# Paid Pandora One Account on an HR



## itzme (Jan 17, 2008)

How does Pandora change on an HR when you use a paid Pandora One account. I assume there are no commercial interruptions, but does the sound quality improve also?


----------



## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

Good question, I've been wondering the same thing. 

On a side note, I turned on one of the satellite music channels a couple days ago and forgot how bad they actually sound, the standard Pandora sounds better but has commercials.


----------



## itzme (Jan 17, 2008)

I'm wondering also if there's any way to improve the quality from standard stereo, also. It may be my AVR (Pioneer 1020k), but even if I play MP3s in the HR's Music and More feature, I can only get stereo and what seems like a low bitrate. I'm sure I could fiddle with the AVR and get a more surround-sounding playback, but I don't like to do mess with the AVR.

Maybe someone with a paid Pandora account will let us know if there's any sound improvement.


----------



## dualsub2006 (Aug 29, 2007)

Pandora One does up the bitrate to 192kbps, but it's not a dramatic jump in sound quality. It also removes all advertising. 

They only stream in stereo, so any surround sound effect would have to be done on your end.


----------



## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

itzme said:


> How does Pandora change on an HR when you use a paid Pandora One account. I assume there are no commercial interruptions, but does the sound quality improve also?


Pandora uses 128k to all media boxes, regardless of subscription status. The only way to get Pandora One's 192k is to play it on a web browser, using their Windows standalone desktop player as far as I know. I used to be able to get Pandora One to load up using PlayOn via media share, but now when I just tested it, it came up with the standard Pandora, and not Pandora One. Streaming to portable devices has even lower bitrates, even if you are a Pandora One subscriber.

I really wish the applications for smart tvs, Tivo, Directv, etc...would allow you to enjoy the higher bitrate if you are a subscriber.

I subscribed two years ago, not so much for getting rid of commercials (the app I was using never played commercials even with the free account), but to keep Pandora in business. They are losing millions a year according to the Wikipedia entry, and I enjoy the service and dont want to see it fail.

While there are lots of other music services available out there, Pandora is the only one I have found that in literally seconds, I can create a station that plays music I like (rarely ever hit the thumbs down), and it just there, on every device I have, no fuss, no muss. Its basically one click and walk away. Never have to mess with it.


----------



## itzme (Jan 17, 2008)

I suspected the higher bit rate only applied to desktop use. Thanks for confirming.


----------

