XM resets

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DaveinOlyWA

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2010
Messages
16,260
Location
Olympia, WA
I hate XM Radio. it constantly drops out so a continued listening experience is impossible most of the time so despite having it free for however long a new LEAF has it, I only turned it on for the first time yesterday and several times the radio rebooted itself. The reboot only took about 3 seconds so quick but it was unmistakably a reboot nevertheless.

Any one else seeing this? It happened 4-5 times in just over an hour of running time and has never happened with regular radio which is on 100% of the time when I am driving. FYI; signal reception is no better than before.

**edit**

https://youtu.be/jaS1BFo2z3k
 
I have never had my radio reset/reboot in any mode in my 2012. XM Radio works well here in the South. Even in my downtown areas with tall buildings, XM seldom looses signal on the channels I listen to. However I have noticed that some channels are less "rugged" than others. They will drop out when driving under an overpass or next to a building when others will not. I have tested this while parked next to a building - I could get some stations but not others. I would assume that XM has a few satellites and depending on the line of sight to the one you are listening too. Or possibly they are transmitted on several satellites for the ones that seem to never drop out unless you are in a tunnel. I would imagine ones location within our country would make a difference as well.
 
Darryl said:
I have never had my radio reset/reboot in any mode in my 2012. XM Radio works well here in the South. Even in my downtown areas with tall buildings, XM seldom looses signal on the channels I listen to. However I have noticed that some channels are less "rugged" than others. They will drop out when driving under an overpass or next to a building when others will not. I have tested this while parked next to a building - I could get some stations but not others. I would assume that XM has a few satellites and depending on the line of sight to the one you are listening too. Or possibly they are transmitted on several satellites for the ones that seem to never drop out unless you are in a tunnel. I would imagine ones location within our country would make a difference as well.

location means everything. most satellite coverage works best in the South because that is where they are located. I thought that maybe they would wise up and position some of them farther north. that apparently has not happened
 
I get excellent XM reception in the MSP area, which is quite far North. I've also never had mine reboot, ever AFAIK, it might cut out when I drive in the garage(the door faces East) but not all the time. That said I don't have XM anymore, mainly because I can't stand their business practice of offering you a low monthly rate but you have to sign a contract. Sure you can cancel at any time, by calling a 800 number that NO ONE ever answers. Trust me I tried during a one time thing where it was free for 4 months?? and they didn't get my CC number. They said that even though it was free they would still like it if I called if I didn't want it to continue at the regular rate, probably just to pressure me into signing back up. Well I tried, and tried, and tried.....you get my point. I tried calling for almost a week and could never get through to anyone, either a busy signal, just would ring for minutes at a time, I'd get a recording telling me how much they cared about me and it would only be a little bit more time, after which I'd either get disconnected or 10s of minutes more of being on hold. I finally gave up trying and let it lapse, after several emails from them(that I couldn't reply to) my service ceased and I said good riddance! I'd sure of been pissed if they had my CC number, because of this "free" trial I'll never give XM my CC number, well unless the contract was for a specified time and would lapse with no action required of me. This crap of having to call a number that no one answers and your service automatically being renewed is bull IMO.
But I did get good reception, oh and I also didn't really care for the poor sound, too overcompressed and very little bass on many of the channels I listened to, FM sounds way better, which isn't saying a lot....
 
jjeff said:
I get excellent XM reception in the MSP area, which is quite far North. I've also never had mine reboot, ever AFAIK, it might cut out when I drive in the garage(the door faces East) but not all the time. That said I don't have XM anymore, mainly because I can't stand their business practice of offering you a low monthly rate but you have to sign a contract. Sure you can cancel at any time, by calling a 800 number that NO ONE ever answers. Trust me I tried during a one time thing where it was free for 4 months?? and they didn't get my CC number. They said that even though it was free they would still like it if I called if I didn't want it to continue at the regular rate, probably just to pressure me into signing back up. Well I tried, and tried, and tried.....you get my point. I tried calling for almost a week and could never get through to anyone, either a busy signal, just would ring for minutes at a time, I'd get a recording telling me how much they cared about me and it would only be a little bit more time, after which I'd either get disconnected or 10s of minutes more of being on hold. I finally gave up trying and let it lapse, after several emails from them(that I couldn't reply to) my service ceased and I said good riddance! I'd sure of been pissed if they had my CC number, because of this "free" trial I'll never give XM my CC number, well unless the contract was for a specified time and would lapse with no action required of me. This crap of having to call a number that no one answers and your service automatically being renewed is bull IMO.
But I did get good reception, oh and I also didn't really care for the poor sound, too overcompressed and very little bass on many of the channels I listened to, FM sounds way better, which isn't saying a lot....

interesting you get good reception. one would think you are not far enough South of me to make a significant difference but who knows?
 
