XM satellite radio problem. Anyone see this?

I have a 2004 Honda Accord EX which comes with the XM Satellite Radio
system. I love XM but the stereo itself leaves much to be desired. For
instance, this head unit doesn't display the ampersand sign (&) in the
titles of songs or artists for some reason. Does anyone else notice this?
If not, which model number does your stereo have in the lower right hand
corner?

Is there any way to replace the stereo? I am guessing not since it also
displays the status of the heating/cooling system.

Thanks,
Richard

 

Of course you can replace your stereo system. However, as you correctly
noted you are going to sacrifice some other functionality. I don't
recommend doing it.

My son has a new '04 EX and previously had a Blaupunkt system + amplifier
& subs in a Toyota RAV4. Tho somewhat of a music buff he chose not to
tamper with the sound system in his new Honda because he thought it
sounded pretty good stock. --- and he made this decision before purchasing
the EX.

To my knowledge right now there's really not much of anything out there in
the aftermarket products along the lines of a FULLY INTEGRATED XM receiver
(meaning built-in to the main system).

Don't dispair, even the factory stock XM system in the fully equipped
$75,000 Lexus LS430 doesn't display as much info as the $119 aftermarket
Roadie.

 

Of course you can replace your stereo system. However, as you correctly
noted you are going to sacrifice some other functionality. I don't
recommend doing it.

My son has a new '04 EX and previously had a Blaupunkt system + amplifier
& subs in a Toyota RAV4. Tho somewhat of a music buff he chose not to
tamper with the sound system in his new Honda because he thought it
sounded pretty good stock. --- and he made this decision before purchasing
the EX.

To my knowledge right now there's really not much of anything out there in
the aftermarket products along the lines of a FULLY INTEGRATED XM receiver
(meaning built-in to the main system).

Don't dispair, even the factory stock XM system in the fully equipped
$75,000 Lexus LS430 doesn't display as much info as the $119 aftermarket
Roadie.

 

Thanks for your post. I guess I can live with the stock stereo. It does
sound good but it bugs me that I had such a better one in my '93 Saturn
(aftermarket Kenwood head unit). Anyway, you mention your son has the same
car I do, can you ask him if he notices the missing ampersands?

Thanks,
Richard

 

Thanks for your post. I guess I can live with the stock stereo. It does
sound good but it bugs me that I had such a better one in my '93 Saturn
(aftermarket Kenwood head unit). Anyway, you mention your son has the same
car I do, can you ask him if he notices the missing ampersands?

Thanks,
Richard

 

I hadn't missed the "&", but what's up with the other weird symbol that
keeps appearing? It is sort of like a backward ">" and almost looks
like an element of the LCD is misfiring. Is it supposed to be a "!" ?

I always see it on the raunchy comedy station's name, for example.

I don't like the Accord's a/c and radio design at all. I bought the
car in spite of it. The unnecessary complexity of it all completely
steered me away from the nav unit. The CD sound isn't too awful, but
it seems XM is now compressing their audio more and more, and quality
is going down the tubes, just like happened with Dish Network. When my
$60 one-year subscription is done, I'll have to think hard about
continuing.

And the tuning button is as far away as I can reach without leaning
over. Station-by-station tuning is an actual pain in the elbow after a
minute or so, and I can't make the steering wheel controls do it; they
only go through the pre-set channels. Barf.

JM

 

I hadn't missed the "&", but what's up with the other weird symbol that
keeps appearing? It is sort of like a backward ">" and almost looks
like an element of the LCD is misfiring. Is it supposed to be a "!" ?

I always see it on the raunchy comedy station's name, for example.

I don't like the Accord's a/c and radio design at all. I bought the
car in spite of it. The unnecessary complexity of it all completely
steered me away from the nav unit. The CD sound isn't too awful, but
it seems XM is now compressing their audio more and more, and quality
is going down the tubes, just like happened with Dish Network. When my
$60 one-year subscription is done, I'll have to think hard about
continuing.

