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XM to Launch Satellite Radio Handheld?
g00set writes "Reuters is reporting 'XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc next week is expected to unveil a "wearable" device, marking the satellite radio industry leader's latest effort to woo audiences to the nascent format, analysts said.' In adddition, 'A radio industry executive said the device was believed to be a satellite-radio receiver with headphones that also had a hard drive enabling users to download XM content.'" There have been other rumors of this as well.
http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3164
This does not look dorky, there really doesn't appear to be room for a harddrive (ignorant industry exec!), the antenna is integrated in the headphones, and it's actually just an accessory for the Roady2 XM receiver.
Sirius already has a handheld unit, the XACT receiver.
How small?
This small.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Have you actually tried satellite radio?
I haven't but I don't think that XM necessarily has the same problems that AM has because they are on different bands, and the property of RF vary depending on its wavelength. For many urban areas, XM also has terrestrial repeater antennas to minimize the risk of drop-outs.
Besides, for intermitten't problems, the signal is pre-buffered a bit with plenty of error correction to boot.
I'd be vaguely interested in it if I can dock this little thing to my car, dock it to my HT sound system, or to my computer sound system, and use external antennas that connect through the dock.
Satellite radio subscriptions are charged per-reciever, and for one person, it isn't worth owning multiple recievers.
Actually, after a few minutes of googling, I stand corrected. XM uses AAC with SBR at 64kbps. The "SBR" part is what makes it "mp3pro-like".
This is not entirely incorrect.
I have logged 40000 miles in my car with XM and have noticed the following:
Bridges: no problem
Parking deks: no problem
Tunnels: problem, but how long do you spend in tunnels
As far as indoors:
Home, Brick(portable device): no problem
Office: Can be iffy if mobile and dead spots can be encountered. But where it works I would not want to be without it.
The service is fantastic I would recommend it to anyone. Small price to pay to get real music choice and almost no commercial interruption.
nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
You do know this is a one way service and the bandwidth issue comes from the adding of channels, not the adding of subscribers. Don't you?
They already do
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
No, none, zip, zilch commercials, just music (at least with Sirus, they're getting there with XM). And your favorite station is the same station no-matter where you are in the country.
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
the total bandwidth for the xm spectrum is 4.8 MB/s.
given that, the average bitrate per channel is 48kb/s. of course, talk and news channels will be given less bandwidth and music channels given more. xm HAS been experimenting with different codecs/bitrates and has the capability to change them on the fly.
perhaps the reduction in quality that you are hearing is simply a channel that has had its bitrate lowered so that another could be raised.