DAB Question

[et0609]

I'm not sure I have it or not. In my W204 under the COMAND menu "Audio" I have Radio, then DAB. When I go to DAB i get "No reception" displayed on the screen. The manual doesnt say much about it. I had assumed the DAB option was displayed whether or not you actually have it. Now Im not so sure. I looked up the DAB postcode checker and I should be able to pick up stations in my area.

So I still dont really know whether I have it or not. I assume because the DAB option is there I must have it. Anyway of checking and whether the antenna is working. I can pick up normal radio stations no bother.

Any ideas??

Thanks

 

[rf065]

I would ask your dealer to check.
DAB signals are hard to get in some areas, I have a DAB radio in the garage & some days it picks up the signal & sometimes it gets nothing for a week or so.

Russ

 

[richard]

Id be slightly surprised that the option was present on COMAND without the feature being installed - it certainly doesnt with Media Interface.

PM me your chassis number and i'll look it up. DAB is option 517


R

 

[ringway]

I'm not sure I have it or not. In my W204 under the COMAND menu "Audio" I have Radio, then DAB. When I go to DAB i get "No reception" displayed on the screen. The manual doesnt say much about it. I had assumed the DAB option was displayed whether or not you actually have it. Now Im not so sure. I looked up the DAB postcode checker and I should be able to pick up stations in my area.

So I still dont really know whether I have it or not. I assume because the DAB option is there I must have it. Anyway of checking and whether the antenna is working. I can pick up normal radio stations no bother.

Any ideas??

Thanks

IIRC doesn't a DAB require a non-standard aerial to recieve the signal?

 

[richard]

Yup, the roof antenna is different (internally) and theres a dab tuner, some wiring, and some fibre optics.

I have an antenna and wiring loom for RHD W204 here, guess what's on the project list

R

 

[richard]

I've seen the chassis number, and yes the car does have DAB tuner, and thus either
a) its broken b) you're out of coverage

Looking at the DAB coverage map, it doesn't look so good for anywhere thats not highly populated

ukdigitalradio: Coverage

Cheers

Richard

 

[paul3408]

Dab

Still looking at getting a six month old C Class w204

I understand that there is a 4 gig hard drive where you can store music
has any one done this and how many songs - Cd's can you get on it.

Cheers Scooby

 

[verytalldave]

4 Gig - depending on the sampling rate used - presuming 128kb - and presuming an average track time of 4 minutes - you should get somewhere between 800 and 1000 tracks in MP3 format - probably nearer to 1000 if the truth be told.

 

[saorbust]

I have DAB in my car - it's not that good tbh. Coverage is crap, the signal is broken down into bands (you have to select a "band" and then select within it). If I ordered new I wouldn't tick this box.

 

[paul3408]

Mp3

So all you have to do is put the CD in and record it to the hdd and it then converts it to mp3 and stores it. am i right and how long does this take for each CD say 17 songs.

Cheers Scooby

 

[C240Sport97]

I read somewhere that in the future sometime, only DAB will be available .. which means that those without DAB will not get any radio reception.

Is there any truth in this?

 

[verytalldave]

I read somewhere that in the future sometime, only DAB will be available .. which means that those without DAB will not get any radio reception.

Is there any truth in this?

According to the recommendations in the white paper published last week by our friends in the Palace of Westminster, its is "planned" that all analogue radio transmitters in the UK will be turned of by 2015. Which, theoretically means that the only radios useable AFTER this date will be digital DAB radios.
Six years is a very short timescale to bring this kind of change into being. DAB has got to get so much better than FM before it can become a reality. And at the moment, its nowhere near.

 

[verytalldave]

So all you have to do is put the CD in and record it to the hdd and it then converts it to mp3 and stores it. am i right and how long does this take for each CD say 17 songs.

Cheers Scooby

Easier to do it using Windows Media player on your PC. You can then choose your sampling rate.
Burn the MP3 tracks to a blank CD and then transfer to the car or MP3 player.
An audio CD with 17 tracks to convert/burn will take around 10 minutes on the PC.

