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.

here are some pictures!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

*yawn*

[Misch]

Sirius already has a handheld unit [bestbuy.com], the XACT receiver.

How small?
This small [siriusbackstage.com].

Re:Wearable != handheld.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

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.

Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[SirDaShadow]

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".

Re:Wearable != handheld.

[erick99]

They give you a very long antenna cable with the home kit that would allow most folks to set the antenna on a window ledge and still have the radio on a table or night stand.

Re:Wearable != handheld.

[aelbric]

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.

Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[DAldredge]

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?

Re:Sirius...

[skydude_20]

They already do [bestbuy.com]

Re:common subscription

[Iphtashu Fitz]

From what I understand both XM & Sirius license individual radios. This means a subscription lets you listen to their service on one radio. I think both companies offer discounts for additional recivers, but you're still paying for each one you listen to. This is why some of the manufacturers of radios make them portable & include docking stations for cars, stereos, etc. You buy one radio & take it wherever you want - in the car, the office, home, etc.

Re:here are some pictures!!!

[erick99]

That is a picture of the Roady, mated with some sort of dock.

Re:Why?

[skydude_20]

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.

Re:*yawn*

[Misch]

There's no reason to be such an ass when pointing out an error.

There is a handheld power unit that goes with it.

It looks something like this [flyingjestore.com].

And if I get modded to -1, you're going the same way, as it is not a "farking car module". Troll.

Sub$cription co$t$

[Secrity]

XM and Sirius both charge per receiver:

XM
first receiver: $10 / month
each additional receiver: $7 (2nd - 5th receiver)

Sirius
first receiver: $13 / month
each additional receiver: $7 (2nd - 4th receiver)

Both have discounted multiyear subscriptions.

Sirius has a product lifetime subscription available for about $500.

Hmmm, TiVo's product lifetime subscription is only $300.

Re:Wearable != handheld.

[rob13572468]

actually, that is not true: both xm radio and sirius use additional terrestrial repeaters to solve the problem of signal loss inside buildings: xm has several hundred repeater nationwide while sirius has significantly less; this is primarily due to the fact that sirius uses an 3 sat elliptical constillation that allows receivers much more coverage due to the higher inclination of the sat in respect to the listner compared to xm's two geostationary sats. either way, the terrestrial repeaters solve the problem with the exception of some signal loss when the antenna is deep inside a building where the 2330 mhz signals simply do not propogate well. the new units will be very small; this is due to a new chipset that shrinks down the needed board size by about half of what was needed by the old one (which was produced by st-thompson and needed 3 chips beside the main processor). also the antenna has been minaturized to about the size of a small gps antenna; about 1" x 1" x 1/3". but the most important advance is that the new chipset and antenna uses drastically less power than the st chips and that was the main reason why we have not seen a portable until now. The xm service is truly an exellent service when compared to what is out there, i.e. fm radio. while it is not cd quality, that was never the goal. xm's entire bandwidth for all 100 channels is 4.8 MB/s which means that each channel averages 48 kb/s. the fact that they can get music that sounds like a 96k mp3 with that bandwidth is pretty damn good. that not withstanding, the real reason to listen to xm (or sirius) is that you actually get some programming choice; with the fm dial being owned almost exclusively by clearchannel and playing the same crap over and over, you actully get a chance to listen to something that you might want to hear...

Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[rob13572468]

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.

Re:Sirius...

[terrymr]

Actually it appears that $100 million is for programming 3 24/7 channels on Sirius rather than just bringing his morning show.