From the Mouths of Soccer Moms—and Dads

Chicago-area residents Catherine McNeil and Alma Klein aren’t the only parents who would have issues with commercial television in the back seats of their cars. Enoch Choi, a father and doctor in Palo Alto, Calif., says that even if he did want TV on in the car on a daily basis (he doesn’t), he’d prefer to play a commercial-free DVD, rather than paying money for commercial service.

“If your kids need to eat SpongeBob-branded nectarines, then yes, I guess it makes sense,” says Choi.

Sarah B., a mom from Fairfax, Va. (who asked that her last name be withheld), would use it “only for trips over 2 hours; then I wouldn’t have to risk our lives changing the DVDs.”

Rodd Pope, a father of three in Palo Alto, lets his children watch DVDs in the car all the time, alternating educational videos with entertainment videos. He helps pick the videos. He would never cede that control to any TV network, even to Disney. (Or maybe especially to Disney.) —T.S.P.

Taking It to the Streets

IEEE Spectrum checked out the service in Manhattan, a tall-building environment that Sirius considers challenging. Spectrum staff member Willie Jones reported that cartoons looked just fine, but live-action sequences seemed blurred and, in some cases, pixelated. “If this were 25 years ago,” he says, “I would have been reaching out to adjust the rabbit ears to make the picture come in clearer.” Jones also reports that the system lost the video signal three or four times during a 15-minute drive, once for as long as a minute. (Sirius executives who were in the car with Jones believe that the dropouts lasted 15 seconds or less.)

Jones also found it odd that a company that pushes commercial-free programming for radio is promoting TV channels that hawk action figures and My Little Pony dolls. —T.S.P.