cars and Mp'3

edmund_f

Anyone reccomend a MP3 player for use with a car, ideally i would like to find some sort of 'dock' which would connect into the car stereo, and also be able to use it in the house. Not interested in the mp3 cd head units, and have a blaupunkt head unit in the car.

Thanks

daveg

You could buy an Ipod and Itrip. Itrip basically attaches to the Ipod and transmits the sound. You tune your car radio/home stereo ect to the transmit station. Not great in Dublin I hear due to the amount of radio stations. Search boards for more info.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/

RicardoSmith

Is the car unit a cassette deck or CD? You can get a cassette adapter.

Gegerty

edmund_f wrote:

Anyone reccomend a MP3 player for use with a car, ideally i would like to find some sort of 'dock' which would connect into the car stereo, and also be able to use it in the house. Not interested in the mp3 cd head units, and have a blaupunkt head unit in the car.

Thanks

I was looking into this myself a while ago. From what i can gather If you have a tape deck then you're sorted, just use an adapter. Otherwise your only options are to use a transmitter or see if you have a "line in" at the back of your stereo and plug the mp3 player directly into it, this gives the best quality of the lot. Transmitters are supposed to be crap quality btw.

breadmonkey

Apparently iTrips are illegal here

Mike_Hunt

I brought a similar device to the iTrip back from the US a while ago not knowing at the time they were illegal (i never heard such bulls**t) but yes the quality is most deffo crap. And they are very fiddly to set up i almost went into a ditch once.

I tried to buy a goodmans mp3 cd player for the car from argos there a few weeks back and they hadnt got it in stock. It sounded pretty good especially seeing as it had a USB port on the front where you could plug in external players/pen drives to play music off those as well as MP3 cds.

In the end i settled for a kenwood mp3 cd player and was happy with it after all.

Does anyone know where to get a similar stereo for the car with the USB port like the goodmans one.

cormie

Here:)

Furp

This Might be of interest its called a Phat Box

http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php

Its basically a portable hard drive that hooks up to your existing car radio through the cd changer connection. you also get a cradle that connects to your pc so you update the music on the hard drive.

Its expensive though and I'm not sure if you could even get on here, although maybe in the future this type of technology will become more common or car manufacturer’s will start including USB ports in cars of removable hdd's

Maybe someone makes something similar like a head unit with removable hard drive or head unit and a remote hard drive, as the problem with the phat box is that you don’t get the display on your radio as to what you are listening too, although it does read it out to you.

Gegerty

breadmonkey wrote:

Apparently iTrips are illegal here

This is true. You can get them and other brands on ebay though.

edmund_f

think the 'phatnoise' is the idea that i am looking for, but not quite at that price. Essentially to use an ipod, or zen or whatever that can dock with the car and be controlled by the car stereo, itrip..noooo... cassette adaptor, tried that, while i am not a big hifi head even i think the quality is crap

thanks for all the suggestions.. the hunt goes on.

bruce wayne

this cable costs about €8 and will hook into the headphone jack of any mp3 player and connect to the back of your car stereo. Only problem is the track number and titles will not appear on your stereo screen, it will just read aux input. But considering your mp3 player will most probably be docked next to your head unit....that should'nt be much of an issue. This is the way I have mine hooked in and the sound is far better than using an itrip type device. I had the belkin one and this way is soooooo much better.

http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/auxin.asp

edmund_f

think i may invest in one of those, was thinking along the lines of

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4bVnxwNqVJY/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=227450&I=581PA10BMW

ideally something which charges the MP3 player and allows control via the stereo, think portable hands free V's fixed hands free. There seems to be some movement on the iea of a bluetooth connection?, perhaps do phone and MP3 player in one go

Gegerty

bruce wayne wrote:

this cable costs about €8 and will hook into the headphone jack of any mp3 player and connect to the back of your car stereo. Only problem is the track number and titles will not appear on your stereo screen, it will just read aux input. But considering your mp3 player will most probably be docked next to your head unit....that should'nt be much of an issue. This is the way I have mine hooked in and the sound is far better than using an itrip type device. I had the belkin one and this way is soooooo much better.

http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/auxin.asp

Excellent that's exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for, thanks

tibor

Just got me a new head unit with a USB socket.
Connect USB HD.
Hey, presto, 80gigs of mp3s.

