The HD tuner technology patents are held by ONE company named iBiquity, and they charge a lot to allow each tuner to be built. You dont see it in the home tuners either. The only place Ive seen them are in some high end stuff. Receivers in the 1500 dollar range for the home have them.
I dont know if many people even know the stations exist. Most cities now have 5 or more HD Digital FM stations that are exact replicas of all the other station they listen to.
Its one of the down sides of the patent, RIAA, MPAA, and DRM mess in this country. The content creators demand certain things and the US government gave Ibiquity the monopoly to produce this HD radion technology, and they price it high due to it being a monopoly etc. Sort of like the Apple premium you pay for their products and allowing them to control it all.
So there we are. Government interference results in a bad consumer experience...again.
But I think its coming. I hear the next Fusion may be looking into it. Also, Ford doesnt have the Government in its pants so it is a bit better off. Thats why I bought some Ford stock last month and it has Quadrupled, so Im happy.
GM and Chrysler are screwed , they have both the Gov. and UAW in their pants , so I wonder if they will ever recover like that.
