XM Club: Visitors Welcome!

[Galactus]

I listen to both kinds of music country and western. I don't know what that damn noise the kids listen to these days is.

[JACkory]

fuzznuts said:

The jazz station on XM is first-rate.

Which one? There's Real Jazz, Watercolors and Beyond Jazz...
They're all first rate, however, don't you think?
I oscillate between Real Jazz and Beyond Jazz as being favorites, depending upon my mood. Lately it's been lots of Beyond Jazz. Watercolors is a little too slick for my tastes, but I have found myself listening to it on occassion and I have burned a few CDs of it's content, just in case there comes a day when advertising shows up and I cancel my XM subscription.
I thought, when I first got my XM, that I would be listening to a lot of rock...after all they have at least 15-20 rock stations. But as it has turned out I hardly listen to any at all. New age, jazz, old country...those are stalwarts...but then, I do a lot of XM channel surfing and I guess I stop on my fair share of rock songs.
I'm surprised at how much I listen to the 70's on 7. It's not as if the music from that decade was all that wonderful (lots of it is dreck), but it offers a bizarre sense of enjoyment that I can't really explain.

Mantis...that statement, "I like both kinds of music: country AND western"...that's hilarious. Where have I heard that before?

[Galactus]

jackory said:

Mantis...that statement, "I like both kinds of music: country AND western"...that's hilarious. Where have I heard that before?

I had a teacher in high school that used to say it but it seems like it might have been in a movie or something too.

[Galactus]

It's from the Blues Brothers. I can't believe I forgot that.

"What kind of band do you have here?"
"We have both kinds, country AND western"

[JACkory]

If you haven't surfed through all the channels on XM in the last few days you may not know that there's a new channel over in the Comedy section...it's XM154 National Lampoon Comedy Radio.
Even though the NL franchise has been running on empty ever since National Lampoon's European Vacation I am still pleasantly surprised to find them on XM, bringing the total amount of comedy channels to 4. Another drawback is that they *bleep* out profanity in the stand-up routines they air. Not that I'm a big fan of profanity...I'm certainly not...but such language these days is part and parcel with stand-up comedy (just listen to XM Comedy)...and therefore most of the routines are so full of *bleeps* that you can barely keep up with the jokes.
But NLCR is more than stand-ups...they also play parody songs. I heard lounge versions of Guns 'n' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle" that was flat out hilarious.
National Lampoon used to be the funniest magazine on the stands and their record albums once contained some seriously funny stuff. I'm gonna cut 'em some slack and listen to it for awhile.

[JACkory]

Just wanted to pass along the link to XMFan Online to everyone who has XM. It's a pretty cool site and if you have the time and can spare the trouble you can make your XM experience a bit more inter-active using it.


www.xmfan.com/index.php


Oh, and btw, I think the National Lampoon Comedy Radio is doomed because there is TONS of repetition. Sometimes it's so bad I think they've looped an hour long program in cycles of 12-24 hours...all I know is that when I cruise XM I NEVER find repetition EXCEPT for the NLCR channel. And yeah, those bleeps do get annoying. I don't understand why they're necessary...it's not as if there isn't crude content that is far more offensive than the words "fuck" and "shit".

[JACkory]

Man, I have been looking at the Sirius website and I gotta tell ya, the channel line-up looks damned good. Of course, one can't judge the whole thing by what the channels LOOK like, one needs to listen, and I'd like nothing more than to have both Sirius AND XM in my home, but that just ain't-a gonna happen. Maybe it looks so good because I'm so familiar with XM's line-up. as I'm right at 2 years with XM.
Anyone out there with Sirius please feel free to tell me your experience with the network. I know it's hard to say anything negative about something you're paying for every month, but be realistic. I'm wanting to know about the playlists, how deep they are, how much repetition, etc. I don't give a fuck about Howard Stern.
Up until now I've been somewhat of an XM loyalist and I still stand by XM for the quality of it's programming. But I wouldn't mind giving Sirius a try, maybe swap with XM for a couple of months and see which one I come back to when it's all over.

[luke]

I tell ya, JAC, I don't like Sirius. The line-ups are great, but the playlists are weak, and you hear the same songs over and over. I drove to Denver and back with Sirius- that's 40 hours of listening time- and was not impressed. There were some good tunes, but, unlike XM, it was all stuff I was familiar with, and I didn't discover anything new.

