Satellite Radio: XM or Sirius??

[Griff]

Title pretty much says it all. I'm looking for some opinions as to who I should go with. Anyone have any experience with either that they'd like to say a little about? Not sure if it matters but it will primarily be in a car system.

Thanks,
Griff

[finer recliner]

with all respect: go read today's newspaper. sirius and XM just announced a merger


popcorn smiley!:popcorn:

[Griff]

with all respect: go read today's newspaper. sirius and XM just announced a merger


popcorn smiley!:popcorn:
Huh. Guess I choose based on which deck I like the best then. Neato.

Thanks,
Griff

[Spr0k3t]

About time they did this. XM has been faltering quite a bit as of late. I'm just curious what stations are going to be destroyed on Sirius due to the merger.

I had XM for a year, went to Sirius, never looked back.

[Debaser]

Please bear in mind that last month the FCC also went on record amid rumors that they would never approve/allow a merger to happen because there are only 2 players involved...ala Dish Network and Directv.

The merger is unlikely and only announced to help eachothers' stock price - which I think is shameful!

That being said Sirius is the best - and will likely become the victor IMHO.

[prizrak]

I hear bad things about XM so I would suggest Sirius (tho I know nothing of it they might be worse)

[Zuph]

I did weeks of research before deciding whether to get XM or Sirius, and even after reading review after review after review, it was a coin-toss. Unless you absolutely HAVE to have Howard Stern or one of the Sports networks that either carries, pick whichever. It seems like Sirius seems to have a slightly large bias towards the various forms of Rock, but again, the difference is negligible. I bought an XM receiver because I could get it for cheaper than the Sirius receiver, and it was a great choice.

The merger may or may not be good news for satellite radio, though. The two are nearing their bandwidth capacity, and they use different, completely incompatible codecs to encode their streams. It will be interesting to see what happens, but you won't magically be able to receive 350 channels on you whatever receiver.

[PapaWiskas]

Sirius uses a trio of Loral FS1300 satellites in unique elliptical orbits in an effort to avoid the problems posed by geostationary satellites.

The orbits, shaped like figure eights, allow the satellites to appear higher in the sky than XM’s, cutting down on the potential for a listener to be out of range of a satellite signal -- and allowing Sirius to have a much smaller number of repeaters.

Sirius’ repeater network also avoids the need for specialized antennas that can track the company’s non-geostationary satellites as they move about the sky, Sirius feeds its repeaters using capacity on a geostationary satellite leased from a traditional satellite operator. Listeners can’t tell that the signals they receive via the repeaters do not travel over Sirius’ fleet of satellites.

The Sirius satellites each spend about 16 hours over the United States, then whip around the other side of the Earth and return eight hours later for another stint hovering over Sirius’ listening area, according to Ted Hessler, the company’s vice president of space segment and enterprise operations.

Two Sirius spacecraft cover the United States at any given time, Hessler said.

And if that isn't technical enough for you, HOWARD STERN RULES!

[Griff]

Sirius uses a trio of Loral FS1300 satellites in unique elliptical orbits in an effort to avoid the problems posed by geostationary satellites.

The orbits, shaped like figure eights, allow the satellites to appear higher in the sky than XM’s, cutting down on the potential for a listener to be out of range of a satellite signal -- and allowing Sirius to have a much smaller number of repeaters.

Sirius’ repeater network also avoids the need for specialized antennas that can track the company’s non-geostationary satellites as they move about the sky, Sirius feeds its repeaters using capacity on a geostationary satellite leased from a traditional satellite operator. Listeners can’t tell that the signals they receive via the repeaters do not travel over Sirius’ fleet of satellites.

The Sirius satellites each spend about 16 hours over the United States, then whip around the other side of the Earth and return eight hours later for another stint hovering over Sirius’ listening area, according to Ted Hessler, the company’s vice president of space segment and enterprise operations.

Two Sirius spacecraft cover the United States at any given time, Hessler said.

And if that isn't technical enough for you, HOWARD STERN RULES!
Wow. That's a little more of a technical response than I expected. It's very interesting though. The trend I suppose is one towards Sirius, though if I find an especially nice deal on an XM receiver I'll go with that. This will actually be for my fiancee, but I didn't want to just blindly pick stuff out. Thanks for all the discussing guys. And by all means, discuss on.

Griff

[Spr0k3t]

I did weeks of research before deciding whether to get XM or Sirius, and even after reading review after review after review, it was a coin-toss. Unless you absolutely HAVE to have Howard Stern or one of the Sports networks that either carries, pick whichever. It seems like Sirius seems to have a slightly large bias towards the various forms of Rock, but again, the difference is negligible.

