Tech: How to Stream Sirius Satellite Radio to Windows Mobile Devices...

As a Sirius subscriber, you have already learned that Sirius beats XM hands down with regard to programming. The only thing you might complain about, is how Sirius receiver hardware always seems to lag XM by at least a year (or in Internet time, a full generation). Well, here's a chance to leap ahead by using your smartphone with Windows mobile to listen to Sirius Satellite feeds. If you are not a Sirius subscriber and are looking for free music, become a subscriber first, or eles get lost. If you are a subscriber, read on! I have contacted Sirius to add this platform as a supported browser configuration, because by now you've probably realized that your IE browser that came on your smartphone is crippled--meaning that it doesn't do many things well (such as JavaScript). Here is what I found that works. It ain't pretty, and requires a bit of finesse, but the first time you successfully grab the stream, it is well worth the effort (until your mobile battery dies).

Using IE, or Firefox, turn on HTTP watch or another plugin that you can see request URLs. If you don't have either of those, you'll have to view the document source to determine what the appropriate URL to use is.

1. Using your PC to http://www.sirius.com/servlet/MediaPlayer?activity=expand&streamNumber=&
   
   
2. Login using your online Sirius subscriber credentials
   
   
   
3. Select the Channel, Genre, and Station ID and then start the stream
   
   
4. If you are using HTTPwatch or similar, copy the stream URL for the video/x-ms-asf mime type request. It will look something like:
   
   http://a1101.l1923962113.c19239.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1101/19239/v0001/reflector:62113?aifp=abcd&auth=daCcWanc0cOayciaVdMdVcLcWdlb7cYbsam-beqdnH-cw-9noFCp1CEprvIehcm&user_type=subscriber&user_id=######&campaign=&stream=area33&wmcache=0&mswmext=.asx
   
   where ###### is your subscriber ID.
   
   If you are not using HTTPWatch, then view the content source, and copy the value of token from the JavaScript declarations mid-page. Use this token to generate a JSP URL that includes the channel definition. For example, if I am streaming area 33, the JSP URL might look like:
   
   http://www.sirius.com/mediaplayer/asx/akam/area33.jsp?wmcache=0&token=fded241f7c8bbce20deb568ffac256f
   
   This will return an XML page that has the stream URL listed as the first body URL. You may have to source the page to be able to view the XML text.
   
   
5. Now that you have the URL, paste it in to a text file, and beam it to your mobile, or email to your mobile.
   
   
6. Open Windows Media player on your mobile. Go to library -> Open URL and paste your stream URL there.
   
   
7. Stop the stream on the browser, and shortly thereafter, hit 'ok' on your mobile to load the stream URL. If you time it just right, you will hijack the stream before the new auth parameter is updated which appears to be used to keep you from having more than one simultaneous feed at a time for a given subscriber.
   
   

That's it, you now have Sirius streaming to your mobile phone at 35kbps! I hope you have an unlimited data plan because that could add up quick paying per kilobyte downloaded. If you've gotten it to work successfully, your screen should look something like the following:



Since you don't have the JavaScript volume controls at your disposal, you may need to adjust your pocket pc volume in addition to the media player volume. If you get an access denied error, you'll have to start the process over again. Have fun and be sure to contact Sirius customer care and request this platform to be supported for subscribers.