XM Home Receiver

Neil, That is a curious idea and I'll try to help find some information.

One thing I once heard that may still be true is that XM has 40kW terrestrial transmitters in some locations which have poor satellite reception, and these were reported at the time I read about it as unlicensed pirate operations that the FCC was ignoring. I would also expect a health hazard from those antennas, but that's a different subject.

We need to talk to Universal Radio and C.Crane for starters to see if they have any solutions.

I also have some classical music source information which I'll relay to you privately, although one excellent twice monthly concert series is made available under Creative Commons from The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/music/listen

On the job - four hours a day

I use one here daily. I have the XM connected to a Ramsey transmitter which pretty much covers my property..

The unit operates on 12 v.d.c. which I have plenty of. I have the supplied antenna stuck to my metal roof and the head unit mounted inside as far as the antenna wire length allows. (~20') I have the head mounted on a wall so I can change channels and such with ease. Output audio to the Ramsey and Vala! (Through an isolation transformer)

The antenna doesn't have to be on metal. When I was testing, I had it on my shingled roof and it worked just as well. I purchased a second antenna and mounted it in my car. I use the FM xmtr. built-in to the head unit and listen through my car stereo. I don't pay the extra money for a second rcvr. I just transfer the head unit between the car and the house..

This is the one that I use. Shop around and you will find a better price. Rev. Robert had one for sale.. 😉

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3858051&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term=1200662&utm_content=Exact&utm_campaign=PLA&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CMC5z7eU8bYCFYVuMAodES4AAA&gclsrc ="ds"

If you already have the service in your car, for a few extra bucks per month you can add a second rcvr. to your account..

You will be able to pick up the satellite just as long as the antenna is outside in the open..

Thanks to all for the information provided but the solution was right in front of me and all it took was a bit of thinking and research. I have a network media player and found a subscription music service which streams through it. This will allow for a connection to the transmitter without using the PC so it will be free for other projects as well as being powered down when not in use.

Neil

I Was Going To Suggest Loading A Cd With Mp3'S And Setting AThe Cd PlayEr To Shuffle

I'm drawing a blank on "network media player"

What is one of them?

BACK FOR AN EDIT!!

I should have done this before asking, I just Wiki'd the subject

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Media_Player

Well, these have been talked about here before, but I'm dense as a brick on so far understanding what's going on with these things.

This was purchased for the purpose of us being able to view streaming video directly on a TV screen without the need for a PC. Since buying this there have been many features added which now include a very large number of media sources including YouTube.

The user interface is via a remote and the TV screen where menu selections appear and are selected.

Neil

Hi Neil, im like you, I dont watch much TV but I do have both Direct TV and cable for music channels. Anyway, I know you may not be into it but what I have done for "back up" is record many many hours of my favorite things from cable and direct TV audio music channels using Hi Fi VCRs,, you can record six to 8 hours of high quality audio on a standard VHS tape. I realize this is past technology but people are throwing away good recorders and tapes. I have a "couple" recorders and lots of tapes, most of the tapes I bought new when the format was crashing and you could buy 12 name brand tapes for under 10 dollars. Anyway I know there are alternatives now for recording audio so maybe my way of doing it isnt so hot of an idea anymore.
The nice thing about using the tapes is the long play time and if you record the video you can capture the titles of the music etc for referance if you should ever want to access it..
I know doing it this way a person is stuck with the taped varity but if you have as much as I have on tape you have a lot of varity.
This of course isnt doing you any good if your going to cancel cable.I have charter here and it costs 34 a month for the basic digital package which gets you the music channels. From that one transmitter is on 24/7 with the instrumentals, I usualy just use it for a short time when I get up or fall asleep at night , but its always there... ( most of the time !)
Another idea is there are plenty of classical on line stations you can get for free and connect to the transmitter room ....
If you like the xm programing then that wins out.. you can get a trial I think 7 day or two week trial on the web with streamed audio if you want to record that for couple of weeks you have some material !
Its also possible of course to transfer the music to a comptuer and play the files from there.
I started using Hi Fi VCRs for exteneded recording a few years ago, my son bought me an MP3 player and after that I wasnt using the HI Fi VCRs much but today I still "can" music from cable becaue some day I may dump it too or they may change formats Like direct TV did a few years agot.. They dropped music choice and went with xm which i didnt care for at all but thats personal preference....
Hope that gives you some idea of options.
My transmitters right now are getting there music from wma files being played from a new style car stereo ,(no CD or cassette but AM/FM and USB and SD card slots, they have built in mp3 and wma decoders) (lots of brands do this now) The ones I have are low cost pyle stereos) which has USB and SD slots and line outs on the car stereo, so I connect these right to the transmitter after a SIMA volume stabilizer (SIMA SVS-4) which is also an audio and video imput siwtcher.. I dont use the video inputs on the switcher, but since most video sources are HDMI today people are throwing away the SIMA SVS-4 box which has a nice variable audio compresor expander on it which works well.
Anyway with the car stereo system I am using, I use 32 gig USB flash drives. One them gives you about 5000 wma songs at 128kbs which is only about the flash drive being half full !!!! Im happy with that ! I should take some pictures of the installation, it is sure working good..and I dont have any ground loop problems either, just nice clean audio. What is nice about the car stereos as a audio source its led light so no bulbs to burn out and of course no moving parts so these can run 24/7 but at 200 foot range ill save the power to run it for "special occasions" ...
Its fun though to have it all running once is while.

