I'm assuming "never be outdated" doesn't mean it's flashable to work post-merger, though, right?

For that matter, would there be a way with the Mini-Tuner (or the home theater receivers) to 'fool' them into working with a merged company and getting all the channels without having to replace the unit. While $120 for a PnP might not be bad to upgrade, some of the people who spent $800 on a HT receiver might appreciate a cheaper way to get everything.

Thats the cheapest piece of garbage i have ever seen! The installers at the big retail chains like CC and BBY are not going to offer this to customers. They have to now leave the shop and go to their PC dept just to laod the correct software in it? What the hell was XM thinking?

I prefer Sirius' method. you buy a translator for your radio, then you have a choice of a universal tuner or a vdock to dock your current plug and play while still maintaining direct connect sound quality.

I think both of you are a little confused.

TVGenius, all XM and Sirius units will work post merger. Period. If you're wonder about interoperability, you'll need to wait a year for the services to even roll out for that. Basically, don't worry about it.

Philmore, this is for use with aftermarket and factory installed head units. This is what is usually hidden out of sight. If you have an Alpine, Kenwood, Panasonic, etc with XM capabilities and buy a new head unit, a new car, or anything else, this means you don't need to upgrade the peripherals as well, atleast not to get XM. This is a great product that will save a lot of people money down the line. The Mini Tuner compatibility and iPod/CD Changer port makes this unit even more valuable.

I would imagine that there will be a new Minituner for the combined service that fits the pinout of the current Minituner. Just a hunch...

Calgoldenbear: no confusion here. I worked at a car audio shop years ago while working through college (I was MECP certified). I remember when XM first came out with their pioneer fm mod, then a year later when Sirius came out with a Jensen FM mod piece that looked like a CB. I remember when the antennas had 2 lines on them, 1 for sat and 1 for ter (curry connecters). I still do installs for family's and friends as a hobby if im asked to.

This unit is a piece of garbage. Especially since it needs to be loaded with firmware to get it to communicate with your headunit.

Lucky for XM people are not buying direct adapters anymore. It lacks the features that PNP's and portables have. Sirius is going the right route with their VDock solution. you can dock a Sportster5 in the vdock (dock is hidden in glove box or console) and the headunit will use the tuner thats built into the Sportster5! when you leave the car, simply take your Sportster5 with you and drop it into another car, home, or in a boombox. and just like all of Sirius previous direct connects, Sirius' new system has Ipod and CD changer pass throughs as well.

I'm just sick of Xm using Audiovox. Low quality crap. I don't know how many antennas I've been through since the Terk/Audiovox crap came on the scene. I have a 3 week old Audiovox ExpressR and the antenna is already toast. Plus the unit itself had problems with the Replay feature, it skips a lot and the progress bar reads way off always. I'm ordering the new Delphi ExpressRC to replace this junk. I don't know who supplies the Sirius units, but I'm a dual sub and I'm upgrading to the Sportster5, I think they are better quality than the Audiovox crap too...

I have one of those Jensen CB looking things Philmore. They sent it to me free but I never used it, too much of a pain. The Kenwood that resembled the old Sony xm pnp came out not long after and I bought it and had Sirius since. Wish I still had that Kenwood, it was cool.

Philmore, can you link me to a site that has this vDock, I'd like to see it.

As for the vDock outperforming a Direct Tuner, I don't know how. If you're using the headunit, you're stuck with the same features, and most headunits are both XM and Sirius compatible.

This unit is useful for people who buy factory installed units and upgrade down the road. If this unit is their tuner, when they buy a new headunit, no need to buy another adapter. Same with people who start with the headunit and buy a newer one down the road.

A lot of consumers don't care about all the stuff that we do. They want to receive the stations through their stereo and not worry about it. For those people this gives them what they want and added protection down the road.

Personally, I agree, a PnP is much better than using the headunit.

here you go...

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/ces-siriusconnect-universal-vehicle-dock-scvdoc1.html

Not bad. When it comes down to it, I wouldn't buy either. I like the PnP. Unless you have a touchscreen, head units just don't have the display area.

I still stand firm, the direct adapter is a good thing.

So is the list of the support "more than 100 car stereos" available?

This is great in theory, however it appears that to program the thing, you need to be running XP with Internet Explorer Version 6.0. The device will not be programmed in any other way, and if you are a Mac user, forget it, there isn't even an option...