Satellite Radio: is it worth it?
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Trying to describe a 12m commute as being a problem.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
Haha I see - I have done my fair share of commuting (including 7years on the road as a service engineer) in my time and have got used to being sat in the car on my own listening to the radio, so it is actually a little annoying not having time to listen anymore!
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
Oh dear, I had the unfortunate pleasure of lisening to some of your US radio stations last year whilst driving around florida, cant remember the names as there were so many playing random rock i kept changing channels :-\ You should be able to get BBC Radio 1 from the UK on a time shift which plays a random mix of music with some great shows (depending on time of day), you probably wont understand most of the humor but hey it could be worth a listen ;)
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
Le Centriste wrote:
Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
The only benefit I see in Sat radio is it's service area - great for when driving over unpopulated expanses of land (the square shaped states come to mind), a plus as FM stations fade away as soon as you leave an urban center. If you're a music nut, then it's understandable the words "digital audio" bring a smile and hopes of great listening experience. Let me tell you, the way Sirius (for example) compresses the music streams in their Sat uplink is nothing short of predatory. Bandwidth is their beast-to-tame, with SO many channels that has become a pressing issue -> more popular music channels might get 64kbps data rates, less prominent ones maybe 56kbps and perhaps even 48kbps - these are tech tidbits they don't publish in their specs sheets, at least not for public consumption. The encoding/decoding process can sometimes go by unnoticed to many users, but not for a trained ear - I have heard music on a Sirius receiver that sounds WORSE than badly encoded 128kbps MP3 files. I, for one, am not paying a monthly fee for that X| -=[ R ]=-
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
It really depends on the person's situation. I was pretty convinced that paying for radio was a silly, stupid notion. We got the trial period in a new car a few years ago and found we couldn't live without it. I love listening to comedy and alternative music. I don't get those from local Atlanta stations. Yes, there are 200 channels and I only listen to a handful, but it is better than I can getting locally and CDs get old. I like to listen to new things, and XM has introduced me to a number of musicians and comedians that I wouldn't have necessarily known otherwise. It's also excellent for travel. My family makes 8-10 hour trips to visit family. We don't have to hunt for a station that isn't country in the hills of Tennessee. It's also good for the kids. There's an XM Kids station and a Radio Disney station, as well as a couple sanitized top 40 stations that are tolerable (although I tend to make them change the channel when Daughtry comes on). Honestly, you should just use the trial and see if you like it. If you find you don't use it that much, then just drop it. If you find, like we did, that you get something there that you can't elsewhere and are willing to pay for it, then keep it. Oh, BTW, I'm not sure if it is available in Canada, but we got a deal if we paid for multiple years. I'm wanting to say that the best deal was a 3 year deal (out of 1, 2, 3, and 4 year deals). Not sure you want to invest that into a company that is struggling as much as they are, though. Hope this helps. Kent
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I have it in my car, and also can listen at home on thier website...I never listen to thier website, I have Pandora which rocks. However, I listen to my car satellite daily, but I also drive half way across the state of Florida, and I hate having to continously change stations as they fade out. For me, it's pretty awesome, as I have 15 or so channels I like, depending on the mode...and no commercial interuptions!
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Oh dear, I had the unfortunate pleasure of lisening to some of your US radio stations last year whilst driving around florida, cant remember the names as there were so many playing random rock i kept changing channels :-\ You should be able to get BBC Radio 1 from the UK on a time shift which plays a random mix of music with some great shows (depending on time of day), you probably wont understand most of the humor but hey it could be worth a listen ;)
I hear you. As an ex-pat Brit, I miss UK radio terribly. Radio in the US just sounds the same where ever you go. Just the same old regurgitated 80s music and popular top 40 junk repeated ad-nauseum. It makes you (perish the thought horror upon horrors) realise why people here listen to country music!
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How long is your commute? One really bad traffic jam here in LA can make it worthwhile in just one day. The other nice thing about Sirius is that you are also able to listen to it over the internet. So you go from your car to your desk and listen to the same music.
