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Ziggy
XM Freak!
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 7409
Location: New York, NY
Primary Radio: Pioneer Inno |
Full Review of Pioneer Inno.... THE MOTHERSHIP HAS LANDED!
Many years ago before XM, MP3’s, iTunes, etc. were popular or available, I had my trusty CD collection which I carried with me just about everywhere. It was consolidated and housed in 4 large CD folders, and weighed in at over 45 lbs., and that didn’t even include the CD player! Boy did I get a work out. From going to the store to buy the CD, to keeping it clean, figuring out what I wanted to listen to that day and then transporting it between my car, house and office, it got to be a real chore.
When the world changed and iPod’s and MP3’s became the rage in music, I passed on it. Sure, there were some songs I wanted to download and take with me, but I simply did not have the time, nor was I willing to put in the effort to work for my music. It needed to work for me and in 2001 XM was the solution that came to solve my musical conundrum.
For the past few years, it has been so easy just to press a button and have whatever genre I wanted, right there at my fingertips. The first XM2go line of receivers (MyFi, Airware, TAO) brought us the ability to even record some of the content for future playback, but storage/playback functionality was a bit lacking when compared to dedicated MP3 players.
Enter the latest batch of XM2go receivers; the Pioneer Inno, Samsung Helix and Nexus. It’s finally here! A complete and full convergence of XM Satellite Radio’s extensive, fresh, ever updated music programming, combined with the full features and functionality of a common MP3 player.
Click Here To See Product Development Video
In this review we will focus on the Pioneer Inno, which is exactly the same as the Samsung Helix, aside from their cosmetic differences. The Pioneer Inno retail package comes with a battery for portable use, a home kit to setup the unit at home or in the office, a USB cable for PC connection (Mac not available), and a dongle cable for powering and recharging the unit portably using the AC wall power adapter and not requiring the entire home kit.
Its Here!
Taking the Inno out of its packaging for the first time and holding it feels very solid and comfortable to handle. The unit weighs in at approximately 4.5 oz. and measures 2 ¼” x 3 ¾” and just under ¾” thick. The front of the unit has a textured finish, which is great for keeping it looking good, even after your greasy little paws try to put prints all over it. The buttons are as basic as it gets, with menus being the driving force behind the unit’s simple layout. The volume control is on the side, just under the power button, which also has a locked HOLD position so when you’re jogging, walking, or just dropped the unit into your bag, accidental button presses have no effect.
Initial setup is quick and easy, just like with any current XM Radio receiver. Simply plug in the AC power cord, place the XM antenna near a south-facing window, plug the audio cable into your home stereo, and your Pioneer Inno into the cradle. You will notice right away that the Inno has a beautiful crisp, color screen, 130x130 pixels, that automatically flips 90 degrees when the unit is in the cradle or out of it allowing it to be easily read in either location. You will also note that the orientation and function of the touch pad is also automatically rotates 90 degrees to keep usability consistent. If you haven’t already done so, at this point, you will need to contact XM Radio and activate the service (800-XM-RADIO or www.xmradio.com).
You Begin With 1, 2, 3…
The basic functions of the unit are very simple to understand and no one should have any problems flipping channels, and even setting up recordings without reading the manual, although, my friends at XM want me to remind you that because the Inno has so many great new features that the manuals were designed to be an “easy read” and will provide you with everything you need to know to maximize your enjoyment of this new generation product.
Press the up and down arrows and your channels will logically scroll up or down. You will see the current channel and the two closest channels above and below for a total of 5 channels at a time. By pressing the DISP button, it will cycle through the channel name, artist and song title. Scrolling through, you have the option to set DIRECT TUNE to either on or off. This nifty feature lets you decide if after a few seconds of leaving the unit on the new channel you scrolled to whether it will change to that channel automatically, or if you have to press the center ((( ))) button to do that, otherwise it will not change channels and you will be able to preview channels without tuning to them. For quicker tuning, press the right arrow button and the unit changes channels faster by flipping through the various categories.
