On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:49:15 -0800, SMS
wrote:

What is the bit rate for XM/Sirius music channels? I've seen people say
that it's as low as 32 kb/s, but that their streaming is 128 kb/s. But
if you're streaming, you may as well get Pandora rather than satellite.

It's ugly. There are 100 streams, each 8Kbits/sec. With two
channels, they're effectively 4Kbits/sec per channel. These are
conglomerated in the receiver into anything between 4 and 64Kbits/sec.
For music, it seems to hang around the upper end, but I'm not sure.
http://www.google.com/patents/US7075946?dq=7075946
I had XM in my car several years ago when they were giving away 30
days free trials. Coverage in the San Lorenzo Valley was horrible due
to trees, hills, and lack of terrestrial repeaters. The nearest are
two in San Jose.


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Jeff Liebermann
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