Should I get Sirius Satellite Radio?
#31
Super Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
Posts: 17,310
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
My Ride: G30 M550i
Model Year: 2018
You might want to have your unit checked out. Maybe the antenna isn't properly connected?
I rarely have dropouts and in the places I do, my XM car drops out there as well...
I rarely have dropouts and in the places I do, my XM car drops out there as well...
#32
Contributors
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: FLA - East Coast, USA
Posts: 3,618
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: (USA) 645Ci, Silver Gray, Chateau, Cold Weather PKG, Premium Sound PKG, Sport PKG, Step, NAV [Std Equip in 645], HUD, Satellite (SIRIUS) Radio, Aux Input, Bluetooth enabled using iPhone 3GS w/ adapter cradle - Build date - 01/05, Baby delivered 2/24/05
Originally Posted by 300TTto545' date='Jun 24 2005, 05:07 PM
Just to chime in on the dropout issue. Sirius is borderline unacceptable in my area - Raleigh/Durham, NC. The trees are the problem but so are 1/3 overpasses. Also near the airport for a mile on the interstate there are dropouts. I will not renew even though I paid a lot for the module. It is no fun to have the music just completely drop out when you are listening at high volumes.
No question - my most regretted option. I've listened and liked it but as I think about it, I haven't listened once in the last 2 weeks because the dropouts are so annoying.
Does anyone else have this problem? I am considering going short on Sirius stock because I expect it to tank as people realize this annoying behavior.
No question - my most regretted option. I've listened and liked it but as I think about it, I haven't listened once in the last 2 weeks because the dropouts are so annoying.
Does anyone else have this problem? I am considering going short on Sirius stock because I expect it to tank as people realize this annoying behavior.
[snapback]142869[/snapback]
I have three systems with only the 6er an OEM. All perform so closely as to not able to tell the difference. Only at home under heavy cover of Oaks do I have drop outs.
#33
Contributors
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Carmel, IN
Posts: 24
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
That would definately be a frustrating experience. My wife and I both have Sirius in our cars and have been extremely happy with the service. We are located in Indianapolis. I never experience any drops because of trees and only experience very brief drops when passing under wide overpasses.
All that said, I did rent a car last year that had XM Satellite. I drive back and forth to Chicago quite frequently. The XM was dropping so often that I just turned the XM off. My Sirius is absolutely fine on the same route.
I wonder if the coverages differ by region between Sirius and XM?
All that said, I did rent a car last year that had XM Satellite. I drive back and forth to Chicago quite frequently. The XM was dropping so often that I just turned the XM off. My Sirius is absolutely fine on the same route.
I wonder if the coverages differ by region between Sirius and XM?
#34
Contributors
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: FLA - East Coast, USA
Posts: 3,618
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: (USA) 645Ci, Silver Gray, Chateau, Cold Weather PKG, Premium Sound PKG, Sport PKG, Step, NAV [Std Equip in 645], HUD, Satellite (SIRIUS) Radio, Aux Input, Bluetooth enabled using iPhone 3GS w/ adapter cradle - Build date - 01/05, Baby delivered 2/24/05
Originally Posted by adwebinc' date='Jun 24 2005, 10:38 PM
That would definately be a frustrating experience. ? My wife and I both have Sirius in our cars and have been extremely happy with the service.? We are located in Indianapolis.? I never experience any drops because of trees and only experience very brief drops when passing under wide overpasses.
All that said, I did rent a car last year that had XM Satellite.? I drive back and forth to Chicago quite frequently.? The XM was dropping so often that I just turned the XM off.? My Sirius is absolutely fine on the same route.
I wonder if the coverages differ by region between Sirius and XM?
All that said, I did rent a car last year that had XM Satellite.? I drive back and forth to Chicago quite frequently.? The XM was dropping so often that I just turned the XM off.? My Sirius is absolutely fine on the same route.
I wonder if the coverages differ by region between Sirius and XM?
[snapback]142923[/snapback]
Being both a both a Sat Radio and Sat TV (including foreign satellite) home user I see all kinds of situations. They tend to be similar, but the basic satellites are 120 degrees apart (TV & Radio) so there are times TV is good and radio is not during Florida thunderstorms and vice versa.
