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October 27, 2004
d-link usb radio
Here’s a rather cool thing, a USB radio for your PC. It’s that simple – it doesn’t do a thousand different things, but what it does it does well. Coming in a measly $20AUD helps too – the cost of a couple of magazines, or perhaps a very poverty stricken standalone radio. But that wouldn’t be nearly a transparent and groovy would it? No. Lets check it out then!
Originally Posted Mar 06, 2003 by funnel
The DSB-R100 is a USB radio – it connects via a 1.5 meter (~approx) cable, and also has a line input jack connector. Dead simple really. This makes it a little hard to wax lyrical about its many and varied possible uses, but that’s life eh? If you want to record radio onto your PC and don’t want to run a RCA lead to a jack converter and put that in your box, or maybe you just like to listen to the radio while you work, then this is a pretty damn good option. The actual playback level is actually a bit lower than what is conceivably ideal volume – and as a result you will have to crank up your speakers to get a decent listening volume from the DSB-R100. In the process of recording, the volume is normalized and makes perfectly fine mp3s.
Which is as good a way as any to introduce the recording facilities of the DSB-R100. The software that comes with the radio is a little on the dodgy side. You know they stayed up all night working in the splash screen department and you see...
And you see “Peopel” – there’s no excuse for that. But then again, many of us have experienced the unique “take no prisoners” approach to spelling which has been adopted by our nearest oceanic neighbors. Never mind. The software is a little bit shady looking, but is basically functional – which is about as much as a person can ask for. It does minimize down to a small box onscreen which is quite unobtrusive to look at.
It would have been nice to have been able to skin it but alas, that seems the domain of another program called Radiator. D-link themselves list Radiator as an appropriate replacement for the software that comes with the radio. The only problem being is that you have to install different drivers for the card, and at the time of writing following the instructions I still haven’t succeeded in getting any sound out of the Radiator program. Such is life. I will update in the event that I get it working with the Radiator software – if such a thing happens. Be aware that this may be a quirk of my particular setup- or some much more random arcane thing. Stay tuned on that one.
So, it’s a USB radio that connects to the pc, providing pretty decent sound quality and mp3 radio recording for not much more than the price of a magazine and a hamburger. Check it out!
Verdict
Quality: 3/5
Value: 5/5
Functionality: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Price: $19.95
Distributor: Harvey Norman, all decent computer stores
Web: http://www.dlink.com/products/usb/dsbr100/
Posted by funnelbc at October 27, 2004 11:38 PM
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