Thinking of getting Sirius

[Neutron]

It has been a long while but I'm thinking of getting Sirius again. What's a good plug and play radio that's not too expensive? I'm thinking of getting one at Walmart if they still sell them.

 

[navychop]

Be careful to get one that will work with the "2.0" version they are coming out with. It rolls out over the next couple of years in stages. Older radios will not work, such as the one in my car.

 

[Neutron]

So the XM Onyx will not work?

 

[isaacmorseMI]

So the XM Onyx will not work?

Nope. Just the Lynx or Edge.

SiriusXM - Shop - SiriusXM Lynx

SiriusXM - Shop - SiriusXM Edge with Vehicle Kit

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have a Lynx and it is VERY buggy.

 

[Neutron]

Ugh. The Lynx and Edge are both pricey with the Lynx taking the icing here. One thing I liked about the Onyx is the price.

 

[HIFI]

Be careful to get one that will work with the "2.0" version they are coming out with. It rolls out over the next couple of years in stages. Older radios will not work, such as the one in my car.

Good time as any then to cancel my radios all together unless they want to comp me a replacement with the same features.

 

[Neutron]

When is the 2.0 thing coming out? Will this make even the most recent radios obsolete?

 

[navychop]

Here is some info.

And here's the thread on it.

I'm not sure when the first radio came out, but it was in Q4 2011. Most Sirius radios will soon be garbage. I suspect there are old radios still on the market that will not be useful much longer. No Sirius car radios will work, new compliant models do not come out until the 2013 model year.

IIRC most XM radios will continue to pick up a limited selection of sat channels, but the Sirius models are all toast, unless designed for the new, improved, combined system.

 

[Tampa8]

Huh???? Where do you guys get this information from? My original Roady from many years ago still works great. The second generation Roady still works great. No XM radio is obsolete , they will work, including any car radio. The only difference is the newest one gets the extra channels. In three or four years, who knows I guess, but you can say that about Dish receivers too.
2.0 is already here, it has no effect on current radios, other than having more channels. I'll take it one step further, you at least five years for sirius branded radios.

http://siriusbuzz.com/is-it-time-to-switch-from-sirius-to-xm.php

 

[navychop]

For the schedule, look at post #1 here.

Reception will deteriorate for all during the transition, beginning mid year, which is about when they will stop activating ver 1 Sirius radios. How kind of them. In early 2014 all ver 1 Sirius radios will stop working. So buy that radio and get less than 2 years use out of it!

 

[rglore]

Most Sirius radios will soon be garbage. I suspect there are old radios still on the market that will not be useful much longer. No Sirius car radios will work, new compliant models do not come out until the 2013 model year.

IIRC most XM radios will continue to pick up a limited selection of sat channels, but the Sirius models are all toast, unless designed for the new, improved, combined system.

No they're not, SiriusXM has said the existing Sirius and XM signals will continue for another decade or more until the satellites run out of fuel. You only need a new receiver to take advantage of the new channels or other new features.

 

[navychop]

Huh???? Where do you guys get this information from? My original Roady from many years ago still works great. The second generation Roady still works great. No XM radio is obsolete , they will work, including any car radio. The only difference is the newest one gets the extra channels. In three or four years, who knows I guess, but you can say that about Dish receivers too.
2.0 is already here, it has no effect on current radios, other than having more channels.

Which is why I said most XM radios will continue to pick up a limited selection of sat channels.

2.0 is NOT already here, except in the mind of advertising execs. Only a portion is here today. The easy part. They are going to kill the XM terrestrial network next, then use some bandwidth to conduct testing. Then move to their new "HM" modulation method for much of the spectrum. and they'll have less than half the repeaters when all is said and done. Read the link in my post above for more sad news for Sirius radio owners.

 

[navychop]

No they're not, SiriusXM has said the existing Sirius and XM signals will continue for another decade or more until the satellites run out of fuel. You only need a new receiver to take advantage of the new channels or other new features.

I will research this, as I may be out of date. But the last I read, before I quit keeping up with the news, was that they would not be allowed to retain the spectrum, as part of the whole deal. Then something came up about how they would continue to use the spectrum, but NOT for legacy Sirius radios. The so-called "Sirius" satellite yet to be launched is supposed to be "full" spectrum, able to work under either Sirius or XM.

