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Radio on Evo

Sorry but the Evo's radio is trash. I just tested it compared to my Nokia N79. The Nokia was able to scan and pick up 8 channels. With the same headphones, everything in the same spot, the Evo didn't pick up a single channel. When I manually tuned the Evo to the channels that I knew were there, it was able to play some of them, but with much static and without sounding as good. Another thing is that the Evo lacks RDS so I can't tell the name of the station or what song is playing (both things that my N79 and others can easily do). The Evo is a great device but it is looking like everything involving audio is trash. Audio playback performance isn't very good. The amp has difficulty driving some of my headphones that my other devices don't even notice. A lot of people are having issues with headphones triggering random commands. And of course we all know that the voice recorder and video use a horrible sounding audio codec and bitrate. If you're looking for an iPod replacement and expect quality audio, this certainly isn't it.

On a related topic, why aren't we seeing more HD radios? The Zune HD should have started a trend but it seems to have gone nowhere.
 
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That is something with yours I guess because mine picked up stations and did get the text telling me the station name and such.

everything in the same spot, the Evo didn't pick up a single channel. When I manually tuned the Evo to the channels that I knew were there, it was able to play some of them, but with much static and without sounding as good. Another thing is that the Evo lacks RDS so I can't tell the name of the station or what song is playing (both things that my N79 and others can easily do).

On a related topic, why aren't we seeing more HD radios? The Zune HD should have started a trend but it seems to have gone nowhere.

As for not having HD radios, maybe they see it as a dying medium and didnt want to spent actual money on the receiver.
 
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I think that this is one of the most useless features on this phone. I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to FM radio. Why would anyone need this when there is such a vast assortment of streaming radio apps available in market?

Because too much is never enough.

I need it because it is there.

Last night, I listened to our local classical station for 4 hours, with my 3G and WiFi radios off.
 
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I think that this is one of the most useless features on this phone. I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to FM radio. Why would anyone need this when there is such a vast assortment of streaming radio apps available in market?

No data signal?

Just playing devils advocate as I only discovered the feature weeks into owning the phone and havent used it since
 
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Mine worked great for the first few days. I didn't use it for a while and then I tried it again (at the same location) recently and I couldn't pick up any stations whatsoever. I don't know if the update or my battery tricks did something, but now I have to stream if I want to listen to my local stations. I like the fact that an app for FM radio doesn't require data streaming and it uses less battery than streaming... I don't get why is it useless if those things optimize the users experience, but in my case it's useless because the damn thing won't work!
 
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On a related topic, why aren't we seeing more HD radios? The Zune HD should have started a trend but it seems to have gone nowhere.

You must have a lot Zune love. ;)

The Zune in any did not capture the market interest at all and was widely ridiculed in every significant tech venue.

You can't start trends for a payload without market share or public mindshare for the delivery mechanism, regardless of how good the ideas or products are.

Zune HD aside and turning to HD Radio itself - I blame iBiquity first for the poor name (never try to innovate on one hand and then ride another tech's coattails for your name, guys!) and the entirely lackadaisical attitude that most all radio stations have for their broadcast quality - and their lackluster content is not going to compel anyone to delve further.

Top that off with all of the listeners that think there's nothing wrong with flanging, compression and an end spectrum of 50~15k and that just about wraps it up for HD Radio.

I'm not trying to knock you, the Zune or HD Radio - just pointing out my opinions in answer to your question.

(Can't leave without harping on the name one last time. HDTV is a subset of DTV. What is HD Radio a subset of? Nothing. How often have any of us heard the term defintion applied to audio? Ever? 20~30 years ago I saw commercials for Blu-Blocker Sunglasses. A few years ago I saw the exact same video, with a new voiceover, same script save for one thing: now they called them HD Sunglasses. Mindshare often begins with something as simple as a name.)
 
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Mine worked great for the first few days. I didn't use it for a while and then I tried it again (at the same location) recently and I couldn't pick up any stations whatsoever. I don't know if the update or my battery tricks did something, but now I have to stream if I want to listen to my local stations. I like the fact that an app for FM radio doesn't require data streaming and it uses less battery than streaming... I don't get why is it useless if those things optimize the users experience, but in my case it's useless because the damn thing won't work!

I had the same problem. Mine even got to the point where the GUI was totally unresponsive. I cycled power on the phone and it's 100% again.

Prior to cycling power (something I hardly ever do now) I was looking at the system logs and even though the popular tools said it was not running at all, a part of it was still alive and babbling to itself.

And how did it get that way? Although I know task killers are basically wrong, I'd been playing with them and looking under the hood at their effects.

And I'd totally forgotten that I'd been doing that and that one of the things I thumped was the FM Radio app.

Don't know if it applies to you or not, just putting it out there.
 
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I had the same problem. Mine even got to the point where the GUI was totally unresponsive. I cycled power on the phone and it's 100% again.

Prior to cycling power (something I hardly ever do now) I was looking at the system logs and even though the popular tools said it was not running at all, a part of it was still alive and babbling to itself.

And how did it get that way? Although I know task killers are basically wrong, I'd been playing with them and looking under the hood at their effects.

And I'd totally forgotten that I'd been doing that and that one of the things I thumped was the FM Radio app.

Don't know if it applies to you or not, just putting it out there.


I did a power cycle and yeild the same negative results. :( Thanks for the suggestion though... I've never run any task killers or forced any system processes to stop.
 
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You must have a lot Zune love. ;)

The Zune in any did not capture the market interest at all and was widely ridiculed in every significant tech venue.

You can't start trends for a payload without market share or public mindshare for the delivery mechanism, regardless of how good the ideas or products are.

Zune HD aside and turning to HD Radio itself - I blame iBiquity first for the poor name (never try to innovate on one hand and then ride another tech's coattails for your name, guys!) and the entirely lackadaisical attitude that most all radio stations have for their broadcast quality - and their lackluster content is not going to compel anyone to delve further.

Top that off with all of the listeners that think there's nothing wrong with flanging, compression and an end spectrum of 50~15k and that just about wraps it up for HD Radio.

I'm not trying to knock you, the Zune or HD Radio - just pointing out my opinions in answer to your question.

(Can't leave without harping on the name one last time. HDTV is a subset of DTV. What is HD Radio a subset of? Nothing. How often have any of us heard the term defintion applied to audio? Ever? 20~30 years ago I saw commercials for Blu-Blocker Sunglasses. A few years ago I saw the exact same video, with a new voiceover, same script save for one thing: now they called them HD Sunglasses. Mindshare often begins with something as simple as a name.)
I listen to HD Radio every day in my car as my receiver (that cost me $50) supports it. Anyone who listens to radio frequently and doesn't want HD Radio is ignorant to its benefits. The difference is profound. Far higher quality and it doesn't require any subscription like satellite radio. Arguing against HD Radio is the same thing as arguing against digital television channels vs analog channels. Most of the radio stations I listen to have switched to digital and any remaining important ones are likely to do the same.
 
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