what exactly is on Sirius?

also, a couple of daily soccer talk shows - world soccer daily, radio 606, giorgio show, etc.

I have sirius and I love the soccer coverage they have

 

This is what I originally wanted - a portable device. I agree in this area it is pretty weak.

But I have it in my car, and I listen through same account on the internet.
Its great getting in car after work(East Coast) and being able to listen to World Soccer Daily. Then will all the errands on the weekend, listening in the car to the games is good too.

Good luck

 

If you get the Stiletto 2, you get headphones which are much more comfortable.

I haven't checked prices, but you may be able to go to www.tss-radio.com, buy a Stiletto 100 without the antenna headphones and then buy the Stiletto 2 headphones seperately.

If you can afford the Stiletto 2, it is much better than the 100. You may be able to go to www.tss-radio.com and buy the Stiletto 2 without the antenna headphones. Try it out, and if you need the antenna headphones, then buy them later.

These headphones which are uncomfortable are the ones that come with the Stiletto 10 and the Stiletto 100. They do have a built-in antenna.

However, depending on where you live, you may be able to use any other headphones and get a signal without wearing an additional antenna on your head. Both the Stiletto 100 and Stiletto 2 do come with a pair of "ear bud" headphones. Of course, you can use whatever you can fit into the hole.

You can't get the soccer channels through the wi-fi, but both the Stiletto 100 and Stiletto 2 offer a wi-fi mode, which allows you to listen to music and some of the talk channels through a nearby wireless router. The only big difference here is that the Stiletto 2 offers "wireless-g" which will give you a better range and can connect to more hotspots.

If you do not subscribe to the "premium internet" service, the sound quality does suffer. Unlike on satellite mode, you cannot save or pause music this way, but it does slow down the battery useage as well as allows you to listen in more areas.

The "radio replay" feature is good. I haven't quite figured out what that is, but if you listen to music through the satellite for some length of time (I think it's over 15 minutes), then it'll automatically save whatever you're listening to.

 

Does anyone have any info on what is going to happen after the merger? Anything?

 

I don't think anyone knows the entire story for sure, but here's a guess. It seems that you may be able to pay a little bit more to get XM on your Sirius, or Sirius on your XM.

Eventually (within 1-3 years), you'll be able to buy a radio where you can "pick and choose" exactly what you want. Or, maybe that's just in the radios that come pre-built into cars.

What we do know is that you'll be able to select various packages. There'll be a "family package", maybe a "music only" package, etc. I saw something where you may be able to select 50 channels at (I think $6-$9 monthly), and get additional channels for somewhere around 50 cents per channel per month.

Even though the merger has finally been approved, it'll still be a while before you can actually listen to XM on Sirius or vice-versa. There's still the matter of trying to get the signal on the other guy's radio. -- Honestly, they should figure out a way to do it online ASAP. Have one login for both sites, where you can select from either the XM online channels or the Sirius online channels.

 

It's gotta happen first.

A term of the merger, as I understand it, is that they have to create/allocate a number of channels for public affairs or non-profit programming or whatever to appease the FCC.

Some duplicate channels, I'm sure, will be combined.

They'll have a hell of a lot of sports programming, that's for sure. I don't know where they'll put it all.

But, yeah, I chose Sirius over XM because of the soccer (and the NFL) and figured I'd be okay until the merger. Would have been nice to have baseball, too, but you can't have everything.

The Charlie/Giorgio show is sometimes worth listening to, but not all the time. Ditto for WSD.

 

It has?

Oh, so it has. I gotta get on that internet, I'm behind on everything.

 

Honestly, that "free radio" on satellite is a load of horsecrap. Yeah, I pay for radio, which I see as superior. Why in the hell would I want to turn back to a free alternative? All that happened here was that the NAB whined about a non-monopoly, and they got what they wanted... XM and Sirius have been bleeding money for years, and they are forced to give away part of their spectrum? Hey, maybe MLS could give me ownership in their league! All I ask for is one team. Better yet, maybe they could give the NAACP a team so that minorities get their fair representation in the league.

You can count on duplicate channels being axed or combined. Do we really need two feeds of MSNBC or two sets of traffic channels? No.

They could easily have a set of channels for MLB in the summer and use those same channels for NHL in the winter. Soccer only takes two channels, or three at most, so that's not a problem. NBA channels could easily share bandwidth with NFL channels, as those games really don't overlap.

Sirius has a few satellites, as does XM. If you combine those satellites together, wouldn't you also combine the bandwidth, making this a relative non-issue? Once they axe the duplicate news/talk and traffic channels, that'll save a lot of room there.

Charlie/Giorgio...you actually UNDERSTAND those guys?

 

I'm afraid I don't follow you, squadron leader.

I am with you 100%. I am willing to pay for quality and value. And commercial (terrestrial) radio is just that...commercial. And the same crap all the time. The only times I've listened to terrestrial radio in the last 10 months is when the ESPN Radio feed was precluded from carrying the Sunday night baseball game on Sirius and I listened on the local AM station or when I have forgotten to bring the receiver with me.

Charlie, sometimes. But I barely listen. It's on at a strange time here in Pacific Time. Guests sometimes are okay.

Some time back, some company was announced as doing a radio deal with MLS (it wasn't XM or Sirius). I wonder if we'll ever see MLS programming (games and/or talk) on the combined company's channels.

 

Oh, and as for the original poster, you also get replays of the games, which are fun.

However, as a sidenote, the live broadcasts have the team names and score/half on the screen. It says something like "English Premier League, Chelsea 1 - Manchester United 1 - 1H"

The replays just say something like "English Premier League Soccer Replay. Chelsea @ Manchester United" with no indication of the score. I think this may be due to the fact that there's a guy sitting in a control room listening to the live broadcast and updating the score as appropriate. During the replays, it's a lot easier (and more affordable) for them to have a generic scroll, or "PDT" as they're called.

 

The way I see it, it works like this. I can purchase a box to attach to my TV. For a monthly fee, this box allows me unlimited access to channels like HBO and Cinemax. However, the commercial channels such as NBC, or TNT want in on the ride, so they petition the government to allow them access to this service, which they didn't invest in.

(Actually, this sounds semi-familiar. AppleTV? AmazonUnbox? I'm relatively unfamiliar with both those services, but it sounds like my example could be similar.)

What incentive is there for me to watch a watered-down, censored, advertising-filled channel like TNT, when I can watch a similar movie uncut and uncensored on HBO and am already paying for the right to do so?

A couple years ago, I heard that MLS was "considering their options" when it came to signing a deal with XM or Sirius. I wonder if this only sweetens the deal for MLS.