Sirius lack of overall support for high end players vent thread.

What should we do with the lack of support?

  • Buy XM portable equipment

    Votes: 4 15.4%
  • Buy Slacker

    Votes: 4 15.4%
  • Ipod or MP3 player's for me!

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Just listen to internet radio

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Move to HD radio

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Just vent and bear with it. I'm used to the lack of support.

    Votes: 16 61.5%

  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .

dougm0

New Member
Oct 16, 2008
12
0
1
This is insane. A company that is going bankrupt if they cant pay some debt in February is still turning their back on their high end customers.

We paid insane amounts of money for these devices. Some of us getting every sucessor from the S50, SL100, SL2 (me).

What do we get in return? Total lack of support.

Now that the channel merge has happened, should we just get XM portables. I hear that at least for now they are pretty good at getting support on their devices.

Either that or we just give up and buy Slackers?
 

Vargas

Molon Labe!
Oct 16, 2008
3,426
153
63
Western, PA
I've gone through every progression of Sirius portables too and yeah, sometimes it is frustrating to not have the updated logos, wallpapers, voicetage, etc.

However, since this doesn't really affect my listening of those individual stations, I guess I just deal with it and move on.

Does it piss me off that they plan all these channel changes and mergers and don't bother to come up with logos or voicetags? Sure. They are kind of half assing it by not bothering to complete these things but again, what can you do other than bitch, complain and just wait for it to get updated. MAYBE, and I say this hesitantly, maybe with XM being better at this and the XM player operating differently than the Sirius players we'll pick this side up out of the merger.

I know that Directed Electronics is no longer going to make the Sirius radios so hopefully we'll get some new manufactures making newer more stable devices.
 

pattere14

New Member
Dec 6, 2008
21
0
1
slacker

I've had the s50 and s100. Still use the S100 35 hours a week at work and not having radio replays for available for all my favorite channels has been more and more frustrating. I talked a friend into Slacker yesterday. Cool device. I canceled Sirius and I'm going to follow suit. Aside from Stern, the music makes Slacker an easy choice.

BTW, first post here from a former SBS fan.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
Having both an iPod and Slacker device, I can say hands down that neither of them are very good replacements overall for sat radio. If all you like it music then the iPod requires lots of music management and/or music purchases which can get very expensive over sat radio. The Slacker is easier (thus the name), but can be rather dry and is like just having an MP3 player that someone else loads for you, but in most cases if fine tuned can be very good. Still no talk, news, sports or other entertainment just kill it for replacing sat radio totally.

What I did was I canceled my Sirius SL2 sub and just kept my XM XpressRC because of the fact that the channel icons and background graphics are always updated immediately after changes are made. Thus far that device is flawless no support needed period. However, with all that said, I would never cancel a sub over channel icons and backgrounds because it truly does not impact your ability to listen to channels. It isn't convenient and sucks that they don't keep it up to date though. Still the biggest thing for the SL2 is the memory issue with they have still not addressed and in my opinion simply don't see it as a big enough issue to worry about it.
 

radsatdaily

Member
Dec 7, 2008
73
0
6
www.RadSatDaily.com
At some point the Sirius Xm Open Device Access merger concession should go into effect. At that time any device manufacture will be able to develop a Sirius or XM radio.

More options for radios and radio support should then be available. Instead of contacting Sirius you'll probably then contact the device manufacture for support directly.

Sirius would probably play the role of content provider at that point and thus the need to get rid of Directed Electronics, etc
 

JoeTan

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2008
1,425
26
48
Sat radio is the only industry without an 'elite' product. You can't really buy your way anywhere with Sirius. We are all stuck with "pretty good" in terms of signal, SQ.

Come out with XM-HD (or something like this...you see what I mean) charge $16/month and as long as HD isn't 128kbps MP3 (256kbps will do fine) I'll buy it.

What the hell?!?!? They can't make money if people wanted to give it to them!
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
At some point the Sirius Xm Open Device Access merger concession should go into effect. At that time any device manufacture will be able to develop a Sirius or XM radio.

More options for radios and radio support should then be available. Instead of contacting Sirius you'll probably then contact the device manufacture for support directly.

Sirius would probably play the role of content provider at that point and thus the need to get rid of Directed Electronics, etc

I guess my only concern with that is over the years, we've had companies like Audiovox, Kenwood and Sony that all quit making products for Sirius. What incentives will they have to mass produce products that right now don't appear to be selling very well. These companies would have to make an investment and then hope to see some return. I think the outlook is pretty bleak for any major companies jumping on this bandwagon. It isn't like making an accessory for an iPod where you know you have millions of potential customers. Sat Radio is in a declined state and it will take some mighty ballsy CEO to want to start creating radios for Sirius XM.
 

pattere14

New Member
Dec 6, 2008
21
0
1
sirius

Another problem, aside from the logos and loss of ability to have certain channels as replays, is the fact that they killed my favorite channel with the merger. Left of Center and Stern consume about 90% of my Sirius use. LOC is nearly unlistenable. I went to Slacker and created my own LOC and I love it.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
Another problem, aside from the logos and loss of ability to have certain channels as replays, is the fact that they killed my favorite channel with the merger. Left of Center and Stern consume about 90% of my Sirius use. LOC is nearly unlistenable. I went to Slacker and created my own LOC and I love it.

