Insignia NS-HDTUNE Take Apart/Exploration

[William R. Walsh]

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

 

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

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

What is HD radio?

 

[Klaatu]

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

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

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

What is HD radio?

To stupid to use Google, little man?

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

What is HD radio?

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

 

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

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io0o8.6hm.17.12@news.alt.net...
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

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

What is HD radio?

To[SLAP]

Fuck off dickwad.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

My local BB has sold the tuner for $70 compared to the
normal $99.

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. ;-)

I have been thinking of buying one for some time, what
are your complaints and do you have a recommendation for
a better unit?

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

 

[root]

William R. Walsh <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

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

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?

 

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:15:24 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

What is HD radio?

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

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.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

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!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

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

 

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

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!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

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

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.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Here's the complete review:

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

William

 

[PeterD]

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

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:36:23 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

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

What is HD radio?

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

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Asked Meathead, the village idiot.

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

 

[PeterD]

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 01:18:46 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:

Hi!

Asked Meathead, the village idiot.

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

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

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

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.

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.

The sat receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna
so it can transmit its signal further.

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

 

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 01:18:46 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

Asked Meathead, the village idiot.

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

Kill filter PeterD, he's a troll that can't handle intelligent
conversation without turning a thread into a month long petty
argument. He most likely has a big fat wife that warlords over him
and Usenet is his vent.

My question about HD radio was to spark some discussion about it.
I use Google a lot during the day and sure I could have searched there
or Wikipedia. Nothing wrong with a little friendly discussion unless
you're PeterD. His loss.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

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

Heh. Not hardly. Nice troll, though. Have a great day.

William

 

On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:38:16 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

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.

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.

The sat receiver has an option to use an external wire antenna
so it can transmit its signal further.

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

Yeah the transmitter in the Sirius is probably the legal limit for
unlicensed FM transmitting apparatus. I forget how many milliwatts
that is maybe around 600? It's plenty enough to get you a hundred
feet using the wire antenna. I built a small FM transmitter for a 50's
style drive-in restaurant about 15 years ago. Customers were advised
to tune to a frequency that the restaurant transmitted 1950's rock and
roll music on. The transmitter covered the entire lot and the music
attracted customers. So the moral to the story is under the right
conditions a QRP FM xmitter can perform very well.

 

[Klaatu]

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io6jd.23f.17.4@news.alt.net...

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

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!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

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


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. (snip)

So you have the nuclear powered Sirius radio that gets reception in your
garage?
Idiot, satellite radio is line of sight. Wont work in a garage, under a
bridge, or under anything that obstructs line of sight. DOH!

 

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 21:34:52 -0600, "Klaatu" <nospam@today.com>wrote:

"Meat Plow" wrote in message news:3io6jd.23f.17.4@news.alt.net...
On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:56 -0600, "William R. Walsh"
newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>wrote:

Hi!

So you pay 100 bucks for a receiver and get to listen
to the same commercial broadcast but now in near CD
quality sound?

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!

Being one that listens to music on the road I got really
disgusted with the ever increasing amount of commercials.

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


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. (snip)

So[SLAP]

So wank off, fen-sucked pisswit.