Digital Radio Australia
Digital Radio has finally launched in Australia’s major Capital Cities. After many years of planning and technical trials, the dabplus or DAB+ system was chosen for it’s ability to jam a whole lot more stations into the infrastructure available – albeit at a reduced audio quality. Hopefully you won’t be able to notice this audio degradation however, and the federal government may prove a savior for the service in a few years when more RF spectrum is freed up (by the analogue TV switchoff which will free up the TV channels for Digital Radio and Mobile Broadband use), which will allow for the audio quality to be improved. In the meantime – enjoy the site and our many news articles and related video’s we have collected about Digital Radio in Australia.
Where is the coverage map?
Not including it makes for false advertising – what a bad start!
In Canberra, digital radio is on trial and they are only broadcasting at a level of 64kps. This is not even CD sound quality. Anyone know what Sydney digital gets? You would think that digital radio, being pushed as the bells as whistles, would be at least 128kps or higher. True stereo clear sound? My white ass it is. We are being conned. The Australian Government are not implementing this fairly.
Rubbish website – Where is the coverage map?!!
Is there any reason I cannot get the new MIX 80’s station on my digital radio? I’ve tried the auto tune and still nothing??
Perhaps Digitial Radio should display a list of the areas that have these signals to allow customers necessary knowledge before they purchase.
Why have stores outside capital cities been allowed to sell digital radios without letting buyers know that they wont get reception??
crap website, no information, slow to load. Where is a coverage map!!
I’m on the gold coast and bought a DAB+ digital radio, no sations are available and we are supposed to be Australias 5th largest city. Dont buy it’s a big con
Hi
I have recently purchased a DAB+ quality tuner and have found the sound on even ‘high quality’ stations to be tinny and lack dynmanic range . It appears that the maximum bandwidth for a channel is 48 – 80kbit/s when even the most average Internet radio station is at least 128kbit/s, and mp3 at 320Kb. Granted AAC is supposed to be better than MP3, but AAC 70kbit/s still sounds tinny and metallic. Why is the sound quality so poor on DAB+ radio and are the bandwidth restrictions here to stay? Even FM sounds miles better than the best DAB+ station.
I have connected back my old FM stero tuner into my system.
To Jim Phillip
I live in that suburb and have had digital radio since the end of 2009 (with an outdoor antenna)it works fine.
Keep in mind Sea FM,2GO & Star 104.5 are not broadcasting on it and reception quality will depend strongly on where you are located if you are at the foot of a mountain you probably have no chance this seems to be a big problem on the northern beaches.I would suggest borrowing one if you can to try first.
Is there any chance of changing the bit rate for broadcasts running at 32 and 48 Kbps to 64 Kbps. From my listening experience on my Bush digital radio, broadcasts below 64Kbps, seem to have a noticeable warble in the music of a song that is worse at 32 Kbps than 48Kbps. When a broadcast of 64Kbps or higher is selected, the warble is gone. The drums and singers voice don’t seem to be affected as much as the mid tones. Listening to my Bush digital radio through is built in speaker, its not so noticeable, but when I connect it to my large sound system the warble is so noticeable the music is not enjoyable.
Your radio advertisement comments on lack of static but makes no mention of DROPOUTS. I find this more frustrating than static, at least you could move to a better reception, which is not the case with digital dropout.
It is misleading to promote digital radio without making clear that it has a very limited reception area. I live in Campbelltown, arguably a part of Sydney, and I purchased a digital radio, only to find that digital radio does not extend to this area. We are hardly in the backblocks! In future, the limited extent of digital radio reception should be made clear. Would anyone like to buy my useless digital radio?
I dont seem to be able to get the horse racing station 1206….and im in the middle of perth!!!!!!!
Just bought 2 digital clock radios. First lot was a Pure brand & it was so difficult to program & pick up the DAB+ stations. I returned these to Myer and purchased 2 Bush brand clock radios. Much easier to program & set up than the Pure ones. When the alarm goes off & meant to go to Fox Digital it looses the signal & the buzzer turns on instead and has an Error message finding Fox even thou it found it when it was set up. I’ve extended the aerial but still no signal. Looks like DAB+ is a dud, I live in Diamond Creek Victoria and the signal should be better than this. Its back to FM for me which is so much better than digital