There's a huge difference. If you are in any way, shape, or form an aficionado to the torrents of techno and all of the genre within then there's no contest. Sirius has three of the best channels I've ever listened to (inclusive of the internet radio as well). Techno is the only reason why I went with Satellite radio in the first place... around where I live I was lucky to get a 45 minute commercial laden show once every other week broadcast at 2AM Monday. If you like Rock, 80s, hair bands, whatever... flip a coin.

[slayerboy]

I have had Sirius for about a year and a half and I have to say I love it. I've kinda lost interest with Howard, but the music channels are amazing. It really depends on what music you like listening to. I listen to mainly metal, and there are almost too many stations that have a lot of artists in common, but sometimes veer away just enough to make it seem ok for there to be that many different stations. They have awesome country stations, amazing jazz stations, and almost all the major sports except MLB. I'm an NFL fan and a NASCAR wanna-be fan. I love it.

That said, I know there is a possibility of a merger between Sirius and XM. First, because of the different technologies each company uses, until they merge and they start making units once the merger happens, you really won't be able to get both Sirius and XM stations on the same units, so you need to still put as much thought in this as if there wasn't a merger, at least right now.

If the merger DOES go through, and the FCC DOES approve it, you might as well not even worry about signing up for these two services. Get an MP3 player that holds tons of music and you'll be better off if these two merger. For one thing, you're most likely going to see your subscription prices getting broken down into tiers and being able to pick what channels you want. So if you want to listen to Discovery Channel, but you didn't pick that as part of your tier, you'll be paying more. Not to mention you're going to have a huge monopoly of the market on your hands, I don't care what anyone says. It's a monopoly. Not to mention you'll also start seeing commercials on the music stations if this happens.

Honestly, if you really have to chose, go with Sirius if you love rock music or music in general and sports. If you don't care about that and just want something to waste time while you drive, then get XM. I'd wait and see what the FCC has to say first before I commit to any long term deals. I know Sirius offers a free trial on the net to listen to their service. I think XM does too.

[bionicyeti]

I have XM and love it. I've never listened to Sirius though. I'm not a Howard Stern fan and I'm not a big fan of listening to football on the radio. Baseball though, IMO is better on the radio so that is one reason I choose XM. Also XM has Art Bell, XM NPR with Bob Edwards and This American Life which I like. XM also has Ron and Fez, which again, IMO, is the best radio show ever.

Another thing, I have the Nexus 50 which allows me to listen to and record XM radio plus transfer my own MP3's to it. It works perfectly on my Ubuntu box via Amarok.

Another interesting thing you can do, at home I have a XP box that the wife uses. I have Napster (and extra 19 bucks a month for that subscription) on that. The Napster client not only allows me to listen to XM, but if I hear a song I like I just choose "download" and I got it. It's a great way to discover new music.

[aztec13]

what about Amarok ? coming from XP being all I knew, I found ubuntu last month and I am still in awe everytime I find something really cool in linux. Last night I discovered Amarok's radio choices are loaded to the hilt ! I heard something about streaming being in danger now with licensing taxes or whatever. Hopefully this good thing won't go anywhere, it's too cool.I used to love Howard Stern until they took it off the radio, I found a howard stern channel and even different local police and fire scans. How cool is that !

[ZenArcher01]

2 words...




Howard Stern!
:guitar:

[tachibamaboi]

well i dont have XM but i have sirius well i got this Sportster 5 (htp://www.sirius.com/freeradio) well it has a lot of features then Large blue display for easy viewing and use Universal docking capability: Add accessories to enjoy in your home, office or additional vehicles SIRIUS Replay™: Pause, rewind and replay up to 44 minutes of live radio FM transmitter or stereo audio output to connect to your vehicle's radio FM preset function: Easily access open FM frequencies for the best sound 30 Presets: Enjoy fast access to your favorite channels Rotary tuning knob: Surf channels on the fly S-Seek™ Alert: Don't miss your favorite artists, songs and sports One-Touch Jump™ to traffic, weather or your favorite channel Game Alert™: Track your favorite sports team and driver My GameZone™: lists all your favorite teams or drivers in one category Parental controls: Easily lock and unlock channels Complete vehicle kit included: radio, dock with windshield and vent mounts, remote, power adapter, magnetic antenna and FM extender antenna
and i was planning to buy this stilleto 2 (http://www.sirius.com/freeradio) well look like an ipod but have a great features too..
well im a HOWARD STERN FAN TOO HEHEHEHEHE
:guitar:

many thanks!
http://i7.tinypic.com/8avgao5.jpg
tachibamaboi