| Product: |
Wavefinder interactive digital radio |
| Date: |
12/04/01 (870 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great radio stations and sound quality, Has alternative software
Disadvantages: Awful software
Love music? Love radio? You'll love the Wavefinder, then.
Generally, when I do opinions for dooyoo, I don't go through what the product does. I kind of feel that you probably don't want 400 reviews, all with "This product does this" stuff in them, and little review.
This time, though, I'll give you the low-down on the product first, because it's a little complicated to explain.
WHAT'S DIGITAL RADIO?
A new way of broadcasting radio stations. Totally incompatible with existing radio. If your favourite station's on FM or MW, it MIGHT be on digital radio too, but it might not. You'll need to check. It uses different frequencies, and different equipment. A digital radio can't pick up FM or AM. But it's clearer sound, you can cram loads more channels in, and it comes with other data features too.
WHAT'S WAVEFINDER?
Well, you can either spend around £400 for a digital radio (which plugs into your hifi) or around £80 on the web for a Wavefinder. The Wavefinder is a digital radio aerial, basically, and your computer does the difficult job of decoding the signals and turning them into music, or data, or speech. Benefits of using a computer are pretty obvious: you can record stuff, use the data properly, and click through to relevant internet sites.
BUT I'VE GOT A DIGITAL RADIO
Oh, no you haven't.
YES I HAVE. IT SAYS "DIGITAL" ON IT.
Oh, no you haven't. A digital radio has a logo marked "DAB" on it.
BUT... BUT...
Go into an electrical retailer and they'll probably try to flog you a £20 'digital radio' - i.e. a normal, analogue, radio with a digital display (showing numbers instead of a radio dial). That is not a digital radio capable of picking up digital radio stations.
OH. RIGHT. CONFUSING ALL THIS, ISN'T IT?
Yes.
So, back with me? Good. The picture at the top of thi
s review shows the Wavefinder. It plugs into your USB port, and also has a small power adaptor, which you need to find a spare mains socket for.
It also comes with some software on a CD.
INSTALLATION
Now, I found installation of this product an absolute minefield. First, you plug the thing in. Then you tell Windows (2000 in my case) what this thing is that you've just plugged in. Then you install the software. Then you register as a Wavefinder user. Then it reboots. Then it takes a look around to see what stations it can pick up. Then it runs the software. In my case, it worked, then crashed, then refused to do anything. The workaround was to uninstall everything and try again, but it took about an hour and irritated me beyond measure.
Then, like the good boy I am, I went direct to the Wavefinder site to see if there were any updates to the software. Mine came with v1.2; you can upgrade to v1.4 on the website as well as download some more up-to-date station logos. You can't download the upgrade unless you've already got the older software installed - which is a shame, because otherwise I'd have burnt a CD of the new installation stuff and not worried about downloading out of date software to my system.
And then I wondered why everything was so crackly. So I checked the website, checked the newsgroups... and discovered that my soundcard, an old ISA Soundblaster 16, wasn't up to the job. A new soundcard later, it sounds just excellent.
THE SOFTWARE
I'm in London, so I now have access to 35 different radio stations, with the promise of about 10 more coming on later this year. The software to listen to these stations, though, is awful.
- It uses java
Now, I've nothing against Java, but the advantages of Java - platform independence - don't oughtweigh the fact that it's comparatively slow and cumbersome to run on your PC. My PC is pretty quick, but this software is slow, slow
, slow. A bit of well-compiled x86 code would have been a far better idea than Java.
- It's badly laid-out
Okay, it looks pretty, but it's difficult to use. In order to listen to a radio station - like Capital FM - you need to know which multiplex it's on. A multiplex is the individual transmitter that does about ten different radio stations. Capital's on the CE Digital multiplex - but why should it matter? Why can't I just choose "Capital" instead of scrolling around a little 'map' of stations?
- It's slow to use
Because you need to scroll around a map to look for an icon of a radio station, it's slow and unintuitive. A "Start menu" type affair would help things here, rather than a new user interface.
- It crashes now and then
Use your PC for something energetic, and the Wavefinder software can't really cope. Sometimes it'll crash, with the result that you need to reboot if you want to use it again.
NICE FEATURES, THOUGH
- Not just radio, you get text alongside the station, showing you what's playing or what's coming up soon - or latest headlines or website addresses.
- Extra services, only available on a Wavefinder, include a news and sport service from the BBC and an equivalent service from ITN. The neat thing is, you don't need an internet connection to use them.
- You can instantly hit "record" if you hear a song you like - it records either in MP3 format, or MP2 (which is the format DAB uses). Neat trick. I like that, and the sound quality's excellent.
- And now, the new version (v1.4) of the software has a timer, so you can record stuff unattended, if you trust that the software will still be up and running by the time the program is on. Which is good.
BUT THERE'S LOTS OF OTHER SOFTWARE
Go hunting for DABBar - you'll find it's free, and uses around half the processor power and is much easier to use
. It doesn't do the data stuff, but it does everything else. It also allows you to stream the audio from the Wavefinder online, which is rather nice.
Go hunting for Wavelite - you'll find it uses even less processor cycles. It's paid-for software, but the timer is better than DABBar's.
There are even other bits of software available.
This is good news.
MY VERDICT
The (supplied) software's nasty. The service is fab. The extra choice of stations are great (but your mileage may vary). The recording is useful.
The streaming (available with the free DABBar software) is fab if you've a home network. It means that you can listen to DAB Digital Radio anywhere in the house, which is pretty cool.
Go get one.
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