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Level 1

46 points

Listening to XM and/or Sirius Radio Streams on iPhone

Hey everyone! I did a little research today, and found an easy (relatively) way to listen to XM or Sirius radio on the iPhone. First off, this is NOT a hack, and requires no installs on the iPhone. All this requires is a Windows PC (sorry, mac-users...I have a mac too, but my wife has a PC, so I used hers), an Orb account (free), Windows Media Player and a program called UXM. Again, this is not a hack, just a way for iPhone users to enjoy XM. (I do not take responsibility for anything anyone does, as the following instructions were not written by me. I have taken them from everythingiphone.com, and all rights etc. belong to them) cheers! It works well, not really ideal but its a start.

"Things you will need to get started.

1. An xm subscription
2. uXM from http://www.millardsoftware.com/
3. Orb server from orb.com
4. An iPhone

Download an install uXM (to the PC). Click the settings button and enter your email address and password you use to stream xm online.
Click start.

Download and install the orb server (again, PC). Part of the install process will help you create an orb account. Once you have uXM and orb running on your PC (I could not get this to work in parallels on my mac) go back to the orb.com on your PC and sign in/orb 2.0.

Click Open Application.
Click Audio.
Click Favorite Channels under internet radio.
Click the 'add custom' link that is on the top of the page.
Type in the xm channel name.
Double click the uXM logo in your tray (next to the clock) and click the URLS button. Choose the xm channel you want to stream from the pull down menu.
Click the clipboard button.
Return to the orb website and paste the url in the url field.
Click save.

Now get out your iPhone and go to orb.com and sign in.
Click Audio.
Click Internet Radio Favorites.
Click the channel icon for the channel you just saved.
Click play.
Click the small play arrow in the lower right corner of the QT screen.

Your stream should start. Mine seems to hung up at about 11 seconds. I just hit the back arrow and click play again and it work fine.

Wash, rinse, repeat for your other favorite xm channels."

Again, to repeat myself, this is not a hack, nor does it violate the iPhone's warranty, etc. It uses safari's quicktime plugin, that's it!

Note: For Sirius users, the UXM website millardsoftware has a Sirius application as well. Just follow the same steps, but on the sirius app. I don't have Sirius, so I don't know how well it works.

iMac G5 20" Macbook-White, iPhone, iPod 5.5, iPod Nano, Powerbook G4 12", Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 23, 2007 5:51 PM

77 replies

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 5, 2007 1:24 PM in response to Grem91

Yeah, and XM might frown on that, no? 🙂

Grem91

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2007 1:25 PM in response to Varick

Ha ha, yes I forgot about that.

zucarina

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2007 6:34 PM in response to Varick

Hello Varick, my user name and password are fine, the message I am getting is status:server is not running, I chech the server tap and the two windows are empty, I was able to listen to radio on my pc last night but can't open ORB today, thanks for your help.

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 5, 2007 6:52 PM in response to zucarina

Hmmm...On your PC, are you the administrator? If so, reinstall ORB and make sure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player. Also, on uXM, make sure you have the server running and that you keep the program open at all times. You have to have uXM and Orb running at all times for this to work. If that doesn't work, we may need to look at your firewall settings, which can get a bit tricky. What kind of network is your computer on? Are you connecting to Orb through your iPhone on Edge or Wifi? We can work this out. No worries.

jbennett

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2007 7:34 PM in response to Varick

hello once this is set up can you then play it in your car like you would the iPod? I am interested in XM but want to listen to it in the car not on the iphone speaker.

Thanks for your help.

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 5, 2007 7:37 PM in response to jbennett

You can if you can play audio in your car through the headphone jack on the iPhone (a la an auxillary port). It might work through an FM Modulator, though I haven't tried. EDGE can be a bit pokey, but if you let it buffer a little bit before pressing play it runs fine. Keep it plugged into a power source if you are going out on a long drive. There's no reason it wouldn't work the first way, however the second I am not sure. Cheers!

jbennett

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2007 7:43 PM in response to Varick

I appreciate your help. I currently use imonster to play the audio through the dock part of the phone. I will give it a try and report if it works. If anybody knows if the imonster will work please inform. Thanks again for your help.

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 5, 2007 7:46 PM in response to jbennett

Try this. Make sure you have safari pulled up, have the radio playing before you plug it in. Then, while the safari page plays, plug the iPhone in. It might work. Try variations of this (opening safari after plugging it in, turning it on after plugging it in, etc.) Animal sacrifice seems to work well also. Report back soon.

jbennett

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2007 7:48 PM in response to Varick

Will do. Thanks.

Dec 6, 2007 7:01 AM in response to Varick

First of all I want to say what a find this is. Varick I know you say you just copy + paste, but I followed the steps last night and its awesome.

A question for you. You said you were able to load the XM thumbnails, how did you do that? And can you add these images so they show up both on your desktop and on the iPhone?

Does anyone know if you can add the NFL channel or any of the sports channels for Siruis? I sure wish I could add the NHL channels from XM!

dg

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 6, 2007 8:25 AM in response to dgarland0

You can load thumbnails for your channels by right clicking on their little music "icon" picture and replacing it with any picture you want. I just googled all of the XM channels I liked, found the icon, and replaced accordingly. It looks snazzy. ORB's website has a how-to guide in their help menu.

Sports channels on XM are not available either. It is because of blackout features. XM doesn't have them on their internet broadcast either (on xmradio.com) because it isn't part of their contract. That would eat into the MLB's (or NHL's, or NFL's) online radio subscriptions.

Don't forget, however, that you can add ANY online radio feed to ORB. You could always go to ESPN and pick up their online feed, or to any sports website and, if you can get the URL for the feed, dump it into ORB and you're set.

Again, this wasn't my idea, so I can't take credit (as you said). I'm just the messenger. I felt like it was being looked over by a lot of iPhone users who don't go to other forums.

-Cheers!

Dec 6, 2007 8:42 AM in response to Varick

This is awesome! I have Sirius and it works excellent over Edge or WiFi.

Dec 11, 2007 7:59 PM in response to Varick

Well, I have loaded a few XM channels, but when I select one under internet radio favorites the next page just shows the internet radio icon and has a rating 0-5 under it. It never plays or even shows QT. I also noticed that when I attempt to play the station on my PC it gos through media player and has an error. At first it said that it could not find the correct "codec" now it says that it is unable to connect to the server. And to chech "proxy settings" any ideas??

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 11, 2007 8:18 PM in response to dtaylor6740

Ok...on ORB.com, you need to go into your profile settings and find the "streaming" (or playback, not sure which) tab, and make sure that you have playback set to Quicktime and not realplayer or Windows Media. Make sure you did download Windows Media Player 9, as ORB needs that for conversionary purposes. Then, make sure you have both uXM and ORB open, and make sure that your firewall is open (I believe it is port 80, but your ORB documentation will tell you--check your settings). Those two should fix your problem. If not, try reloading the URL's from uXM into ORB and keep trying. Its a bit finicky at first, but once it works its rock solid. Let me know if this helps.

Dec 14, 2007 5:59 PM in response to Varick

Varick,

I had this working for about a week - on 2 different computers - with Sirius - but after about a week it stops working. I did a lot of research and tried a lot of different solutions, but cannot get the streaming to work again. I'm looking to you for help. I can connect to Orb and can access everything except the isirius stream. Orb gets as far as loading the video file on the iphone - but never completely loads the file. Any idea's??? I also cannot get the streams to play on the computers. Strange. I would assume it has something to do with the Mallard software, but cannot figure out what???

I appreciate your help

Listening to XM and/or Sirius Radio Streams on iPhone