To make channel navigation even faster, you can set up a FAVORITE channel list. Just press the ((( ))) button when on a channel you want to add to your favorites list, go to FAVORITES and select ADD CHANNEL (note 1). Once you set up a favorites list of channels, pressing the right arrow button once will go to your favorites list where you can go up and down to your selection, or press the right arrow button again and you will be in category mode for fast channel surfing. By now you are saying to yourself, but what about direct channel access? There are over 170 channels and I don’t want to scroll through everyone. Just hit the left arrow button and you will be in direct entry mode. Using the arrow buttons and ((( ))) key, directly enter your favorite channel and you are set.
The first and foremost important feature, aside from being able to listen to LIVE XM just about anywhere portably, is the RECORD feature. When in LIVE mode, press the ((( ))) button twice (note 2), and the unit gives you the option of recording the song you are currently listening to, recording the current channel (for as long as free space allows), or schedule a recording at a future time.
When selecting to record a song, the unit will even capture the song from the beginning provided you were already listening to that channel, and the song you wanted to record started less than 10 minutes ago. The RECORD CHANNEL is self explanatory and will continue recording until you stop it, or available memory if filled. A very cool feature is the ability to end a RECORD CHANNEL session at the end of a current song playing by pressing and holding the ((( ))) button which switches from RECORD CHANNEL to RECORD SONG. This will stop recording at the end of the current song and reduces the number of annoying partial recordings letting you do something other than trying to perfectly time stopping the session on your own. SCHEDULE RECORDING allows you to set up to 99 individual sessions to record on any channel at any future date/time. This scheduling gives you the option to set up recording today, daily, or on a specific date and time, even years in advance.
The daily recording is especially useful when you have a favorite talk show that’s on regularly, while the specific date/time recording is great to set up and capture all the specials that XM has across its dial. Keep in mind for the unit to record, it must be either in the home where it may be powered on or off, or a car cradle where it must be powered. When the unit is out of its cradle, it must be powered on when the session starts for it to begin recording. The Inno will not start recording a session if it’s out of a cradle and off.
In case you are wondering how long the recorded XM content can remain on your device, the answer is indefinitely, as long as you remain an XM Radio subscriber. Your unit must receive at least 8 hours of live XM service a month to update its subscription and allow you continued access to the stored XM content. These 8 hours of live XM do not have to occur at once. The unit will accrue and tabulate the total 8 hours over the entire 30 days. If for some reason you do not accrue 8 hours of live XM in 30 days, your content is not deleted. It is only hidden from view on your unit until you dock and fulfill the remaining portion of the time you have previously accrued. Like this will ever happen if you are a true member of the XM Nation!
Now that you are familiar with the basics, in LIVE mode, you also have the ability to set up to 20 TUNESELECT artists or songs. To do so, just press the ((( ))) button and then BOOKMARK (note 3). Not only will you have the option to add the currently playing song or artist to your TUNESELECT, but you can also BOOKMARK the song. We’ll get into what a Bookmark is a little later. Previously, the biggest drawback to the TUNESELECT feature was that the song or artist you wanted to setup had to be playing on XM live for you to mark it. That is now a thing of the past. In the settings menu, you can now type in your favorite artists and or songs. No more waiting for them to come on so you can marks them. If that’s not enough, you can also turn on and off each individual alert independently, or all of them globally. This is definitely a significant software improvement to this feature The only thing you have to remember is that you have to type in the artist/song titles exactly as they appear on your display from XM, this includes capitals and lower case.
As with most recent XM Radios, the Inno comes with the ability to view INFO EXTRAS such as stock quotes and sports scores. Under DISPLAY OPTIONS you have the ability to have this data either scroll or be displayed page-by-page. Scrolling on the Inno is very smooth, and my preferred method for stocks, while I like to have the sports scores displayed page-by-page since they are usually longer. Their setup once again is simple and intuitive. One improvement for text entry is the addition of an onscreen keyboard that appears for stock entry, instead of the scroll wheel. The cursor is extremely responsive and movement is quick and accurate. You will have your 20 favorite stocks set up in no time.
