Norway to Switch Off FM in 2017

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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In two years, Norway will be the first country in the world to completely shut down its FM network system and replace it with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB). The transition will begin in 2017 and proceed from the north and go region by region until the transition has been completed

Today’s decision makes Norway the first country in the world to set a final date for FM-switch off. Several countries in Europe and Southeast Asia, however, are in similar processes, choosing DAB-technology as the backbone of future radio distribution.
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So sometime in the future all cars on the road today will loose broadcast radio...
 
They just want to make money off the freed spectrum then we can get that same great on/off digital broadcast on the road like when they switched off analog TV only Iam sure in a car the reception will be much worse.
 
I think Analog FM and Digital FM work fine together in the US. You get subchannels with digital of course but the digital adoption by car manufacturers is horrible. It can't cost that much extra to add it.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yeah this kinda sucks. There's not really any reason to phase out AM or FM radio. It's simple, and it works.
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Well, there is a reason.

Spectrum is limited.

You can squeeze more channels, at higher quality into the same spectrum with digital broadcasts than you can with FM (or AM).

I wouldn't mind if we did the same here.

Some people might need an adapter for their older cars. No big deal.
 
sfsuphysics said:
If you went OTA TV, you went through a similar transition from analog to digital, the world didn't end then either.
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I still get analog channels from cable for my old TV's.
Only my main TV receives digital. If the cable company went 100% digital, I'd likely dump the old TV's and not replace them since we rarely use them.
 
nutzo said:
I still get analog channels from cable for my old TV's.
Only my main TV receives digital. If the cable company went 100% digital, I'd likely dump the old TV's and not replace them since we rarely use them.
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Wot? There's still analogue TV somewhere? Analog TV has been dead here in Finland since 2007. DVB-T is superior in every possible way in my opinion.
 
sfsuphysics said:
If you went OTA TV, you went through a similar transition from analog to digital, the world didn't end then either.
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And it will probably be like listening to a corrupted audio disc/file if you're not near town. You know, like DTV is like watching a corrupt DVD/video file if you're not near town. I remember when my folks could actually watch OTA without it constantly being a freezing blocky mess.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041557251 said:
You can squeeze more channels, at much lower quality into the same spectrum with digital broadcasts than you can with FM (or AM).
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FTFY.

That's the ultimate goal. Enjoy your FM stereo music station switching to 64Kbps mono.
 
temujin987 said:
people still listen to radio in the car or at all?
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I would if mine worked at all, but it's been stuck on this one dumb country station since I bought it and I don't really wanna waste the money to fix it since radios are kind of distracting anyhow.
 
daglesj said:
FTFY.

That's the ultimate goal. Enjoy your FM stereo music station switching to 64Kbps mono.
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Most of the articles are misleading. DAB will be the minimal that stations can use, most are expected to go to DAB+, so it would be HE-AAC v2 used as the codec instead of MP2. That codec is pretty good at 64k and is worlds better than MP2. And when other nations start to change over, Opus or xHE-AAC will likely be the standards used there which again is better than HE-AAC v2. Codecs have come a long way in the past five years, especially when compared to 90s era standards.
 
Radio channels are so crappy down here that I bust a vein in my head in 5 minutes if I try to listen to them. I listen 100% cds or podcasts on travels. Even if I have no music with me listening to the tires and V8 do their hum is more fun than radio.
 
I like to listen to audio books streaming from my phone or Sirius ... I rarely listen to FM since it is hard to find a good station that lasts for my full 52 mile commute ... this also seems to be more of a EU/Asia thing as I don't think the USA supports this standard
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yeah this kinda sucks. There's not really any reason to phase out AM or FM radio. It's simple, and it works.
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Yep. And it's stupid.

When we discarded Analog TV in the US, we did two stupid things:

1. We ended up with billions of old TV's in our land fills.
2. We ended up with no useful emergency broadcast system.

Portable Digital TV's are not only expensive, but they don't work with a shit. NONE of them work worth a shit.
 
daglesj said:
FTFY.

That's the ultimate goal. Enjoy your FM stereo music station switching to 64Kbps mono.
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That was actually a typo. my bad.

The current HD radio standard actually produces better quality sound using less spectrum

The problem is that it is currently not broadcast as strong as the traditional FM and AM stations, leading to "worbling" between the digital stream and the analogue FM broadcast if you aren't close enough.

If - however - analogue radio were eliminated, the digital signals could be broadcast stronger, and we could use the scarce spectrum more efficiently.
 
nutzo said:
I still get analog channels from cable for my old TV's.
Only my main TV receives digital. If the cable company went 100% digital, I'd likely dump the old TV's and not replace them since we rarely use them.
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Or you could just use a cheap adapter...