 

[whitenemesis]

According to the recommendations in the white paper published last week by our friends in the Palace of Westminster, its is "planned" that all analogue radio transmitters in the UK will be turned of by 2015. Which, theoretically means that the only radios useable AFTER this date will be digital DAB radios.
Six years is a very short timescale to bring this kind of change into being. DAB has got to get so much better than FM before it can become a reality. And at the moment, its nowhere near.

Listening on the radio to a chap from some body or other clarifying that what the Gov really mean is that the major (national) radio stations will all migrate to digital by 2015.

FM will continue but be populated by regional stations...

 

[whitenemesis]

Easier to do it using Windows Media player on your PC. You can then choose your sampling rate.
Burn the MP3 tracks to a blank CD and then transfer to the car or MP3 player.
An audio CD with 17 tracks to convert/burn will take around 10 minutes on the PC.

Don't you transfer songs to the HDD using the SD slot?

 

[verytalldave]

Don't you transfer songs to the HDD using the SD slot?

I cant answer that specific question, as I dont know what you can and cant do with this feature in the W204. Sorry.
However, from what you say, it sounds highly likely.
Personally speaking, I would still rather do music file conversion indoors with decent equipment instead of sitting in the car.
But each to his own.

 

[whitenemesis]

Don't you transfer songs to the HDD using the SD slot?

I cant answer that specific question, as I dont know what you can and cant do with this feature in the W204. Sorry.
However, from what you say, it sounds highly likely.
Personally speaking, I would still rather do music file conversion indoors with decent equipment instead of sitting in the car.
But each to his own.

Sorry, I didn't express myself clearly

I agree 100% re doing the conversion indoors. I just thought the mp3 files would be stored on an SD card and transfered to the COMAND HDD that way?

 

[verytalldave]

Sorry, I didn't express myself clearly

I agree 100% re doing the conversion indoors. I just thought the mp3 files would be stored on an SD card and transfered to the COMAND HDD that way?

Sounds highly likely, but as I said, I am not familiar with the audio capabilities in the W204.

 

[verytalldave]

Listening on the radio to a chap from some body or other clarifying that what the Gov really mean is that the major (national) radio stations will all migrate to digital by 2015.

FM will continue but be populated by regional stations...

Not QUITE true, but almost..............
ALL radio stations - except ULTRA-LOCAL stations will be DAB only.
Ultra local stations will remain on FM.
So if you wanted to listen to Radio One/Capital/Heart/Radio Kent/ChoiceFM/EssexFM...etc..etc... then you must go DAB.
I presume that by using the term ULTRA-LOCAL, it means any station with a range of less than 5 miles or 5 watts in ERP - or something along those lines.
I am expecting some current FM pirates will get offered low power licenses to enable them to "go legal" should they wish - and can afford it. Hopefully low power licenses will be cheap enough to become affordable to the masses.
Digital radio switchover set for 2015 | News | Broadcast

 

[et0609]

The comand can take 6 cd's or dvd's but you cannot burn them to the hard drive. You have to use the PC card slot to do this. The comand does have a copy of the Gracenote database so it will display the song names from a CD. I have put mp3's onto a PC card and then copied to the hard drive. The drive is partitioned into sections, I have 6gb for music. To be honest, MB have missed the boat with this because unless you are happy with a just a jumbled up list of songs, you have to create artist folders and album folders within them before putting songs on the PC card. Otherwise it does not organise the songs in any order. Also, it only shows you song name and album on the comand screen, no artist names. The worst thing is, it will not play DRM protected files at all.

My DAB radio had failed. The dealer replaced the DAB radio, the antenna and some wiring and each time got a different fault code. After some time he got it all working.

DAB is not an option I would have from new. In my area (far North) all I can get are the BBC stations, all be it, all of them. You have to search for ensembles and once found, they have a number of stations within them that you can then scan through and store. Even when in Edinburgh at the weekend, there were only 2 or 3 ensembles with a limited choice of stations. Whether this is the norm or just the cars DAB radio I dont know.

If i were buying from new, I would choose the media interface over the DAB radio.