SiriusXM is not exactly blasting this information in neon on their site.

BTW, it's been a LONG time since satellites have been allowed to run out of fuel. They are required to retain enough fuel to either enter a rapidly decaying orbit or move to a "parking" or "graveyard" orbit out beyond the Clarke belt, where they will slowly drift away from the earth.

on edit PS: SiriusXM is not making much in the way of detailed announcements on this. The timelines are based on leaked documents that SiriusXM has not disavowed. That "until running out of fuel" comment may have been some early marketing BS designed to keep people buying until the real story comes out, presumably after new hardware has flooded the market, including new vehicles. And they physically CAN'T keep all the old XM channels going. They need the space for the 30% more new channels.

 

[rglore]

I didn't mean actually running out, just end of life. The last quarter's conference call they mentioned something about existing signals would last at least a decade. Ford and others are still putting Sirius radios in the 2012 models. Thursday is another conference call and maybe there will be some clarification. The Sirius geosynchronous sats will die in a few years but are being replaced by geostationary ones to continue legacy Sirius service.

 

[navychop]

Copied from the link I provided:
The closest thing we have to a confirmation of this would be Mike Roberts, VP of Retail Sales at SiriusXM state to Twice.com:
"The service will add 30 channels of programming transmitted through XM satellites. Sirius satellites will not deliver the service to either aftermarket or automaker-installed Sirius tuners, but he said he expects automakers offering Sirius tuners to move to the XM satellite platform."
The OEM partners who offer Sirius (Ford, Chrysler, etc) are SWITCHING from Sirius to XM. That's a pretty damn good confirmation of this roadmap to Sirius obsolescence if you ask me.

Since SXM has not made official announcements, probably doesn't want to (sales) and maybe can't for some time anyway, it's all got to be considered rumor. But where there's smoke..... So far, all I've found is it looks like a 2015 shutdown, not 2014. And there's some talk of conversion kits. Heck, you can buy a portable today and link it to your car radio (& still take it back inside the house). I guess you could call that a conversion kit. I'm still looking.

 

[Tampa8]

And they physically CAN'T keep all the old XM channels going. They need the space for the 30% more new channels.

That's just not how it works, and the information is just wrong in some of the posts here. 2.0 IS here, it is being used. It is essentially a different method of compressing that supposedly does not degrade the sound, but uses much less space. So yes they can physically keep the current channels. Of course at some point if things work out they will want to go all 2.0 just as Dish wants to go all the same as the Eastern Arc. But there are numerous posts, discussions, etc... that current radios still have quite a while before possibly being obsolete. And we aren't talking alot of money anyway. Many are below $50, some free.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/siriusxm-satellite-radio/277379-thinking-getting-sirius-2.html

 

[navychop]

2.0 is on the internet. It is not from the satellites, or only minimally from the satellites, depending upon who you want to believe. The big plan is to use a new system, "HM" to squeeze more channels out of the same satellite spectrum. Still under testing. They have to give up some channels to create the new. More channels in the same space. They don't have unused space to do this in. New XM radios can decode this. There is talk of some old XM radios being able to be reprogrammed to receive the new satellite signals. Old Sirius radios will not be able to. Some XM spectrum will be used to transmit in the old fashion, at least for some years, for older XM radios, while some spectrum shifts to the new method. An old radio that was unaware of the new "compression" method certainly cannot "decompress" it, anymore than a 721 can read MPEG-4.

By year's end it should be obvious if they have shut down some repeaters. That will lend some credence to the story.

Smart money is on: Buy only a SXM radio that is certified to be compatible with 2.0. Many more will come onto the market. In fact, in light of car manufacturers moving from Sirius to XM, I'd say avoid any Sirius-only radio. Forget Howard.

It would cost me hundreds to replace my in dash Sirius radio, even if they came out with a 2.0 version. And my radio is linked to steering wheel controls and other functions. Not likely I'll see such a radio offered. So I hope you're right, and my radio will keep getting Sirius, even in a limited fashion, for a few more years past 2015. I don't plan to replace that car until 2019, when it's ten years old.

I'm done. Very little out there, most built on posts from a site owner who claims to have inside sources and documents. Gee, I have good experience with site owners posting inside info.