SiriusXM Installation - Lakes Region

[brk-lnt]

Originally Posted by MAXUM

All about the amount of buffer the SAT radio has, the more it has the less sensitive it is to momentary signal loss.

Buffer is only part of it. Satellite radio is one-way, the radio can't request lost parts. They use a forward error correction scheme, along with basically dual-broadcast of all streams on two frequencies with a 4 second delay. This gives you about 10-12 seconds of overall buffer ability. If your radio loses a signal for more than 10 seconds, or is only able to lock onto one of the streams, you risk the dropouts.

Overall a better antenna and receiver, and better antenna placement is the best solution to poor signals.

We have Sirius/XM in all our vehicles and on the boat. I've been a subscriber since about 2004, and have tried all combinations of portable units, OEM installs, aftermarket HU's and so on. The boat gets the best coverage, since it is generally out in the open water and have the standard Sirius/XM marine antenna, but even there we've gotten random dropouts for no explainable reason.

I agree that Sirius hasn't lived up to its initial hype, but I find FM radio grating these days. Censored content, tons of commercials, and absolutely asinine DJs on every major station. These days we listen to Pandora or similar streams in the vehicles, but Sirius still gets played regularly enough that I can't give up our subscriptions yet.

A couple of the vehicles also have HD Radio. In the end, HD Radio is really just FM radio, but more channels. Same basic music. Same censorship, same commercials.

[TheProfessor]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

I agree that Sirius hasn't lived up to its initial hype, but I find FM radio grating these days. Censored content, tons of commercials, and absolutely asinine DJs on every major station.

All is a matter of taste and probably a generational thing.
I don't do music. Just the news/talk stations. And there are enough for all from Fox News to MSNBC to BBC.

The business model of both Sirius and XM was good in the beginning. But my guess was that not enough car manufacturers geared up early on to place satellite radio in cars.
Ford was later then GM to offer this in most vehicles.
My opinion was that these two manufacturers should have used same technology for both so that any customer could choose one or the other.

But not enough revenue streaming in the beginning hurt both.
The FCC then allowed a merger - a monopoly.

Finances being what they are - advertisements have to enter.

I did like the iHeart stations as iHeart owned a stake in SiriusXM - but they sold out and some interesting stations/personalities were dropped.

There is nothing more entertaining listening to Alex Jones - telling the audience that the world is collapsing - and that all should buy silver - and then an advertisement from a company that sells silver. But Alex is gone when iHeart sold out. Oh . . . Alex is still out there - just not on SiriusXM.
So tempting to stock up on silver when it was $35.00 an ounce. Ah . . . but I missed that opportunity.

[Paugus bay girl]

People actually still use XM/Sirius? I thought they went out of business, especially now in the age of smartphones, where you can just use Pandora or Spotify,for a fraction of the price of you get the premium version, or like I do, use an iPod, where I only have to hear the songs I like. I used to have XM and it to me was a waste of money, all the songs they played were on my iPod! LOL anyways, go to Vanworks if you think you must have XM

[tis]

We also rarely listen to music, Professor. We have it for the talk.