We rearranged our living room, and I'll be damned if I can get the XM antenna to pick up. I'm prolly gonna have to go to Best Buy and get a better antenna. Bah.

[JACkory]

maybe this will help...it's a method of finding just the right spot for your XM antenna to get the best reception so you can join me in listening to non-stop metal on XM42:

Advanced display menu on the Delphi XM receivers.

This menu shows a more exact signal quality indicator. This menu shows the signals being received from the 2 satellites and any terrestrial repeaters in your area. This menu allows you to only look at things. You cannot change any settings in this menu so you cannot accidently change something that would mess up your receiver. Look and have fun.

WITH YOUR UNIT OFF:

1. Press 2 - 0 - 7 and then the "XM" button.
2. The unit will power on.
3. Wait about 5 seconds and press the "display" button 3 more times to get into the advanced menu screens.
4. This will bring up a series of advanced menu screens. Pressing the "display" button again will cycle the display through the 5 menu screens.
The number of screens will vary on the SkyFi, Roady, MyFi, and Commander.

1st Screen:

A display showing the signals being received from SAT1 and SAT2 and TERR, the terrestrial ground repeaters. A check mark in the box means you are getting a signal from that source. Only 1 source is needed to make the radio operational.

XM's satellites are affectionately called Rock and Roll. SAT1 is Roll which is in orbit over the east coast. SAT2 is Rock which is in orbit over the west coast. XM has more than 900 terrestrial repeaters. These terrestrial, or ground repeaters, are used to repeat the same signal that the satellites are sending. These repeaters are used in larger cities and make it possible to get a signal between tall buildings and in the lower levels of expressways etc.

BER % is the Bit Error Rate Percentage. This is a VERY GOOD indicator for aiming your home antenna. You want the LOWEST number.
A BER % of 0.0 is a perfect signal. As this number increases there are more errors. A signal of less than 5% is needed for the radio to play. Only 1 signal of the 3 is needed to make the receiver play.

To make antenna aiming adjustments, rotate or tilt the antenna slightly, REMOVE your hand from the antenna, and look at the numbers. It will take a few seconds for the SkyFi to react as the incoming signal is buffered in the radio.

I have found screen 1 with the BER percentages to be EXTREMELY useful in finding the best location and position of my indoor antenna for optimal reception. It sure beats the little three, or four bar display in the regular menu.

You now have a good way to see that your indoor antenna is positioned for the best reception.

It is also fun to look at the advanced menu BER% when you have your radio in the car while driving around. The car antenna is omnidirectional and cannot be aimmed, but it is neat to see what your XM is receiving.



Good luck.

[luke]

Thanks for that. No time now, but I'll fool with it after work tonight.

[JACkory]

I miss the Torch and the XM Music Lab. I wonder if they're planning on bringing those back out of the XM Online dungeon?

That said, I do listen to XM Online a little more often now that I've got a decent little stereo hooked up to my computer.

[Kensterberg]

I seem to remember hearing a few years ago that this would be the inevitable end to the Satellite Radio wars ...

XM, Sirius to Merge
money.cnn.com/2007/02/19/news/companies/xm_sirius/index.htm?cnn=yes

Thoughts, anyone?

[JACkory]

Yeah, I had heard rumours that XM & Sirius would merge but now it looks as if it is really going to happen, probably at the end of the year or early next.
I'm not too sure what I think about the whole thing. XM assures that we'll keep the music channels we're used to but then again the whole thing could go either way. For instance, I do NOT want to see subscription rates go up. I'm committed to a $20 per month top (XM is currently at 12.99 per month). I really don't know that Sirius has much that I just HAVE to have, but anything to get more music channels will be welcome.
We shall see.

[Kensterberg]

I've heard that the FCC might not be too quick to sign off on this merger, though. They torpedoed that proposed deal between DirecTV and Dish Network a year or two back, and there are a lot of similarities in their market situations. It does seem like a no-brainer to me that combining these two growing but still struggling companies would do a lot to shore up their bottom line, and they still have to compete with local (free) radio, which is incentive for them to keep their costs down.

I rather hope it goes through, but I can't say now that I'd be surprised if the Feds don't allow it.

[JACkory]

Can't help things when they're paying humungous amounts to Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey Martha Stewart, to name a few.