That being said, I'm amazed you still have those things. I haven't even seen a tube TV since ~2007 when I replaced mine with my first HDTV.

Tup3x said:
Wot? There's still analogue TV somewhere? Analog TV has been dead here in Finland since 2007. DVB-T is superior in every possible way in my opinion.
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Broadcast TV over the air has transitioned completely to digital. The analogue broadcasts were legally required to end in September of 2009 here.

For cable - however - it is up to the private cable provider to deliver content as they see fit, and some cable providers still leave their legacy analogue systems in place, mostly for customers who would complain if they had to switch (old people), or because they don't want to upgrade their systems.

In my house we have a single fiber optic line to the house for Internet and TV, and we have an IP phone line. Nothing is analogue anymore.

mynamehere said:
And it will probably be like listening to a corrupted audio disc/file if you're not near town. You know, like DTV is like watching a corrupt DVD/video file if you're not near town. I remember when my folks could actually watch OTA without it constantly being a freezing blocky mess.
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There is nothing inherently wrong with digital TV broadcasts. You just need to select the appropriate antenna to receive signals. If the signal is strong, the old 70's roof mounted antennas or cheap indoor digital antennas may work, but if you are further away with a weaker signal you will need an appropriate digital antenna.

My guess is your parents haven't done this.

The transition to digital TV was inevitable and very important, as it freed up the legacy wasted spectrum for other uses in wireless intense age.

I hope we go this way with analogue radio as well, which wastes a ton of spectrum, and provides subpar audio quality.
 
TechLarry said:
Yep. And it's stupid.

When we discarded Analog TV in the US, we did two stupid things:

1. We ended up with billions of old TV's in our land fills.
2. We ended up with no useful emergency broadcast system.

Portable Digital TV's are not only expensive, but they don't work with a shit. NONE of them work worth a shit.
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No we didn't. Most people watch TV over Cable or Satellite, and they weren't forced to change. People mistake Comcast's decision to drop analog as a federal mandate, it wasn't. if more analog TVs ended up in landfills is because digital TVs became cheap enough for most people to buy one.

And the EAS was jacked up long before the switch, and most of the problems were due to operator or configuration errors that would have occurred even if analog was still around.
 
Lunas said:
So sometime in the future all cars on the road today will loose broadcast radio...
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No loss for me. I haven't listened to the radio in any car I've ever owned, other than the split second switching between radio and TAPE/CD/AUX. I don't understand why people want to listen to the same 50 songs over and over, interrupted by ad breaks and in terrible quality. To each their own though...
 
travbrad said:
No loss for me. I haven't listened to the radio in any car I've ever owned, other than the split second switching between radio and TAPE/CD/AUX. I don't understand why people want to listen to the same 50 songs over and over, interrupted by ad breaks and in terrible quality. To each their own though...
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I don't listen to music on the radio. If I want to hear music, I stream it from my phone.

I do - however - listen to the news on the radio. In fact, the news is all I ever listen to in the car anymore. It is very very rare that I turn on any music these days.

I've grown up I guess.
 
temujin987 said:
people still listen to radio in the car or at all?
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Yes. OPB/NPR along with a few classic rock stations and a nice harder rock station (97Rock, KXRX in Tri-Cities, WA).

I also have SiriusXM, but thinking of dropping it. It's the same stuff just set on repeat. I can name 5 bands and guaranteed that one will play in the next 3 songs....
 
Zarathustra[H];1041557817 said:
That was actually a typo. my bad.

The current HD radio standard actually produces better quality sound using less spectrum

The problem is that it is currently not broadcast as strong as the traditional FM and AM stations, leading to "worbling" between the digital stream and the analogue FM broadcast if you aren't close enough.

If - however - analogue radio were eliminated, the digital signals could be broadcast stronger, and we could use the scarce spectrum more efficiently.
Click to expand...

However, in reality what's happened where ever such tech has been rolled out has meant instead of broadcast companies using their allocated spectrum section to broadcast 4 stations at 128kbps stereo they've just carved it up to 8 or even 16 stations in 64kbps mono.

All about the money...not the sound quality.
 
daglesj said:
However, in reality what's happened where ever such tech has been rolled out has meant instead of broadcast companies using their allocated spectrum section to broadcast 4 stations at 128kbps stereo they've just carved it up to 8 or even 16 stations in 64kbps mono.

All about the money...not the sound quality.
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I don't know. I haven't had a HD radio in my car since ~2011, but back then the quality of the digital stations around here was pretty good. Certainly better than analogue FM, and leaps and bounds better than AM, which I don't understand why anyone bothers to broadcast in...
 
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