Talk:Satellite radio/Archive 1

Footprint

The footprint for Sirius is much larger than stated. The graphics at

http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20directional%20antenna.JPG and http://www.freewebs.com/vo1one/sirius%20standard%20antenna.JPG

show the Sirius footprint into Central and South America. MexiCanuck 23:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Sound

Shouldn't this page state that FM radio has higher sound quality and frequency fidelity than Satellite Radio? It seems to state the opposite right now. Stettlerj 21:03, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Its only better than the portable satellite subscription radio systems in the US, I fail to see how FM, even at peak quality, can exceed the 192-256Kbits/sec musicam streams that most fixed-dish services have. --Kiand 00:04, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, since the satellite radio companies tend to keep their technical details private, discussions about sound quality can only be subjective. I find that the sound quality of Sirius music channels definitively beats the best FM broadcasts (the voice channels other than 100/101 have obviously lower bitrates with audible compression artifacts). It's also worth noting that it is difficult to get perfect FM reception, while with satellite radio you either get the full signal or you get none of it. --Bk0 (Talk) 19:58, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

I've listened on several receivers, and some channels are definitely better than FM. The XM Pops station is an HD audio station and sounds as good as CD. Yes, it's subjective, but I'll take even the low-quality XM stations over broadcast FM. -- TomXP411^[Talk] 05:40, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

It may be worth noting that Sirius does charge a one time set up fee, even though the article claims it doesn't.

Redundancy?

SR functions any place there is line of sight between the antenna and the satellite, as long as there are no major obstructions, such as tunnels or buildings. SR audiences can follow a single channel regardless of location within a given range.

The sentence is weird, because the existance of a line of sight between the antenna and the satellite implies that there are no obstructions... Jorge Peixoto 23:21, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Request to rename the article "Satellite Audio"

I think this article should be renamed to "Satellite Audio", as it's not really radio at all. It would be easy enough to do. Just change all references to "Satellite Radio" to say "Satellite Audio" instead. Somewhere in the article, it should say that Satellite Audio is commonly referred to as Satellite Radio.

I know that this usage is uncommon, and that Satellite Radio is very common, but that doesn't mean that the article shouldn't use the correct term.

In addition, I think that "Satellite Radio" should redirect to "Satellite Audio".

This would be a major change, so I'm seeing if anyone has any complaints before I do it. Any comments on this would be appriciated. 75.129.169.49 06:09, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

• On the contrary, it is radio, since it involves wireless transmission, which is the original meaning of radio. And since the majority have chosen to refer to it that way, the current title is the "correct term". Slowmover (talk) 20:06, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Comparison table

The table titled "Satellite radio vs. other formats" has become so muddied and complex that I believe it should be removed or split into a separate article. Partisans from all sides have changed every point such that it no longer is informative to the naive reader.

Example (emphasis mine):
"Sound quality:
AM: Usually very low, but can be the highest
FM: Usually Moderate, but can be very high".
The other two columns are listed as "Varies" (how does this illustrate the differences?).

Similarly, the footnotes are numerous and long with lots of qualifiers and apologetics. It all appears to be unsourced. This needs work. --Bk0 (Talk) 17:41, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Podcasts

In the last few years the quality and popularity of podcast has skyrocketed. They should be mentioned in the comparison since the top podcasters are getting millions of hits per episodeand that's just from itunes,not to mention lyb syn etc — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.117.1.150 (talk) 21:50, 2 May 2012 (UTC)