Full Version: Satellite radio
I'm very exicted as the wife is going to get me a SIRIUS satellite radio subscription. We'll get a port for the car and the home. Anyone have satellite radio? What do you think of it?
QUOTE(nebraska29 @ Nov 18 2006, 09:34 PM) 
I'm very exicted as the wife is going to get me a SIRIUS satellite radio subscription. We'll get a port for the car and the home. Anyone have satellite radio? What do you think of it?
Got mine a few months before Howard. We don't listen to regular radio anymore. We recently got the free radio wth the Executive Dock so I can listen at work to everything. While the internet works as expected it doesn't have all the channels.
Stern is great on Satellite and the cursing isn't over the top anymore. The show is pretty much the same but somewhat more relaxed.
You're going to love it. I can't wait for channel 128 (the NASCAR channel) to light up.
Anyone have satellite radio? What do you think of it?
I thought about it when Howard went off regular radio but, I just don't listen enough to make it worthwhile. I sure do miss Howard's interviews.
Stern is great on Satellite and the cursing isn't over the top anymore. The show is pretty much the same but somewhat more relaxed.
Was the cursing over the top in the beginning? That was always something that I didn't mind not having to hear. Bleep bleep. His show was great despite what he felt were confining and ridiculous rules.
I thought about it when Howard went off regular radio but, I just don't listen enough to make it worthwhile. I sure do miss Howard's interviews.
QUOTE(BaphometsAdvocate @ Nov 18 2006, 07:40 PM)
Stern is great on Satellite and the cursing isn't over the top anymore. The show is pretty much the same but somewhat more relaxed.
Was the cursing over the top in the beginning? That was always something that I didn't mind not having to hear. Bleep bleep. His show was great despite what he felt were confining and ridiculous rules.
Yep...got it last June and love it! Its like the difference between cable television and just receiving the local channels. No comparision. I think I have maybe listened to about 15 minutes of local radio since I got it.
After all this time, I STILL haven't listened to all the channels available. Blue Collar Comedy is great...Stern is great...NBA radio....NFL radio...about 7-8 political talk channels and over 100 music channels. What's not to love?
After all this time, I STILL haven't listened to all the channels available. Blue Collar Comedy is great...Stern is great...NBA radio....NFL radio...about 7-8 political talk channels and over 100 music channels. What's not to love?
We've got XM Radio in the car, and we like it. I can drive to work and listen to classic rock, alternative rock, classical music, comedy, old time radio, or new radio drama. The one drawback is that reception is poor in mountainous areas, or places with lots of tall buildings.
I just wanted to chime in with the other side of the coin. I used the XM flavor every day for over a week while my car was repaired. I don't own sat radio, and I don't want it.
The fact is that to anyone seeking high quality audio, sat radio is a step backward, or possibly a step to the side. It is definitely not a step forward.
It is billed as "digital quality audio," but in reality that means less-than-cd quality on the best channels, and less-than-fm quality on the more obscure or localized channels.
Now, Sirius might be different than XM. Actually, they are. Sirius uses an AAC-based codec that runs at, as far as I have read, 64kbps. That's not a bad bitrate using they type of compression they use, but I would doubt anyone who listens and determines it is CD quality.
XM uses a different codec with variable bitrate depending on the station. 80kbps is their max I believe, with less-used stations running 40kbps and news and talk running at an unacceptable 32kbps (AD Radio broadcasts at 64kbps, beating all but the most popular XM stations in terms of frequency response, and AD Radio doesn't always sound so good).
The problem is that the sat providers keep trying to cram more and more audio onto their limited amount of satellite bandwidth, and quality suffers as a result.
It is the same situation as digital cable. Those who believe the hype pay extra for digitally-delivered cable that actually has worse picture quality than plain old analog cable. Yeah, there may be more channels, but you can still only use one channel at a time. Quality wins for me over quantity every time.
The other thing that surprised me about sat radio is that it has commercials and DJs. The DJs use their same over-compressed, half-inch-from-your-eardrum setup, and it is still annoying. I don't need people to talk to me over the radio if my receiver tells me the song that is playing. What more do you need to know?
Another thing that annoyed me: over a week of blues channel (mostly)-- not one BB King song or Buddy Guy song. Pathetic. But they did play a lot of songs from some unknown soulless blues band du jour. I wonder how many CDs that sold for them. Advertising is still advertising even if it is done under the guise of being informative, and at the expense of true quality.
And last, if you're not in a major-market area with FM backup, and you happen to have trees near you, expect drop outs. XM is useless in Savannah until you get out of the downtown area.
Anyway, sorry, I'm not a big fan.
Mike
The fact is that to anyone seeking high quality audio, sat radio is a step backward, or possibly a step to the side. It is definitely not a step forward.
It is billed as "digital quality audio," but in reality that means less-than-cd quality on the best channels, and less-than-fm quality on the more obscure or localized channels.
Now, Sirius might be different than XM. Actually, they are. Sirius uses an AAC-based codec that runs at, as far as I have read, 64kbps. That's not a bad bitrate using they type of compression they use, but I would doubt anyone who listens and determines it is CD quality.
XM uses a different codec with variable bitrate depending on the station. 80kbps is their max I believe, with less-used stations running 40kbps and news and talk running at an unacceptable 32kbps (AD Radio broadcasts at 64kbps, beating all but the most popular XM stations in terms of frequency response, and AD Radio doesn't always sound so good).
The problem is that the sat providers keep trying to cram more and more audio onto their limited amount of satellite bandwidth, and quality suffers as a result.
It is the same situation as digital cable. Those who believe the hype pay extra for digitally-delivered cable that actually has worse picture quality than plain old analog cable. Yeah, there may be more channels, but you can still only use one channel at a time. Quality wins for me over quantity every time.
The other thing that surprised me about sat radio is that it has commercials and DJs. The DJs use their same over-compressed, half-inch-from-your-eardrum setup, and it is still annoying. I don't need people to talk to me over the radio if my receiver tells me the song that is playing. What more do you need to know?
Another thing that annoyed me: over a week of blues channel (mostly)-- not one BB King song or Buddy Guy song. Pathetic. But they did play a lot of songs from some unknown soulless blues band du jour. I wonder how many CDs that sold for them. Advertising is still advertising even if it is done under the guise of being informative, and at the expense of true quality.
And last, if you're not in a major-market area with FM backup, and you happen to have trees near you, expect drop outs. XM is useless in Savannah until you get out of the downtown area.
Anyway, sorry, I'm not a big fan.
Mike
Finally, I've found another blues connoisseur, I forgot you were a blues fan Mike! Funny you say that Mike, I was just going to say I loved Sirius Blues for the same reason you mentioned. I have heard enough and own enough of the big name blues artists so that I don't want to hear them on the radio. I enjoy saying "what was that guys name" after a song and especially hearing different and more obscure versions of blues classics [I heard a great version of "A Spoonful Blues" yesterday]. But that is Sirius, XM could be different.
CP
CP
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