Other settings in LIVE mode give you the option to set the tone (treble and bass), backlight time out for longer battery life while in portable mode, FM modulator frequency and output level, time zone, sleep timer, and daylight saving time adjustment. One thing to note is the FM modulator in this unit can use any one the 100 available FM frequencies from 88.1 to 107.9 FM. Finding an open channel in any area should not be a problem. Try to install your XM antenna as close to your FM antenna for best possible FM transmission. You can also turn the FM modulator on manually when in portable mode, but you need to either have the power dongle or headphones connected. They are used as a transmitting antenna. Without one or the other, the FM transmission does not work.
And Now For The Juicy Stuff!
Have you recorded some of XM’s compelling content? Were you patient enough to set up some scheduled recordings overnight across a few of your favorite channels? Well then, what are you waiting for? Press the MODE button on your Pioneer Inno NOW!!!
Immediately, the first song you recorded will start playing back. But the days of having to listen to the whole song, or whatever you recorded in the same order that it was recorded in are long gone with Inno. The (((MY MUSIC))) mode is what happens to XM Radio when you combine it with an MP3 player. Fast forward and rewind within a track by pressing and holding the right or left arrow buttons, create custom Playlists with names YOU can recognize, select random playback fro “something different”, individually lock songs to keep them longer and choose the songs you don’t want to save, are just a few of the new features to start.
Again, the menus are very neatly organized and intuitive. I would recommend starting off with the FIND feature in the menu which is always accessed by pressing the ((( ))) button. You can search for your music by ARTIST, CATEGORY, by CHANNEL, or RECORDED SESSION. You can also view ALL SONGS, but once you have the unit filled to its 50 hour capacity of music stored, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack for that one tune you want. The ALL SONGS gives you a chronological listing of everything you have recorded with the oldest at the top and the newest at the bottom.
Great, you found that song you have been dying to listen to. Now what if you want to find it again? Get started and create your own custom Playlist. Once you have established a name for it, adding songs is as easy as pressing and holding the ((( ))) button when the tune is playing, or, while listening to some of you’re stored content, cruise through all your stored music and press and hold the ((( ))) button to get into that specific song’s menu which will allow you to ADD IT TO PLAYLIST, LOCK SONG (so that it will not be deleted unless you do it on your own), BOOKMARK song (again, more on that in a bit… be patient), or when you are tired of it, simply DELETE it. By the way, songs that are in added to your Playlist are automatically locked so they will not get deleted by new content.
Once you have a dozen or more hours of XM programming recorded, you will begin to truly appreciate the Playlist feature. To add songs to your Playlist, click on the song and you will have the option to EDIT SONG, and then ADD TO PLAYLIST. If you haven’t already set up a Playlist, you will be prompted to do so. When marking songs to be added to the Playlist, the job can be streamlined by adding songs to the Playlist in groups by artist, category or channel from the ORGANIZE menu. Once you have created a Playlist (you can of course create many of these, not just one), you can go even further and organize the order of the songs within the Playlist, or just say the heck with it, and hit the RANDOM feature. Your Playlist will be new every time you listen, and if you get tired of it, simply go back to the LIVE mode and record some new content from XM again. There is also a REPEAT feature for those of you who are a serious <ahem…> listeners.
So What’s With All this Bookmarking?
If you haven’t noticed by now, the Inno comes with an XM+NAPSTER CD for your PC. Open up your computer’s cup-holder and insert the CD. Follow the instructions and install the software. It will take you a few minutes, but its well worth it. You should also, at a minimum, sign up for Napster Light at this point, even if you don’t plan on buying anything initially. This will allow you to use Napster without a monthly fee, easily get any firmware updates for your Inno, and you will be able to purchase any music you want at any time ala carte which can easily be transferred to your Inno. Please note that if you are a monthly Napster all-you-can-eat subscriber, those tracks cannot be moved to the Inno. XM Radio Online is also integrated into the XM+Napster application.
Only after the setup, and Napster is up and running, should you connect your Inno to your PC via the included USB cable. The software should recognize your Inno (or Helix) immediately and its contents. Although you cannot listen to XM content through your computer, the Napster interface allows you to delete songs/commercials, create and edit Playlists, setup recording sessions, lock content, etc.