Lets not turn this into another bitching thread about the loss of your favorite channels. This is about the hardware and the support or lack there of. Lets keep it on that topic.
 

Fergz99

Member
Oct 14, 2008
650
15
18
This is insane. A company that is going bankrupt if they cant pay some debt in February is still turning their back on their high end customers.

We paid insane amounts of money for these devices. Some of us getting every sucessor from the S50, SL100, SL2 (me).?
Fool me once ........

I have the Inno and it is a wonderful radio. Very well made and since I have had it 0 bugs. I never liked the cheap plastic feel of the s50 or sl100.
 

radsatdaily

Member
Dec 7, 2008
73
0
6
www.RadSatDaily.com
Agreed. Don't know though. I would think that the manufacturers could implement Satellite Radios in a more innovative way. Look at how some independent developers like MacNice (StarPlayr) are innovating satellite radio functionality for the internet radio service. If Sirius XM just act as content providers. We could start seeing some innovative products. It could reinvigorate the retail channel. Maybe, it's just wishful thinking on my part and I'm sure it may be a long way aways.

Remember the Xact Rego player. Sirius killed it before it hit the market. With Open Access I think that wouldnt have happened.

I kind of dislike that all Satellite Radios have the exact same basic functionality. No real choice.

Also, I'd hope for a ballsy CEO with the initials S.J. somewhere down the line :)

I guess my only concern with that is over the years, we've had companies like Audiovox, Kenwood and Sony that all quit making products for Sirius. What incentives will they have to mass produce products that right now don't appear to be selling very well. These companies would have to make an investment and then hope to see some return. I think the outlook is pretty bleak for any major companies jumping on this bandwagon. It isn't like making an accessory for an iPod where you know you have millions of potential customers. Sat Radio is in a declined state and it will take some mighty ballsy CEO to want to start creating radios for Sirius XM.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
Agreed. Don't know though. I would think that the manufacturers could implement Satellite Radios in a more innovative way. Look at how some independent developers like MacNice (StarPlayr) are innovating satellite radio functionality for the internet radio service. If Sirius XM just act as content providers. We could start seeing some innovative products. It could reinvigorate the retail channel. Maybe, it's just wishful thinking on my part and I'm sure it may be a long way aways.

Also, I'd hope for a ballsy CEO with the initials S.J. somewhere down the line :)

I agree with you, I think putting the R&D in the manufactures hands and let them innovate we'd be a lot better off. Lets just hope a couple of them do this.

I think Sirius XM need to be just content providers and leave the rest to others, but like you said, maybe we are both doing some wishful thinking. Let S.J. handle it! LOL
 

James

New Member
Nov 4, 2008
16
0
1
New Jersey
XM's products are also lacking. I am amazed that XM would develope a new product, such as the XMP3, that doesn't support wi-fi. Also, afaik, XM does provide a premium internet stream. I still would like to see an internet only portable like the Zing prototype that worked off of the premium stream.
 

radsatdaily

Member
Dec 7, 2008
73
0
6
www.RadSatDaily.com
Here's another example, the Pioneer Inno and the Samsung Helix. It just doesn't make sense two different manufacturers with the exact same interface LOL

Sirius XM should take a who cares approach. If a manufacture wants to create a satellite radio with HD radio, who cares as long as the subscribers pays the 12.99.

If the R&D is put in the hands of the manufacturers (as you put it) that's when I believe we should start seeing some innovation.

The main risk that I can see is if some manufacturers start making crappy products the consumer may blame it on Sirius XM.

I agree with you, I think putting the R&D in the manufactures hands and let them innovate we'd be a lot better off. Lets just hope a couple of them do this.

I think Sirius XM need to be just content providers and leave the rest to others, but like you said, maybe we are both doing some wishful thinking. Let S.J. handle it! LOL
 

joe2k4

Member
Nov 12, 2008
187
4
18
One thing that is so helpfull to me is the voice tags on the SL2. I can't tell you how this feature helped me use this radio. I am blind, so if no voice tags I would have no idea what channel I was on and flipping from channel to channel would be real annoying, so thank you Sirius and Zing for that. That beeing said yes for something you pay $300 for they should be doing everything they can for these products. My radioclassics isn't able to stream on the wifi yet, and its starting to piss me off.