I promised a while ago that I'd have a play with the new RDS features in 2.0b11 on a long trip and make some suggestions. Well, I did a 15-20 hour drive at the weekend, and here's what I'd like (in no particular order):

• Toggle TA on/off from MP3 menus.
  Since TA can be active when listening to MP3s, it ought to be controllable in that mode. Not sure where to put the menu item, though - under Settings?
• Faster AF switching.
  From discussions here, I believe it's possible to subliminally sample the signal strength of a small number of channels every few seconds. If this is possible, the tuner would be able to sort these in rough order of strength so that it doesn't have to try them all when switching. Ideally, it would switch somewhat preemptively when it sees a signal that's significantly stronger than the current one (say, two bars stronger), rather than waiting until the strength is very weak (mine currently switches when the signal is at one bar and audibly breaking up). This would make TA work better, as you're then less likely to receive TA for the region you've just left, and more likely to get one for the region you're entering.
• AF following whilst in MP3 mode.
  (Those with powered antennas may want this to be a configurable option.) This is important for TA again: if I'm listening to MP3s, I don't even know that the tuner is not receiving a traffic channel any more. Ideally, if TA is enabled and AF following can't happen (no AF, AF disabled by user, or none of the other frequencies have signal), then seek to the next station transmitting TA. (Maybe it should even attempt to switch back when tuner mode is re-entered - see next item.) It seems that we could do better out of Tuner mode than in it, because then the audio signal is not important - for instance, tracking AF of many stations, and reading TA signals from several sources, rather than being restricted to the station that the user wants to listen to.
• Search by name.
  If I've driven out of range (e.g. over Rannoch Moor between Tyndrum and Glen Coe, where there's no reception at all), and AF following hasn't happened, then IWBNI selecting a preset would note the lack of signal, and scan through the frequencies looking at station names and comparing them to the RDS name associated with the preset (not the user-defined name that appears in the menu). This is what my factory system tried to do (but it never worked successfully). Bonus points if I can type in a name on the remote (useful when passengers ask for a station I don't normally listen to).
• Set clock from RDS clock signal.
  This has been mentioned before; I'm writing it here to gather these things in one place.
• PTY search.
  This is quite common on other products (e.g. my home system), so I'm mentioning it for completeness. I'm imagining a menu with all the different programme types; selecting one would seek until a matching signal is found.

The thing that bugs me the most is there are no playlists of radio stations. Why are there three banks of channels????? It's completely awkward to switch banks. There should be playlists of radio channels... so I can have an "Everything" playlist so I can just hit "next..next..next" through all the presets. There should be a "traveling" playlist that autotunes to the stations. There should be genre's of stations so I can choose the genre, etc.

Calvin

Great suggestions, both of you! I'd like all those too.

Hello,

annother wish/suggestion to complement this:

When MP3 mode is interrupted by a traffic announcement I would like to be able to "skip" the traffic message, when I realise it isn't important to me. Right now, one has to wait through the whole announcement, because as long as it lasts, the player keeps on changing back to tuner even if I reselect MP3 mode.
One solution would be the possibility to deactivate (and later reactivate) TA with some button (maybe this could be accomplished by Hijack?). Not really nice but that is what I had to do with my former Sony HU as well.
A more clever and comfortable solution would be the player recognising the users wish to "skip" this message, whenever the user switches back to MP3 during a traffic message. It could then automatically deactivate TA and automatically reactivate it after lets say 2-3 minutes in order not to miss the next traffic message.

Now this is probably harder to implement than it sounds but it would be a very nice and comfortable feature.

Wolfram

I do have an additional suggestion:

quite often I just miss the relevant part of the traffic info message because the traffic situation requires a few seconds extra attention. Is it possible to ' store' the TA message (as a 2-3 minute recording) in order to recall it later?

Jelle

In reply to:

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• Toggle TA on/off from MP3 menus.
  Since TA can be active when listening to MP3s, it ought to be controllable in that mode. Not sure where to put the menu item, though - under Settings?

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I should have looked more carefully - this is already there, of course. I'm surprised nobody picked me up on this.

I still haven't managed to catch a traffic announcement on my 2.5 minute commute each day.

Rob

In reply to:

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my 2.5 minute commute each day

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Wouldn't it be quicker to walk?

Then how would he listen to his empeg on the way in ?

After using the empeg in the car for a few weeks, I must say the TA works very well. I agree however with you that the option to skip a TA should be very welcome.

I still have not discovered whether of not the unit should switch back automatically to player mode once the Traffic Announcement is over. Anyone experience with this (is this a bug in my setup, a missing feature, or a typical rt*m issue)? Until now, I'm using Hijack, which needs two knob presses to get back to player mode (tuner-->aux-->player). Is it possible to disable AUX completely (using config)?

Jelle

The problem where Traffic Announce doesn't switch back, isn't, as far as I know, an Empeg bug. It's the radio station announcer forgetting to press the proper button at the end of the announcement.

At least, not if you're running the latest software, as far as I know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

> The problem where Traffic Announce doesn't switch back, isn't, as far as I know, an Empeg bug.
> It's the radio station announcer forgetting to press the proper button at the end of the announcement.

II do have (at least for the moment, with existing headset and no $$ for separate amplifier) the empeg output hooked up to the AUX input of my headset, which happens to have its own RDS-TA function. Both RDS-TA systems switch over to TA if a TA-radio signal is received (the empeg has a delay of 1-5 seconds). The headset returns to AUX mode once TA is finished, the empeg however happily continues to play the radio commercials, even though it switched to TA from player mode.

> At least, not if you're running the latest software, as far as I know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

2.b11 with Hijack (Hijack version of a few weeks ago)

Hmm. Okay, there is at least one item on the internal bug list about this. Perhaps it's a known issue.

I thought they had fixed that before and stated it was now the radio station's fault.

I'm certainly finding that it doesn't switch back. I'm using 2b11 with Hijack, and I've noticed it on the BBC Berkshire, 210-FM, Capital and Virgin stations.

Bryan.

In reply to:

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. It's the radio station announcer forgetting to press the proper button at the end of the announcement.

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if this were the fact, ANY radio announcer at ANY radio station I've been listening in my car would be too dumb to handle his/her equip.


bye,
[L]

Just installed the new 2.b13 update, and it now switches back to player mode from RDS-TA once finished. Perfect!.

Thanks empeg team!


> Both RDS-TA systems switch over to TA if a TA-radio signal is
> received (the empeg has a delay of 1-5 seconds). The headset
> returns to AUX mode once TA is finished, the empeg however
> happily continues to play the radio commercials, even though it
> switched to TA from player mode.