Sirius or HD radio

[Randy Mercer]

For those who have both, or an opinion either way... which one would you recommend from a programming perspective, Satelite or HD Radio?



Thanks!

 

[Tom Schindler]

HD Radio is free.



That is enough to decide for myself.



Anyways, depending on how much you drive or will be able to use it will decide which is the right route to go.



If you go to the link below, you can look up the stations in your area that carry HD content. The downsides are if you are in an area that is far from HD stations, you will lose your HD signal. Bouncing between HD and to analog can be irritating.



So far, all the HD programming in my area has been commercial free. I really like it.



I plan on putting an HD Radio into my other car this summer. We already have it in the Explorer. A station in Cleveland broadcasts classic country music. I absolutly love it.



Overall, I really like HD Radio. I just can't justify paying a monthly service fee to use satelite radio. I can name hundreds of better things to spend my money on.





Tom

 

[LaRue Medlin]

other than sound quality, are there more benifits? ie distance, obstructions,,,,,,stuff like that

 

[Kevin Palmer]

One bonus with Sirius, is that you really don't lose the signal of the station you are listening to. By that, if you are in Ohio and drive to California, you can listen to the same channel the entire trip.



I got Sirius radio fr X-mas,,,, it is all I listen to at this point.



I have not tried HD radio, so I am biased by ignorance more than anything else..

 

[Jim P]

I have sirius in my 07, and living in E TN, if you go into the mountains and under a tree canaopy, you will lose the signal, and I lose the signal when I pull into the garage. A little irriatating, but other than that, its great, and sounds good with factory speakers.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I had XM in the US. Here in Poland, I have HD Radio (it is the standard in Europe).



Unless you have a really good sound system in your car, you won't even notice a difference between analog and HD radio, except you will get the name of the song and the radio station on your radio display. With a good system, the sound quality will be much better on HD than satellite, since the satellite signals are very compressed to allow more channels on smaller bandwidth.



I prefer XM, even though the sound quality is poorer. I like the ability to listen to just music, with no commericals or DJs trying to talk about some stupid topic as I am driving to work. On long trips it is awesome too, since you never lose signal.

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

I've had Sirius in 3 cars for years now. The only thing I hate about it is, the fading in certain ares. Trees, buildings, etc. Sucks when you are listening to talk radio or the comedy channel and miss the punch line. Other than that, I like it.



Gary D.

 

[Fudged Undies]

Sirius (my choice anyhow). There's more overhead (equipment and monthly service) but there's also more variety. I suggest looking at what is offered by both and basing your decision off of that. Maybe HD provides sufficient entertainment (free from monthly charges) that you'll be happy. Rumor has it that HD will eventually be a pay service like satellite but that's a bit in the future. Personally, I never thought I'd pay for radio, but it was one of the best "upgrades" I ever made for the trac. Especially on long distance trips.

 

[Darrell Miller]

Added thought: I have Sirius and listen to it all day at work, through my computer. It saves my sanity by blocking out the incessant chirping of some coworkers.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Rumor has it that HD will eventually be a pay service like satellite but that's a bit in the future.

Where did you get that info? HD Radio is nothing more than Digital signals broadcasted over the radio signals.



HD Radio's sound is 100 times better than FM.





Tom

 

[Jeff C]

I also have Sirius. 15min drive to work is all music. I have a few long distance trips this summer and plan to listen to music the whole way. Between Sirius and my iPod, I can't remember the last time I heard a commercial in my truck. Sign up for the online service for a month and check out the channels and see if you find music you like. Worst case, you figure out they don't have what you're looking for and you're out $10, instead of the whole setup.

 

[Collin Lyon]

I really like having Sirius in my Trac. Like said earlier, you get to the punchline (like blue-collar comedy channel) or "the killer is . . . " (classic radio show channel), you go under a bridge, and the signal konks-out -- NOOOOOOOO !!!

 

[Fudged Undies]

Caymen, that's info I read sometime in the past year and a half. I commented on it in a previous, similar thread. Keep in mind, HD is being provided by the same folks that produce regular radio at a cost of roughly $100k to upgrade and be able to trasmit. Do you really think they will continue to do it for "free?" Not sure what the revenue model for HD is(I read advertising currenly isn't permitted) but either your going to pay or it will become just as bogged down with commercials as regular radio currently is, there will have to be profit somewhere. Moreover, there must be some overhead in HD radioHow much commercial time is involved in standard hour of "regular" radio these days? There's a reason people have begun paying for satellite radio. Special programming is part of it, but so is lack of constant interruptions from garbage commercials. Yes, stations have

 

[Randy Mercer]

Thanks everyone for your input. I just put in an indash kenwood dvd and am ready to start tricking it out. Sounds like popular opinion is Sirius.

 

[JerryW Gilliland]

My two cents worth:



I had XM in my Vette but hated it because of the commercials and poor sound quality. I let it lapse. The CD changer is capable of playing MP3 discs, so I made 6 MP3 CDs with 160 songs on each one (songs from my computer library, which is vast). That's 48 hours of music that I CHOSE to listen to.



I replaced the head unit in the Trac with a Sony Xplode unit. On the front of the unit is a AUX IN jack, a USB port and a cord connected to the back of the unit to connect an iPod. I loaded up two 4GB USB flash drives with 1000 songs each and my Zen Vision M has 5500 songs on it. I had my radio on long enough to set the presets and it's never been on since. I just pull out one flash drive and replace it with another.



Pretty cheap and enjoyable entertainment, IMO.