Freeview Audio standards

[AndrewT]

Hi,
the audio attached to the TV signal on terestrial is NICAM 700kbit/sec.
Q1. is the audio on freeview to the same standard?
Q2. is the radio side of freeview to the same standard or is it based on the compressed DAB standard?

[tbrowne]

Q1. is the audio on freeview to the same standard?

Freeview audio on TV channels is typically MPEG-1 Layer II at 192 or 256kbit, AFAIK. Technically there is more frequency bandwidth and a lower noise floor compared to NICAM... in reality, there doesn't appear to be a great deal of difference in sound quality.

Q2. is the radio side of freeview to the same standard or is it based on the compressed DAB standard?

Same essential standard as DAB, but a higher bitrate on some stations (for example R1,R2,R4 get 192kbit instead of a lousy 128kbit). I am suspicious of the quality of the encoders used, but it is nice to have BBC7 in stereo...

- Tom.