TVTechnology: Best Buy Releases First Portable HD Radio Receiver

07.13.2009

Best Buy Releases First Portable HD Radio Receiver

An armband portable HD Radio, made by KRI and containing a Samsung HD Radio IC, is being sold under Best Buy's Insignia brand name.

The unit became available Sunday at Best Buy and retails for just under $50. Prototypes have been shown at recent trade conventions.

Best Buy said the unit is exclusive to its stores. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Best Buy has locations throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Mexico, Europe and China. Listeners can hear main and multicast FM HD Radio signals as well as analog signals. Mike Dahnert, Insignia Portable HD Radio product manager, emphasized the sound quality and the LCD screen features of the unit.

The unit features a built-in, rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, which iBiquity says delivers 10 hours before recharge. A USB cable for recharging is included as well as an armband. Users can program up to 10 presets and use the 3.5 mm jack output to listen in the car or on the go.

Insignia is a Best Buy brand In addition to the new HD Radio portable, the Insignia line features televisions, Blu-ray disc players, home theater equipment and audio products. Insignia products are sold at Best Buy and Future Shop retail locations, and online.

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Posted by: Anonymous

Sat, 09-05-2009 - 10:56AM Report Comment

What? No AM reception or Weather Radio for local storms during power outages? What about sports and talk radio that are only on AM?

Posted by: Anonymous

Sun, 07-19-2009 - 2:24PM Report Comment

I am a general gadget addict, and while generally I don’t jump on things as an early adopter, this just looked too good to be true. Having never been thrilled with either the performance or physical design of HD receivers at RS and others available, the thought of having this capability in such a small package was something too good to resist. After placing an order locally, I found the NS-HD01 at ONE Best Buy. I have been trying it out this morning and have to say this is one little wonderful gadget. The color screen gets high marks. Tuning is absolutely simple —you seek tune and then can use the UP/DWN buttons to scroll through the available HD subchannels. Reception sensitivity here in the DC area is superb — playing it through my home multi-speaker setup yields excellent sound, great volume. I have experienced no fading or breakup of local HD channels. Just the minijack into my home system suffices perfectly for every HD channel in this geographic area. And the addition of RDS capability, although a no brainer, is a great plus. Now — for my purposes, I would make this recommendation to Best Buy/Insignia — put another fixed level audio output on the radio — this would enable recording of signals in addition to just being able to listen. And the next obvious step would be to incorporate a solid state recording capability, with say a 2 GB minimum capacity. If they are really smart they would design the next version of this along the lines of the CC Witness which enables use of both internal and SDHC card recording as well as a multi-event timer. In fact, CCrane could take a hint from this. But that’s for the future — the Insignia just shows that you don’t really need to get a large HD receiver if you want to take advantage of the new technology. What a great addition to the HD market!

Posted by: Anonymous

Wed, 07-15-2009 - 10:55AM Report Comment

This would be good news if digital over the air technology worked reliably over medium to longer distances. If this type of radio system is to have a future the arbitrary and sudden outs of digital signals must not be a problem anymore. As someone who watches DTV, the television counterpart of digital radio, I find it bothersome to have sudden sound and picture loss just because of weather changes or the movement of things in and around my place of residence. Also, is the sound really better than FM stereo??? So, I can't imagine buying into digital radio when it just does not perform as it should.

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