0corvette pilot

The day after I put it in our Trailblazer with nav, we got an 'xm error' message on the nav screen and lost the xm1 and xm2. I unplugged and replugged the harness into the sirius unit and it came right back with no problems since.

One thing though, the song titles are often incomplete and/or repeated, does it do that on the C6 also?

vette-oholic

I have found that both my sirius tuner and my c6 NAV head unit both are not great at displaying whole titles, etc.
Im not sure if any receivers are capable?!

thejerseydevil

I ran into a couple of the situations that have been described in recent posts. I just installed this unit in my friends 2006 Trailblazer, No NAV, realives 2005 Equinox w/ XM, and my neighbors Uplander w/ XM.

When you disconnect the XM unit, the XM band is removed from the head unit operations. This is normal. The head unit knows what is connected and only shows options for available functions.

In all cases I mentioned above, success. In the cars with XM, once I found the XM unit, connection was simple. I used the single cable that came with SIR-GM1 and connected directly from the original cable into the Sirius unit. I then unclipped the XM antenna cables and connected the cream/brownish cable to antenna input of the SIR-GM1. This is main satellite antenna that came with XM.

For the car with no XM installed, we had to remove the head unit to get to the back and used to multiple plug adapter for the SIR-GM1. Once connected, I just ran the Sirius antenna wire under the dash along the drivers side windshield pillar and mounted in the corner of the drivers sides windshield using velco (magnet side facing in). No problems at all.

The key to all of these is the radios were satellite capable. With the NAV unit, the XM band and functions appeared as if XM was installed but the channel numbers, names, categories were Sirius. All other functions worked as before.

Let me know if this helped and if you have other questions I can help answer.

aeroman756

Thanks for all the help. I received my SIR-GM1 today and will give it a try. I'm assuming that my Nav unit in my C6 is XM-ready????? I'm hoping a simple plug in of the unit will be all is needed.

JT-C6

I'm not sure how much "time" you would need. Mine fired right up there and was available immediately. I even went one better and unplugged it and plugged it in more time and it still came back. Took it for a nice long ride today. Signal drops were in all the same places XM was (under moderate to heavy tree cover), so its no worse and very acceptable for signal reception. I loved being able to listen to Howard again in my car. I also agree that the audio quality on many channels is better than XM's.

XM has really squeezed their bandwidth tight to get those baseball channels in. Look at "Big Tracks", channel 49, it sounds like you're listening to an AM radio, whereas "Top Tracks", channel 46 is reasonable.

vette-oholic

Ive always heard the quality was better on XM. Having owned both, I agree.

But does anyone actually have the specs. ie how many bits per second (sampling rate) etc.

JBMagRed

JT-C6: You don't say if your Bose/NAV system came with XM. I have the same set up Bose/NAV/6-disk changer in back, but without factory XM. I am currently doing Sirius via FM modulation (through the radio head unit antenna connection). I want to get one of these but want to be sure that it won't create DBS with this system (like the PAC Audio interface did with my car). I know that my radio will bring up the XM choice because it did with the PAC Audio interface installed. Also, how was the unit installed? I have a coupe. Is there an XM interface plug pre-wired in the back (where the CD changer is plugged in)? The dealer installed my changer so I don't know what's back there. Or, did you use the alternate SIR-GM1 connection with the T-harness at the back of the radio. These details would be helpful to many of us. Thanks in advance.

aeroman756

I installed the SIR-GM1 today (I have no XM) and the head unit does not recognize it? I have the Nav unit. Does anyone know what I need to do to have it recognize it?

JT-C6

The external 6 disc changer came with a T cable that basically takes the XM cable and feeds it onto the disc changer. All I did was unplug the existing XM receiver and plug in the Sirius unit and it worked. Its only been about a week, so it might be a bit too soon to say if DBS is an issue.

JBMagRed

JT-C6: Thanks for the reply. You answered my question by telling me you removed the existing XM receiver. I have the CD-Changer with the Bose/NAV system but never had XM. I knew that the dealer made the CD player connection to an existing harness behind the driver's rear panel. The plug that you refer to must have been there as a pre-wire for XM. I guess that I will have my installer look there first to see how the changer is plugged in. In my case it will be necessary to remove the HU anyway because I currently have Sirius via FM modulation through the antenna hook up on the back of the HU with the Sirius control panel located inside the console glove box. If they have to make the connection at the HU, then they can. DBS should not be an issue with these units.

aeroman756

I finally got it working today. I have nav without XM and here is as simple as it gets. With the car off I located the area where the XM would be to find the XM tuner connection. Simply plug in the SIR-GM1 and route the antenae. The radio shows XM1/2 and all is well. Works perfect. So F off XM......