xm or sirius help

[Cos]

Okay, so a buddy at work gave me his old school skyfi2 unit for xm. I registered it with xm today for 3 months. Main reason I am going on a 3 week road trip with the wife and want BBC and BPM.

Now it came with a vent mount (yuk) and fm transmitter. I found the BEST channel and it isnt bad. I was hoping for more I guess.

Now he is asking $40.00 for the car unit and the actual transmitter. I know sirius has CBC and a few other channels I like more than XM but already have this thing and dont mind it.

The head unit I have is a Panasonic CQ-VD6505 that takes some form of aftermarket sirius unit but apparently costs $650.00 if I want my ipod connected. That doesnt include ANY membership.


People with Sirius and XM help..... would you pay the $40, would you switch for sirius, or would you switch to a different deck.

Cos

[silvercivicsir]

does the deck have aux in?

[Cooked Rice]

sirius and xm have virtually the same channels now. they joined together this year because they were having financial issues, in hopes that it would help them out.

[rumeo]

Ray I thought that was only in the states?

[alpineguy]

it is only in the states that they have joined, in canada the best of the channels are available on both networks.

[magicmario]

the music channels are the same on xm and sirius (a few minor exceptions). the channel numbers are different though.
If you get the panasonic module to add sirius to your deck is kinda a waste. since panasonic is out of car audio(they no longer make it). I would get a new deck like a alpine with sirius and ipod for less than 650 if you didnt want the screen. If you wanted to retain the screen it would be like a grand.
another option is get like a plug and play sirius unit that is like that skyfi2. But with sirius u can get a fm transmittor box that eliminates all static its $30 and works awesome. thats another cheaper option.

[Cos]

Originally posted by magicmario
But with sirius u can get a fm transmittor box that eliminates all static its $30 and works awesome. thats another cheaper option.

what is this fm transmitter you are talking about? how is it different than the built in one?

[signature7]

If you don't want Howard Stern then just keep XM. It'll have everything you need.

[magicmario]

Originally posted by Cos


what is this fm transmitter you are talking about? how is it different than the built in one?

its a wired fm modulator that plugs in where the normal "fm transmittor attena is". it plugs into the back of your stereo through your factory antenna.

here is the link for the product at sirius' website

http://shop.siriuscanada.ca/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/StoreItem.vm&ctl_nbr=3560&siId=3356111&catLevel=1&scLevel=0&thisCatLevel=&oldParentID=16689&catParentID=16689&scId=43150&userLangISO=en_US

[Just0]

The adapter box that is $30 is the direct FM adapter, you can pick one up and bestbuy/futureshop or pretty much anywhere that carrys Sirius/XM. It ties directly into your cars radio antenna, depending on your car though you may require a antenna adapter to link them up. It clears up most static when going through the FM Transmitter built into the unit.

In terms of Which is better, XM or Sirius, it's personal prefence, they merged in the US, but as stated before, they have the " Best of " channel package that you can buy at a additional cost. Alot of the music channels have merged together. Keep in mind how the satellites are positioned for both providers, XMs are stationed in place, do not move at all, so if you're in (or live) in a area that gets poor reception with XM, you'll always have issues with cutting in and out, Not trying to push Sirius, but they have 3 satellites that move in a figgure 8 around N.America, so when one goes out of range, the other kicks in to keep your signal strong, I hear alot of complaints about XM's reception cutting out in random areas all the time, but I havn't seen too many big issues with it, again it's personal preference, hope this helps.

[lasimmon]

Bump.


Anyone having brutal Sirius coverage in Calgary. My radio has been cutting in out like crazy for the past while here in town.

[403ep3]

It likes to cut about 5% of the time I am using it, but that's because I'm near a cell tower or under a bridge. Have only had it for less than a year so I may not know a difference

[redline]

Originally posted by lasimmon
Bump.


Anyone having brutal Sirius coverage in Calgary. My radio has been cutting in out like crazy for the past while here in town.

Yes I have been having issues downtown lately, it pisses me off

[rage2]

It's probably because their Calgary repeaters are down. Used to happen monthly, drove me insane.

Some of the units, you can see signal strength for both SAT and TER (terrestrial repeater). If TER shows 0, then yea, Sirius needs to send a tech to fix their shit. Usually takes days before it comes back up back in the day.

[gpomp]

https://www.facebook.com/siriusxmcanada/posts/1033724753315874

[rage2]

17 days?!?!?$@?! :rofl:

So glad I cancelled years back. I do miss Stern though, maybe he'll go online or something.

[gpomp]

Originally posted by rage2
17 days?!?!?$@?! :rofl:

So glad I cancelled years back. I do miss Stern though, maybe he'll go online or something. It's possible, his contract expires in 2 weeks.

[Maxx Mazda]

I got rid of my XM/Sirius about a year ago. Was a subscriber since pretty much it came out. Couldn't stand the shitty bitrate anymore. Was like listening to music over a dial up connection in high school.