Never had it happen in the 5 years I had my Leaf... It also has never happened in our other car which has XM. ( I don't have XM activated in our Volt since, with Android Auto, it is superfluous.)

DaveinOlyWA said:
Any one else seeing this? It happened 4-5 times in just over an hour of running time and has never happened with regular radio which is on 100% of the time when I am driving. FYI; signal reception is no better than before.
 
I listened occasionally during my three months of complimentary XM in my 2016 SV. No reboots, but plenty more drop-outs than the XM of years ago (at least in the Seattle-Everett area). I believe the terrestrial repeater network has been reduced in coverage. The XM radios would switch from satellite to repeater and back without missing a beat. Now I get drop-outs under bridges, and forget about driving on East-West roads lined with trees or hills.

The complimentary service only served to remind me why I went from being an XM fan for many years to just not caring for it anymore. The merger with Sirius changed XM and squandered a lot of what I liked.

Sirius has better satellite coverage with their birds more central, so didn't neat the repeater network. Their audio codec leaves a lot to be desired, though, with a very swirly sound in the high-end, and exaggerated bass to try to make up for it. My other car has a Sirius chipset radio. It's unlistenable. XM is at least tolerable, more so on the Classical and Jazz channels (but forget 70's or 7, or is that "Shheventies on Shheven" :roll: ).

I do miss the old XM pre-merger. The sound quality was better than today, playlists deeper, and many channels had knowledgeable hosts who were passionate about their music. Now the sound quality is worse than FM, and many of the channels I liked are long gone.

Nowadays, I just hop into the car, plug my iPhone in via USB, and say to my Apple Watch, "Hey Siri, play Classical Radio," or "Play some music by Dave Brubeck" ... and you know what, it works. The sound quality is excellent, there's album art on the Navi screen, forward/back work... no drop-outs, and Apple Music is costing me less than XM and is not tied to the car.
 
gshepherd said:
I listened occasionally during my three months of complimentary XM in my 2016 SV. No reboots, but plenty more drop-outs than the XM of years ago (at least in the Seattle-Everett area). I believe the terrestrial repeater network has been reduced in coverage. The XM radios would switch from satellite to repeater and back without missing a beat. Now I get drop-outs under bridges, and forget about driving on East-West roads lined with trees or hills.

The complimentary service only served to remind me why I went from being an XM fan for many years to just not caring for it anymore. The merger with Sirius changed XM and squandered a lot of what I liked.

Sirius has better satellite coverage with their birds more central, so didn't neat the repeater network. Their audio codec leaves a lot to be desired, though, with a very swirly sound in the high-end, and exaggerated bass to try to make up for it. My other car has a Sirius chipset radio. It's unlistenable. XM is at least tolerable, more so on the Classical and Jazz channels (but forget 70's or 7, or is that "Shheventies on Shheven" :roll: ).

I do miss the old XM pre-merger. The sound quality was better than today, playlists deeper, and many channels had knowledgeable hosts who were passionate about their music. Now the sound quality is worse than FM, and many of the channels I liked are long gone.

Nowadays, I just hop into the car, plug my iPhone in via USB, and say to my Apple Watch, "Hey Siri, play Classical Radio," or "Play some music by Dave Brubeck" ... and you know what, it works. The sound quality is excellent, there's album art on the Navi screen, forward/back work... no drop-outs, and Apple Music is costing me less than XM and is not tied to the car.

maybe I am hampered by the mountains that literally shadow me in nearly every direction but due North? I have tried to figure out why I get the constant dropouts and there is no rhyme or reason. Even on wide open flat stretches of I-5 it happens regularly
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Any one else seeing this? It happened 4-5 times in just over an hour of running time and has never happened with regular radio which is on 100% of the time when I am driving. FYI; signal reception is no better than before.
Up until today, I have never seen my radio reboot itself. I usually listen to podcasts via bluetooth and today was no different. However about 3 minutes after leaving the house, the radio rebooted (podcast stopped, display went black for several seconds, then Nissan E Logo appeared followed by the press accept / decline sequence), then radio connected to the 'info center" and downloaded something and then the podcast began playing again. I do not have a currently active XM subscription.
 
