While speculation abounds about whether the upcoming Sirius Starmate 5 will have the capability to receive both Sirius and XM, there's one piece of the puzzle that was missed... the ability to receive A La Carte channels.

As a refresher: Sirius-XM have said that after merging, they would offer the first-ever a la carte packages in subscription media. These packages would allow subscribers to choose 50 channels for $6.99/month, or 100 channels from either Sirius or XM for $14.99/month. Additional channels would cost $0.25/each.

But a commenter on SiriusBuzz points to the Starmate 5's user manual, which gives a strong indication that this radio could indeed be the first A La Carte capable unit.

The section in question, Page 74 of the user manual (PDF), refers to the "My Channels" category, which "will show all of the channels contained in your SIRIUS subscription plan." The Starmate 5 user manual then goes on to describe that the "category heading bar will show the total number of channels your Starmate ST5 is subscribed to."

The manual also differentiates these subscribed channels from channels that are locked by the built-in Parental Control feature (which has been available on previous generations).

Below are select bullet points from the manual highlighting this:

• "If you try to tune to an unsubscribed channel the ST5 will display a 'Channel Unsubscribed' message."
• "The ST5 will not display channel information for any unsubscribed or locked channels."
• "The Memory and Song Seek functions... will only occur on subscribed channels."

Now, before we get all in a tizzy, it is also important to point out that the "My Channels" references in the Starmate 5's manual could be referencing the "select" packages and not true "a la carte" packages. As you can see in Sirius' post-merger channel lineup, there are  other programming packages that would limit the number of channels displayed on the unit, including a "Family Friendly" package, a "Mostly Music" package and a "News, Sports & Talk" package.

Even if that's the case, I still think this is an important development.

[via Orbitcast Forums]

The fan favorite Sirius Starmate 5 (ST5) satellite radio receiver has landed in the halls of the Federal Communications Commission, giving us a sneak peek into what's to come, albeit accompanied by some not-so-sexy FCC testing photos.

According to the FCC submissions, the Starmate 5 will feature:

• Sirius Replay: Pause/rewind/replay up to 44 minutes of live radio
• Memo function: Store up to 30 favorite songs and artists, plus a favorite sports team or NASCAR car, and be alerted whenever they're on.
• Wide-angle 5-line display
• Built-in wireless FM transmitter
• Remote control
• Universal dock
  

Reading through the product manual (PDF), it doesn't look like the Starmate 5 will feature the same multi-color display functionality that it's big brother the Sportster 5 enjoys. That's unfortunate, because I love the color-changing capability.

One interesting thing to note, though, is that there's some question as to whether this radio will be capable of receiving both Sirius and XM due to a comment made by the FCC in its correspondence with the testing firm. Judging from all the documents submitted to the FCC, there is no other mention of dual-mode/interoperable functionality, so I don't think this is the case.

But see for yourself. Check out another photo of the Starmate 5, and read the correspondence letter after the jump...