"CDLITE"

[Kb Cool]

Do the sat radio providers have the same bandwidth limitations as the TV providers have. Just wondering if they do as my new truck w/ xm built in doesn't even come close to cd quality let alone FM quality. Or is it just my radio. My truck came with a 350 watt rockford fosgate that the CD's sound great with.

 

[xzi]

XM and SIRIUS have much worse bandwidth restrictions as they only have 12MHz of spectrum to work with, and both of them broadcast the same signal three times (two offset by 4 seconds and 1 for terrestrial repeaters) in that spectrum so 4MHz "usable" before error correction, etc.

XM and SIRIUS originally launched expecting to get about 80-100 channels and since then XM has 170 and SIRIUS has 130 (their CODEC, PAC4 is less efficent than XM's aacPlus) so they are squeezing it pretty good!

 

[Kb Cool]

XM and SIRIUS have much worse bandwidth restrictions as they only have 12MHz of spectrum to work with, and both of them broadcast the same signal three times (two offset by 4 seconds and 1 for terrestrial repeaters) in that spectrum so 4MHz "usable" before error correction, etc.

XM and SIRIUS originally launched expecting to get about 80-100 channels and since then XM has 170 and SIRIUS has 130 (their CODEC, PAC4 is less efficent than XM's aacPlus) so they are squeezing it pretty good!

Thanks for the explanation. So there basically doing the "quanity" over "quality" thing? Thats too bad because i might have subcribed after my 3 month free trial has ended. But, I think i'll pass because of the way it sounds.

 

[xzi]

Thanks for the explanation. So there basically doing the "quanity" over "quality" thing? Thats too bad because i might have subcribed after my 3 month free trial has ended. But, I think i'll pass because of the way it sounds.

They are doing quanity over sound quality, yes. They are NOT doing quantity over quality compared to FM radio and easily worth the money for some, though.

Different audiences, really, they aren't really designed to replace your iPod, but compliment them with with live news, talk sports and music discovery. This is most evident with devices like the Inno and Stilletto which do MP3 and Sat Radio side by side on the same portable device.

 

[Kb Cool]

I just think it would be much better if they upped the quality. After checking around the web. I see reports of it being anywhere in the 40kbps to 80 kbps range. I myself wouldn't dare rip a CD at those ridiculously low rates. 192 Kbps is what i use.

 

[xzi]

I just think it would be much better if they upped the quality. After checking around the web. I see reports of it being anywhere in the 40kbps to 80 kbps range. I myself wouldn't dare rip a CD at those ridiculously low rates. 192 Kbps is what i use.

It's 384kbps MPEG-2 Audio on DIRECTV, maybe just do that

 

[Kb Cool]

It's 384kbps MPEG-2 Audio on DIRECTV, maybe just do that

Maybe XM will lower the price 50% since your getting less than half of the music.

 

[DWS44]

Another piece of this equation is the possible quality (or lack thereof) of your OEM tuner. You dont mention what vehicle you have. I know when I got my Corvette, the XM sounded terrible. I had heard XM in other vehicles that sounded MUCH better. Since I wasnt a big fan of XM anyways, I got the SIR-GM1 Sirius Tuner (converts factory XM to Sirius in many GM vehicles) and the improvement in sound quality was absolutely shocking! In my case, I really believe it was a poor OEM tuner moreso that the actual service causing the poor sound.