HD radio. Do you have hidden radio stations and features in your vehicle?
HD radio. Do you have hidden radio stations and features in your vehicle?
with the HD high definition radios in most cars and trucks you may have features and even radio stations that you dont know about. Here is why, how it works, and what you might be missing
Digital TV works fundamentally differently to HD Radio. A TV station could only broadcast their digital signal on their former analog channel after they had shut their analog transmitter down once they joined in the nationwide switch to digital TV on Friday, June 12, 2009. In the beginning of DTV, TV stations had to operate on a completely separate physical channel from their then existing analog TV channel whereupon they could map their virtual channel to a number matching that of their analog TV channel. IBOC for TV was a distant afterthought when DTV was being developed back in the 1990s hence why if your DTV signal disappears, there is no analog TV fallback. However, as you are demonstrating here, HD Radio does have an analog fallback through IBOC, allowing the digital stream to be broadcast using the same carrier as the analog station so that if the digital signal drops, you can still tune in the attenuated analog AM/FM station.
HD here is not "High definition", but "Hybrid Digital". The subchannels have much lower bitrate, and worse sound quality than a normal FM station.
Got a question for you…would you advise us to change/upgrade the factory headlights to LED bulbs? I have seen a few videos where the driver changes the driving and high beams to LED but leaves the low beams as is.
Thanks so much! I was specifically looking for someone to explain why there was a pre-set station that had a 3 after it. One thing I can’t seem to figure out is, once I find a station on a 2 or 3, it doesn’t seem to allow me to set that station by holding the button. Am I missing something? Mine is a 2020 Honda CRV but your demo explains these HD stations well. I just wish I could figure out why it’s not allowing me to set the station. Thanks!
This is not really that new. It’s called an radio data system or RDS for short. It works on the FM carrier signal but may be more advanced now with the extra HD channels that exist over the years. It’s a digital signal so data transmission is easy to deliver to the radio. You can find the print on some radio bezels in vehicles for the last 25 years have had it on certain after market radios. Some displays where much simpler in the early days of the RDS system and just gave station information like the song a artist with striation call letters. Some did actually work with GPS navigation systems for traffic reports/weather and still do.
Just bought a 2021 RAV4 and I can’t get the HD function to work. I’ve asked the salesperson and they are not familiar with it…do ALL Toyota’s support this function???
Hi Steven. I would like to add you can turn the tuning knob 1 notch for the next HD selection and you can also turn on the radio and select on the center display if the vehicle is equipped.
Very useful. I didn’t know that a system like that existed
I have a 21 tacoma and I can’t seem to find the HD logo or it doesn’t pop up and some stations out of Chicago have HD does this mean my Tacoma wasn’t equipped with HD radio ?
Hi Steve. Question. How do I prevent my texts from being seen on my RAV4 screen? Is there a way to hide them in case we dont want everyone seeing them in the car?