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XM Radio Hacked by Car Computer Hobbyists
An anonymous reader writes "There is an article over at News.com that talks about a small Florida company called Hybrid Mobile Solutions, that hacked XM Radio. They created a cable and software that makes the new XM Commander and XM Direct units work just like an XMPCR. They are in negotiations with TimeTrax to allow recording of XM Radio to MP3's. XMPCR was canned due to this late last month."
Their website does not have a whole lot of information though the XM product is their along with the $45 price and a shopping cart that allows you to order. What the site does not tell you is how this works with an existing XM account. For example, I have a subscription and a Roady I reciever. Would I be able to use the PC product and still use my Roady or does entering the subscription/radio code into the PC product "turn off" the Roady? XM charges an addtional $6.99 per month per device for up to four addtional receivers. Still, I'd pay the extra money to have the PC product. In my case it's not for recording as much as to be able to stream the music easily throughout my house. They also do not provide any software themselves right now though their website indicates they are working on developing a relationship with TimeTrax that I assume will allow them to bundle the software with their hardware. I think this would be a very popular offering. I wonder how long it will take before XM Radio or the RIAA gets a cease an desist order from a judge.
http://www.busyweather.com/
Seems they don't need any help from these guys. They have made their own device to replace the pulled XMPCR...
Check this out.
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
It's the personal computer receiver for XM satellite radio. XM used to sell it but discontinued it when the TimeTrax software came out that allowed the XMPCR user to record music from the XMPCR hardware. The RIAA was apparently behind that action.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I wouldn't call it hacking. More like reverse engineering the old service and building a new.
Call me a nitpicker, but the term hacker is growing too wide for my taste.
Underholdning.info
Here is the official definition of what it is, picture and all.
Basically, XM canned this because people were recording the stream and distributing it over the web. Since XM is a premium service, they didn't want their shows being disseminated over the web so they have cancelled this product and will most likely create something new that is less easy to record from, although I'm sure it won't be impossible for the 1337 hackers out there.
Well XM Radio hacking great, I bet it is gonna be a FCC violation like those people who hack Direct TV. Anyway good to see the counter culture at work. By the way this fancy smancy page is gonna die.
a $250 profit
the XMPCR is a little box that allows you to listen to XM radio on your pc/mac/sun (mac/sun supported by 3rd party apps). it's a little box that has an audio out which you simply plug in to your mic or line-in. it's controlled via usb (the unit internally has a usb->serial adapter which happens to be well supported by *bsd, linux, etc).
the protocol that goes over the usb cable (used to change channels, etc) was reverse engineered, and people started making all sorts of applications to play with them. timetrax is one that allows you to record the music, as well as automatically add the title, artist, etc info to the ripped song
vodka, straight up, thank you!
Not a dupe.
The other stories you linked to are regarding the xmpcr which is no longer available.
This story is about an interface hack that allows you to use XM radio units originally intended for use in a car on your computer.
It's not like they are trying to get the service for free. This is for subscribers who want to use the service differently. You can make MP3's off of broadcast radio too.
XMPCR: Time-shifting software for PC-based XM radio receiveers.
The new replacement: XmDirect Tuner Interface Cable. From the manufacturer:
With this cable and our software you will once again be able listen to XM satellite radio in your home or in your car using the included Hybrid eXeM interface along with the xmDirect...The SDK is available for developers that want to continue using xm radio within their applications.
The email address to request the SDK (by the way, serious points for offering AND publicizing the SDK) is sdk at hybrid-mobile dot com.
A cool picture: This picture shows the adapter plugged into what looks like the butt of a Dell laptop.
What is going to happen: Someone is going to get the crap sued out of them.
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(Flat screens and Desktop PCs too)
Someone recording sub-CD-quality music from a device they're required to have a subscription to use is a hack, yes, and may even be a good one if there are no native outputs... but it's not hacking the company.
Saying "XM Radio got hacked" brings to mind ideas like
1) someone's broken the subscription requirement,
2) someone's broken into XM servers,
3) someone's taken over XM's broadcast satellite system,
etc.
