Your thoughts on Satellite radio?

Its not the initial investment that I find bothersome. It is the monthly subscription. Bad enough that I pay for CTV and DSL. But the real kicker is that I like to play with my FM tuners and with a decent antenna in the attic I am able to pick up several stations that are worthy of listening to. Especially WRTI, 90.1 out of Temple University.
 
Yamaha B-2 said:
Its not the initial investment that I find bothersome. It is the monthly subscription. Bad enough that I pay for CTV and DSL. But the real kicker is that I like to play with my FM tuners and with a decent antenna in the attic I am able to pick up several stations that are worthy of listening to. Especially WRTI, 90.1 out of Temple University.
I never said that it was for everyone. I listen to it mainly at work and on trips. The FM stations around here have too many commercials and DJ chatter. However, I almost never listen to XM or the radio at home. I have my own collection to listen to.

My post was making the point that saying they may go out of business is not a very good argument given the initial cost that is at risk. I never meant to say that anyone should invest in XM. However, I linked the article because companies do not usually "rally" if they are in danger of shutting their doors. The stock price has fallen because XM released new lower subscriber projections for year-end. That has no bearing at all on my enjoyment of their service and in no way indicates that they are going out of business. However, if they closed their doors tomorrow, I would probably just move over to Sirius.
 
I've had XM for about 2 years now, and I will NEVER be without it again. It's way too nice to get the BBC and ESPN radio crystal clear all over the country. I don't even listen to the music stations much and it's still worth the $12 a month, easily.
 
My girlfriend has Sirius and I love it. It's conveyed thru a built-in bose system, but since her place has three-story tall cathedral ceilings, the sound isn't bad at all. The biggest bonus is we can find stations we can listen to together. Unlike when we are in the car with her daughters and they are playing showtunes and a capella stuff and disney soundtracks. I can force myself to survive one CD, sometimes. Then I turn on a radio station I can stand. My guess is satellite won't measure up to audiophile standards, ever, but it's still better than scratchy moving signals, AM or FM. Then again, some of you probably wouldn't want to listen to my stereo gear either, regardless of the source. I don't blame you for being spoiled. ( 0 ;

As for AM, I do news for an AM station. We changed over from oldies to "adult contemporary", which translates to "the worst songs ever by artists who have done some respectable music" or "easy listening music for middle aged housewives." I don't know how anyone seriously listens to it, and that's a shame. Here's where AM already is: Mexican radio (spanish polka music), Save Your Soul with Jesus Radio, and Talk Radio. That's all, folks. Other than the college and NPR stations, I can't do much with broadcast FM, either. If you are in a good market, you might be able to do the station swim and avoid the commercials.
 
uofmtiger said:
[snip]I linked the article because companies do not usually "rally" if they are in danger of shutting their doors.[snip]
You are a bleeding tadpole swimming with a large school of piranha.

Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling got Enron stock to rally in the last few days before everything came crashing down. Many of their own employees, who should have know better to invest in a single stock, shifted even more of their 401k stock into Enron in the last few weeks :withstpd:

Most brokers will tell you the best stocks are those the marketplace undervalues and are either stable or dropping slightly in price, not going up.

I wish I had you as a client: Can you spell "CHURN?" :cool:
 
reyneman said:
I've found a way to make my XM sound similar to FM!

I placed the antenna inside the house in a place where it just gets enough signal to play. Then I get the intemittant dropouts just like real radio!

Once I figure out how to get 13 minutes of commercials (20 during peak drive times) every half hour, it will be just like my local FM broadcast :yes:

Currently listening to XM74 'Bluesville', Diunna Greenleaf 'Hell Hound'.

Don't think I'd hear this on any of the local FM stations.

Just tweaking a bit here... :rofl:

Pretty much says it all, as far as I'm concerned. How can you seriously compare satellite radio content to terrestrial radio?!? :smoke:
 
Vinyl Rules - We know that the horrible HD broadcast is 98kb, where redbook CD is 1,440kb. Even MP3 is better than HD radio, at 128kb. Not much of a comparison in info/fidelity there. We also know that the feed to and from the satellite is digital. Any idea what bit-rate it uses?

Have no argument with those who like satellite for its convenience. But for fidelity there is no replacement of high-quality FM on a good tuner with a decent antenna. As I am listening to at the moment.
 
