What Xm/Sirius device is best for CF?

WuNgUn · 03-24-2008, 05:57 PM

Currently, CF supports XMPCR, XMDirect and SiriusSC-C1 adapters...

What are the pro and cons of each of these?
Is XM better than Sirius?

Habious · 03-24-2008, 08:16 PM

Opinions differ but, I prefer Sirius programming over XM.

I like good ol' Rock-n-Roll. Sirius has stations like Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, The Vault, BuzzSaw (newer classic rock), Hair Nation (all the 80's hair-metal bands)...plus the usual 70's, 80's, 90's stations. The 80's station plays really great 80's songs (if you're into that). If you are into the 80's stuff, you'll know just about every song. They have 4 of the 5 original MTV VJ's on as DJ's (JJ Jackson passed away several years ago) so, they're really good.

Sirius has Howard Stern (if you're into that) and Marta Stewart (if you swing that way), NASCar and NFL radio.

In contrast, XM has Major League Baseball, NHL, PGA tour, Oprah, and Sean Hannity

I've never found a decent "hard rock" station on XM. The 80's stations plays some really obscure stuff. I mean, they'll play a song from one of the many 80's one-hit-wonder bands but,....it's not the hit!! I mean, in my opinion, if you're going to play a song by A Flock of Seagulls, it needs to be "I Ran"...if you're going to play a song from A-ha, it needs to be "Take On Me". But, it's music so, opinions differ greatly...that's just mine.

As for hardware, I have the SC-C1 with the MJS interface. Could not be happier with it. stupid-easy installation and setup and works seamlessly with CentraFuse 1.47. The only minor surprise I had when I got it was that it requires a separate ground and +12V. I assumed that it would get power from the USB but, it doesn't. Maybe all of the other Satellite Radio interfaces require this too. Could be a current-draw issue that makes them unable to get power from the USB.

CentraFuse handles the Satellite Radio very well...with only a few minor glitches. 1.48 is supposed to resolve quite a few of them (the Satellite Radio plug-in doesn't seem to like Hibernation with Windows so, you can't use the Hibernate feature if you want the Satellite radio to work when it wakes up....I'm hoping this is resolved with 1.48) and, I've reported a minor issue with the song titles not always updating but, smeesman (the contact for the Satellite Radio plug-in) has found the software glitch and assures me that it's fixed in 1.48. But, let me be clear, it's a VERY minor deal.

I listen to Sirius every time I get in the car. I listen to it more than I listen to my mp3's.

Hope this helps.

WuNgUn · 03-24-2008, 08:51 PM

Thanks for your input Hab...appreciated!
You mentioned MJS interface? Can you explain this a little more...
Is the SC-C1 just the reciever? It doesn't plug into the USB port directly?
I'm assuming the MJS in the 'go-between'...where do I get one?
Thanks again!

Habious · 03-24-2008, 11:04 PM

The SC-C1 is just a generic Sirius receiver. It's designed to plug into a "Sirius-ready" head-unit. The MJS interface takes that and converts it to USB.

The main site is http://www.rush2112.net/

The URL directly to the Sirius interface box is http://www.rush2112.net/mkportal/mod...products_id=35

I got my SC-C1 from http://www.crutchfield.com

Here's the link directly to the SC-C1 on Crutchfield.com but, they currently show it as out-of-stock http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...=sc-c1&tp=6953

I know that it's available elsewhere...and probably cheaper than Crutchfield but, at the time, they had it in stock...plus I know them and trust them.

Hope this info helps. Let me know if you've got any other questions. I'm a BIG Sirius fan and love to push it on others! lol

kmp14 · 03-25-2008, 04:14 PM

One minor addition. I prefer Sirius also, but from what has been said, XM has slightly better sound quality. I don't know if this is true...

Habious · 03-26-2008, 10:53 AM

Now, that's interesting. I haven't ever heard that tidbit of info. kmp14, do you have any sources for that?

I know that the Sirius quality is very good. If you run an FM modulator or are using a "basic" stock stereo, it sounds as good as any other source. However, if you step things up with using direct auxiliary inputs to your stereo and the stereo is of higher-than-average quality, you start to hear the limitations of the compression algorithm they use. CD's sound the best... mp3's are a close second...Sirius does sound inferior to mp3's but, leaps and bounds above the best FM.

Would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of XM versus Sirius but, I've never seen a car with both! You'd also need to talk XM and Sirius into playing the same song as the same time so you could switch back and forth! My dad's Honda Accord has XM and it sounds good. But, while the Accord factory stereo isn't too bad, it doesn't compare to the Mark Levinson system in my Lexus.

midiwall · 03-26-2008, 07:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by WuNgUn

Currently, CF supports XMPCR, XMDirect and SiriusSC-C1 adapters...