#35
Members
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: The USA!
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: Tit silver 545 with Steptronic and just about every option availabe to woman.
Yes, get Sirius, it's a great service. Just promise to try and listen to a few other things in addition to your mind numbing hip-hop. Try some real music, like classical instruments or 80's rock
With Love
Mistress BMW
With Love
Mistress BMW
#36
Contributors
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: LONG BEACH , CALIFORNIA
Posts: 968
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2005 530i JETBLACK/BLACK DAKOTA, COLD WEATHER PKG, PREMIUM PKG, ADAPTIVE XENON HEADLIGHTS, AUTO TRANSMISSION WITH 6 SPEED STEPTRONIC, BLUETOOTH SETUP,SAT SETUP AND WIFE AS CO-PILOT
interested in the setup.. can anyone post pics of the reciever... and for those in so cal.... how much is the unit and is it possible to transfer the reciever to another car??? i do have sat prep... whatever that means... any info would help thanks eric d
#37
Senior Members
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NC, USA
Posts: 278
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by ericdbs' date='Aug 16 2005, 10:24 PM
interested in the setup.. can anyone post pics of the reciever... and for those in so cal.... how much is the unit and is it possible to transfer? the reciever to another car??? i do have sat prep... whatever that means...? any info? would help thanks eric d
[snapback]160123[/snapback]
I almost never listen to my satellite anymore because of these issues.
#38
Contributors
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: FLA - East Coast, USA
Posts: 3,618
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: (USA) 645Ci, Silver Gray, Chateau, Cold Weather PKG, Premium Sound PKG, Sport PKG, Step, NAV [Std Equip in 645], HUD, Satellite (SIRIUS) Radio, Aux Input, Bluetooth enabled using iPhone 3GS w/ adapter cradle - Build date - 01/05, Baby delivered 2/24/05
Originally Posted by 300TTto545' date='Aug 17 2005, 07:08 AM
[quote name='ericdbs' date='Aug 16 2005, 10:24 PM']interested in the setup.. can anyone post pics of the reciever... and for those in so cal.... how much is the unit and is it possible to transfer? the reciever to another car??? i do have sat prep... whatever that means...? any info? would help thanks eric d
[snapback]160123[/snapback]
I almost never listen to my satellite anymore because of these issues.
[snapback]160183[/snapback]
[/quote]Have u ever compared with another user of Sirius in your area? Could be u have real problem with antenna/connection. Or r u in heavily wooded areas all the time. It is a LOS system afterall, just like Sat TV. That is unless ur in one of the large cities that use repeaters due to such tall buildings. Still LOS but from other angles, not the satellite. But they do need to improve the "skip" tolerance to tens of seconds so it could be useable going through short tunnels, large overpasses and light trees, I agree.
#39
Super Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
Posts: 17,310
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
My Ride: G30 M550i
Model Year: 2018
I agree with cobradav that they should increase the buffer to allow more tolerance to dropped signals. As long as they can receive data faster than the stream uses it up to play the audio, I don't know why they don't build in a significant size buffer to prevent the dropouts...
#40
Contributors
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,573
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2006 530i Sport
Silver Gray - Black Leather - Anthracite Maple
Manual Transmission
Premium Audio
Cold Weather Package
Rear sunshade
Sirius Radio
Autobahnd Roadblock (3M) film kit
Originally Posted by Rudy' date='Aug 17 2005, 09:07 AM
I agree with cobradav that they should increase the buffer to allow more tolerance to dropped signals.? As long as they can receive data faster than the stream uses it up to play the audio, I don't know why they don't build in a significant size buffer to prevent the dropouts...
[snapback]160226[/snapback]
Not sure how feasable it would be... I'd imagine there is some FEC built in already to the transmission to deal with bit errors and the like. I haven't really checked to see if XM or Sirius publish such information, but for comparison DBS uses just 23Mbps for actual audio and video out of the available 40Mbps. The remaining 17Mbps is used for Forward Error Correction (FEC).
They're already super bandwidth constrained - I'd imagine sending fast enough to gain a handful of seconds to deal with complete signal drop isn't in the budget.