Insignia NS-HDTUNE Take Apart/Exploration

Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:36 pm   

Well, I was bored and curious...so if you've been wondering what's
inside this (or probably almost any other) HD Radio tuner, here it is:

(warning: the following link contains large quantities of pictures and
is therefore not friendly to those who have bandwidth caps or are
charged on a "quantity of data transferred" basis)

http://greyghost.mooo.com/hdtunetakeapart/

It's not quite finished yet, some items need more explanation. I haven't
verified the clock rate of the DSP but believe it to be correct. I also
need to upload the larger photos and add the navigation links to the
page. But for those who are curious, it ought to do for now.

No tuners were harmed in the making of this page or in the exploration.
By the way, I have been completely unimpressed by the performance of
this tuner. (I'm so glad I paid nowhere near the retail price!) I'd
recommend you look at something else if you want to listen to HD radio.

William

Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:24 pm   

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1_at_idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:


What is HD radio?

Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:36 pm   

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io0o8.6hm.17.12_at_news.alt.net...

To stupid to use Google, little man?

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:15 pm   

Hi!


HD Radio is the digital radio broadcast standard in the US. It's a
development from a company known as iBiquity. iBiquity primarily
functions as a licensor of the technology to others.

HD Radio broadcasts are delivered alongside the current analog AM or FM
broadcasts, and on the same frequencies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio

Outside of the US, other methods are used, such as Digital Audio
Broadcasting (DAB) or Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

William

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:21 pm   

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 10:36:02 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam_at_today.com>wrote:


Fuck off dickwad.

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:23 pm   

Hi!


I think they might be coming to the realization that perhaps the units
aren't selling all that well. In my travels to Best Buy, I've never seen
anyone buying one, nor have I seen anyone looking at the demonstrator
unit on the shelf.

I bought mine from a liquidator for $30 as a scratch and dent item. It
has a few scratches and one minor dent, so I was not disappointed. ;-)


It's (very) cheaply made. I also wrote a product review which I will be
posting this afternoon. I'll post a link when I do.

But for now, and outside of the cheapness, I'd have to say that its
tuner section is deaf in terms of sensitivity. It can't even pick up
analog stations that numerous other radios in the vicinity (including a
cheap boombox and a clock radio) had no problem receiving.

All of these stations are no more than 30-35 miles from my location, and
many are closer. I moved my testing upstairs to see if it would produce
any improvement and it did not.

Later, when I moved it to its final location, I noticed that whenever
the NS-HDTUNE was powered, it caused a lot of interference with the FM
tuner on the stereo receiver I intended to use it with. If that's the
way things are, I'll just use the tuner in the receiver. It's a much
better tuner anyway.

I was using a Radio Shack powered AM/FM indoor antenna with the unit,
and that same antenna works well with assorted stereo receivers.

Sony is the only other company I know to be offering a standalone HD
Radio tuner. I have not tried theirs yet, as I haven't seen it offered
for sale other than online.

William

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:34 pm   

William R. Walsh <newsgroups1_at_idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

My local BB has sold the tuner for $70 compared to the normal $99.
I have been thinking of buying one for some time, what are your
complaints and do you have a recommendation for a better unit?

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:37 pm   

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:15:24 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1_at_idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:


So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen to the same
commercial broadcast but now in near CD quality sound? Being one that
listens to music on the road I got really disgusted with the ever
increasing amount of commercials. Yes I know they make money like that
but none the less it infuriates me. I moved to XM radio back in 2003
then on to Sirius in 2006. The fidelity is ok with me. The lack of
commercial content is worth the monthly fee.

Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:49 pm   

Hi!


I guess you could say that, but I'm not sure that a good analog FM
signal wouldn't already qualify as "near CD quality" sound...especially
on a good tuner.

I wanted to see what HD Radio was about (especially the subchannels),
but I wasn't about to pay any $100 to do so! After looking inside, I'm
convinced that someone is doing a pretty good job at inflating the price!


Me too. And it's hard to find what I want to hear on the radio anyway.
Stations seem so mercurial in their format changes any more...what
format was on the radio an hour ago might not be there later...

My solution has been to use an iPod, plugged into a cassette shell
adapter or stereo miniplug to RCA connector cable. It's a beautiful
thing to have on a long road trip. Before I had an iPod, I'd stick an
old laptop under the seat and let it rip through the same cassette shell
adapter. The battery held it for most trips, and when it didn't, I
already had a power inverter handy.

I also never hear a bad song that way.

I haven't subscribed to satellite radio mainly because I can't listen to
it on just any old receiver. So far as I know, I'd have to take the same
receiver everywhere, and that's just an invitation for me to
lose/misplace it.

William

Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:03 pm   

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1_at_idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:



I have a receiver permanently mounted in my SUV. It transmits it's
signal over the FM broadcast band into the SUV's radio on whatever
freq I want. On occasion when I travel other stations overpowered the
sat receiver so I just took the FM antenna off the SUV. The sat
receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna so it can
transmit its signal further. When my vehicle is parked in the garage
the signal transmits into my home and FM receivers in my bedroom and
living room. Can't change the channels from the house but I listen to
classic rock and roll or a channel that does album sides for classic
rock and roll. I leave the Sirius unit on 24/7 in the vehicle. doesn't
draw enough current to discharge the battery much if any. I like the
pause feature also. I think it can hold up to 50 minutes. And Sirius
is great for travel. Get the same programing across the entire
country.

Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:53 pm   

Here's the complete review:

http://greyghost.mooo.com/nshdt-review/

William

Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:55 am   

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:24:05 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:


Asked Meathead, the village idiot. What a moron, doesn't know what
simple things like HD radio is. Hey, Meathead, try Google or Bing.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:18 am   

Hi!


Oh for cryin' out loud...don't you have *anything* better to do? Isn't the
purpose of this group to ask electronics related questions and get answers?

Sure, a web search can answer the question. So can this group, and I don't
think it unreasonable that they do!

I don't know how many people have heard HD Radio or even really care about
it. I don't know anyone who has an HD Radio tuner, nor have I seen one in my
adventures.

William

Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:04 pm   

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 01:18:46 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1_at_idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:


William, a resident net-nanny, lives a quiet secluded life, without
any contact with the real world.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:38 pm   

Hi!


I had that happen with an iPod to FM modulator type of device, but it
didn't wire directly into the antenna connection. Its output was quiet,
which doubled the shock when something overpowered it.

I didn't pull the antenna because every time I have, it's proven
difficult to get it back on tightly enough that it won't work loose. I'd
hate for it to go flying off at speed. I already had the cassette player
(what can I say, other than I'm "old school", having made mix tapes up
until recently) so I just went to using a cassette shell as I always had
for that direct line-in connection.


That's an interesting idea, especially since it is powerful enough to
get into your house and play on radios there.

Perhaps one of these days when I have a little more money going spare, I
might look into satellite radio. A few years ago I saw a nice Samsung
satellite radio receiver/recorder but didn't buy it because it was so
expensive. It had either flash memory or a small hard drive to record
to, and they claimed it was good for several hours worth of recording,
as well as timed recording.

I may try to climb up the disused TV antenna mast today and see what
will be required to get it going again. If there isn't an FM trap up
there, I expect it could be used as some kind of FM antenna for the HD
Radio tuner.

William