DAB Reception?

[Blisteringblue]

Anybody else suffering a severe loss of DAB reception?

Started in the New Year and at first I just thought it was a particular transmitter (Cheshire into North Staffs) especially on the National D1 band.   BBC was OK-ish.   However the more I use it everywhere it can't be transmitters everywhere.  Even BBC isn't brilliant now, I notice the FM link up all the time now with Radio 2.

Well into the 2nd year of my IS now, and its just not been an issue until now.

[Ian J. Parsley]

I haven't noticed this. Obviously there are times you lose reception and there was one afternoon it was down completely, but not over any length of time.

May be worth a quick check at the dealers?

[200h]

last october we took our little one back to Alton Towers for his 2nd birthday as he loves cbeebies land thats there

and the courtesy IS300h we where given had appauling dab coverage it would work for a few moments then go quiet for a while

i went back to fm but to be honest the fm reception back home sounds so much better than Dab i dont bother with it.

there has been a topic on here or the ct forum i was surprised that some of the Dab station are transmitted in mono.

[crispian]

Not had a problem to be honest, the only one that is poor is Heart and that changes between fm and dab seamlessly, as  I go up the M6  other than that I listen to Radio 2, Magic, Smooth Absolute 80's and Talk sport all without a problem.

[ganzoom]

DAB is dead end tech. Why go with an audio source with such low quality sound - often in mono, and <100kbps, when there is now so much FREE streaming choices likes Spotify and if want just radio Tune In Radio.

With the IS300H, intergration with your phone isn't hard. Even Siri works ok. 

I cannot remember the last time I used DAB or even FM. I pay <£10/month for 2 gig of data on my phone, most of which is used up for audio streaming through a combination of Spotify/iTunes match. This gives me access to pretty much any music genre I can think off, 100% of the time.

[Martin F]

4 hours ago, ganzoom said:

This gives me access to pretty much any music genre I can think off, where i have network coverage.

 

Just fixed that for ya 

[Blisteringblue]

I do use a couple of apps at the moment, but I am hampered by my works mobile being on Vodafone, has to be the absolute worst network.

Hopefully it will improve soon

[bluenose1940]

On 12/02/2016 at 11:19 AM, Blisteringblue said:

Anybody else suffering a severe loss of DAB reception?

Started in the New Year and at first I just thought it was a particular transmitter (Cheshire into North Staffs) especially on the National D1 band.   BBC was OK-ish.   However the more I use it everywhere it can't be transmitters everywhere.  Even BBC isn't brilliant now, I notice the FM link up all the time now with Radio 2.

Well into the 2nd year of my IS now, and its just not been an issue until now.

Out with the wife in her brand new Yaris yesterday, looked at the clock, time for the footy results, switch on, get TalkSport and yes, you've guessed it, lost the DAB signal!!!!

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, Blisteringblue said:

I do use a couple of apps at the moment, but I am hampered by my works mobile being on Vodafone, has to be the absolute worst network.

Hopefully it will improve soon

I'm in the same situation. My phone is on Vodafone, who are shockingly bad for data to the point where even DAB is better :(

[Deadloak]

FM is sharper to the ear, I only use DAB for the BBC 5L. I just mainly listen to my own selection of music on the Phone on random. I find most radio stations drivel very cringe worthy tbh. FM just tuned for the Traffic reports. 

David.

[Blisteringblue]

DAB was flawless this morning all the way to Stoke.   Normally given up just after Thelwall and using apps on the phone.   Not sure if it is the atmospherics with it being sub-zero, guess we find out when it warms up :-)

And just to add to my infotainment woes, got hold of a 64mb micro USB (Kingston) and loaded it up with correctly tagged music from iTunes (MP3 though, self made, not M4a) and half of them show up as Unknown artists in the Lexus.   Can't even work a pattern either, I wondered if it was the later ones.   Probably around 45GB so not totally full.

Absolutely hate the infotainment in this car, it used to be a slight irritation, but it's pretty full on sh1te now.   If it's not improved in the next 12 months I can seriously see it stopping me have another of these otherwise superb cars.  Especially with the show stopping Mercedes C350e out there now.

[ganzoom]

^^ Have you tried Siri with apple Music?? You literally just have to hold down the button for Siri and say what song you want to play and off it goes. No fiddling around, no need to store music, it's just by far the best music solution I've come across. All you have to do I have the phone hocked up the car.

I'm on 3, and the reception is surprisingly good. I only pay about £13/month for 2.5 Gig of data which is just about enough for my streaming needs.

I wouldn't hold your breath for a software update. Even the new RX has the same system.

[DJP]

I know I've asked this before but can't remember the answer [emoji46] How do you activate Siri when driving, given its a hands free situation?

