computer for car

kingofbeers

i a ripspeed Ripspeed DV725 DVD/CD Player touchscreen for my car and i was wondering if anyone knows if you can hook up an external hard drive to it for all my mp3s. i hope it can be done. cheers

colm_mcm

you may need a media enclosure for an internal hard drive, these have video and audio outputs. they have menus and use a remote control to select songs/videos etc. I have one I got in Maplins for around 120 quid. downsides is it needs a while to load up if you cut the power, and it won't resume play if you turn off and on again.
consider an ipod video.

kingofbeers

thanks for that but i have over 100 gb of mp3's that i would like to store and play through my In Dash Ripspeed DV725 DVD/CD Player.

Blitzkrieger

What sort of inputs does it have? I recently bought one of these for home use and was thinking of putting one in my car. It's basically a 320G external HD that you can connect to a TV. It comes with a remote so you can play movies, music or watch slideshows of your pictures on your TV. The way the interface works, it plays the first file in any given directory automatically, so if you put MP3s/WAVs in the root directory it'll start playing them as soon as you press play (after turning it on). I'll have to look at the manual to see if it supports playlists though. It runs on 12V DC anyway so it should be no problem to get it running in a car.

TBH, I'd stay away from in car PCs - the reliability just isn't there. I have one in my car for about two and a half years now and the thing's falling apart. I don't feel I got value for money out of it at all. If you do want one there's plenty of how to's and plenty of sites selling them. Tellingly, the site that I bought mine from has shut down.

I'm thinking of replacing mine with and in-dash MP3-HDD unit. It's just easier. I can't afford to replace it right now though so I might wait and see what's available in about a year's time.

colm_mcm

Blitzkrieger wrote:

What sort of inputs does it have? I recently bought one of these for home use and was thinking of putting one in my car. It's basically a 320G external HD that you can connect to a TV. It comes with a remote so you can play movies, music or watch slideshows of your pictures on your TV. The way the interface works, it plays the first file in any given directory automatically, so if you put MP3s/WAVs in the root directory it'll start playing them as soon as you press play (after turning it on). I'll have to look at the manual to see if it supports playlists though. It runs on 12V DC anyway so it should be no problem to get it running in a car.
.

That's the same setup as I was talking about. not sure how it would cope with being turned on and off a lot though. you'd be basically unplugging it every time you stop the car.

blastman

To be honest the easiest thing to do is burn your MP3s onto DVDs, the RipSpeed will play them directly. It's a little time-consuming, but the cheapest option and the least hassle.

Blitzkrieger

With a 100GB collection of MP3s he'll end up with about 25 DvDs to carry and you know that song you really want to hear is going to be on the disc you can't find.

colm_mcm wrote:

not sure how it would cope with being turned on and off a lot though.

I forgot to mention; if you install a PC you're going to have to wait for it to boot before you can play media and you're going to have to shut it down properly (Start --> Shut Down --> Power Off) every time you park. It can be a pain if you're just running into the shop or stopping for petrol. For any journey less than 10 minutes it's a pain in the hole. Mine has an "ez-bios" that lets you play CDs/DvDs without booting the PC but half the buttons on the unit are broken. I have to use the remote to turn the volume up or down.

The external hard drive I just bought boots in seconds and you could start playing files with two button pushes. It's not the best interface though it might be a cheaper and easier solution for the OP. This isn't the one I bought but it seems like a good deal.

Blitzkrieger

Turns out I'm retarded and could not remember the name of the site I bought mine from. Some nice full systems there but pricey enough. You can also buy components. The GUI that came with mine was cack but they've new software too.