One terrific advantage of this hack will be combining XM and Sirius satellite radio receivers. Why choose between different channels in the same medium by buying one of two available boxes? It's like buying an AM or FM radio in the 1960s. Integrate two sets of HW into a device with one UI, as long as it's unified for user operations. Like with a single "bookmark" list of mixed channels; it will be simple enough to hide its inner complexity under the hood.
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make install -not war
I remember in the good old days, not only was it legal to hack the stuff you bought, you actually OWNED the stuff you bought. Heck, I'm old enough to remember back when all electronics came with schematics! I'd love to have schematics for the stuff I buy now.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
XMPCR is the XM PC Receiver for XM Satellite Radio. It is a USB device which connects to a Windows PC (with the included software, but there are Linux, Macintosh and Perl versions). It streams XM radio into your sound card and makes it extremely easy to record. It provide artist and title with each track so that you can even record songs and label them with the appropriate artist and title automatically.
:-) These were being offered for $50 dollars until about one month ago, when XM discontinued them. Since then, many folks have been trying to find a way to produce XMPCRs.
Of course, we are just speaking hypothetically.
For a little more info (and a photo), check out the XMFan Store. They are now very difficult (or expensive) to find. Personally, I don't know that I could be talked into selling mine!
But the slashdot thieves will argue that they have some sorta 'right' to steal it.
I suspect they will. It's called the MPAA v Betamax decision; it states you have a legal right to make recordings for the purpose of 'time shifting'.
Although the article said that this was a "pristine digitial copy", XMPCR never did that and this doesn't look like it does either. Sure, it makes digital copies, but only after decompression through their lossy proprietary codec, conversion to analog, and then lossy recompression.
The Real Hack would involve recording the original digital bit stream (unencrypted, of course) and recreating XM's codec so you can play it back exactly the same way a normal XM receiver would. Like the DeCSS cass, the DMCA would probably be brought against anyone who tried this.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I don't think you quite have a grasp on what "derivative" means. It's close to what you think, but not quite:
Definitions:
Obtained by derivation; derived; not radical, original, or fundamental; originating, deduced, or formed from something else; secondary; as, a derivative conveyance; a derivative word.
A derivative work, based for example on a XM radio broadcast, would be if you were to take the content of that broadcast and use it to make your own production or broadcast. Creating derivative works is similar to covering a previously recorded song, or sampling a song to use in your song (see Rap).
A MP3 != a derivative work.
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
This "solution" is pretty much just a cable, and this groups software which does the translation. If you want something that works with all the existing software out there now, what you really want is the DirectPCR brought to you by Ryan and the XMFan people. The DirectPCR is more expensive, because it's actually got a microprocessor that reverse translates the standard "A5 5A" serial commands into XM Direct format (which is then dutifully translated back by the XM Direct).
The DirectPCR is the best solution if you really want something with the power and cool factor of the now-defunct XMPCR (no I don't have any business relationship, I'm just an XMFan regular and have been following developments). As for "hack factor" at least three separate people or groups have separately done the XMDirect protocol translation. If you have the right equipment, it's probably about an afternoon's work - just hook up two serial monitors side by side and dump away. So there isn't that much hack cred to speak of in this. Furthermore, if you're comfortable with a soldering iron, you can trivially build an XMPCR-compatible unit out of a SkyFi with a DB9 header, a MAX232, and an optical adapter board.
Are you telling me that all the people who record shows either on the VCR, TIVO, or their computer to watch at a different time are stealing?
:-)
Only if you skip past the commercials
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
> You can go to bed and wake up the next morning with several hundred mp3s on your machine all labeled correctly and ready for distribution.
You just assume that everyone who uses TimeTrax does so for the purpose of distributing music.
Let me ask you .. what is the point of this? Do you really think people get a CD and go, "ooh, I can rip all of these songs and UPLOAD them to thousands and thousands of people I don't even know! W00T!" No. The point of TimeTrax was so people can listen to what they want whenever they want on whatever they want .. PC, Linux box, MP3 player, sunglasses, what the hell ever. They're paying for the music by subscribing to XM .. by using TimeTrax it gives them more control over the music than the RIAA wants them to have, so ipso facto it must be a "crime"?
The electronics industry are more and more doing their damnest to limit and restrain the freedom of their customers to use their products however they want. By assuming every customer might actually use their brain and think of a new way to apply the product, they work on the assumption therefore that each customer is a potential criminal.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.