I recevied an email yesterday from a member of the Intel "Platform Architecture" area asking about my definition of HD Audio. As you may or may not know, Intel is very big in this space and if you google HD Audio you will get a whole lot of search results that point to them. However, there seems to be some imprecision as to the definition of HD as it applied to audio. I thought it might be useful to express my frustration with the terminology and application of HD as I currently see it.
FIrst let me ask a question? What does "HD Radio" stand for? If you answered that it mean "High Defintion" radio, I would not be surprized. The good folks behind this technology [iBiquity] want you and I to believe that there are delivering a completely revolutionary form of radio that is capable of high definition. It is most definitely not high definition...or even close. The digital sidebands that they use to create KLOS-1 and/or KLOS-2 along side there main analog transmission are created from a digital bandwidth of 96 kbps [kilo bits per second]. They do use a new codec to improve the quality of the audio but the quality of the signal is barely as good as the worst quality MP3 download that you can get from Napster or iTunes. Even if you grant them the possibility that the music is "CD Quality", that stills falls far short of the new high definition or high resolution standards.
So I would ask of anyone that trips across this blog. What is HD Audio? I'll give my take on the definition in the next post.
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"Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check"
"While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse."
http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html
"What kind of digital radio are listeners searching for?"
http://www.hear2.com/2006/10/what_kind_of_di.html
"HD Radio on the Offense"
"But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill."
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense
"RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future"
"Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. With the bulk of successful AMs airing news, talk and sports, the improved fidelity advantage of HD and stereo seem only marginally attractive. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations."
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html
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