# Shouldn't sat radio sats have enough bandwidth to provide 2 channel SACD-type sound?



## ejjames (Oct 3, 2006)

I realize these sats are different than the DBS birds, but are they that strapped for bandwidth that they have to compress so much, and launch new birds.

i guess i just don't understand the tech. does the fcc allocate less bandwidth? it seems one DBS sized sat could handle all sat radios needs seeing as audio takes up a sliver of a video channel.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

You be surprised how little bandwidth is allocated to SatRad. In fact, it's half of what was originally allocated - thanks to pressure from terrestrial radio groups like the NAB. I forget the exact numbers for bandwidth, but *all* of the bandwidth for a given service (Sirius or XM) is covered by 2 transponders.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Boy, the AQ of XM is getting really bad. When I first got XM it was almost CD quality. Now, it's far worse than FM.

I'm very close to dumping the service.


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