DAB USB dongle any use?

flogen

Just spotted this on maplin.co.uk and was wondering if it'd be any use.

I get the feeling it'd be pretty poor in terms of reception quality (unless I was in a really good spot) but looking for some advice on it anyway - can't really justify buying a decent DAB system at the moment with the service only being on trial and me not having too much money to hand!

SimonMaher

I have one of these and its absolutely fine. The DabMate software that comes with them can be a bit fiddly but once its installed its grand. Good reception too even in an office in the city centre.

Simon

flogen

Thanks for that - might give it a go, it's a decent price to be fair.

Anyone know what the DAB reception in Santry is like?

DMC

I've recently tried the Roberts Sports DAB (RD-14), and in Ashtown indoors, you need to find a sweet spot for reception, which would make me think that Santry would be much the same; outdoors fine, indoors less so.

How far does the telescopic aerial extend to?

wiredmacker

Does anybody know if this software will work with Microsoft Vista . I need a good DAB adapter at the moment but I checked the specs with this product and it states that it'll only work with Microsoft XP which could be hit or miss for me! Has anybody any other ideas?

lawhec

The device at Maplin looks very similar to one I just bought a couple of days ago on eBay and got in the post this morning! (Yes, I said to myself that I wasn't getting another DAB radio until the DAB+ standard was seeing such sets produced on a large scale, but it cost <£28 inc. p+p so decided it might be worthwhile)



As already mentioned, the software to install is a little bit fiddly. I found I had to install it twice for it to work! But once that trauma is over, it works fine. The software can auto-search all Band III frequencies, or you can manually tune into a multiplex.
The aerial when fully extended is around 35cm, which is approx 1/4 wave of the top end of band III.
Sensitivity is around slightly lower than my Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 with its whip antenna, but not dramatically so, especially compared to my DVB-T USB dongle which needs quite a strong signal to drive it. The DABmate software has a signal strength meter to help peak the signal. Like the DVB-T USB adapter its best if the dongle is kept a distance from the screen (especially LCD flat-screens) to help avoid interference. There is a short USB extension lead supplied.
There is no place to directly connect an external DAB aerial. However I used the trick (for experimenting!) of using the exposed centre of a downlead for my spare two-bob FM/DAB aerial in the attic to the screw of the whip antenna which showed a dramatic improvement in signal strength, with the BBC Mux registering almost 100% while it was difficult to receive in the room on its own. My educated guess is that terminating the end of the downlead with a crocodile clip (with the braid cut away to avoid short-circuiting) to attach on to the whip aerial when its closed would be worthwhile for a semi-permanent install.

Haven't tried to record function, I assume it directly records the MP2 audio stream. If so, it'll be a good example to show how horrific some of the stations on the Score NI Mux sounds! :eek:

Edit: Yes, it also works on Vista (Premium edition in my case)

wiredmacker

I tried searching for DAB devices on ebay but came up empty handed . What words did you search for the devices on ebay? I searched for "dab USB devices" and I didn't get much offerings

L1011

http://cgi.ebay.com/DAB-Digital-Radio-receiver-for-PC-laptop-USB_W0QQitemZ190121128117QQihZ009QQcategoryZ96955QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem

Take out the "devices" bit, it'll never, ever find what you want.

wiredmacker

MYOB wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.com/DAB-Digital-Radio-receiver-for-PC-laptop-USB_W0QQitemZ190121128117QQihZ009QQcategoryZ96955QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem

Take out the "devices" bit, it'll never, ever find what you want.

Sweet looks good I'll have to check this baby out. And I'm sure it works on Vista

lawhec

From reading a bit more about the device, there appears to be no hardware MP2 decoder - instead it passes the stream on to the CPU for it to play the stations via the software provided. While this does put some load on to the CPU, it also means in theory that a software update colud allow the device to play any DAB+ (AAC-HEv2) streams.

mardotcom

I bought a dabmate because I am unable to get a radio signal at my place of work so the ultimate idea was for me to record todays radio and listen tomorrow!!! I tuned it in and found half dozen acceptable stations...anyway I went on to record through the night and then transferred to my mp3 player and of course I could get no trace of the recording. After hours of trying I eventually realised that the file was recorded in MP2 format!!! which is apparently mpeg audio, now we all know that mpeg has something to do with video!!!! this is a joke I thought. ANyway, I continued for two or three more hours trying to find a converter that would do me the honour but there is no such converter that will take an mpeg and convert it to mp3. Unless of course theres someone out there that knows different. Boy would I be grateful if that is the case. Please have anyone got any suggestions.

Mossy Monk

mardotcom wrote: »

now we all know that mpeg has something to do with video!!!!

What does mp3 stand for?

watty

Actually MPEG2 can refer to a type of a transport stream (broadcast) or Program Stream (File). An MPEG2 TS can have MPEG2, MPEG4 or no video at all.

DAB and ordinary stereo on Digital TV broadcasts is MPEG1 Layer 2 Audio, commonly called MP2. MP3 is MPEG1 Layer 3 Audio.

MPEG = Motion Picture Expert Group = A standards authority.

This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG is not a bad explanation.

The DRM (Digital Radio Mondial, not Digital Rights Management) Radio, DVB-h and a few other systems use AAC, much better than MP3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

DVB-h (Using MPEP4 + AAC is a very neat system, especially as TI has a good low power chip for it.

All the DVB systems can be used for audio only. An MPEG2 TS can have audio only in MP2, MP3, AAC or Dolby 5.1.

Zaphod

mardotcom wrote: »

ANyway, I continued for two or three more hours trying to find a converter that would do me the honour but there is no such converter that will take an mpeg and convert it to mp3.

Load up iTunes and go Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Importing and change 'Import Using' to MP3 encoder.

Import the .mp2 file into iTunes, right click on it and 'Convert selection to MP3'.

lawhec

If you don;t want to fiddle with iTunes, you can use dbPoweramp and download the MP2 codec (it has MP3 by default).

www.dbpoweramp.com