jhm614 said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
Any one else seeing this? It happened 4-5 times in just over an hour of running time and has never happened with regular radio which is on 100% of the time when I am driving. FYI; signal reception is no better than before.
Up until today, I have never seen my radio reboot itself. I usually listen to podcasts via bluetooth and today was no different. However about 3 minutes after leaving the house, the radio rebooted (podcast stopped, display went black for several seconds, then Nissan E Logo appeared followed by the press accept / decline sequence), then radio connected to the 'info center" and downloaded something and then the podcast began playing again. I do not have a currently active XM subscription.

interesting. well I have an S30 so nothing to download....
 
I've not had the radio reset at all (when in XM or otherwise), but I almost never use XM because of station drops, usually when I'm driving in forest. This has happened every time I've tried XM (when I initially got the car, and whenever they've had "free" periods).
 
I haven't noticed my radio reboot, but I don't use XM.
Too many dropouts in my commute and up/down 101 where we live to make it worthwhile.

We're getting free (well, included in our monthly subscription) Pandora on the cell phones now, and there are fewer drops with that than with XM..
Too bad, it's a nice concept, but just not good enough coverage, at least around here...
(I've actually thought that they should broadcast each channel twice. The feed you listen being on a 1 minute or so ( probably less) buffer/delay. Then, in the chance that there is a drop in coverage, the radio will still be playing from the buffer for a bit. When coverage is back, it should be able to pick up the missed part from the other channel. Most of the drops are less than 10 seconds...)

desiv
 
desiv said:
I haven't noticed my radio reboot, but I don't use XM.
Too many dropouts in my commute and up/down 101 where we live to make it worthwhile.

We're getting free (well, included in our monthly subscription) Pandora on the cell phones now, and there are fewer drops with that than with XM..
Too bad, it's a nice concept, but just not good enough coverage, at least around here...
(I've actually thought that they should broadcast each channel twice. The feed you listen being on a 1 minute or so ( probably less) buffer/delay. Then, in the chance that there is a drop in coverage, the radio will still be playing from the buffer for a bit. When coverage is back, it should be able to pick up the missed part from the other channel. Most of the drops are less than 10 seconds...)

desiv

well then you might not consider what I am experiencing as a reboot. Mine last much less than 10 seconds.
 
LeftieBiker said:
No reboots in nearly 4 years, just occasional, predictable dropouts.
Ditto for me, except it's a bit under 3.5 years for me, across 2 Leaf SVs w/premium.

I've been a subscriber or on a trial to XM Sirius for at least 2.5 years in total and am a regular listener. The dropouts for me are very rare other than obvious ones of going underneath bridges/overpasses.

OP: In the future, you might be better off uploading videos to YouTube. Once uploaded, they also have video trimming and other tools.
 
cwerdna said:
LeftieBiker said:
No reboots in nearly 4 years, just occasional, predictable dropouts.
Ditto for me, except it's a bit under 3.5 years for me, across 2 Leaf SVs w/premium.

I've been a subscriber or on a trial to XM Sirius for at least 2.5 years in total and am a regular listener. The dropouts for me are very rare other than obvious ones of going underneath bridges/overpasses.

OP: In the future, you might be better off uploading videos to YouTube. Once uploaded, they also have video trimming and other tools.


Actually the key is to upload large files at 3:30 in the morning when your bandwidth is "sufficient" This only took 45 seconds as opposed to an hour last night.

https://youtu.be/jaS1BFo2z3k
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
location means everything. most satellite coverage works best in the South because that is where they are located. I thought that maybe they would wise up and position some of them farther north. that apparently has not happened

Geosynchronous orbits are over the Equator. Can not orbit just in North, orbits are ellipse with one focal point at center of Earth. Sorry, but that's orbital physics. Sure, is possible to get global coverage with more satellites in lower orbits, but will cost more.
 
desiv said:
(I've actually thought that they should broadcast each channel twice. The feed you listen being on a 1 minute or so ( probably less) buffer/delay. Then, in the chance that there is a drop in coverage, the radio will still be playing from the buffer for a bit. When coverage is back, it should be able to pick up the missed part from the other channel. Most of the drops are less than 10 seconds...)

desiv

I believe XM does or used to provide an alternate stream with a 6 second delay, but I don't remember if that was for the ground repeaters or from the satellites. Hmm.
 
Back
Top