XMPCR isn't made anymore, XMDirect is an easy plug-in (though the online vendors rip you off for the cable required - build it yourself if you can solder) and other folks have commented on the Sirius setup.

Quote: Originally Posted by kmp14

One minor addition. I prefer Sirius also, but from what has been said, XM has slightly better sound quality. I don't know if this is true...

Depends on the station. Both providers are lacking for bandwidth on the sats and as a result, compress the heck out of (and vary the encoding bitrate of) all the stations. The Electronica stations seem to be the best (i.e., they use the highest bitrate/least compression) and the talk stations (comedy, news, sportscasts) are the worst. The choices make since if you think about 'em, but it sucks overall.

The rock stations are "ok", the country stations are worse than that, the classical stations are about on par with the country stations.

The real issue (to me) is the quality of the _programming_. I've been an XM subscriber since 2003 and their programming has really declined over the years. The rock stations seem to be in a 2 hour loop. The Electronica stations are pretty stale, and the news stations are riddled with commercials.

Sirius's programming has dropped off as well, but they're better off than XM.

Also, the XM/Sirius merger has been approved, so the question of "who's programming is better?" will soon become "when will I be able to get a multi-sat receiver?".

mitchjs · 04-03-2008, 01:19 PM

hehehaha

people who have XM, say they heard Sirius sound quality is better
and people who have Sirius, say XM sounds better

I got both

they BOTH SUCK!!!!

HD Radio is the only one that sounds good!!
and im not sure HD Radio is the answer, but you cant agrue its sound quality!!!

XM for sports/talk, sirius for sports/talk and MP3s for music
thats the way to go

mitch

rgarjr · 04-03-2008, 03:21 PM

Well people dont get satellite radio for their sound but for their content and ability to receive the service in almost all North America.

funkyphil · 08-16-2008, 02:53 PM

I have sirius radio with mitch's hook up. It runs awesome no problems with RR. However I have a friend that wants to use it with centerfuse and is not having any luck. We can't get centerfuse to see sirius, it sees xm just fine. But this is not what he wants. Any help with this problem?

Thanks Phil

Habious · 08-17-2008, 12:21 AM

This is a bit of an old thread to get stirred up!

Let's see. The only things I can think of are a couple of the obvious ones.

A) Make sure that Mitch's interface is getting power (it requires separate 12V and GND...not powered via the USB)

B) Make sure the driver's working. If you go into Device Manager, under Ports, you should see an "MJS Sirius Port" or something like that (I'm not near my CarPC but, there should be something there listed with MJS in the name....that's the Sirius interface. It'll have a COM port associated with it.

C) Make sure you've got "Advanced Settings" in CF enabled. Go to the Satellite Radio settings, select the SC-C1 for the interface, select the COM port that you figured out from "B" above, and set both the Playback and Recording audio settings to the Line-In that you're using (the Playback setting is only used in non-buffered mode and the Recording setting is only used in buffered mode but, the safest thing to do is set them both).

That's really it for settings.

Make sure it's activated through Sirius. That can take a couple of tries. You can do this via the website but, you've got to have the receiver (and CarPC) powered on and in a place where it can see the sky before you try to "send the activation signal". Until you activate it, the only channel that'll work is the Preview channel (channel 184, I think).

funkyphil · 08-17-2008, 01:12 AM

Habious- Where can I find the "Advance Settings" in cf? Is it in the file under C:\Program Files\Flux Media\Centrafuse\Plugins\SatRadio? Or am I looking in the wrong place? I don't know where to set the port number either. Can you walk me through step by step?

Thanks for your reply and help!

Phil

Habious · 08-17-2008, 02:04 AM

From the Centrafuse FAQ...

* Settings are now defaulted to show the Basic Settings mode. Advanced Settings can be enabled in 2 ways.
To enable Advanced Settings temporarily, hold down the "+" button in the Main Settings Screen for 8 seconds.
To permanently enable Advanced Settings, similar to older version of CF, pass the -advsettings command line option when starting Centrafuse. To do this, right click on the CF shortcut, choose "Properties", make sure you're on the "Shortcut" tab and add the [-advsettings] to the Target line...it must be outside the quotes and no brackets (like I used)

My "Target" line looks exactly like this...quotes and all

"C:\Program Files\Flux Media\Centrafuse\centrafuse.exe" -advsettings

If you do it this way, CF will ALWAYS start with the advanced settings enabled.

funkyphil · 08-17-2008, 10:30 AM

Tons of Thanks goes to you Habious, IT WORKS NOW! We just weren't able to set the port and select sirius. Thank you for helping out with the advance settings.

Thank you

Phil

Habious · 08-18-2008, 01:08 PM

Funkyphil,

Glad to help. Hope you enjoy the Sirius programming and the really-slick MJS interface as much as I do!