Best wishes, Hans
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Hans Dietrich wrote:
The other nice thing about Sirius is that you are also able to listen to it over the internet.
They have just recently introduced a fee to listen online. :mad:
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I got mine 3 years ago as a birthday present from my wife. I love it, because some days I want to listen to up to the minute news or comedy, and other days I'm in the mood for music. One day I might want to listen to hard rock and the next I want classic or top 40 or even 80's hair bands. Also, they have channels dedicated to sports or weather. I don't find the traffic to be very useful though. Pros - I can listen to the same channel or selections of channels all the way from New Hampshire to Cape Cod or Maine or the mountains or where-ever else I want to drive. Most music channels are commercial free so during my commute I can actually listen to music. Channels are dedicated to a certain thing. You want news instantly, check out CNN or Fox. Instant comedy (with commercials) or the NFL games... Cons - Cost. (of course) Being in New Hampshire, once the leaves start coming in on the trees hanging over the back roads, my signal is a little spottier. On the main roads and highways, its fine. Recently they started charging ($2.99) to listen online even if you are already a subscriber. It used to be free. For the most part, during your 3-month trial, if its just music you want, then you are probably better off with CDs or an MP3/IPod full of music. If you find you listen to a bit more then go for it.
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I've been with XM for a couple of years now and, yeah, I'd say it's worth it. I can find a lot of content (particularly older stuff) that you just won't find on the regular stations. XM has a "mostly music" option (leaves out the talk radio and news) for, like, $8 per month which works for me. My unit is a Pioneer INNO2 which is a nice little portable. I've got a cradle in the office and the car - so I just move the radio between the two. Since you can record the content if there's "nothing on" at the time I can listen to my favorites anytime. -CB :)
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
The answer depends on several things: Do you like the station selection where you live? How broad is your musical taste? How annoying do you find morning talk shows? How important is it to have no advertisements when listening to music? Do you tend to purchase music you like from listening to the radio? How long is your commute? I don't listen to talk radio, and the 'morning shows' here in Nashville are awful and hardly play music at all during the commute time. Add poorly written advertisements to the mix and switching to XM was the way to go. I've been an XM subscriber since 2001 and would never switch back to FM. The local stations only play a small mix of music so you hear the same 50 songs over and over, sometimes every day at the same time. I like discovering new music and have purchased many CD's from hearing new songs on XM. I also have a wide musical taste and listen to probably 20 of the stations on a regular basis based on my mood. Classic jazz, smooth jazz, new age, heavy metal, rap, old school soul, 80's music, classic rock, current hits, etc. If you're strictly a top 40 person or R&B, then satellite radio may not be for you. I also enjoy being able to drive across the country and not have to hunt for stations that aren't full of static, but if you don't travel much, that may not be important. I have XM radios in each of my cars and at the office. I don't use the online steaming due to the reduced quality and the bandwidth usage. To me it is absolutely worth the money. My 2 cents worth.
