Why can’t you tell people to swap their radios? GM told me I had to swap my onstar because the cell network they used was no longer supported.
Comcast tells me I have to upgrade my modem. The water company is coming Monday to upgrade my water meter. > On Dec 27, 2018, at 10:11, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > My wife and son had cars that came with 6 months free, but I don’t think they > used it or paid to keep it, and I’ve never listened to it. But I have always > heard that the quality was poor and the reason to get it was no commercials, > nationwide coverage, and channels dedicated to one kind of music or talk. > Personally I like to get out of my bubble sometimes for the chance to hear a > song or artist or genre I never heard of. Still difficult since almost all > FM stations are owned by big corporations and rotate the same limited list of > songs and would never have an actual DJ who would pull out some obscure song > and play it just because he felt like it. (No Dr. Johnny Fevers or Venus > Flytraps anymore.) > > Bottom line though, through the years I have always heard people say both > Sirius and XM quality was sub FM. > > If this article is correct and the average bitrate is 32 kbps, that would be > voice quality, not music quality, MP3 would be 160 or 320 kbps. > > http://www.carstereochick.com/2015/04/25/why-siriusxm-sucks-what-to-know-before-you-buy-subscribe/ > > I saw another article that said the bitrate can vary by channel, but that the > more channels they broadcast over the satellites, the less bandwidth they can > devote to each channel, and they feel the key to increasing revenue is more > channels, not better sound quality. I also saw that they use some kind of > perceptual or neural encoding to get the bitrate down, and that leads to > artifacts and a “swirly” sound, whatever that means. > > FWIW, this article claims that you can use your subscription to stream over > the Internet, if you’re willing to take the hit on your mobile data plan, and > the quality will be better. > > https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/make-your-cars-satellite-radio-sound-better/ > > Both articles also say that sat radio will sound better in some cars because > the hardware has post-processing after the tuner to recreate some of the > sound quality that was lost in encoding. I guess that’s kind of like the TV > sets that take 1080p 30fps input and fill in the missing information to > drive a 2160p 60fps panel. Or colorizing a B&W movie. > > The problem seems to be mostly that sat radio has a whole legacy base of > installed satellites and car radios that are not upgradable via firmware, so > while audio encoding has improved, the whole sat radio industry is locked > into old technology because you can’t tell all those people their car radios > have to be replaced, even if you were able to launch new satellites or > reprogram the existing ones. > > > From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Chuck McCown > Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2018 8:34 AM > To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT: XM Radio > > Depends on the channel. Truckers seem to like it. Me, I am too cheap. FM is > free and NPR doesn’t have too many commercial breaks. I have three presets: > NPR, classic rock, contemporary c&w > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 27, 2018, at 7:11 AM, Adair Winter <[email protected]> wrote: > > because no commercials and the same stations everywhere it pretty cool. > > > On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 8:00 AM Matt Hoppes > <[email protected]> wrote: > We just got a new vehicle at work that includes XM radio for some period of > time for free. > > Anyone else who’s had experience with XM: does it always sound like it’s > compressed, digital and low fidelity? Why would anyone pay a subscription > for this when I get high-fidelity FM free? > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > -- > Adair Winter > VP, Network Operations / Co-Owner > Amarillo Wireless | 806.316.5071 > C: 806.231.7180 > http://www.amarillowireless.net > <image001.jpg> > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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