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[Blisteringblue]

Android man here, so we have "OK Google", which I do use because with Android you cannot browse music via the Lexus when on Bluetooth.   It is always listening for it though, so nothing to press.  However all I can select via OK Google is the artist and it plays all their tracks.   A bit limiting.   I went back to the full USB stick to be able to search on the Lexus and use the voice system.  Only to find half my tracks come up as unknown artist, when on my PC they have perfect ID3 tags.  I may swap to a 32gb micro stick I have just in case it's the size issue, but it's FAT32 and reads quite quickly.

So unless you are all things apple you are a bit stuffed.

[ganzoom]

16 hours ago, DJP said:

I know I've asked this before but can't remember the answer How do you activate Siri when driving, given its a hands free situation?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hold down the "Home" button, and than you can "talk" to Siri using hands free. Actually using it a lot (not just in the Lexus). It's even pretty good at replying txt messages when hands free. The most used phrase I use is "send a message to my wife", followed by "ok"....No point in saying anything else really, regardless of the content of the txt

[DJP]

1 hour ago, ganzoom said:

 

Hold down the "Home" button, and than you can "talk" to Siri using hands free. Actually using it a lot (not just in the Lexus). It's even pretty good at replying txt messages when hands free. The most used phrase I use is "send a message to my wife", followed by "ok"....No point in saying anything else really, regardless of the content of the txt

Sorry to appear dim, but when you say "Home" button, do you mean the button on the Iphone? If so, that's not really hands free then?

[ganzoom]

Yes the main button. You only have press and hold to activate Siri, once done that's it. No fully 'hands free' but it's as close your get. I'm just thankful apple has kept at least on physical button on the phone.

[DJP]

Yes the main button. You only have press and hold to activate Siri, once done that's it. No fully 'hands free' but it's as close your get. I'm just thankful Apple has kept at least on physical button on the phone.

Thanks for this, I'm having great fun testing Siri. So far he's found all I've asked for!!

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[MarksaCox]

DJP, if you are charging your Iphone when driving you can activate 'Hey Siri' to open him/her up!

Handsfree. But it only works while charging I think.

See screenshot. Select General then Siri.

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

[Tel]

Latest Iphone say Hey Siri which is a doddle to activate,

Tel

[DJP]

DJP, if you are charging your iPhone when driving you can activate 'Hey Siri' to open him/her up!

Handsfree. But it only works while charging I think.

See screenshot. Select General then Siri.

Sent from my iPhone using Lexus OC

Thanks for this, now I remember Colin Barber mentioning this a while back. My NX has the Qi charging plate in the armrest compartment. Although apple don't support wireless charging I have a thin adapter sitting behind the phone back and case. This plugs into the lighting port on the phone and is really discrete. I just put the phone on the plate and it starts charging. I will give it a try.

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[Blisteringblue]

Fixed my "unknown" artists issue with the 64gb Fat 32 USB Stick if anybody interested.   I basically removed all the cr@p from the stick, and made sure the only files on it were my MP3 files.   I then ran the whole stick through the excellent MP3Tag program (http://www.mp3tag.de/) and stripped out all ID3 Tag info apart from ARTIST \ ALBUM ARTIST \ TRACK \ TITLE \ ALBUM \ YEAR \ GENRE.   Now works an absolute treat.   All Artists show; and with close to 50GB of music the browse button becomes live after around 90 seconds which I can live with.   Will probably run them through MP3Tag again when I've a spare couple of hours because it shows Filename, rather than title for the individual songs which is a little odd.   Artists and album are OK though.   So will rename the tracks to just be Song title.

Car is more suited to apple than any other which is a bit of a pain, but I'm happy with that now.   Music on my phone over Bluetooth for all my playlists (have loads of smart playlists carried over from the iTunes days for non-structured listening) but plenty of straight artist albums on the USB stick so I can use the infotainment to navigate again.

[DJP]

DJP, if you are charging your iPhone when driving you can activate 'Hey Siri' to open him/her up! Handsfree. But it only works while charging I think.

See screenshot. Select General then Siri.

Sent from my iPhone using Lexus OC

Thanks for this, now I remember Colin Barber mentioning this a while back. My NX has the Qi charging plate in the armrest compartment. Although apple don't support wireless charging I have a thin adapter sitting behind the phone back and case. This plugs into the lighting port on the phone and is really discrete. I just put the phone on the plate and it starts charging. I will give it a try.

Sent from my Iphone using Tapatalk

Well it works, ish. I need to speak loudly to get Siri to respond, given that the phone is under the armrest. I'm wondering if I press the talk switch on the steering wheel to initiate a telephone call, I can command through that. No doubt it would confuse the car but worth a go.

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[Tash123]

Just picked up my car Saturday and have noticed if a 12v charger with an LED is plugged into the console the DAB signal is effected.

Doesnt happen straight away but does when driving as if it struggles to connect to a signal, sound goes intermittently quiet and more often than not signal drops out. Unplugged 12v charger and all seems fine?

[crispian]

I had the same problem as you Tash when I plugged in my new Road Angel, I contacted them and they sent out a new charger and that solved the issue. May be worth getting a good quality charger and seeing if that works.