIO IS WORTHLESS! It's glorified Terrestrial radio. National radio for 43 cents a day, No commercials on music, 180 channels of everything a person could want. The versatility oozes out out of Satellite radio. But don't take it from me
ask the other 19 million people what they think.
^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
asshole
What bothers me is that HD is still a "premium" thing. It's hard to find an HD radio under $200, and yet broadcasters expect people to adopt HD everywhere. If broadcasters want everyone to get an HD radio, then they should be GIVING this thing away. Dump the broadcasters' royalty. Dump the $15 "HD tax" on new radios. PUT HD CHIPS IN EVERY SINGLE RADIO MANUFACTURED, and then you'll see some serious consumer adoption.
In the meantime, HD trolls like the previous poster have no ground to stand on. People don't buy HD because it's expensive and pointless. Coverage sucks, the radios are overpriced, and the the programming is pointless.
People buy satellite radio because it offers something HD doesn't: choice. I can listen to talk, news, rock, classical, even radio theater - ANYWHERE. You can't do that with HD, and you never will.
Even the alliance has given up on HD Radio at this point. Last I heard, it was up to local groups to program HD radio, and nobody cared. It's all but dead. Will be a nice "hey look what I also have in my high end car" for those 10 people who can afford one. Otherwise, its a waste of time. It's automated, bland playlists with little or no interaction.
Not that sat radio is doing any better these days...
See, here's the funny thing: there are 4 stations that I would listen to in HD, if only I could get a stable signal. The big classic rock station here in town plays reruns of their morning show all day long on the -2 stream, there's a good electronica stream on another channel, there's classical on the NPR station, and an AM news/talk station sounds very good in HD.
Except, oops... the signal quality is so unreliable that it cuts out and reverts to analog every 5 minutes, making the whole thing useless.
And unless you live in the big city , HD radio is useless . Most of these small town stations , don't have HD radio .
Let's see - Jaguar is pulling HD Radio, Volvo has still not included HD Radio which supposedly came out this year, HD Radio never materialized with Ford, and BMW, like Jaguar, is getting nothing but complaints.
As to the comment about automakers being slow to react, announcing it two years early is only indicative of the multi-year cycle it takes to integrate new technologies into vehicles.
The point that they're slow to respond is indicated by the fact that they waited until now to announce it, rather than the moment that HD Radio was out the door and available.
Give me a break. The public is stupid, but not that stupid. Does the NAB actually think anyone's going to buy-in to this bullshit?
"Oh boy!! It's the same shit they've been shoving down our throats for years only now there's 10 times more of it!!!! At far worse quality!!! Where do I sign up????"
HD Radio is a total joke. No one want's it. It's a perfect example of corporate shitheels like the NAB telling the public what they SHOULD want rather than giving them what they actually desire. Look at the endless list of failures of the rent-a-song business model that the RIAA has tried to con the public with or Microsoft's idiotic "Plays-for-sure-until-we-don't-want-it-to" DRM. People don't like getting ripped off.
Stillborn crappy technology is not going to save terrestrial radio. Deal with it.
"Oh boy!! It's the same shit they've been shoving down our throats for years only now there's 10 times more of it!!!! At far worse quality!!! Where do I sign up????"
Sounds a lot like what Mel's doing to satrad right now.
" The versatility oozes out out of Satellite radio. But don't take it from me ask the other 19 million people what they think."
Well, there's nowhere near 19 million subs. With XM's almost 10m & Sirius 8M that's just under 18m. How many do subs do you have? I had 5 subs. Since the merger I've cancelled 4 leaving me with only 1. Every single person I know that has XM or Sirius had at least 2 units and about a million of that 18 million number is parking lot subs. How many people really have SDARS? I'd say no more that 8 million tops, probably closer to 6 million actual customers, each with multiple radios. I think SDARS is going down the shitter and for the first time I'm looking at HD radio. It obviously has problems but so did/does SDARS. W/O Howard or O&A I see zero reason to keep subscribing to SiriusXM anymore. Once they're gone so am I and 80% of the rest of the subs.
Great merger. It's driving people back to FM.
The other day, I had several of my college students with me, and I brought my XM for the trip. While the students liked it, I was more impressed with the iphone that one student had. Not only could he listen to his music, but he virtually could listen to ANY internet radio station in the car. All he needed was an AT&T tower, and he could listen just like FM.
I had no idea.
Of course, it's expensive (he says about $75/month, but that includes phone calls, text, and internet), but why would anyone in the 18-22 year range want Satrad when you have this neat device that allows you to listen to whatever you want, whenever you want?
In this column, I had mentioned several months ago what the possibilities were with internet radio in the car; I had no idea we are now here.
We'll see what the future holds with Satrad....
HD Radio sucks plain and simple. Guys right without O&A and Howard Stern I don't see a whole lot of reason to own Satellite. And honestly there are ways to get their shows on your ipod. A merger is hardly ever good for the consumers and dont blame Mel for destroying XM. XM's stupid management that should have realized they didn't even need this merger destroyed XM.
I have had an HD radio (home unit) for nearly two years. Whether or not you like satellite radio, HD is just not the same thing. Satellite radio is a complete product (or at least it has been) with a whole range of channels delivered to your receiver. HD radio is done on a station-by-station basis, and it's hard to get a good HD signal, as others have said.
Moreover, the people who could really benefit from HD radio -- those who live in smaller markets and have little radio choice -- do not have access to it because it's only in major cities. And just because you're in reach of analog signals from a major market doesn't mean you'll get HD, because that's my situation, and out of seven or eight stations that broadcast in HD, I get reliable HD signals from 3. And this is with a pretty decent antenna. In a car, it would be a joke.
I say move forward on HD radio, it's probably got some potential, but it's in no way an alternative to satellite radio. They're just completely different.
I bought the HD hype and went out and bought an HD radio ($210) and have been completely disappointed with the lack of reliable stations. I too found out that the HD signals are much weaker than their analog counterparts. I can only get 1 out of (about) 9 stations in our area that broadcast HD. I can pick up the analog signals nicely, but only 1 station is reliable to pick up normally. This is going to be the biggest hurdle for NAB if they are going to sucessfully sale HD to the public. In rural areas there are no reliable HD stations or are so weak that their signal only reaches a few listeners.
My 2cents as an HD owner..
Thanks for info on audi. I am looking to buy a Jensen JIM-525. Do you think HD Radio is really worth the higher price? I read conflicting things. This site http://www.hdradioreview.com seems to say yes, but looking for more advice. Thanks