UK DAB Radio

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FM advantage over DAB: fast tuning -- do DAB devices need to evolve more? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/dabradio@feddit.uk

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My DAB+ radio also has an FM function. It stores a favorite set of channels for DAB and a separate memory store for FM. When cycling through the DAB presets, there is a ~3 or so second delay for it to tune and decode. With the FM mode there is no delay. Is my particular model just slow with decoding the first sound byte or is this an inherent DAB shortcoming?

I imagine a well designed DAB radio could theoretically tune the next 2 or 3 presets in sequence simultaneously in parallel so you could avoid the channel changing delay. Has anything like that been implemented?

What about a device that pairs FM to DAB? Some radio stations have both an FM and a DAB transmission. So in principle I would want the device to be aware of the dupes. From there, I should be able to flip through the FM stations and once I settle on a station push a single button to switch over to the DAB signal. It could even deliberately play the FM signal for 4 sec. longer and quickly cross-fade in the DAB signal. Any hardware on the market doing this sort of thing?

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[–] slurp@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

The fade-out could work but would add more delay time, but the buffering would almost certainly require additional hardware because radios typically can't process two DAB signals at once and it can't pre-buffer a live broadcast unless it adds an extra delay, which is just shifting the problem to a different cause. Speed ramping could maybe account a bit for this, but then if you change stations multiple times quickly this would fail. Also, speed ramping would probably annoy people, especially for music, unless imperceptibly slow. That would require a decent buffer, meaning you'd have to delay switching the channel and also not change the channel for a bit, otherwise you'd get the pause.

The amount of complexity any potential solution adds is not especially worth it, as much as I recognise that it is annoying. Also, since most people aren't too fussed by the pause, I doubt anyone would bother to produce a radio with the hardware for this (and the software on top).