Anyone think digital radio would be a good option? I've heard that it sounds pretty good, but have not experienced it for myself. I like the idea of radio without commercials, broadcast in CD quality. What do you think??

 

I think this WILL be on the car. Mazda is planning to put in Sirius satellite tuners in all their cars within the next year or so.

 

I'd only get the satellite radio if I can just incorporate a 3 year subscription into the lease price of my car.

 

Ya know, these radio services are on different frequencies, with different subscription setups, etc. etc. etc. It's not like you can get a "digital radio", and pick up, or be able to subscribe to the different services available, like you can get an "FM radio", and just tune it into all of the different stations available. You have to have a specific tuner for a specific service installed.

If the service that you chose decides to significantly change their format, or goes bankrupt altogether (like one is on the brink of), then you'd be better off with a shortwave radio in the car.

So, from a consumer standpoint, I will wait until things get a little more standardized, and a little more stable. Not only do I want to spend money on the unit that might not be worth it in the near-future, but I don't want to take all of that time replacing/installing equipment to support it.

And, from a car manufacturer's standpoint, I would be even more hesitant to sell my customers a format that might be gone before their leases are up. That's why it took soooo long before you saw factory CD players in the car on a regular basis, why it will be awhile before you see MP3 on a regular basis.

Mind you, in this situation, it would could just be on the side like the AM radio band that few use, and some of these car companies have business connections to these providers, making it worth their while to put more digital radios out on the street. But the thing is, if they offer subscription with it, it will be calculated in with the car or radio option cost, so you will be paying for it anyway. So, I had better not be paying for some lousy radio service that I'm not going to use. That's like having to buy several car magazine subscriptions to by a sports car.

---jps

 

Subscription??? OMG... now I really want DAB instead... We get satalite radio here too, but it died before it got started since DAB is so good. Works exactly like FM, except there's a national network and you pick out the station you want from a single datastream... so you can listen to any station you want, anywhere on the network,,,,

Also it has a 2 meg dedicated data stream for information like traffic stuff... that could mean active navigation systems in the future too... using DAB datastream information to route around congestion...