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
Yes, it's worth it. I got into XM Satellite radio by way of my DirecTV subscription. Most of the music channels are available thru the satellite TV tuner. Yes, there are times where I've been listening to a station for hours and find that they've turned the stack over and are playing the same stuff. When that happens, I tune in one of my other favorites. And most music stations don't play commercials except to very occasionally mention a particular show such as a half hour interview session with Coldplay, KT Tunstall or The Moody Blues or what kind of music is playing on another channel. Like cable/satellite TV, there are 200 stations, and only a dozen that I actually listen to. But when it comes to broadcast radio, there are maybe 50 stations, and 2 that I listen to: The local NPR affiliate and an AM news radio station that offers traffic, weather, sports and news depending on how many minutes into the half hour they are. The few decent music stations don't offer the diversity within their genre that you get with satellite. One of the worst career experiences is being stuck in an office where they play one of those office oldies stations, the one where you can tell time by what's playing: "Midnight at the Oasis", time for my mid-morning coffee; "Afternoon Delight", time for lunch; "The Lord's Prayer", afternoon bowel movement. I like also that I always know where a specific genre of music is and can choose depending on whom I'm entertaining. So often, after an hour or two of conversation, someone will stop mid-sentence and say, "What station is this? This is great!" And then the TV or radio becomes the conversation piece. I give my guests the remote and they start looking thru the stations and find some type of music that they were into and you hear things like, "That's Dokken! I used to love Dokken!" and say, "Used to?" Or, "Is that Frank Marino? I haven't heard Frank Marino on the radio since college." Oh, and sports. Right now, I'm completely engrossed in the NHL watching the Sharks sabotage themselves in the playoffs, and I can find any game in the NHL, NBA, MLB and a few college leagues without any special subscription. Lastly, (thank God, you all say), what really makes it work for me is that my wife bought me a Pioneer XM receiver. It's the size of a flip phone, has a color display, docks in the car or the house. I can load it with about half a gig of my own mp3s, and while I admit that's not much, it will record music TiVo style where if I hear a song I like, I tell it to record the song,
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I got XM for my car a few years ago, and at first I liked it a lot but now I'm thinking about dropping it in favor of an MP3 player with my own music. The rock stations I listen to seem to have the same narrow playlist as the local terrestrial stations around here, so there's no real advantage there. I liked the comedy channels but the quality has gone down since XM and Sirius merged -- more commercials, obnoxious bumpers and promos, and more unknown comics who aren't that funny. So it just doesn't seem worth it to me, but if I spent more time in my car I might have a different answer.
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I seldom have the opportunity to listen to radio long enough to make any kind of spending on it sound like a worthwhile investment. I did have a workmate who only go satellite because she was a hard core Howard Stern fan. Last year I had a radio installed that not only has CD but also has an auxillary miniature jack and a USB port for a memory stick. On an 18 hour drive from Dallas to Orlando and back I listened to the same 4 Gig drive the entire way and still had more to listen to. The aux port allows me to jack in my iPhone and listen to pod casts or use one of the apps for streaming radio to receive hometown news or a host of other cities.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
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Le Centriste wrote:
Is it worth it
Not for me, but I tend to refuse to pay for things that are available free. I either play podcasts, my mp3's or a "book on tape". One nice thing about podcasts is that most of the commercials are removed. A 40 Gig iPod will hold a lot of options & I automatically download new pod casts, so I always have a selection to match my mood.
Melting Away www.deals-house.com www.innovative--concepts.com
The selection of music, sports, etc. available on satellite radio is available no where for free.
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
What're the main benefits? Crystal clear high def signal? HD radio has the same for free. Entry cost is a one-time fee for the new radio. Starting level is around $100. If you were happy with the old radio stations, you'll get them in nice, noise-free HD without a monthly fee. No commercials? Cable TV ddin't have commercials either when it started. It was a selling point back then. Didn't stay that way. Satellite radio won't either. More channels to choose from? Any you're willing to spend $14/month to listen to while driving? Blanket coverage? How often do you drive out of range of your local stations? I went with the $100 HD car stereo (built-in HD tuner) when my old one died. Also had CD, MP3, USB and AV inputs (all the conveinent features I wanted). That was two years ago. Finnancially, I'm already ahead and just getting farther ahead by the month.
patbob
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Oh dear, I had the unfortunate pleasure of lisening to some of your US radio stations last year whilst driving around florida, cant remember the names as there were so many playing random rock i kept changing channels :-\ You should be able to get BBC Radio 1 from the UK on a time shift which plays a random mix of music with some great shows (depending on time of day), you probably wont understand most of the humor but hey it could be worth a listen ;)
Won't understand the humor? (Wait for it...) Any one see the recent "Family Guy"? The town made marijuana legal, and the news reported that ratings for Doctor Who have shot thru the roof! I'm honestly not sure if it was always there or just since the XM/Sirius merger, but BBC radio is available on XM now.
