I am mostly concerned about installation and not which is better satelite radio. I want to get satelite radio in my car for my daily commute. I just purchased my 2004 HCH last week and I am a little squeamish about any kinds of installs that are going to require a large amount of installation work on my car. I dont trust many car stereo mechanics enough to let them work on my new car. I guess if anyone knows if either of the satelite radio options out there are relatively simple to install. I think I could handle getting letting someone work on my car if I knew it was going to relatively minor. Has anyone installed satelite radio in their hybrid yet.


MilkandCheese

"an innocent young nation is about to have its eyes ripped violently wide by we two cats."

:blink:

 

Can your Honda dealer do the installation?
I've never subscribed to this and don't really know.

 

MandC:

I recently got a Sirius system. I didn't do it myself, but I watched portions of the installation and I can pass on a couple of (hopefully useful) tips.

First, what I got. My first decision in choosing the hardware was whether I wanted a portable or in-dash model. I opted for a portable receiver because I own two vehicles and wanted to be able to switch the unit between them and also bring it inside. The in-dash models were also a LOT more expensive. Of course I need to buy some additional hardware for the other vehicle and inside, but that's still a lot cheaper than buying two decks and a home receiver. Plus, I'm pretty sure you need an account for each receiver serial number. I won't get into specs, but the unit is a Kenwood. I don't have the model number in front of me but they call it "here to anywhere". It cost about $120 at the store (a little markup due to buying retail vs buying it online). The mounting hardware and antenna was about $40 and they charged me about $40 to put it in. All together the hardware/installation was around $200 and the subscription was $159 for 15 months.

Receiver Installation. First, keep in mind the in-dash style is a lot "cleaner" installation. It simply takes the spot of the factory radio. The portable, by contrast, slides in, mates with internal connectors and locks into a bracket which needs to be mounted in an accessible spot. It has that "fm converterish" look when it's mounted. If you are old enough to remember FM converters that is. If not ask and I will explain. I had them install the bracket right above the cup holder where the dash slopes down and towards the engine. It's a little inconvienent, but I can still fit a sixteen ounce dunkin donuts coffee in there. I thought this was the handiest spot, although I suppose you could also put it on top of the dash. From the backside of the bracket connectors, wires (antenna/signal and Power) run out to a power source and to my factory radio. The signal connection was made through the optional cd-changer input on the factory radio/cd player. All I do to listen to the satellite radio is push the CD button twice. I can of course still utilize the stock AM/FM radio and single CD player. I'm not sure where he grabbed the power from. An alternative method of getting the satellite signals to your sound system is to take the output from the satellite receiver and feed it into a decoder/transmitter which then takes the modified signal and transmits it directly to your FM radio which you have tuned to a specific frequncy. This just sounded too bulky to me. Plus the tech said the sound was better the other way. Of course if you get the in-dash style this whole (overly long) paragraph goes away.

Antenna. The antenna looks like a computer mouse and is has a flat magnet on the bottom. I had him mount it on the trunk deck. He took the cable and ran it around and under the middle of the back edge of the trunk lid (It's a small wire and any deformation of the seal is minimal), over to the left on the underside of the trunk deck, down the hinge, behind the left trunk panel, to the left and bottom of the rear seat (he took both the seat and backrest out), under the moldings of the F and R door thresholds, behind the panel to the left of the left foot rest and up over the column to the middle accesory panel. Alternatively you could mount it on the roof behind the existing antenna, but I think this would involve removing or cutting the inside roof panel. The trunk deck is definiteley the easier way to go.

Misc. Whichever way you go, I suggest you get a unit with a large, bright display. My display is only about 1- 1.5 inches high and about 5 inches long and I have trouble seeing it during the day with sunglasses on. Also the in-dash models are usually MP3 ready, which of course the stock CD player isn't.

Over all I am satisfied with the system. Reception is good with the exception of the signal cutting out sporadically some days, due I suppose to satellite positioning and/or solar activity, among other factors. But it's never more than a couple seconds and it hasen't annoyed me too much. I am also very happy with the programming. 60 some odd stations and no more commercials. YEEAH- HAH!!!!. (except on the stations they "re-broadcast" like Air America, which by the way is carried 24/7 on Sirius. XM doesn't carry the totality of their programming).

Hope this helped.

MC

 

I wanted satelite radio mainly to listen to air america, so that last tip is really helpful. If you use the fm modulator method of transmitting the signal you still have to run the power and antenae wire right?


MilkandCheese :blink:

 

That is correct MilkandCheese. The FM modulator is only used to get the signal from the satellite receiver to the existing radio and out to the speakers.

XM drops The Majority Report at 10 PM to go to Alan Colmes of all people. You know, Fox's favorite liberal.

I got my home kit today, so I can listen to AA on the stereo instead of streaming it over the internet. This really helps me as I'm still on a dial-up connection. That's what I was talking about in the previous post. If I didn't get the portable model, I would have had to spend probably a couple hundred bucks for a home receiver (and $159 for another account) instead of the 50 bucks I spent today on the kit. I just pop it out the base in the car, pop it into the base inside and I'm back in business. Cool.

And since this is the HCH forum I should at least mention my car. Just finished a good tank. 53.3 MPG over 628.2 miles. That's what I'm talking about. God, I love this car.

MC

 

Does anyone know about adding XM radio? I have nav. and it says "XM-Ready" on it. It was like a $700 option, so I took my chances on being able to add it later for less.
I would guess I just need a tuner installed at Circuit city or something, but I figured I would throw it out on the forum, so that if anyone had any more info I could go in w/ at least some knowledge of what I need. Thanks all!

 

As far as I know of, if you get the tuner from CC or someplace like that, it will not be fully integrated like the Honda one...It simply be an addon.

 

Drat! Thanks for the response, though!

 

It's a $700 dealer option because installing it takes a few hours and involves tearing a lot of the interior out of the car. I'm including it in my purchase. I have an external Sirius receiver in my Insight....love the content, hate the controls - tiny little buttons - it's worth the extra money to me to have it integrated into the awesome Nav/Radio system in the HCH.

If you are way into disassembling your car, you can buy the kit from some of the online Honda dealers and do it yourself, but I doubt you are going to find a 3rd party (Sony/Kenwood/Etc) XM 'brain' for the stock Honda radio. If that's the path you want to take, check with someone like Crutchfield - they might know if anything 3rd party will interface with the XM input on the radio (doubtful).

 

Original post was for a 2004 Civic Hyb and there is no factory XM radio setup for this car. I have a 2005 and bought a Delphi Roady2 for about $50. It works very well in the Hybrid and many other cars I have tried it in. I just got a Garmin 2730 GPS with the XM radio built in and it does not work well with the FM transmitter like the Roady 2. I would get the Roady2 and be done with it rather than have some stereo shop butcher up you car adding something that will work no better.

As for the 06 HCH2, I would do same, but connect the Roady to the aux input jack and it should be great and you can save yourself $600 plus for the stupid complicated factory install! Honda should get a F for this complicated option.