Millions Of Motorists Face £300 Bill To Install Digital Radios As Ministers Press Ahead With Fm Switch-Off

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1292531/Millions-motorists-face-300-install-digital-radios-ministers-press-ahead-FM-switch-off.html

Millions of motorists will be forced to spend hundreds of pounds replacing or converting their car radios with new digital sets.

The coalition Government is to press on with controversial plans to switch off FM and medium wave radio in favour of digital – leaving much of the nation with no option but to pay out for new equipment both at home and in the car.

Despite serious concerns that the public neither wants nor is ready for the change, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce he will stick with Labour’s plans for a mass switchover in the next five years.

The move will cost consumers hundreds of pounds as they are forced to update and change their analogue radios at home and in their cars, before they become obsolete.

As many as 100 million analogue radios will become largely redundant after 2015 and around 20 million car radios will be useless - leaving many without their favourite stations.

Around 20 per cent of all radio listening happens in cars but only 1 per cent of all cars currently have the capability to receive digital stations.

Motorists will either have to replace their car radios at a cost of some £300 or buy special ‘conversion’ kits that must be attached to the windscreen, often alongside Satnavs, which could also cost more than £100.

A nice boost for the economy over the next several years.

If this switch over is going to happen then all new radios should have DAB as standard. Once more poor legislation which screws the consumer.

At least it's another worth while govt austerity drive.

[200p]

Not bothered, with a plug in mp3 player and 1000s of songs and podcasts, why need live radio?

[Snugglybear]

It was the same scam with digital telly. I held out until the day before they switched off the analogue signal at the local mast but then had to buy two new sets. Why not just two Freeview boxes (which would have been bad enough)? Because we hadn't "upgraded" the sets we were already using (because they were still working, d'you see?) and they didn't have SCART sockets. So I would have had to buy two Freeview boxes and two boxes to modify the signal and to have then hoped the old TVs wouldn't fall over.

My husband took the old sets to the local amenity site AKA dump and said there was a positive mountain of TVs there. All presumably working fine until the stupid Government made us go digital.

Must do wonders for what we used to quaintly call the balance of payments.

[Ologhai Jones]

A nice boost for the economy over the next several years.

How will people spending £300 each on a new car radio instead of spending £300 on something else be a nice boost to the economy (especially as the radios will almost certainly not be made in the UK)?

[stu531]

Digital Radio is very, very poor.

DAB is based on a 90s standard in the UK (we were early adopters) when MP2 was the order of the day. Now we've moved far in advance of it (AAC and such), so DAB+ is required to get anything like the quality of FM - rendering existing sets obsolete already. Already other countries are considering DAB+ and DRM, which are both far better than our archaic standard.

Couple that with the fact that coverage is poor, and you've got an impending recipe for disaster waiting around the corner.

DAB is old-hat; radio over IP, and having IP coverage across the country - now that's the way forward.

[@contradevian]

How will people spending £300 each on a new car radio instead of spending £300 on something else be a nice boost to the economy (especially as the radios will almost certainly not be made in the UK)?

Well I bought a new car radio/mp3 etc a few months ago, but can't get it fitted due to a "bevel" issue on my Citroen. I suppose its good for the economy in the sense the FM band will be sold off for ££££

[@contradevian]

DAB is old-hat; radio over IP, and having IP coverage across the country - now that's the way forward.

People at home will probably be better buying an Internet Radio, rather than a DAB radio. I tend to stream "radio" on my PC or laptop or more usually Freeview radio with the TV screen blanked. Be nice to able to get Spotify reliably in the car though!

[Grimbert]

Will we still get radio 4 on long wave?

Anyway, I think the rules say they can't switch off analogue until 50% of people get a digital radio. I can't see it happening.

[General Melchett]

Just ordered my new company car... without. It was a massive cost option and choosing it would mean I would have to give up something I want for something I dont want or need. By the time DAB comes in I'll be on my next company car. Next owner of the car will be buggered, too, as the radio is all tied in with the built in sat nav etc so isnt just a 'go down Halford' job to replace.

And as long as people ordering brand new cars right now feel and act the same way, I cant see DAB radios being present in >50% of cars anytime soon. either.

[Frank Hovis]

It was the same scam with digital telly. I held out until the day before they switched off the analogue signal at the local mast but then had to buy two new sets. Why not just two Freeview boxes (which would have been bad enough)? Because we hadn't "upgraded" the sets we were already using (because they were still working, d'you see?) and they didn't have SCART sockets. So I would have had to buy two Freeview boxes and two boxes to modify the signal and to have then hoped the old TVs wouldn't fall over.

