Excellent service for me, maybe not for others
Written: Apr 26 '05
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As I didn’t see any reviews on XM Satellite Radio, I do not know what their problems are. I like to focus on only on good points and bad points of the products I review, such that you can read multiple reviews, come up with your own force diagram, and choose accordingly.
In the world of satellite radio, there exists only Sirius and XM. XM is the larger one, so if one goes out of business, it will likely be Sirius. That said, Sirius offers the following:
1) Howard Stern
2) NFL Football.
I’m not a big fan of Howard Stern, myself. But there are those people out there who will get this service solely to listen to him.
As for the NFL (and all sports broadcasts, for that matter), there is a 30 second tape delay on all broadcasts, so if you are like me and like to listen to your local biased announcers go nuts every time a touchdown is thrown while watching TV, you will still have to use your local AM station. On the other hand if you live in Seattle and want to listen to the Dolphins, this may be the best you can do. It is also nice if you have some silly wide receiver from the Lions on your fantasy team and want to hear what he is doing. TV never covers the Lions.
Realize for the rest of sports the two services are slightly different, too. I think XM has a deal with Major League Baseball while Sirius has a deal with National Hockey League. Also in college football, Sirius has the SEC and XM has the ACC. If you are really into college football make sure you figure out who covers what league! I’m afraid since it is no longer football season that I can’t tell you the other leagues, but you can probably find it on their websites.
As for reception, I use my radio at work and at home. At home my antenna sits on my porch surrounded by a screen with a wood roof on top. The signal tends to fade a few times a day. I suspect if I got off my lazy duff and installed the antenna in a better place I would have no problems with reception. At work my antenna sits outside on a bush (no roof above and on the west side of the building) and I have never had a break in reception. I don’t know what XM’s reception is like as I don’t have it.
As for billing – the reason I went with Sirius was because at the time they offered a lifetime subscription for $500.00. I leapt all over that. Apparently it is not your own lifetime, however, it is your receiver’s lifetime – small print I read after the fact but still a good deal. After about 1 year of use (an average of 2 hours/day) the receiver seems fine. Hopefully the receiver will last longer then me and I’ll never have to pay a Sirius bill. I got one letter from Sirius when I first bought the system and haven’t heard from them since.
One weakness in both radio services is that they offer only limited international programming. There are two or three Spanish radio stations, but none in French, Chinese, Japanese – the sorts of things you get on a squawky shortwave. If you’re looking for programming in anything besides Spanish and English – get a shortwave. It don’t sound pretty, but at least it’s in your own language.
Also realize that when they say “commercial free”, only the music channels are commercial free. The comedy channels still have annoying commercials all the time. That disappointed me a bit.
For me the difference in the two services was and still is the lifetime service agreement. All of the complaints you read here (which seem to focus on service problems and reception) may be the same with XM, but I don’t know. If Sirius still has a lifetime service agreement and XM doesn’t, I’d definitely buy Sirius again. If not, however – I’m not sure there’s all that much difference in the two.
If you are into sports, find the service with the sports and teams you want. If you want Howard, you’ll have to go with Sirius. Otherwise, pick the cheapest and stick with that.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Sirius service
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tgregoryt
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Member: Thomas Gregory
Location: Winter Garden, FL
Reviews written: 249
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