USB and AUX in on car CD players

gary the great

My car has a CD player in it that has a small USB connection on the front. What the hell is this for? Surely if you want to plug an MP3 player into it you would need a large usb connection in the face of the radio (as all mp3 players have the big USB connection point?)

Bit stupid imo.
Am looking to buy a CD player for the car with an Aux in connection so I can play my mp3 player through it, can anyone tell me a decent but reasonably priced one? I want to spend as little as possible!

fletch

Which make/model have you got?

spurious

My father bought one in LIDL recently that had the bigger USB, a CD player and a radio.
I think it was 60-something euro. Works fine.

gary the great

fletch wrote:

Which make/model have you got?

its one of the older Lidl/Aldi types.

Its annoying that its a small USB connection, otherwise i could jsut connect my player into it and have 5gigs of music.

Eoin087

gary the great wrote:

its one of the older Lidl/Aldi types.

Its annoying that its a small USB connection, otherwise i could jsut connect my player into it and have 5gigs of music.

My car radio has a "small" usb port in it too, an mp3 player can't connect directly to it. Thats why you should off gotten the connecting lead from it to your mp3 player in the box with the radio? If not you can pick you up cheap (€4 maybe €5) in any computer store

rowanh

Is it not the usb port that would be on a pc that you could plug a usb key into, i think that is what its for.

gary the great

Eoin087 wrote:

My car radio has a "small" usb port in it too, an mp3 player can't connect directly to it. Thats why you should off gotten the connecting lead from it to your mp3 player in the box with the radio? If not you can pick you up cheap (€4 maybe €5) in any computer store

The CD player was in the car when i got it.
Whats the name of the wire? WOuld it work with a 8gig flash player?

Owen

I recently bought an Alpine IDA-X001 Headunit, it has the option to buy a Bluetooth box to add a phone to it, but it has a fully digital ipod interface, it actually downloads the song from the iPod hard drive to the headunit and plays it, and recreates the iPod interface on screen perfectly, with menu structure, album artwork, and it's what Steve Jobs uses in his car.

Normally, you connect the iPod through the USB port on the rear to have the artwork, etc, but if you want to use a pen drive and the iPod, you can connect the iPod through an older port in the back, and use the USB extension cable they provide to access media on a portable drive instead. I love it!

colm_mcm

how mush does one of those retail for ned?

Owen

The unit itself is about 400, but you can get them online for less. Well worth it, and it's very cool to be able to say your car DOESN'T have a CD Player, as they're last century's technology

Eoin087

gary the great wrote:

The CD player was in the car when i got it.
Whats the name of the wire? WOuld it work with a 8gig flash player?

Use the wire you use to connect the mp3 player to the computer and then just keep pushing source or whatever button you use to switch between the radios different functions, It's the same with an iPod, connect the lead to the Ipod and then to the radio using the same cable you'd use to connect it to your computer. Hope this helps

gary the great

Thanks Eoin, but the USB connection on the mp3 player is a small USB and then the connection on the front of the radio is also a small connection, thants my problem!

And 400 quid is far to much for me to justify spending on an mp3 player

eamonnq

I had one of these in a car and it was not a 'normal' small USB connection (like you have on your MP3 player), it came with a lead that had a normal USB socket on the other end, allowing you to plug a USB Memory Key into it and it played the MP3s from that. Would say the lead would be impossible to get though!

Eoin087

gary the great wrote:

Thanks Eoin, but the USB connection on the mp3 player is a small USB and then the connection on the front of the radio is also a small connection, thants my problem!

And 400 quid is far to much for me to justify spending on an mp3 player

Ahhh I understand now..I think :P
This what you need? (Mini 5 pin usb cable)
If that's the right cable then it'll only cost ya around €10-€15 depending on where you purchase it. You may get it even cheaper if you buy it online

tuxy

ned78 wrote:

and it's very cool to be able to say your car DOESN'T have a CD Player, as they're last century's technology

My car doesn't have a CD player either, damn I'm cool :cool:



It has a tape deck

McSandwich

Maplin have an adapter which should help:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ITAG=SPEC&ModuleNo=33543&doy=25m8

gary the great

Thanks lads, my GF has the same CD player and managed to find the wire in the box!

Will try it in a few days when I get my car back.
Should it work with an 8gig flash player? If i can recall it didnt work with my 20gig iaudio x5, fingers crossed it works with this though!

gary the great

It all works fine, the only problem is have to randomly flick through albums on the head unit, for some reason i thought i could control it from the mp3 player itself And then all the songs are randomly mixed up.

But still its better than a kick in the arse!