My husband took the old sets to the local amenity site AKA dump and said there was a positive mountain of TVs there. All presumably working fine until the stupid Government made us go digital.

Must do wonders for what we used to quaintly call the balance of payments.

History now but I used an analogue TV and digibox without SCART, the usual co-ax worked fine.

[Frank Hovis]

Will we still get radio 4 on long wave?

Anyway, I think the rules say they can't switch off analogue until 50% of people get a digital radio. I can't see it happening.

I don't think it's that. It's listening via non-analogue, so internet, freeview.

The great majority of people can now get non-analogue radio.

[AteMoose]

Hmmm seems a little daft, there are lots of DAB holes (I have DAB in the car), driving around through towns the DAB cuts out and it flips back to FM alternative as a backup. Just driving to work and dab will cut-out 8 or so times. DAB only works if you have FM to fall back to. Hey even the house is in a DAB blackspot

[Topher Bear]

I like dab at home, especially for radio 5, but 90% of my listening is done in the car. I've heard that dab works particularly badly in the car, it can't cope with the moving. I wont be buying a new car with dab for a long time, and there is no way I will buy anything that attaches to the windscreen, they are dangerous in my opinion.

I'm going to contact the institute of advanced motorists about it ( I am a member). They have the ear of the government.

If they in ahead I will just sums listening to the radio and stick with cd's

On the telly front, we use a digi-box, but recently rejected a new digital tv when our old one died, because I didn't like the jaggies, went with c second hand crt. I am not anti new tech, I was an early adopter of widescreen, just anti new tech just because its new!

[stu531]

I think DAB is just one of these things that just won't work in-car. DTV is OK because you are static as a rule; once you've got a signal, you're OK. In a car, you move in and out of range fairly rapidly; without a network as intensive as phone/cell, you'll get the 'daleks' very easily on DAB, which is almost painful if you've got it on loud. On FM, if you've got a poor station, you can get by with a little bit of hiss; on DAB, it's all or nothing.

And even if you're on the phone in a car, you'll know that it goes on and off in poor coverage areas. The same will be true for DAB radio in car.

[SarahBell]

The great digi box scandal means loads of boxes haven't been updated and so are now forever not going to work.

it'll affect more than cars though - all those portable things with radios on...

[AteMoose]

I think DAB is just one of these things that just won't work in-car. DTV is OK because you are static as a rule; once you've got a signal, you're OK. In a car, you move in and out of range fairly rapidly; without a network as intensive as phone/cell, you'll get the 'daleks' very easily on DAB, which is almost painful if you've got it on loud. On FM, if you've got a poor station, you can get by with a little bit of hiss; on DAB, it's all or nothing.

And even if you're on the phone in a car, you'll know that it goes on and off in poor coverage areas. The same will be true for DAB radio in car.

not will.... It is

[Concrete Jungle]

Not bothered, with a plug in mp3 player and 1000s of songs and podcasts, why need live radio?

+1 I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio in my car.

[@contradevian]

DAB will be the death knell for all the local commercial stations I guess. Not that I listen to any of them!

[samwise]

+1 I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio in my car.

The only time I listen to the radio (or indeed anything musical) is in the car - much rather listen to the local independent station or R5 than CDs.

Everyone's different

[corevalue]

I think I remember that the original intention was to switch off AM once FM had been established. Obviously, it never happened.

[Ruffneck]

digital just doesnt keep reception as well as analogue

[MrPin]

Will we still get radio 4 on long wave?

Indeed! That enables me to feel British nearly all the way to Paris!

The current DAB service is crap! :angry:

The DVB broadcast for radio over the freeview gives a much better quality!

And there's nothing wrong with the current FM service!

[tonytramcar]

Presumably car radios will still pick up foreign stations on Medium Wave ?

[OnlyMe]

Presumably car radios will still pick up foreign stations on Medium Wave ?

Yes, they are not re-trasnmitted so you are receiving the original signal, depends what happens to those EU stations. Unless the signal gets blatted by soem other service that is sold to use this part of the spectrum the reception will be disrupted.

Maybe some enterprising niche for an english MW transmission from europe?

[tim123]

My husband took the old sets to the local amenity site AKA dump and said there was a positive mountain of TVs there. All presumably working fine until the stupid Government made us go digital.

I very much doubt it. You are in a very small minority having TVs with no SCART still working, my last one died three years ago. I would bet a lot of money that most of the TVs you saw in the pile had ceased to function for "normal" reasons. The reason that the pile is so big is because they rarely clear it away.

tim