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DAB+

Okay, I take it all back. Today, it plays ClassicFM and Scala just fine.

There are occasions when DAB is completely silent and doesn't resolve without a reboot. The other day ordinary DAB was fine, and I was clutching at straws that the difference was DAB vs DAB+, so presuming the DAB+ services were not conspiring to transmit silence, I guess my flaky radio just hadn't started its DAB+ decoder daemon (or whatever) and needed a reboot to sort it!
 
A quick kick up the reboot button (or off/on switch) cures many ills. Although I wouldn't recommend using that method on humans
 
EEPhil said:
A quick kick up the reboot button (or off/on switch) cures many ills. Although I wouldn't recommend using that method on humans
Click to expand...
A reboot in a car can require the battery disconnecting, with attendant fun and games on some cars after reconnection.
 
Owen Smith said:
A reboot in a car can require the battery disconnecting, with attendant fun and games on some cars after reconnection.
Click to expand...
It was my car radio rebooting that convinced me to give up on nursing the old battery through another winter and splash out for a new one.
 
In this case, turning it off and on again achieves reboot. It's not instant-on. I guess the boot process configures the SoC-type hardware (load hardware registers from boot ROM), and there's probably a general compute core in there running the UI.
 
I was out and about today so I decided to try Scala. It was around lunchtime so it was their requests slot. OMG! There was a track identified (and I seem to remember it from my youth) as from Disney's Robin Hood! Quality... not!
 
Classic FM at 64kbps AAC sounds so much better than Scala at 40kbps AAC. It doesn't help that Scala don't appear to have Spectral Band Replication enabled whereas Classic FM do, so Scala are effectively running AAC-LC (low complexity) which was never meant to be used at such low bit rates.
 
I'm having a problem with the so-called classical stations. Radio 3 is a bit too high brow for me. Many of the presenters on Classic FM do not impress me - Dan Walker, no thanks; Alexander Armstrong, when I gave him a listen he was bumbling; weekend presenters, oh dear! Scala, not many presenters left. Charles Nove* at breakfast seems okay. Don't listen to Penny Smith or the requests hour. Probably the Classic FM requests are better. As for the broadcast quality - I can't comment. I usually listen whilst walking about - using the phone app and earphones or headphones.
* Bloody autocorrect changed this to November.
 
I don't really care about the presenters, I just want them to tell me what the track is after I've tried to guess what it is.

An(other) annoying thing about my car radio is that it takes SIX presses of the info button to switch from displaying the time (my default, because that's the only clock in the car) to displaying the FM/DAB text, and another two to switch back to clock. The info displayed during the other presses is of no more than passing interest to anybody (technical transmission parameters). If I had designed the UI it would not have been like this!

But at least it's a real button I can press without looking at it, not a stupid touch screen.
 
Black Hole said:
I just want them to tell me what the track is after I've tried to guess what it is.
Click to expand...
Both Classic FM and Scala have a recent playlist on the website. At some point you could always look at that. I realise that is about as helpful as Classic FM's travel news "available on the website". And how are you supposed to access it whilst driving? If you try illegally accessing your mobile phone for details sod's law would have PC Plod behind you or an enforcement camera in front.
 
Black Hole said:
I don't really care about the presenters, I just want them to tell me what the track is after I've tried to guess what it is.
Click to expand...
Classic FM presenters usually (but not always) tell you what the track is and who the performers were. I do enjoy for soloists guessing who it is playing before the presenters say, I'm pretty good at spotting trumpeters.
 
Black Hole said:
I don't really care about the presenters, I just want them to tell me what the track is after I've tried to guess what it is.
Click to expand...
If you play on BBC Sounds its has a full track listing with the current one flagged as playing.

Got a new (to me) car yesterday and went through setting up my presets but no 5 Live Sports Extra so I am assuming I need to wait until it is actually broadcasting something before the radio will find it (*). At least it is quicker to tune in to the selected DAB radio station than the older radio in my old car.

(*) Failing that I guess I will have to fall back on Bluetoothing the test cricket from BBC Sounds on my mobile phone.
 
Last edited:
Black Hole said:
An(other) annoying thing about my car radio is that it takes SIX presses of the info button to switch from displaying the time (my default, because that's the only clock in the car) to displaying the FM/DAB text, and another two to switch back to clock. The info displayed during the other presses is of no more than passing interest to anybody (technical transmission parameters). If I had designed the UI it would not have been like this!
Click to expand...
I've been refreshing my knowledge of the manual, and found this:
When “TEXT” indicator lights on the display, you can check the Dynamic Label Segment (DLS) directly by pressing and holding the DISP button
Click to expand...
Their DISP button is what I was calling the info button. Must try it...
 
Black Hole quoting said:
When “TEXT” indicator lights on the display, you can check the Dynamic Label Segment (DLS) directly by pressing and holding the DISP button
Click to expand...
Not recommended whilst driving!
Barely a day goes by without some click bait in the local on-line rag. "Face a fine of £1000 if you ... whilst driving". The latest was raising your hand to acknowledge a courtesy by another driver. So fiddling with your radio a no-no then. Although, I do vaguely remember a hire car (about 20 years ago) that had some radio controls on the steering wheel.
 
EEPhil said:
Not recommended whilst driving!
Click to expand...
So how do Tesla (etc, ie cars where the UI is mostly touch-screen) drivers manage? Perhaps that's why they have to have automatic lane keeping and automatic braking!

The likes of Audi having followed that trend (I mean, you can't issue software updates or paid upgrades to a mechanical switch*), they've now realised their customers don't like touch-screens and are going back to proper controls. It doesn't take a genius to work that one out!

* High-end marques have post-sale paid upgrades: all the features are already installed, but if the driver tries to use one which has not been enabled, it's offered for a credit card payment. This is of course possible because these cars have permanent 4G/5G connections to home, and the manufacturer spying on you.
 
That's better than the cars which indicate and not mean it ("oh, I'm going straight across at the roundabout so I'll indicate right and scare the b'jesus out of the car to my right"; or "I'm coming off the roundabout next-but-one so I'll start indicating now")!
 
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