Being the good law abiding citizens that we all are, we know that the content that you recorded on your device from XM Radio cannot be accessed on your PC. But you can take your own personal MP3’s and/or WMA files and upload them to your Inno.
Here’s a little aside for those of you wanting to load your own music onto the Inno. Place the unit in the home cradle, and access the menu with the ((( ))) button. You will see an option in there to SET PARTITION. From the factory, the partitioning is for 100% memory usage for XM only. You will have to change this to the other setting of 50% XM, and 50% MP3/WMA. Please note that re-partitioning will delete any and all data on the device. It will be best if you determine early on which way you think you will want to use this new product and chose the partition setting that suits you best.
So you repartitioned, recorded some more XM content, and BOOKMARKED a few tunes you simply love. Now you’re all connected to the computer and Napster is running. The songs you bookmarked are now displayed in their own folder and you have the option of purchasing them for download into your computer, so they can be yours to keep, love and enjoy over and over again, legally, and your Inno can be freed up to capture fresh, new content from XM.
Conversely, in the same way as your current MP3 player works, you can upload any MP3’s or WMA files from your Napster account, or your own personal collection right to your Inno. Just drag and drop. You can even use the Inno as a storage device to move some of your PC data files with you, but you will not be able to access them through the Inno’s interface at all.
When the unit is connected to your computer and Napster, you can also manage your Playlists, which for some may be easier through this interface using a mouse, than with your thumb in the Inno’s cursor pad. Napster also allows you to sort songs by time and name which makes it easy to get rid of partial songs, commercials, and duplicate tracks. Another excellent integration into the Napster software is the ability to set up and manage all your scheduled sessions for the Inno. The ability to manage Playlists and schedule sessions through the computer may seem like overkill at first, but when your music library grows and you have many sessions set up, it will definitely make things a lot easier. That’s what’s good about this product… you don’t need a PC to get a lot from it, but if you have the desire to get even more… you can do that.
OK, I’m Almost Done.
On everyone’s mind is how good is the live reception? To put it simply, it’s excellent. The tiny antenna at the top of this little receiver is well designed and works just as well if not better than the newly improved Clip XT antenna, and I would say comes very close to the reception you get with a vehicle antenna. Keep in mind that unless you are in a large metropolitan area where XM has installed ground based repeaters, the antenna still needs line-of-sight to the satellites.
Battery life comes in at about 5-6 hours when listening to live XM, of course keeping the backlight off, and medium volume. When listening to stored content, the unit stays alive for up to 10 hours on one charge.
Having used the Pioneer Inno (and Samsung Helix) for some time now, I can tell you that this old dog has finally learned a few new tricks to help me get the most out of my music listening experience. Don’t get me wrong. I am still not a big fan of downloading music, but with the Inno, its something I don’t have to worry about, unless there’s that new artist or special song that I just cannot get enough of. This is a perfect combination of fresh content delivery with the option to upload and enjoy some of your own.
The next leap in the music revolution has landed, and remember, ”Its not just a pod, it’s the MOTHERSHIP!”
Go get one today at www.MyRadioStore.com The Inno has an MSRP of $399, and additional car and home kits will be $69 each. Antenna Headphones for enhanced portable reception should be available soon from XM and Belkin.
http://www.myradiostore.us/portable/pioneer-inno-xm-radio-mp3.html
EXPRESS FEATURE NOTES:
1. Press ((( ))), scroll to favorites, and press the right arrow key. This will add the channel to the favorites list without opening the popup menu
2. Press and hold will record the current song and stop. Pressing twice will give you all the record options.
3. Press ((( ))), scroll to bookmark, and press the right arrow key. This will bookmark/TuneSelect the “artist” without opening the popup menu
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www.MyRadioStore.com - XM Radio & Opie & Anthony Hats/Shirts. The latest XM Hardware and ALL Accessories! Pioneer Inno, Skyfi 3, Samsung Helix, and More!
Last edited by Ziggy on Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:39 pm; edited 4 times in total
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