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The selection of music, sports, etc. available on satellite radio is available no where for free.
Ahh - the key phrase was "not for me". I can get what I want/need for free. The question your comment triggers is; If Sat radio is as compelling as you imply, why were they unable to attract enough customers to sustain two party free market competition business model? They were forced to consolidate the model into a monopoly and even that is not faring well financially. The conclusion I draw is the value offered by Sat radio is not high enough to attract the number of customers needed to pay the expenses. If it does not improve, it will go the way of the Sat phone concept. Both were great ideas, but not good business.
Melting Away www.deals-house.com www.innovative--concepts.com
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I agree here. My car also has a 6-disc CD changer in it and I tend to spend my time listing to them instead. I do occasionally dip into the comedy channel and also listen to the political channel a few times a week. I wish I could do a pay per channel option instead of one price for everything. Oh, and don't let them fool you... there are commercials. If you listen to talk stations, the comedy stations, or anything that is a rebroadcast of a syndicated show, you will have to bear with commercials. They only advertise 'commercial free MUSIC channels'. Does anyone here remember when cable TV had a cost with it and it was OK because you did not have to watch commercials? What happened there? I also don;t really like the fact that it can fade out when you are going between tall buildings, under overpasses, getting cash from an ATM machine that has a cover, etc. My crappy old AM radio used to do that also. I know it is satellite and thus line of sight, but... In the grad scheme of things, unless you are really living down to a very tight budget I like it, but if it costs me any more then I may consider dumping it just like I did for On-star.
I agree whole-heartedly with the wish for the ability to pay by the station instead of having to pay for all of them and only listening to 3 or 4. As to whether those 3 or 4 are worth it, sort of... I've had XM for almost 5 years now, the last time my subscription ran out I paid for 3 years so I could get the better rate. That should be running out soon, and my finances are tight so I probably won't renew. But I have enjoyed it these past several years. I've discovered many bands that I now listen to through some of the stations. So it was kind of worth it to me, but probably not for too much longer.
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I bought a new car last week and it comes with satellite radio, along with a 3-month trial for Sirius. I have been hearing about satellite radio for long, but never tried it. Is it worth it (it goes at 12.95 CAD a month here)?
I totally agree with the comments about the music channels... Not impressive at all. Personally, I like 70's and 80's music (some 90's), and these channels used to be really good. When I heard that XM (which I had had previously) was merging with Sirius (which I switched to a couple of years ago), I assumed the worst and e-mailed Sirius asking them to PLEASE not let the XM people wreck their programming. Well, sure enough, it appears the XM nitwits came in and took over... Now, instead of playing songs that were popular DURING the 70's and 80's, they just play horrible, bubble-gum crap that's FROM the 70's and 80's but popular (???) now... (Anyone with any sense of music at all will understand this distinction.) That said, I do like the talk radio lineup. It's great to get a decent variety of talk radio anytime, anywhere and with a decent signal. If you listen to a lot of talk, satellite may be worth it just for this. In sum, I just returned from a week long vacation to the Bay Area (from Lake Havasu City, AZ) without my satellite radio, and those long drives were rough without it. Trying to listen to talk on AM is torture by comparison... On the other hand, I personally was fine with the music on FM...
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My dad's had a sub for several years, but he's a long haul trucker which makes a regular radio a PITA even in areas that have decent station coverage. OTOH from what I understand his primary motivation originally was that he found NPR's talk to CONSERVATIVE. :wtf: I don't know if he's still using it exclusively for pravda or has branched out to the music channels as well.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
dan neely wrote:
he found NPR's talk to CONSERVATIVE.
:laugh: I understand what he means...NPR is often liberal, but explicitly so, so it often bends quite a bit to try to present a balanced view of both sides of an argument...one red-flag waving friend of mine finds this offensive, as in her opinion, (the other side) has given up any claim to credibility whatosever. Personally, I find NPR to be TRULY fair and balanced, unlike some networks which have laid claim to that description.