[IndyJones1023]

I heard about the switch over recently and thought "cool" for some reason. I don't know why. I guess I just thought XM was cool. Well, they would be - without the ads! But they put in annoying promos all over the place! What a crock of crap!

 

[DevilsChargers]

I suppose they should just beam down directly into your brain what's on their other shows, and when the special events are...how else will you know what's on?

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Except that when I want to listen to music I want to listen to music, not invitations to listen to other music.

Personally I've run into several streams that had lousy sound quality.

 

[IndyJones1023]

I prefer the old music channels - commercial free.

 

[Hodaka]

I tried to tune in one of the children's channels for my daughter the other day (she's 18mths) and after spending about 20 minutes listening to some gal ramble on, I gave up and went and got one of her CDs out..

 

[ipfreely]

To me it's just a waste of bandwidth. I would rather they ditch the music and increase the bitrate.

 

[Mark W]

I doubt music takes up any significant bandwidth.

 

[Nfuego]

I tried to tune in one of the children's channels for my daughter the other day (she's 18mths) and after spending about 20 minutes listening to some gal ramble on, I gave up and went and got one of her CDs out..

But on the other hand, 7 to 13 year olds love her...

Sorry they don't have exactly what you want for an 18 mth old.

 

[ipfreely]

I doubt music takes up any significant bandwidth.

On what fact do you base this statement?

 

[TomK]

I prefer having XM over the old channels so thanks, Directv!

 

[Hodaka]

But on the other hand, 7 to 13 year olds love her...

Sorry they don't have exactly what you want for an 18 mth old.

it doesn't take much to make her happy.. just some music.. unfortunately that seemed to be lacking..

 

[turls]

I prefer having XM over the old channels so thanks, Directv!

If you like XM so much, you could have bought it any time (and gotten everything instead of what DirecTV decides to broadcast). Those of us that prefer Music Choice have no real alternative now to get it back. Pretty simple.

 

[dagap]

On what fact do you base this statement?

Audio makes up a small fraction of the bandwidth of a "normal" Directv audio+video channel. Most of the bandwidth is video, of course.

So you can squeeze many audio-only channels into the bandwidth that would be taken by one audio+video channel.

Hence the poster's comment implying that removing ALL of the audio-only channels wouldn't free up much bandwidth.

 

[Diana Collins]

On what fact do you base this statement?

How about the principles of analog to digital encoding?

A CD quality data stream (44.1KHz/16 bits) WITHOUT compression is only about 700Kbits/sec. - or about 1/4 of the average audio and video channel on DirecTV. Compressed audio can go down to to 128Kbits without any perceptible loss in quality, and down to 32Kbits with acceptable quality.

That is a rounding error in the overall data strean on a DirecTV transponder.

Let me guess...one of your DirecTV gold buddies told you otherwise???

 

[ipfreely]

Per my calculations. Omission of the XM channels would add bandwidth. Enough to even increase the bit rate.

 

[Kanyon71]

Per my calculations. Omission of the XM channels would add bandwidth. Enough to even increase the bit rate.

Then all the people who use the music channels would be yelling that they don't have them any longer Can't please all the people all the time.

 

[Diana Collins]

Per my calculations. Omission of the XM channels would add bandwidth. Enough to even increase the bit rate.

They could save MORE bandwidth (about 50 times as much) by eliminating one of the "mix" channels. Or they could save about 50 times as much bandwidth as ALL of the audio channels, combined, by moving one HD channel to a Spaceway satellite.

Since the audio channels are distributed across many transponders, eliminating them would no appreciable impact on bandwidth available for video transmission.

 

[topochicho]

They could save MORE bandwidth (about 50 times as much) by eliminating one of the "mix" channels. Or they could save about 50 times as much bandwidth as ALL of the audio channels, combined, by moving one HD channel to a Spaceway satellite.

Since the audio channels are distributed across many transponders, eliminating them would no appreciable impact on bandwidth available for video transmission.

damnit Dan! Stop confusing the argument with your logic and rational thinking! Can't you see that without the music channels bandwidth would be limitless! Think of all the home shopping channels they could add! Or even site to site matter transmission... that right matter transmission! Why are you trying to keep teleporters from the masses Dan?!

 

[GTO40]

Was the choice to switch due to Murdock owning some stake in XM? Does anyone know. I too prefer the music choice over XM.

 

[dtremain]

I greatly prefer XM over Music Choice in terms of programming, variety, and sound quality.

The occasional announcement or promo doesn't bother me at all. In some cases, as in the intelligent commentary offered on XM Classics by Martin Booksmith (a musical scholar, formerly of NPR), the commentary adds to the experience.

But, then, I critically listen to music and prefer good radio to mediocre aural wallpaper.

As per the unhappy 18 month old, was that Radio Disney or XM Kids? Radio Disney is what it is (it was also on Music Choice). XM Kids plays a lot more music. There was no other kids choice on Music Choice than Radio Disney (since For Kids Only was taken off years ago), and so the 18 month old has only gained by the change.