Yamaha B-2 said:
Vinyl Rules - We know that the horrible HD broadcast is 98kb, where redbook CD is 1,440kb. Even MP3 is better than HD radio, at 128kb. Not much of a comparison in info/fidelity there. We also know that the feed to and from the satellite is digital. Any idea what bit-rate it uses?

Have no argument with those who like satellite for its convenience. But for fidelity there is no replacement of high-quality FM on a good tuner with a decent antenna. As I am listening to at the moment.
Glenn,

For a peek at what NPR uses in their studios, click on: http://www.npr.org/studios/studios.html It is interesting to note that many of their studios still have ISDN lines in place, and I believe I know why: The ISDN data rate, with a speed of only 112Kbps (the other 16Kbps is required for clocking and does not carry any signal) is a guaranteed speed and will never vary in speed like a DSL line can vary - It is a direct delivery from the transmitter of the signal to the receiver of the signal and does not utilize indeterminate routing like the TCP/IP protocol used by the Internet and DSL. With indeterminate routing, you sometimes get indeterminate delivery (like when the Windows Media File you are viewing freezes for a second or two). This kind of delay is not acceptable to the broadcast world, so they keep their ISDN lines in place.

ISDN is more than adequate for voice transmissions and in the advertising world, it is quite common for the music that is used in TV and Radio commercials to be delivered to the production studio via an ISDN line. And ISDN lines are cheap compared to dedicated T-1 lines - In most places, the charge for an ISDN line is well under $100/month while a T-1 can cost as much as $2,000/month or more.

For some heavy technical reading on satellite broadcast stuff, click on: http://tinyurl.com/y3eocz

To quote from this site, "16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) digital satellite broadcast equipment and satellite communications (SATCOM) systems that double the spectral efficiency of currently operational satellite links is described. It is shown that with this field-proven system, data transmission at a rate of 90 Mb/s (two multiplexed DS-3 signals) is feasible in a transmission bandwidth of 30 MHz. Extensive operational satellite tests performed over the T-303 satellite of AT&T demonstrated a BER <10-10 and no errors for several days. The practical bandwidth efficiency of these SATCOM systems is 3 b/s/Hz, i.e. double the currently used 1.5 b/s/Hz QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keyed) systems. The doubling of the spectral efficiency is attained with advance modem (modulation-demodulation), adaptive equalization robust synchronization, high-power amplifier (HPA) linearization (predistortion), and low redundancy powerful forward-error-correction (FEC) subsystems. The systems may make possible the conversion of currently operational analog FM links into bandwidth efficient digital systems. In one 30 MHz satellite transponder three to four digitized high quality TV signals could be broadcast, or two standard rate DS-3 signals time-division multiplexed with a DS-1 rate signal and additional auxiliary data streams" And this was published 17 years ago, in 1989.

And for a look at a commercial audio CODEC used by some FM stations, click on: http://tinyurl.com/ympzas It is interesting that the stereo data stream is quoted as being 768Kbps. This does not exactly answer your question, but a radio station engineer would have to provide an exact answer. I can only assume that an FM station broadcasting a good digital satellite feed would be using something similar to this piece of equipment and running it at a high data rate. :cool:
 
Do you mind that I copy and paste over at the TIC forum and ask Dave O. to comment? He is really on top of the broadcast world and was nice for him to not only show up, but stay on the forum after all the heat he took in the his first week of posts concerning HD radio. A very knowledgeable and well-spoken engineer, is Dave. Think he has learned a good bit, as well.
 
Yamaha B-2 said:
Do you mind that I copy and paste over at the TIC forum and ask Dave O. to comment? He is really on top of the broadcast world and was nice for him to not only show up, but stay on the forum after all the heat he took in the his first week of posts concerning HD radio. A very knowledgeable and well-spoken engineer, is Dave. Think he has learned a good bit, as well.
Glenn, I'm one step ahead of you. :thmbsp:

Check TIC. :cool:
 
Vinyl Rules! said:
You are a bleeding tadpole swimming with a large school of piranha.

Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling got Enron stock to rally in the last few days before everything came crashing down. Many of their own employees, who should have know better to invest in a single stock, shifted even more of their 401k stock into Enron in the last few weeks :withstpd:

Most brokers will tell you the best stocks are those the marketplace undervalues and are either stable or dropping slightly in price, not going up.

