I love the HD option it does make 'radio' sound clear as a bell.. better quality than SAT for sure.. So I hear many of my local stations say they have a side channel HD-2 that is playing commercial free High Def radio. The problem is I can't figure out how to listen to it. There is an autostore for HD radio just like FM but it doesn't seem to find these side channels. Has anyone figured out how to tune into them?

 

Hmm, I guess not many people here have HD radio. Anyone??

 

I don't listen to the radio all that much but when I have, I never caught any mention of side channels on the local HD Radio stations here in the Metro DC area.

 

Only a few channels in the Boston area have it here. You'll see it in the details when you're listening. It will say the main channel name HD-1 and then the HD-2 description. I just haven't found a way to tune into the HD-2 channel. I'm starting to think BMW didn't allow for this..

 

hmmm... now you have me thinking. I see all 13 HD Radio stations in WDC have HD2. I'll have to poke around.

 

hmmm... I see what you mean... maybe a new CIP upgrade will give us the option of pulling in the multicast channel?

Here's a list of the markets that have HD2...

http://www.hdradio.com/hd_digital_radio_format_list.php

 

Great list.. I can't find anything on the net that talks about how to get HD-2 in a BMW. I guess it's time to ask the service dept. Though I bet they haven't really had much to do with HD radio, but maybe they can contact BMW to find out. I'll let you know.

 

Update: Talked to BMW service today in the car. The HD radio can't tune into the HD-2 channels. But he did say they would probably have a software update later.. Let's hope that's not just Gibber Jabber..

 

Good to know, thanks. I'm not ejoying HD right now but I may not know what I'm missing on HD-2 either. I'll keep my ears open for software updates that may allow the radio to tune into the other channels.

 

Multicasting, the sharing of a frequency by more than one digital "channel", is a newer feature of HD radio. Only a small number of radio stations have used this feature before this year. BMW appears to have selected a radio that like most radios released before 2006 does not have the ability to play these additional channels. Someone in another forum mentioned the possibility that a future software update might be used to enable this feature, but at this time nothing is available.