Range Rover Hybrid / Freeview TV Tuner.

J

jfb1977

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I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section of the forum - apologies mods if I'm not.

Basically I have a little nugget of a business idea that I need to explore, but I'm not technically gifted enough to know if what I'm thinking is even possible. It's not going to make anyone mega rich, but could be worth a few grand, so is worth exploring.

So I drive a Range Rover and occasionally lurk on a Range Rover forum (tragic, I know)!

Most RR Vogues built between 2006 and 2010 have a digital TV tuner in them. It receives most of the Freeview TV channels but for some reason none of the digital radio channels that you get normally with Freeview - not really sure why.

Lots of RR owners would love digital radio in their cars, and at the moment there's no neat way of doing it - you have to buy clunky aftermarket kits that use the FM radio signal etc. (Newer Range Rover from 2010 come with DAB as standard).

So, long story short, if I can find someone that knows enough about these things and we can figure out a way to tweak the software in the Range Rover TV receiver to receive digital radio stations then we'd be able to offer an 'unlocking' service and charge a pretty penny for the tweak and I reckon there'd be hundreds of people interested.

I'm confident that the factory box is capable of receving the radio channels, I just don't think it's enabled to, so I want to track down someone with the right hardware, software or know-how to mess about with one of the RR TV receivers and see if we can get it to pick up digital radio as well as TV.

Of course, having made this public, anyone with the knowledge could go and buy a TV tuner from eBay and do this without me, but I'm hoping that that won't happen. I have a TV tuner we can muck about with, so I'd love to hear from anyone that thinks this might be doable. Or even from someone telling me why it's NOT doable.:-righton
 
Just a comment really. The digital radio channels inthe Freeview package are not the same as DAB (e.g. no Planet Rock in the Freeview package) and are broadcast on different frequencies. The frequencies that DAB uses are not as obstructed by buildings and hills as TV frequencies are. Mind you, the VHF frequencies that FM uses is better still for reception.

I'm not sure whether this affects any of your thinking but you should be aware of it.

BTW, I don't know why the Freeview tuner in the RR doesn't allow radio. It's part of the Freeview specification.
 
Thanks for your response Paul.

I'm a complete amateur, but I do (now) understand that DAB and the radio stations you can receive through Freeview are not the same thing.

What I'm looking to be able to do is receive the Freeview radio stations, and I don't understand a) why I can't and b) how I can make it happen!

So dumb question - are the radio stations received by a Freeview tuner being broadcast on FM or VHF?

If VHF (which is what I assume the TV pictures are transmitted in?) then surely it's just a tuning issue....

Or do I have the wrong end of the wrong stick?
 
Freeview is transmitted in the UHF band. Radio and TV alike.

I'm afraid I'm somewhat sceptical about the suggestion that a Freeview Tuner as fitted to Range Rovers can't get Radio. It surely must.

Ergo, we are probably looking not at a Technical issue, but some kind of "finger trouble". An incorrect Installation Setting, something like that.
 
FM radio i transmitted in the frequency range 88 - 108MHz, also known as Band II

DAB uses the frequencies that used to be used by the (very) old VHF Band III TV stations. These are around 174MHz.

UHF TV (formerly analogue now being supplanted by digital) uses Bands IV/V which ranges from 470 - 860MHz although this is being reduced as the govenment is selling off the top and bottom bits of the bands for other purposes.

Freeview radio channels are transmitted in Band IV/V depending in what part of the country you live in.
 
Could it be something as simple as the Freeview tuner ignores the radio channels as theres no video signal associated with them?? If so it may be possible to just change the video / audio parameters, for example set up a new channel with BBC1 video & Radio 1 audio??

If this works a nice donation to the forum would be appreciated ;) :D
 
Just spent a few minutes Googling and eBaying and 12v Digital Tuners as fitted to cars are indeed Radio capable, in the main _ but I've come across a Range Rover specific one that has DVB T TV Tuner AND DAB Radio in one unit.