I wish I had you as a client: Can you spell "CHURN?" :cool:
I said " because companies do not usually "rally" if they are in danger of shutting their doors."
Do you have some statistics that make the point that rallying stocks are usually a sign of a company going out of business? I am not looking for anecdotal evidence of an outlier that shows one or two examples. I am looking for your proof that stocks that rally usually result in a closed business. I think you will find that my statement was correct.

For your info, XM is still alive and well.. Therefore it DID NOT shut its doors following the rally. Actually the price is more now than it was when I posted about the rally. So I will stick by my comments that worrying about it going under is an irrational fear when investing in their relatively inexpensive receivers.

I am not advocating XM stock purchase. Just making the point that worrying about spending $50 for a receiver in fear that they are going out of business is being over-cautious.
 
Most brokers will tell you the best stocks are those the marketplace undervalues and are either stable or dropping slightly in price, not going up
You are missing the entire context of the first post regarding their rally. I was answering a post that a member used the possiblility that they would go out of business as a reason not to buy the service...not the stock. I was not advocating that anyone should buy the stock. Although, if they had, they would have made money if the sold today because the price is higher than it was during the rally. If you misunderstood my remarks and invested in their stock, sell on Monday and send me your profits. :thmbsp:

There are many factors that go into deciding on which stock to buy. Looking at the current price of the investment (whether it is dropping or rising) as the only factor in a decision to buy is a dangerous move. But then again, that has nothing to do with my intial post about that rally and how XM going out of business is not something to worry about when investing in the service and the inexpensive equipment...
 
Carmine...did you say something about hearing "B" sides on Sat Radio???? Aha, ha, ha ha, ha. Oh boy!!!!. Don't get me wrong, I'm not laughing' at you. I think it's an excellent idea, but do you know what you're askin'? You're askin' Program and Music directors to get off their duffs and realize radio is still about "the music". Tell ya' a little story. Many years ago in South Fla a particular FM Station was goin' under. They tried every format imaginable. Clunk!!! Deal was......over, and over again they played the same music people heard all the time. Same thing about Sat Radio. It doesn't take a whole lot to be creative, but most music directors like playin' it safe. They will only play the music that's on the charts and they will do it for how many ever weeks it stays on the charts. Shame!!! That is one of the reasons Terrestrial FM is so damned borin'. It's like one Country Indiana Farmer said yrs ago. He said......If you always do, what you always did, you always git what you always got.

So much for tunes of refreshing and creativity.
 
I got an XM receiver a while back. I had it for about a month before I sold it. The sound quality was horrible, and reception was crap too. At least with analog, when the signal gets weak, you get some noise, but it's still listenable. When the signal gets weak with digital, you lose data and the sound gets really weird. XM is plagued with weird digital artifacts in the sound, and the bandwidth sounds about like a 64K mp3 file at best. FM slays digital radio.

What really sucks is this; I bought 3 month of service online via credit card. Now, one would assume if you buy 3 months of service, you get 3 months and that's it. In 3 months you must buy more service. Not with XM. I don't manage the bills in my household, so I came to find out after a year these scammers were billiing me every 3 months for a radio I didn't own!! They would not refund my money!! I absolutely hate XM and would not recommend it to my worst enemy.
 
Being in sales ,I spend a lot of time in my car.I wouldn't dream of ever owning a car without sirius in it with a good system.My little 07 Dodge Caliber with the 9 speaker Boston Accoustic system kicks ass good enough for me.
 
Being in sales ,I spend a lot of time in my car.I wouldn't dream of ever owning a car without sirius in it with a good system.My little 07 Dodge Caliber with the 9 speaker Boston Accoustic system kicks ass good enough for me.

I did rent a Caliber in May of this year. I admit the sound system is quite good.

For the time that I had the Caliber, I did listen to the variety of XM. I was somewhat impressed at the amount of variety offered, and the lack of dropouts signal-wise was impressive as well, but the sound quality was somewht lacking. To me, and others have expressed this already, it sounded like a good MP3 rip at about 112 kb/sec. Not what I'd call Hi-fidelity, but listenable.

I don't have a XM receiver currently, and I don't see myself purchasing one in the near future, simply because I have 2500 songs on my iPod, with another 3000+ at my disposal, and the sound quality is far superior to XM. Currently I could set my iPod to shuffle and I won't hear a repeat for 8 days, providing a good power supply was operating.

It's neat, but not a priority in my current life.
 
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