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July 18, 2003
My Office Companion: The XMPCR
Are you one of the 692,253 subscribers (as of 6/30/2003) to XM Radio? I am and have been giving it a whirl for a couple of months. I was enjoying those 100 channels so much in my car that I just had to have the XMPCR. The XMPCR is a $69 hardware/software combination that brings XM Radio to your computer without eating up bandwidth. The shockingly small box comes with a USB-connected tuner, an antenna and a CD-ROM with all the drivers and software to get things running on a Windows computer. There is aftermarket software available for the Mac OS, Linux, FreeBSD, and there are already Windows alternatives.
So far, my experience with the XMPCR has been painless. It installed without a hitch and has never had a signal outage. I am on the family plan with XM so my two receivers cost me $17 per month. I have the XMPCR on nine hours a day and my Alpine about one hour per day (during the work week). That works out to roughly $0.08 per hour which is well worth it if I can stay away from the spreading menace of Clear Channel Communications.
With a little creativity you can even record your favorite stuff right to MP3 using something like Total Recorder. There is also a little project underway to equip the XMPCR with a digital output for superior sound quality and analog-free recording. The possibilities are endless and the entry fee is small. Great stuff.
Posted by Mitch in Computing
and Music & Audio
and Wireless
Comments
Since this story was posted, the ability to add an optical S/PDIF output to the XMPCR has become not only a reality, but has been productized. You can buy either an add-on kit, or an XMPCR pre-modified from the XMfan store at www.xmfan.com
Posted by: Nick Sayer at September 28, 2003 8:00 PM
I hate to tell you, but Clear Channel is a partner of XMSR.
You're not getting very far from them, my friend!
Posted by: Gregg at February 1, 2004 1:57 PM