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xm stations have different fidelity

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by Rhino, Feb 8, 2010.

  1. Rhino

    Rhino New Member

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    I am still on my trial period on XM.

    I've been following the weather. There is a lot of static.

    However, the music stations are fine.

    Is there something wrong with my XM or is it by design. The music is on Hi fidelity and weather is low bandwidth?
     
  2. mgb4tim

    mgb4tim Noob

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    I agree, they different channels have varied levels of quality
     
  3. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    That is because like Directv and Dish they are using a Data Transport Stream to get a signal to you. The transport stream has a finite bandwidth. They allocate bandwidth according to the service in question. a channel playing Classical music might get a little more bandwidth, than say the Weather Channel, which is just talking heads, not needing the same fidelity requirements than full spectrum audio channels. On directv the PPV's get the biggest bandwidth, whereas the cartoon channel gets much less, kids can't tell poor bandwidth problems, I.E less resolution in the video and audio.
     
  4. PriusLewis

    PriusLewis Management Scientist

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    You can really hear it on an upgraded system. Too bad they consider Classic Rock to be worthy of only the same resolution as the talk stations :mad:
     
  5. Tom Banjo

    Tom Banjo New Member

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    Yes - i noticed that my FM radio stations sound much much better than sattelite. Not really impressed so far with 90 day free trial. For weather and traffic, it is not as big of a deal, but for music it really sounds tinny and anoying.
     
  6. Coasterguy

    Coasterguy New Member

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    Agreed. With the last 3 new cars I have owned the sat radio sounds horrible compared to CD or Ipod.