XM and DVD

I just purchased a new 2004 Yukon XL with a DVD system and XM satellite radio installed. During a recent trip I discovered that when the kids watch a DVD in the back, I am unable to listen to XM radio up front. Am I doing something wrong or am I correct in thinking it doesn't work? If so, does anyone know a workaround for this? I'd love to listen to ESPN radio while the kids are watching Finding Nemo on a long trip we have planned in a few weeks - I'm talking cross country driving here and if I have to listen to Nemo, the Wiggles, and Clifford the whole way, I'm going to be very disappointed that I bought a vehicle with a DVD system in it.

Thanks!

Hmmm, I'll have to check that out--on mine (I have the factory nav head unit), when the front is on XM, the rear can't select/listen to CD (I have the rear audio control option). I assume that you have the factory-installed OEM DVD and XM systems and not some aftermarket unit, and that when you say that the kids are watching DVD in the back, they are listening through the wireless headphones (obviously this must be so--if the DVD audio is playing through the factory speakers, there's no way you could listen to XM at the same time); I say this because I can listen to XM in front (through the factory speakers) even while the rear passengers are watching/listening to DVD in back via the headphones.

Tonytone - I appreciate your response. First, yes I do have all factory installed items in the vehicle. We received it last week. At the time, the dealership had "misplaced" the headphones and remote but assured us they would be FedEx'd to us the next day. Several days went by and I called to ask about them. On Friday, I was told that the headphones would be shipped out that day but that a remote had to be ordered and wouldn't ship until Tuesday. As of now, I have yet to receive any of these items.

I tried to use the regular headphone jacks on the audio control panel for the 2nd row occupants, but we couldn't find the DVD source using it. My wife looked through the manual and told me she couldn't find anything about that, so we used the in-dash system so they could listen to their movie. She continued to look through the manual and told me it said that even if we had the wireless headphones, we wouldn't be able to listen to the XM radio and that only regular "AM/FM" stations would be available to us. I never looked through the manual, I just took her word for it. Maybe she misunderstood something or maybe she just didn't want to listen to ESPN radio :) . When she gets home, I'll be sure to look through the manual myself.

Am I correct in understanding that you have a similar setup and that you are able to listen to XM while the rear passangers watch a movie so long as they have their wireless headsets on? If so, I'll be very happy to hear that. Hopefully the wireless headphones will arrive today and we can test it out. I have a long drive coming up in the next couple of weeks (5 hours each way) and a cross-country trip shortly after that and we'd like to use both the XM and DVD, if possible.

That is incorrect. If you are playing a DVD through the stereo you wont be able to listen to anything except clifford the wiggles and finding nemo :iceslolan . However once you get the wireless headsets you should be able to listen to anything CD's, XM, AM, FM, everything. Just for your information the rear radio console is not tied to the DVD player, only the stereo.

The way the rear stereo works can be explained by giving you a scenario: people up front are listening to ESPN on XM stereo, the people in the back with wired headsets can A: listen to anything they want on FM bands or AM bands, however if they want to listen to XM they can only listen to the channel being played on XM on the main head unit. Likewise, if the people up front are listening to an FM rock station the people in the rear can listen to Disney radio on XM but will be bound to whatever FM station is being played upfront.

Atleast this is the way it works on my Denali.

Actually, let me clarify the "bug" I described earlier--if the front has selected XM on the front head unit, the rear is not able to select CD or DVD audio via the factory rear audio control--I'm not concerned about what you can listen to via the rear wired headphone jacks, just the ability to even choose/select either source. If the front has selected CD or DVD audio via the front head unit, the rear is unable to select XM using the rear audio controls. On a similar note--if the rear is listening to CD via the rear controls and the front decides later on to switch from say FM to XM, the rear will find that he will no longer be listening to CD once the front selects XM on the head unit. Note that the above-mentioned problem appears to be limited to those with the factory nav head unit, slave 6-disc CD changer, and rear audio controls; I think this problem doesn't exist with a regular factory XM head unit w/ built-in 6-disc changer...but I could be wrong; Mhuntoon--you could verify this if you are willing to see if the above problem exists with your setup (since you don't have the factory nav head unit)?

Mhuntoon--yes, you read correctly; the rear can listen to DVD movies playing on the RSE via the wireless headphones while the front person is able to simultaneously listen to/select XM on the front head unit through the factory speakers. Not to insult your intelligence or anything like that, but since only one source can be coming out of the factory speakers at any given time, I don't think you'd be able to listen to ESPN up front if the kids are watching/listening to Nemo via the factory stereo speakers...not unless you want to deprive them of Nemo so that you can listen to ESPN; I wish the factory audio system was designed that you could set up the front speakers to play one source (e.g., XM) while the rear speakers (not just headphones) play a different source (DVD)...but that would be asking too much of the General. Also keep in mind that the factory wireless headphones are only for listening to audio playing on the RSE (I could be wrong here but I'm pretty sure I'm correct about this)--it will not pick up audio from any other factory audio source (CD changer, XM).

'05DenalID--I was wondering if you could please if the above bug has been fixed for '05 (I assume you have an '05 based on your screenname)? Like I said, it sucks that the rear passenger can't choose to listen to CD via the rear audio control headphone jack just because the front has selected XM on the main head unit.

My 2005 has the same bug where you can only listen to CD's in the rear if you arent playing XM.

My 2005 has the same bug where you can only listen to CD's in the rear if you arent playing XM.
Stupid GM--either they still don't know about this or they don't care...

My 2004 has the following..

6 disc in dash.
rear controls
dvd with head phones

and had the same issue.. however my rep says it can be corrected.

Problem.

Kids in back watching movie. listening through the car speakers.

as the original poster was saying.. I was plugged in via hard wired
headphones to the consol between the fron seats.. for the 2nd row.

Problem: I can not select XM.

This is not cool.. in my mind as well. And hopefully on my next Oil Change I can get this corrected or looked into.

However I was able to switch to any other source besides xm.

The problem is that on those factory head units that are/can be setup for factory XM, RSE, and/or external 6-disc CD changer (the latter is normally found only on Denalis and Escalades--I'm not talking about the in-dash 6-disc unit), they apparently were designed with only one aux input. Given only one aux input and up to three additional external sources that can be connected to it, it's not too surprising to find out that it is not possible to listen to any two of the (up to) three external sources simultaneously with the rear audio control option.

As you found out, you aren't able to select XM via the rear controls if it's currently set to DVD (which it has to be, either via the rear or front controls since you said you could hear the DVD audio through the car speakers) since XM and DVD share the same input to the head unit. There is no fix to resolve this issue--not unless you buy an aftermarket external XM unit that outputs via FM modulation.