Stream radio: Poor performance

[fredw]

After having the firmware flash upgrad my Stream (or should I say Steam) radio is still prone to breakthrough and high background noise on FM. This occurs in areas where my previous radios, including the Grundig in my Mk 1 Ocky, have all worked fine.

Anyone else not happy with the Stream?

Being fair its Audio performance is excellent, trouble is I spend far more time using the radio than playing CDs.

[Octy-KUT]

There is a massive thread over at www.octavia-forum.de discussing just this, it seems that it is a hardware problem and all the firmware update does is encourage it to switch to Mono more readily. I have an Audience and I find the reception pretty rubbish as well. Unfortunately my dealer doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. In Germany at least, Skoda Auto Deutschland have acknowledged the problem and hinted a fix is on its way. Fingers crossed it makes it over here!

[agent006]

I have the same trouble. Radio reception is crap. the speakers are good for treble and bass, but mid is crap. The changer insists that whatever is in disk one is a CD rom when it's not.

[teeemu]

Yep, the same goes for mine too. Crappy as hell. A lot of people've been complaining about the poor performance here in Finland, too.

[nickkuts]

my CD borke on the second week and the dealer is still "waiting" for a replace ment...3 weeks:)already

[DaveI]

My Skoda Stream isn't up to par either, it sometimes sounds as though it has been emersed under water, i'm guessing as the RDS re-tunes.

[tomo2001]

Had the flash upgrade but this has introduced other bugs... up arrow occasionally not working so cannot tune the radio upwards or move a cd forward one or more tracks. This is sorted by turning the ignition off and back on. Also display not lighting up when reverse selected and lights are switched on!!

Other than that the radio reception is much improved.

[Magnum_]

I started a thread here about this months ago, I'm still experiencing the same problems. I have played around a bit with the settings (which often makes it worse, if you disable AF e.g.), but nothing helped. Contacted dealer with the question if there was a CD available for firmware upgrade -> he doesnt know anything about this -> he claims this is a HQ radio, and that there are no problems reported by clients (and it's a BIG dealer).

[Octy-KUT]

Well there is a firmware upgrade for the Stream (but not the Audience), it generally is good quality except for the problems stated here and with mid-range frequency sounds as mentioned by agent006. I'm not entirely convinced that using a Ford subsidiary to supply the stereo (Visteon) was such a brilliant idea on Skoda's part; perhaps they sabotaged it :P Just reading the posts at http://www.octavia-forum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7141 shows that plenty of other people have noticed, it's just that I still imagine the majority of people won't notice.

[Magnum_]

Has someone overthere already made an ISO image of this famous firmware CD? If so, I would like to give it a try...

(my german isn't that good )

http://www.octavia-forum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7141&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=440 <- this post by TorstenW indicates that the softwareupdate is not working, am I right?

I find it hard to believe that the majority won't notice the problems I'm experiencing. This morning I was waiting in the car, standing still for over 5 minutes due to an accident, 100 meters from where I live. I always have good reception there with other radios, and the reception was really bad, as if there was another station interfearing (I could hear people talking french, while it's a flemish radiostation). Because it got worse and worse (which is strange imho), I just put in a CD.

My diagnostic is that the unit is much too sensitive. It auto-adjusts the frequencies slightly to keep a good signal, but it doesnt do a good job at it. When I disable this in the menu, it is even worse (??)

A firmwareupdate could repair this issue, I think/hope...

[Octy-KUT]

I haven't read through the entire thread... I know that the update hasn't worked: "it's just different", as I said above, it just seems to encourage switching to Mono sooner and reduces the AF functionality: Die Empfangseigenschaften sind nicht besser, nur anders, da es eine neue Software gibt, die eher auf Mono schaltet und die AF-Funktion unterdr

[Magnum_]

I don't see why they wouldn't go for a permanent solution (even a recall)...

I mean, this thing costs 400 euro (~ 280 pounds) here in belgium.

For 100 euro I can get a pretty decent pioneer/sony/whatever with MP3-playing capabilities, 3 years warranty, 4x50watt RMS...

If it is crap, then it's crap, and they should admit it... My dealer says there is no problem...

[fredw]

As I am not the only owner who has problems with the Stream Radion could I ask all UK owners who are not happy to contact Natasha at UK Customer Services on 08457 745 745 and let her know. I have spoken to her about it and if many other owners do the same maybe Skoda will take notice and do something.

It took me a lot of effort, including involving Customer Services, to get a copy of the flash CD to my now no longer a skoda franchise dealer.

I am in the unfortunate position of having to start with a new dealer with a complaint about the radio as my first visit. I doubt that this will go down very well.

[JPF]

At the beginning my stream had some problems with FM tunning, like it was said: some kind of hyper–sensitivity. I disabled the learning function and that fixed the problem.

Hope it helps.