XM Radio via Windows Media Player 10 And Media Center Edition 2005

[Kent Pribbernow]

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/216/xm_radio_via

"XM Satellite Radio and Online Radio subscribers will be happy to know that they can tune into their favorite XM Radio stations via Windows Media Player 10 Digital Media Mall or through Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005's new XM Online Spotlight channel. The XM Radio Online service will cost subscribers $7.99 a month, while XM Satellite Radio subscribers will receive a discounted rate for XM Radio Online of just $3.99 a month."

This sounds like a really cool service, especially if you're already an XM subscriber. I think the standalone package pricing is a few bucks too high; $5.99 seems more appropriate. But that's just my opinion. :wink:

[Kent Pribbernow]

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/216/xm_radio_via

"XM Satellite Radio and Online Radio subscribers will be happy to know that they can tune into their favorite XM Radio stations via Windows Media Player 10 Digital Media Mall or through Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005's new XM Online Spotlight channel. The XM Radio Online service will cost subscribers $7.99 a month, while XM Satellite Radio subscribers will receive a discounted rate for XM Radio Online of just $3.99 a month."

This sounds like a really cool service, especially if you're already an XM subscriber. I think the standalone package pricing is a few bucks too high; $5.99 seems more appropriate. But that's just my opinion. :wink:

[brianchris]

Awsome....I had been waiting for this since it was first announced about a month ago.

I don't yet have any satelleite radio service, although I've been dying to have it. I can't get it yet becuase the univeral tunners (by Terk) are just starting to come out, and the Alpine connection kit isn't availible. Also, Santa has been told that I want nothing else besides the $150 tuner, connection and installation of XM radio.

Since I don't have an XM account yet, I've signed up for the full online service, but when I do get an account, I'm hoping I can drop down to the $3.99 service.

Will this work in WMP10 on Pocket PC's and Smartphones?

Awsome.

[Neil Enns]

I just gave this a whirl and it's pretty awful for a first attempt. You get a list of all the stations inside WMP (or outside if you prefer) and each line shows the station name, song, and title. That's about it. The scrolling behaviour is non-standard and just... strange. I think it's supposed to look "hip" and "cool", but it's just downright annoying. The "now playing" information floats above the list of stations and continually gets in the way. Connectivity was spotty too. I often couldn't get streams to buffer.

The worst part is how incredibly lacking in features the service is. There's no way to create a favourites list for the channels you like. No way to buy albums for songs you find interesting. No way to flag specific songs as ones you want to be pinged about whenever they play.

All in all I was totally underwhemled.

Neil

[Neil Enns]

Oh, and when WMP is minimized to the taskbar you can't find out what the song/artist is of the playing track. The information that shows up is the station name. Argh!

Neil