I love my Muzee. I received it last Christmas. I previously had my XM-PCR on my computer. Because I knew I was getting a Muzee, I canceled my subscription with XM. When I had XM on my computer, I was paying $14.95 per month. Now since I have my Muzee, it's just the opposite.
Here's the straight dope between XM and Sirius and the Muzee. With Sirius and XM, you need to pay for the equipment and subscribe to the service. Another thing about Sirius and XM is you need to use an antenna for the incoming satellite feed.
On the other hand, the Muzee is, for the most part, FREE. All you need to do is purchase the Muzee dongle and plug it into a USB port on your computer or laptop. Of course you need an active internet connection for the Muzee. Beyond the purchase of the dongle, the service and content is totally FREE. No additional software or hardware is necessary.
Another thing I'd like to mention is the fact that XM and Sirius are just limited to the channels on the satellite fed receiver. I remember the channels numbered just about 200 or so. Whereas the Muzee, since it operates from the internet, gives you access to tons more content than XM and Sirius provide. Consider this, XM and Sirius give you about 200 channels. The Muzee gives you roughly 13,000 stations worldwide. These include AM stations, FM stations, and many high-definition stations. Since no external antenna is needed, the radio signals come through clear as a bell.
I know that the XM-PCR was discontinued due to piracy. I used to use Wave Studio to record from my PCR. The Muzee has recording capabilities built into the software. You can record anything off the Muzee in WMA format. Hence, you can play it back on Windows Media Player, or convert it to AAC format in iTunes.
If you want the best radio you can find, forget the other radios you know. In fact, sell or just get rid of them, and get your hands on a Muzee. You will be glad you did. Muzee USB Internet Player & Recorder Radio, over 20,000 Internet Radio Stations
I am a low-tech girl. I don't have Sirius, or XM, or even an iPod. I have used Yahoo's Launchcast for a long time, but since they changed their formats and canned the "My Station" feature, I don't like it. I bought Muzee for myself on a whim to broaden my music listening options, and I just love it. It's simple to use and there are so many stations - you can hunt up stations by genre, region, or enter a specific search word.
If you're up on all the latest and greatest music tools and personal gadgets, maybe Muzee is not going to be a nifty thing for you. But for a simple living, technically stunted woman like me, it's really cool.
I cannot rave more about how awesome this product is and must be tried out to believe. There is so many music stations to choose from to listen to. Regardless of what music style you like or from whatever country it is sure to be here and the best part you can save to your hard drive in WMA (Windows Media) format and then transfer/convert however you like. Beats paying $15 a month for XM or Sirius and with more options and portability! There are no fees after you buy this product. That means no activation fees and no monthly fees. Virtually a plug and play product extremely easy to learn, within a few very simple steps you will be up and running. Take it wherever you go, laptop or desktop. It fits on a keychain!
Review - short version for the busy generation: Yes, having thousands of free internet radio stations is cool! But no, you do not need to pay a single penny for it!
And here is the long version:
Ok, I completely agree: 13,000 radio channels for free, everywhere, anywhere - and even a possibility to download radio contents to your computer - that cannot be bad, or? And no, it is not bad. BUT: What would you say if you could have all of that COMPLETELY FREE, not even paying the twenty bucks for this USB stick?
Well, the good news are: you can have exactly that! Just go to one of the websites like [...], download the software for free and listen to thousands of radio channels. And if you absolutely, inevitably need this internet radio on a stick to take it with you, you will still save many bucks by just buying a small USB flash drive and taking the software with you on that.
SO WHY ON EARTH SHOULD ANYBODY BUY THIS PRODUCT?
Let me tell you why: Somewhere out there somebody is making a fortune from people that have not been aware that internet radio is already free and can already be accessed centrally without any extra computer gadget. And if you still press the "Buy now" button in a second, you make those people that simply steal your money, even richer.
It's not indicated in the product description that the Muzee does not work with the Mac operating system. I bought it anyway and hoped. It took some troubleshooting, but I now have it running in a virtual machine on my Mac, and it is working beautifully. I'm posting this to share the solution.
I have iMac with an Intel processor, running Snow Leopard, and Windows 7 running in a virtual machine created by Parallels. Under Windows it was as simple as plug & play, but there was a problem. The sound broke up annoyingly. I emailed Muzee support and received a prompt, personal reply addressing my problem specifically. The suggestion offered did solve the problem. I reported that and received another prompt, personal email with another suggestion. That didn't work either.
When I bought the Muzee I also bought one for my son, who is an IT guy with far more knowledge of Windows than I have. He also has a Mac, and he had gotten his Muzee to work well in a virtual machine running Windows 7 created by the free Virtualbox program. Virtualbox does not install sound drivers, so he downloaded the free Realtek ac'97 audio drivers from the Realtek website [...], and installed them in the Windows 7 virtual machine. He solved my problem by installing the Realtek ac'97 audio drivers in my computer's virtual machine. I assume that the audio drivers installed by Parallels were the source of the problem.
One more thing: The product package says "Instant access through your PC to over 13,000 radio stations worldwide!" Thinking that the Muzee works as a portal to the stations that is maintained by Muzee, I asked about this and was told that regarding the number of stations "it was labeled when the product is delivered. As time goes by, the number of collected stations increases too. And you can always have the most up-to-date stations no matter when you bought it." The Muzee website [...] now says that 20,000 thousand stations can be accessed! I received this from Muzee product support: "Currently it's announced that we have 20,000 radio stations. Some of them could be duplicates, or a station could have many different bitrate channels."
I am delighted with the Muzee. Great selection and sound, and price. One reviewer questioned why anyone would want to buy this device when you can access the same streams from the stations' individual websites. To compile links for even a fraction of those available on the Muzee could be very time consuming, not to mention finding content you want and overcoming limitations with languages. Example, one of my favorites is a classical station from China. I've gone to their website and have no clue what link streams the station. As I write this the Muzee lists over 400 classical stations. It is so easy to explore and compile a favorites list.
UPDATE: I've installed two updates of Parallels and that program's Tools. Audio performance with the Muzee was still not up to par, so I simply reinstalled the Realtek ac'97 audio drivers. - Usb Radio - Radio - Internet Radio - Muzee'
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