HD Radio Cables READY! - Page 2

seanshine · 11-03-2007, 02:32 PM

I bought my cable from Mitch a little while before he announced it....hd radio kicks ***!!
I got my Directed radio on ebay for $125 with no warranty.
One thing you want to watch for when you are installing it in the car is that the signal on the rca ourputs are distorted and sound overdriven.....grounding the case of the radio completely cleared it up.
By the way,if you own a first gen scion xb,don't forget that you have a powered antenna,and you'll get crappy reception unless you have 12v going to it.I connected mine to a switched acc line from the ignition,so when the key is on the antenna gets power.

JohnWPB · 11-03-2007, 06:53 PM

Wow! I never knew so many HD stations were available. There are 23 in my area! HERE is a great link to see if getting a HD radio is worth it for you, in your area. Just click the state you live in, and it will show the locations, and format of the stations for your area.

ThunderStick · 11-03-2007, 08:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by HDRPC

You can get the interface cables for half that price here. There is nothing complicated about them, actually pretty easy to make yourself I you like to solder.
I cant imagine anyone charging four times what the cable construction parts cost for an interface cable. We call them kind of folks ripoffs and scammers in my neck of the woods. Someone like that would even lie about things just to make you buy his cable rather than save some bucks.

You are correct you can solder some stuff and try to make the cable, but let me tell you.
It is not as easy as you think and $24.00 is fair. Figure time to make and developement plus parts. $24 is not a lot of money anyway, why complain if you dont want it dont buy it.

JohnWPB · 11-04-2007, 12:44 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by ThunderStick

You are correct you can solder some stuff and try to make the cable, but let me tell you.
It is not as easy as you think and $24.00 is fair. Figure time to make and developement plus parts. $24 is not a lot of money anyway, why complain if you dont want it dont buy it.

I would not pay much attention to that post, it was rude, and uncalled for. I am pretty sure it is mechanic, posting links to his own site again. This will be verified soon.....

EDIT: The User HDRPC was indeed a duplicate account opened by Mechanic, he has received an infraction for duplicate accounts and the HDRPC profile has been banned.

durwood · 11-04-2007, 01:15 AM

My friend is using the Directed one it works just as good as any aftermarket or OEM as far as signal strength. He lives pretty far out from Chicago and his silabs couldn't pick up anything. Sound quality on HD is great too. Buy from mitch he was the original person who worked up the cable hack and programmed the dll file that works with the tuners. His new cable has some upgrades the old one didn't offer. Don't hesitate to pick up the cable from Mitch, rather than the other link from the person who has ripped off his OLD cable design and used his original dll selling the software when it's part of RR. IIRC, RR is to remain free, and selling any part of it is against the rules set forth. Now who is ripping off who?

I've received one from cartoys as well, just need to get another cable from Mitch. I'm just procrastinating.

mitchjs · 11-04-2007, 03:09 PM

OH MAN i forgot to tell everyone!!!

open the HDRadio, connect a jumper from the RCA gnd to the power grnd

I had to do it to solve issues just in my HOME/devloping setup!!

I got a picture somewhere

thanks Durwood and JohnWPB!!! for your support!!

my cable is NOT just soldering wires... when i went to my final revision
there is a PCBoard inside that has a simple circuit to allow me to control
the power of the HDRadio... this allowed a clean reset of the turner when you
1st start it up.

and the pcboard costs way more then the cable and db9 connector combined
(remember we're talking very very small quantities)

not to mention, i hand solder everyone of them!!

mitch

Sonicxtacy02 · 11-05-2007, 08:14 AM

is the grounding of the white rca required for you cable or is it due to the known issue of needing to ground the unit to get better reception?

Sal R. · 11-05-2007, 09:37 AM

Bought the cable and the radio tunner.

I hope that this works out better than my silabs tuner.

guino · 11-05-2007, 10:22 AM

Just from the little streaming demo I had with Mitch to test everything in RR, I know I would love to have one of those.. haha But living in Brazil, there's not much of a chance that even having the hardware would do me any good (other than for standar FM/AM).

mitchjs · 11-05-2007, 10:37 AM

Sonicxtacy02, Reception? who is talking about Reception

anyone up to making HDRadio specific skin?

mitch

guino · 11-05-2007, 10:41 AM

The grounding is to prevent ground-loops causing interference/noise in the audio. From what I understand HD Reception is way better than analog..

ThunderStick · 11-05-2007, 08:29 PM

Cool, got my cable today and will be ordering the tuner on friday. I will be creating an addition to my skin that will support the HD radio features in RR. I expect to release this addition with in 2 weeks.
Thanks for your work Mitch

Sonicxtacy02 · 11-06-2007, 07:56 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by mitchjs

Sonicxtacy02, Reception? who is talking about Reception

anyone up to making HDRadio specific skin?

mitch

i was referring to the interference issue guino mentiosn below.. not neccesarily a "reception" problem. But the question still remains.. this this ground modification something required for your cable or is it for the problem that the tuners have from the factory

Quote: Originally Posted by guino

The grounding is to prevent ground-loops causing interference/noise in the audio. From what I understand HD Reception is way better than analog..

I used a HD stream to set up my HD radio RR skin.. and yes it sounded fantastic.. way better than satellite radio

Quote: Originally Posted by ThunderStick

Cool, got my cable today and will be ordering the tuner on friday. I will be creating an addition to my skin that will support the HD radio features in RR. I expect to release this addition with in 2 weeks.
Thanks for your work Mitch

if you order from cartoys dont expect the radio the same week. I ordered mine thursday morning and the order status was "processing" until this morning when i called them about it. Terrible customer service from that place.

mitchjs · 11-06-2007, 07:10 PM

Quote:

was referring to the interference issue guino mentiosn below.. not neccesarily a "reception" problem. But the question still remains.. this this ground modification something required for your cable or is it for the problem that the tuners have from the factory

I dont know if its "REQUIRED" and it has NOTHING to do with my cable
and i dont think its to eliminate a ground loop, without it i didnt have any noise, but the audio wasnt right.

but like i said, they RCA grounds are not at power gnd, which in some systems could cause a problem, it did in mine, in my car and in my home setup
personally i think its poor audio design for a single ended audio output.

try it without the ground wire, if it sounds a hell of a lot better with it, open it up and solder it in!

and YEP HD Radio does sound good, CD Qual GOOD!
Unlike SAT Radio, which is really bad!

Mitch

jarred · 11-07-2007, 12:25 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

Wow! I never knew so many HD stations were available. There are 23 in my area! HERE is a great link to see if getting a HD radio is worth it for you, in your area. Just click the state you live in, and it will show the locations, and format of the stations for your area.

Hey John,

Is DigitalFX going to support HD radio soon?