# Are you ready for the digital switchover?



## Rislar (Aug 16, 2008)

Heres another way the gov is gonna have a shed load of money out of us :roll:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196002/Bought-new-car-Sorry-radio-won-t-work-years.html

These lot make me sick to the core!!!!!


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## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

I agree with you everyday there is something else to shock but why havent the Car Manufactures thought about this earlier.


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## RichardnGill (Aug 31, 2006)

I have just got a new car last month, no DAB radio but it was a £90 option.

I didnt bother as I will only have the car for 3 to 4 years and by then I would think all new cars will have DAB in them.


Richard...


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196002/Bought-new-car-Sorry-radio-won-t-work-years.html said:


> And installing a DAB digital system could cost as much as £300 because standard car radios are built in to the vehicle's electrical system and are difficult and expensive to replace.


Part of the electrical system, that's a new one, :roll: :roll: :roll:


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## b16duv (Feb 14, 2006)

The easy answer is to use one of These

I have had one for over a year and it works fine. Wouldn't be without it.

£78 from John Lewis.

David


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Sorted then innit.

Kev.


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Rislar said:


> Heres another way the gov is gonna have a shed load of money out of us :roll: These lot make me sick to the core!!!!!


I presume this is a joke? Only I don't see how anyone (except, perhaps, the Daily Mail) can blame the government for the car manufacturers not installing DAB radios? As Richard says, DAB is an option on new cars. And Kev's right - "part of the electrical system"? Well, yes, but then as most of us know, you pull one radio out of the DIN standard slot, unplug the DIN standard connector(s), and you put another radio in.

I really should stop reading posted links to the Daily Mail website. My time is too precious to waste reading this sort of nonsense.

Gerald


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

We need to be rocket scientists to change a radio, as you say one out, one in, assuming they'll do single din ones or double dins too, the hardest part of changing a car radio, (as anyone who's done it will know) is finding the little tools to get the old bugger out, then trying to remember where they go in, the rest is childs play. 



Kev.


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Kev_n_Liz said:


> the hardest part of changing a car radio, (as anyone who's done it will know) is finding the little tools to get the old bugger out


How right you are, Kev, although when I was changing the radio on our Pollensa, I found a website that sold all different types of hooky things. I'm sure Uncle Google knows all about it.

Gerald


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

It just strikes me a lunacy that the UK is going it alone re DAB radio. Surely it would make sence to wait for an agreed international or if not European standard to adopt first. Then it might be reasonable to expect vehicle and electronics manufacturers to come aboard.
C.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Conversely Gerald,whenever a Guardian link comes up I do a :roll: :roll: :roll: 


tony :lol:


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## JeanLuc (Jan 13, 2007)

I refer you to my post in an earlier thread on the same subject - see link below.
Please note the last point in the extract from the relevant comment in the executive summary of "Digital Britain". There is an expectation that the move to DAB-only, for national channels, will be preceded by the widespread availability of affordable converters for use in cars - referred to by earlier posters in this thread.
Concerning the option to "pull out an analogue radio from the DIN aperture, and plug in a DAB one", this may not be possible for many new car owners. In an attempt to reduce car radio theft, some manufacturers began, a few years ago, to move away from standard DIN apertures. Many ICE control panels are built into the fascia, whilst the electronics are a series of modules distributed throughout the wiring loom. For owners of these, I suspect the solution will have to be a DAB converter.

Philip

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopicp-651371.html#651371


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## Rislar (Aug 16, 2008)

CliveMott said:


> It just strikes me a lunacy that the UK is going it alone re DAB radio. Surely it would make sence to wait for an agreed international or if not European standard to adopt first. Then it might be reasonable to expect vehicle and electronics manufacturers to come aboard.
> C.


This is the point most have missed, and in anycase, yep you can just adapt, but at what cost!!
I see as usual we have the YES brigade, support these idiosyncrasies at any cost :roll:


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## b16duv (Feb 14, 2006)

Rislar said:


> yep you can just adapt, but at what cost!!
> 
> I see as usual we have the YES brigade, support these idiosyncrasies at any cost :roll:


£78 

And did you know, the same government ******** are making us all buy digital tellys too!

D


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## JeanLuc (Jan 13, 2007)

CliveMott said:


> It just strikes me a lunacy that the UK is going it alone re DAB radio. Surely it would make sence to wait for an agreed international or if not European standard to adopt first. Then it might be reasonable to expect vehicle and electronics manufacturers to come aboard.
> C.


The following is not aimed at you Clive, but is a general "soap-box" piece.
I think a study of the available information would suggest that the UK is not "going it alone". The international standards developed by the "Eureka 147" project were adopted in 1994. For those wishing to find out a bit more about the world scene for digital radio, it is worth visiting the WorldDMB web-site (link below).
However, it is probably worth waiting a little while before making any significant investment in DAB. I am thinking here more about in-home rather than in-vehicle. Arcam was the first HiFi manufacturer to make a high-end DAB tuner some years ago. At the time, it was out-performed by their cheaper FM tuner (I know because I listened to both side-by-side and chose the FM one.) Standard DAB still does not out-perform a really good FM tuner. That requires a new variant called DAB+ which, for the technically minded, uses a different codec called Mpeg4, or AAC+. All comply with the core set of digital broadcast standards however, and DAB+ tuners are backward-compatible with current broadcasts.

The key point (assuming I am seen to be in the "YES Brigade") is that digitisation will not go away so you might as well get used to gaining the best from it. There may well be some who yearn for the days of Gestetner stencils as a way of distributing written opinions to many, but I'll stick with the digital benefits of Motorhome Facts et al and manipulate them for my benefit and enjoyment.

Digitally yours,

Philip

>>World DMB<<


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

And then Digital will not be a few milliseconds behind FM.

I have yet to have the DAB in car entertainment ICE experience yet, But have heard it's not too hot in some areas, also what's like going through tunnels, can you get it all over, as in some areas FM is seriously baba.

Kev.


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

GEMMY said:


> Conversely Gerald,whenever a Guardian link comes up I do a :roll: :roll: :roll:


Hi Tony :lol:

You're quite a liberty to do that, but I would suggest the ratio of Guardian links to Daily Mail or Express (or, in DABs case, Telegraph :wink: ) is 1:10 or maybe worse. How many threads have been started with a "Look what this ******** government are doing now" and then a link to an anti-government newspaper website? As though what was being linked to was the definitive truth.

I will admit, the Guardian may put a 'socialist' slant on stories, but us Guardian readers normally keep this to ourselves :lol:

Gerald


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

It's not that you're too embarassed to share is it? :lol: 

tony


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## 89862 (May 1, 2005)

This is all getting a bit Daily M**l isn't it? Frothing at the mouth about something that's 75% correct, whilst not fully understanding the implications.

By the time FM is switched off there'll be many more options available to vehicle owners to convert to DAB, just as no-one NEEDS to buy a digital TV now - spend £25 on a digital freeview box.

The only way the UK is going it alone with DAB is that most other countries have adopted the DAB+ standard - which gives higher quality.


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Rislar said:


> yep you can just adapt, but at what cost!!


I dunno. You tell us, if you've researched it . Presumably that what you're basing your rant on?



Rislar said:


> I see as usual we have the YES brigade, support these idiosyncrasies at any cost :roll:


But to be fair, we also have the "Why change things" brigade, who have always existed, who always will exist, and who perpetually refer to improvements as daftness.

Dougie.


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