Satellite and HD radio - wow!

T

TJ Cornish

Graduate
Jan 13, 2011
1,263
1
0
St. Paul, MN
I got a new car this month and it came with satellite radio, and HD broadcast radio. Wow - I'm speechless. Satellite radio sounds like a 24kb stream, and HD radio maybe a 48kb stream. How do they sell this crap? HD radio is significantly worse than regular broadcast radio - the compression artifacts drive me crazy, and satellite radio sounds like the speaker is playing through a fan.

I know audio quality isn't particularly appreciated these days, but this is ridiculous.
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

Agreed. One of my rental cars had XM and I chose the classical station. To call the audio disappointing would be like calling the Grand Canyon a trench. Tried a jazz station, just as bad.

HD should stand for "high density" because it sure ain't high definition.
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

In my experience, XM sounds worse than Sirius but not by much. I can't handle music on XM but spend most of my time on POTUS and the NPR feeds. I like not driving out of the program I'm listening to every 45 minutes or so. I have a feeling the compression was built into older radios and prevents them from improving the algorithm because, clearly, it doesn't have to sound as bad as it does.
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

mark anderson said:
In my experience, XM sounds worse than Sirius but not by much. I can't handle music on XM but spend most of my time on POTUS and the NPR feeds. I like not driving out of the program I'm listening to every 45 minutes or so. I have a feeling the compression was built into older radios and prevents them from improving the algorithm because, clearly, it doesn't have to sound as bad as it does.
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The only thing worse than listening to satellite radio is listening to the POTUS on satellite radio, and I say that no matter who the POTUS is as any given point. :)

I have heard that the issue is more satellite bandwidth related than receiver capability - they want to have 5 million channels, but have to cram that all through a finite bandwidth through the satellite. In any case it sucks, and I won't be buying a subscription once my trial runs out.
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

And add to this mp3's and such, and it is easy to see why so many people settle for crappy audio and all the cheap sound systems. It is "normal".

Don Davis was never more correct.
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

It wasn’t always so bad. 6 or 7 years ago (?) I tried XM, truck I bought came with it so what the hell. Was pretty happy with it at first. But then they started getting away from the mostly “commercial free” and sort of* “hi-fi” angles. More commercials – that I was paying to hear – and ever decreasing SQ. Seems like I recall there was a specific event – a black out for a few days or a week maybe? Something about a satellite failing? After they came back on line the sound really sucked – and only got worse. Didn't XM and Sirius merge or something?

Anyways the icing on the cake was when I tried to cancel my auto renewing subscription. Literally several weeks of customer service hell! Everything was supposed to be done online – except my log in was somehow corrupted. Email to customer service and they tell me I have to log in to get a new password. Can’t log in without a password! Email customer service to cancel and they refuse to help and send me to phone service. Phone service just puts me on hold indefinately each time I call. This goes on for days until I get lucky and get a real person on the phone and DEMAND that they cancel my subscription. They did everything they could to not let me cancel – transfer – hold – call this new number - and get put on foreverhold again. UNREAL. Finally, somehow I get to “the guy” that can help me who apologizes profusely for my bad experience and offers me a free year to not cancel! Seriously? No effing way I say – good riddance XM!
 
Re: Satellite and HD radio - wow!

TJ Cornish said:
The only thing worse than listening to satellite radio is listening to the POTUS on satellite radio, and I say that no matter who the POTUS is as any given point. :)
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I really like the Pete Dominic show and how it keeps me entertained and informed over the many long miles between shows. If we didn't wind up out of 3g so often I'd probably just use my phone. More bandwidth, fewer channels, better compression schemes, lower price and they might survive but I wouldn't count on it. As the holes in the 3g are filled XM's audience will move there. And then we'll find there isn't enough bandwidth and too many channels. :blush:
 
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