And the tuning button is as far away as I can reach without leaning
over. Station-by-station tuning is an actual pain in the elbow after a
minute or so, and I can't make the steering wheel controls do it; they
only go through the pre-set channels. Barf.

JM

 

So are you saying that you never noticed the "&" symbol missing before or
that they actually do indeed show up on your radio?

I'll look for the backward ">" that you describe.

Richard

 

So are you saying that you never noticed the "&" symbol missing before or
that they actually do indeed show up on your radio?

I'll look for the backward ">" that you describe.

Richard

 

I just asked him and he says on his radio that there's something like a
slash symbol and everything is run together, example SONNY/CHER. He
agree's it's "different" but he's gotten used to it. He tries not to sweat
the petty things. Even on Delphi receivers with large displays there's
still considerable abbreviation.

 

I just asked him and he says on his radio that there's something like a
slash symbol and everything is run together, example SONNY/CHER. He
agree's it's "different" but he's gotten used to it. He tries not to sweat
the petty things. Even on Delphi receivers with large displays there's
still considerable abbreviation.

 

I took another look. What I described as a backward ">" is not quite.
Just take the > and rotate it about 120 degrees counter-clockwise (such
that the upper side is now vertical. Or in other words, it is a "Y"
with the upper left segment missing. This appears at the end of words
all the time, like it is an exclamation point. Makes no sense to me at
all. Maybe it is supposed to be a slash. Poor execution.

And I'm pretty sure there is no ampersand on my display. Never noticed
before.

JM

 

I took another look. What I described as a backward ">" is not quite.
Just take the > and rotate it about 120 degrees counter-clockwise (such
that the upper side is now vertical. Or in other words, it is a "Y"
with the upper left segment missing. This appears at the end of words
all the time, like it is an exclamation point. Makes no sense to me at
all. Maybe it is supposed to be a slash. Poor execution.

And I'm pretty sure there is no ampersand on my display. Never noticed
before.

JM

 

I have a aftermarket Alpine with the CD Text function and it does not show
the & as well.It is just a blank space.

 

I have a aftermarket Alpine with the CD Text function and it does not show
the & as well.It is just a blank space.

 

Ah hah! Yes, I have seen this symbol as well and like you I have no idea
what they are trying to convey here. If it is an exclamation point, I agree
that it is poor execution. It doesn't look like one at all!

Richard

 

Ah hah! Yes, I have seen this symbol as well and like you I have no idea
what they are trying to convey here. If it is an exclamation point, I agree
that it is poor execution. It doesn't look like one at all!

Richard

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. I guess this is a more widespread problem
than I thought and I feel better that it's not just my specific unit. I
agree that it's not really a big deal. It's just a detail that makes the
manufacturer come off looking like they don't know what they are doing. By
the way, I found this page while doing some research on this topic. It
seems that there is a some problem with the way the units parse XML. In
Honda's case they are probably just ignoring the data and in this case it's
interpreting the whole string as data.

http://www.jeffsandquist.com/PermaLink,guid,5917d0c9-f514-4f42-bf77-a11ae186c3ca.aspx

Richard

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. I guess this is a more widespread problem
than I thought and I feel better that it's not just my specific unit. I
agree that it's not really a big deal. It's just a detail that makes the
manufacturer come off looking like they don't know what they are doing. By
the way, I found this page while doing some research on this topic. It
seems that there is a some problem with the way the units parse XML. In
Honda's case they are probably just ignoring the data and in this case it's
interpreting the whole string as data.

http://www.jeffsandquist.com/PermaLink,guid,5917d0c9-f514-4f42-bf77-a11ae186c3ca.aspx

Richard

 

I have a 2004 Accord EX-L with XM but without nav. That symbol that
you speak of, Richard, could signify the end of the single line
(artist/song title) and that the name or song title has more letters
than what the radio display is capable of showing. Just my theory.