Radio text display???

[ronning]

Hello all..

Well my car got smashed by another driver so while it's in shop I have a rental. It's a new 2004 model Buick (yuck) but it has an interesting feature on the radio - somehow it automatically displays the station ID plus song titles/artist/albums/etc. I've never seen this before (except on satellite radio)!

How does this work? Can you get this feature on the regular aftermarket CD-decks? How about home theater receivers??

Thanks,

Olen

[Woochifer]

Sounds like an RDS tuner, which is standard in a lot of GM vehicles. Those are more common overseas than in the U.S., and I know that in Britain almost all of the receivers I've seen advertised in their audio mags have RDS tuners. In the U.S., it's primarily GM cars that have the RDS tuners. Some other Euro imported vehicles might also have them, but I don't remember for sure. Not a lot of U.S. stations broadcast with the RDS signal, and in a lot of cases I've seen they just carry the station ID, even though they can stream other text info as well.

In addition to the RDS signal, there are also standard signals for traffic alerts that those GM radios can tune into. In theory, stations that broadcast them are supposed to do so only when they have a traffic report so that someone who has the traffic feature enabled on their car radio will automatically tune to that station when the report gets aired. Unfortunately, most stations just left the signal on full time, so you have to go searching for the traffic reports anyway.

[ronning]

Sounds like an RDS tuner, which is standard in a lot of GM vehicles. Those are more common overseas than in the U.S., and I know that in Britain almost all of the receivers I've seen advertised in their audio mags have RDS tuners. In the U.S., it's primarily GM cars that have the RDS tuners. Some other Euro imported vehicles might also have them, but I don't remember for sure. Not a lot of U.S. stations broadcast with the RDS signal, and in a lot of cases I've seen they just carry the station ID, even though they can stream other text info as well.

In addition to the RDS signal, there are also standard signals for traffic alerts that those GM radios can tune into. In theory, stations that broadcast them are supposed to do so only when they have a traffic report so that someone who has the traffic feature enabled on their car radio will automatically tune to that station when the report gets aired. Unfortunately, most stations just left the signal on full time, so you have to go searching for the traffic reports anyway.

Based on my short experience here in the Seattle area, every station I tune to has the station ID, and most (about 75% +) show song titles, artists, albums, etc. Very cool.

Is RDS available in any aftermarket decks? What about in home stereo equipment? This seems like a really innovative feature and I'm surprised it isn't more popular.

Thanks,

Olen

[Woochifer]

Based on my short experience here in the Seattle area, every station I tune to has the station ID, and most (about 75% +) show song titles, artists, albums, etc. Very cool.

Is RDS available in any aftermarket decks? What about in home stereo equipment? This seems like a really innovative feature and I'm surprised it isn't more popular.

Thanks,

Olen

I have only seen a few U.S. market receivers with the RDS tuners included. Most of the time, the tuner is treated as an afterthought. Just compare the sound quality and tuning ability of older receivers/tuners versus what you typically see with home audio equipment nowadays if you want to see how that works.

More attention gets paid to the tuners in car audio because people just listen to the radio more when they're in the car. It would seem like a handy feature, but the fact is that fewer and fewer people are listening to radio and if there's no demand for the RDS tuners in the U.S., then it will remain an afterthought.