So, whether you have a RR specific or a mobile generic Tuner, you should be able to get either DAB Radio or DVB T Radio.

Edit: Sorry, AS - Bang goes the Forum Donation!
 
Tivu - that's exactly my point - I can't understand how it can't receive the radio stations.

However, I've posted on the RR forum and nobody can get radio channels. Hence the confusion.

So if the hardware is capable of receiving one, it must be capable of receiving the other. Which is why I'm trying to track down someone that can help me make it happen...
 
Tivù said:
Just spent a few minutes Googling and eBaying and 12v Digital Tuners as fitted to cars are indeed Radio capable, in the main _ but I've come across a Range Rover specific one that has DVB T TV Tuner AND DAB Radio in one unit.

So, whether you have a RR specific or a mobile generic Tuner, you should be able to get either DAB Radio or DVB T Radio.

Edit: Sorry, AS - Bang goes the Forum Donation!
Click to expand...

What you've seen there is for RR from 2002-2006 which have a Canbus system and a non-touchscreen sat nav. You can bolt in a DAB Radio or DVB T Radio, but that's not a solution for 2006-2010 cars with the touchscreen sat nav and a MOST system.

Analoguesat, can you explain how I might try and change the video / audio parameters so I can try and set up a new channel?

If we can crack this I'd be more than happy to make a decent donation to the forum of course!!
 
People are probably quite accepting of dodgy TV reception in cars, more so than they would be of dodgy radio reception. I'm not saying mobile reception is always dodgy but I've tried it a few times using analogue TV and it's not particularly robust in a mobile environment, DVB is fragile enough at home so I can't see it fairing any better in a car.

DAB uses single frequency networks so no matter where you are you're always listening to the same frequency and given enough field strength then as the receiver moves from transmitter to transmitter their is no break or difference in the reception. On FM radio RDS is used (the AF function) to move the radio onto the best available signal, again, this should be undetectable to the listener. DVB (Freeview) isn't currently set up using SFNs although at least one is planned for the future and as far as I'm aware there aren't any tuners that can scan for and compare available signals before switching seamlessly to another transmitter. There are other technical limitations that could make this very difficult to acheive too.

So, what I'm getting at is, maybe the radio signals have been omitted on purpose to prevent complaints of poor reception, most people just expect a car radio to work without interruption.

As a matter of interest, I presume they have some form of automatic scanning option, do you get to see what it's found as its scanned through and if so does it even display the radio stations it finds? There's always the Pure Highway ;)
 
Hi Aceb - you could well be right. The general concensus amongst the RR bods is that it may well have been intentionally disabled, but therefore it must be possible to enable it again (albeit that the reception could be a bit iffy).

The TV does have an automatic scanning option, you hit that and it brings up all of the channels it can find and it displays the channel name on the relevant touch screen buttons. The 'manual' scan option is very rudimentary and just flicks numerically through the channels from 1-69 and either displays a picture or white noise if there's no picture available.

There are a couple of hundred members on the fourm with this type of hybrid tuner and none have ever picked up a radio station, so they are clearly disabled.

I guess my quest therefore is to find somebody with the appropriate level of knowledge how could tinker with the TV tuner hardware / software and enable it to receive the radio stations too. Hmmm....
 
Hi Aceb,

Yes, the TV Tuner has an auto function - you hit it and it pulls up whatever channels it can find and displays the channel name against the relevant touchscreen button.

The 'manual' tuning function is pretty rudimentary it just flicks numerically through 1-69 and shows pictures if it can find them, or white noise if it can't.

There are a couple of hundred RR forum members, of which probably circa 100 have this tuner - and none of them have ever picked up a radio station on the hybrid tuner...it must have been disabled.

As such, I guess my mission is to try and find someone who knows how we can fiddle with the firmware on the tuner so that it picks up the radio stations.

Mmmm....
 
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