Joe,

You have given good ideas about building a library and in the past I did use a VCR for audio recording. Great fidelity at a low cost for the tapes.

At present, though, I am looking for a virtually hands off solution and I had this with the cable music. My cost is much higher than you cited and it increases each year because of the bundling the cable provider forces on its customers. To get the music I have to subscribe to several tiers which I don't need. When I had Direct TV I was able to negotiate a la carte without all the other package items I didn't need at a reduced cost but I had to abandon this because the trees grew and blocked the signal path. The cable provider is not willing to negotiate so away they go.

The cable company uses "customer retention" techniques where if I call when the bill increases they will offer a discount for a year but I am no longer willing to play this game with them. By making the change I plan my cost will be less than one tenth what it is now.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions which are good information for others who want to build a library.

Neil

When I started direct TV about 12 years ago, they just let me buy the music channels for $4.50 a month! But then the company sold out to who ever couple of times and mergers so now im paying 35 bucks a month on that but do get thelocal channels and a couple ohters in the basic package. They have good classical music channels on direct tv, there music program is called SONIC,but Iike Music Choice much better.. Hope you find a solution, thats kind of why I went with the flash drive aproach, can put hundreds of music files on it and it plays hands off 24/7 but all depends on how much hard copy a person has..
Hope it works out for you what ever you go with.. Couple of months ago the cable company here had a real problem with the music channels, darn music played fine but at random about every fifteen min the music had a bad glitch in it, took several calls and three tecks here at the house befor they finally realized the problem wanst here it was all over town.
Thats when I deceided to set up my own "music" servers - Right now im back on cable and its hands off operation, but I do manage to get the music with the basic packaage for $34 or so, and that I can afford, although its a high annual price just to have the hands off feature...
Radio Joe

The word "bundle" has always bothered me, starting in the early days when dating risks could lead to "little bundles."

The internet and phone service from the cable company is excellent, compared to shabby service from the copper pair for DSL and buzzy telephone, so I put up with outrageous cost.

A lovely lady in the bill-pay office promised to lower my bill substantially if I accepted "the bundle", which meant adding TV. The fact that I refuse to watch TV made no impression on her and she managed to win at sales arm wrestling.

When my first bill arrived the total price ended up being more than I'd been paying, so I immediately canceled the TV. Things went in my favor because although the TV portion of the bill was stopped, the lowered "bundle" prices continued on internet and phone for all 6-months!

But, like Radio8Z, I don't have time to keep ahead of the bundle game, so the cost is way back up.

The cable company offers bundled services such as TV plus phone plus internet but the other bundling is programming. This is where if you want movie channels you have to subscribe to the basic TV package, the digital package, etc. which has the effect of forcing customers to pay for programming they may not want.

As I recall, in the early days when cable evolved from CATV the FCC allowed bundling of programming services to enhance the profits so the cable system building could be funded with the intent that once the cable systems were established bundling would no longer be the accepted practice. But like temporary taxes some things just don't go away if there is money to be made.

As far as I am concerned, the cable company won with this bundling. They still bundle but I cancelled. Pyrrhic victory is common in business these days.

Neil

Each week the yard waste gets bundled for Monday pickup. I always listen to Part 15 AM radio while bundling.

If you're running an Internet stream, you might want to look into business cable packages (if you haven't already).

My business cable 'bundle', which came with free Business TV, had substantially more bandwidth than the residential service, and higher speeds.  Plus it cost less than the comparable residential bundle.  And in terms of customer service, I think that the longest I ever had to wait on hold was a couple of minutes, and, at least with Shaw Cable here in BC, business customers got priority for repairs, installations and the like over residential.

The quest for a reliable audio source continues. The streaming site was tested using a stand alone web box and it proved to be unreliable. Anything which disrupts the streaming stops it and it does not automatically recover. One disruption, which was to be expected, happened when the cable tech. was here to unplug the cable TV service (saves me $80 per month) and he disconnected the feed from the street to install a trap.

But once the service was restored the streaming drops continued for unknown reasons. Sometimes it would run for several hours and other times it would quit after a few moments. My conclusion is that this cake is not ready to bake.

The XM in-home receiver I ordered will be here tomorrow and another round of testing will begin. It is hoped (and expected) that the reliability will be similar to satellite TV which was only out during strong storms.

Update to follow.

Neil