Is it worth it to get the Sportster IR?

[Shawn95GT]

It's only about $20 extra.. and I like the cool blue color.

Is there any reason not to get it?

Thanks,

 

[Sirius_Rich]

Besides the time shifting features, I think it has the best display in bright sun. For $20 more, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Aww - crap - looks like I missed the $50 rebate I was looking at. Anything similar going on?

Shawn

 

[Shawn95GT]

I picked it up at lunch today and will be installing it tonight. Rebate or not I'm sure i'll love it.

I hope the activation goes smooth.

Shawn

 

[Sirius_Rich]

I picked it up at lunch today and will be installing it tonight. Rebate or not I'm sure i'll love it.

I hope the activation goes smooth.

Shawn

LOL. You have as much will power as me.

Activation should take no longer than 5 minutes once you enter the data via the website or after the call to Sirius. Just remember to have your radio playing channel 184 before activating.

 

[Shawn95GT]

LOL. You have as much will power as me.

Activation should take no longer than 5 minutes once you enter the data via the website or after the call to Sirius. Just remember to have your radio playing channel 184 before activating.

Yup - it couldn't have gone better.

I temporarily set it up in my driver and it works awesome. The antenna is sitting on the dash and I used the suction cup mount on the windshield. It actually looks a LOT better than I thought it would mounted on the windshield.

Since I'm in Phoenix I think I'll still pursue mounting it in the otherwise worthless cupholder on my car. This will keep the unit out of direct sun and should lessen the 'come steal me' factor.

Shawn

 

[Sirius_Rich]

Shawn,

You may have another benefit from the Sportster that I was not aware of until last night, if you have an iPod. I was surfing the net and found this tidbit of info:

Combo Sirius/iPod Docking Station From Directed

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 7/19/2005 1:21:00 PM

Vista, Calif. — Directed Electronics announced a new “executive” desktop docking station for both Sirius Satellite Radio receivers and Apple iPods.

Shipping in September, the Executive Docking Station comes with a cradle for the Sirius Sportster plug-and-play receivers, with optional, interchangeable docking cradles for the iPod and other portable media devices. The iPod option will ship in the fourth quarter and a third cradle for other media players is planned for early 2006, said Directed.

The Station includes micro speakers with a 20-watt amplifier and outputs to connect to a computer and other devices. It also folds for transport.

The Executive Docking Station will have a suggested retail price of $199.99, and the additional cradle kits are expected to fall in the $69.99 to $79.99 range.

 

[Shawn95GT]

No iPod, my Cell phone (smartphone) serves my MP3 habit.

I'll play with the unit more today but it seems that people think that the IR is like a Tivo. I was reading the manual and it seems like the replay feature isn't particularly useful and most definately isn't 'Tivo-like'.

If I read right:
You can't record a different channel than you are listening to.
If you change the channel, you lose your recording
If you do use the pause feature and resume... if you don't FFW to live inside of 44 mins it'll simply jump to live when the 44mins that is recorded is up (lame).

In spite of the replay feature looking to be kind of a crappy implementation, I like the radio itself .

 

[Shawn95GT]

Ok I'm going ot have ot take back some of the 'hate' for the IR's time shifting .

While everything I mentioned above seem sto be true, here's what it DOES do:

It is recording everything, all the time, just like Tivo. Pause, rewind, it's all good.

cue forward / back is VERY cool. It's a smart cue that takes to the beginning of the next song / set / whatever. This I REALLY like. Want to hear that song again? 1 click on the remote and it starts over.

I'll have to try out the 44 min time shift and see if indeed pops to live after 44 mins. I can't see why it would. I HAVE to have read that wrong.

Big thumbs up so far.

Shawn