Far cheaper than iPod/iTrip too.
http://tinyurl.com/by77e

Reads full id3 info etc too.

RicardoSmith

tibor wrote:

Just got me a new head unit with a USB socket.
Connect USB HD.
Hey, presto, 80gigs of mp3s.

Far cheaper than iPod/iTrip too.
http://tinyurl.com/by77e

Reads full id3 info etc too.

Thats kinda neat. How much was it? Did you get it in Ireland?

besty

anybody know how i would go about hooking up my ipod to my stereo in my car? (Peugeot 206)? im not to keen on having to take it out and stuff to be honest, but is it straightforward enough?

Tony

Thats excellent, i've been looking for a good quality head unit like this with USB to hook up my Iriver player, the ultimate for me would be one of those new pioneer units with blue tooth for the phone, pity it has no USB

Check out this site http://www.caraudio.ie/page.php?content=ipod

tibor wrote:

Just got me a new head unit with a USB socket.
Connect USB HD.
Hey, presto, 80gigs of mp3s.

Far cheaper than iPod/iTrip too.
http://tinyurl.com/by77e

Reads full id3 info etc too.

Tony

besty wrote:

anybody know how i would go about hooking up my ipod to my stereo in my car? (Peugeot 206)? im not to keen on having to take it out and stuff to be honest, but is it straightforward enough?

Does the head unit have an AUX input? I just connected a lead from this to the headphone jack on my Iriver

besty

no,well not on the face of it anyway.its a clarion unit and im gonna have a look on the internet as to what the story with connecting the ipod into the aux input at the back of it possibly?!

Tony

besty wrote:

no,well not on the face of it anyway.its a clarion unit and im gonna have a look on the internet as to what the story with connecting the ipod into the aux input at the back of it possibly?!

Mine is also clarion, just use the function switch and if it shows AUX on display you can connect to two phonos on the back wiring harness

besty

cheers tony. ill try and get a friend to hook it up. would be so sweet having all my ipod songs in the car. dont think there is an aux function though to be honest!

TheBigLebowski

My cd player in my car has an input jack on the front of it which is the same size as a headphone jack on an i-pod, discman etc. It says above it "CD-IN". Is it just as simple as connecting a lead which is the same at both ends (3.5 mm I think) between the i-pod and the front of the car stereo? Does type of lead exist? Obviously this would be no use for charging etc.

And then possibly just use a mobile phone holder which would be large enough to accomodate the i-pod?

bruce wayne

yes ....yes....and yes to all of the above thebiglebowski

sprinkles

Does anyone know the best sterio to get that has an auxillary input and a usb input? Looking to hook up my zen touch, but would also like to keep the price below 150. Also where would I get it. Cheers

TheBigLebowski

I'm still trying to get to grips with the whole ipod in car thing. Can someone tell me if I get a car stereo with a usb connection on the front, will this charge my ipod aswell as play my favourite spice girls tunes? Or am I way off the mark?

BrookieD

hey guys, do a google for Dension IceLink, its a great connection for any OEM car radio or third party radio the not only lets you play your IPod through the car radio but also charges on the go :-)

I got one last week and although not cheap as chips its the best you can get and only takes 30 mins or so to set up.

check out my thread in Motors called Ipod in car.

cheers
D

falteringstar

i just bought the Goodmans GCE7205USB with a USB connection on the face, its playing songs off the 64MB memory stick that came with it, put when i plug in my iPod it charges it but doesnt play anything.

sprinkles

falteringstar wrote:

i just bought the Goodmans GCE7205USB with a USB connection on the face, its playing songs off the 64MB memory stick that came with it, put when i plug in my iPod it charges it but doesnt play anything.

Just bougth the same one and again it doesn't play anything off my Zen touch, which is disappointing. It does sayt hat it plays off mass storage devices which the zen does work as but I guess they lied.

TheBigLebowski

Can anyone shed any light on why this is happening?

RicardoSmith

Not 100% certain but AFAIK iPods do not store music in the part of the disc which is seen as a mass storage devices. I suspect the Zen touch is the same. You have to dedicate some of the storage to act mass storage devices and copy a duplicate of the MP3 files there as well. The iPod won't be able to see mp3s in the area dedicated to mass storage device as music, only data.

iRivers and Rio Carbon on the other hand are mass storage devices. Which is why you can just drag mp3's to them as if they were a disk. You don't need any special software as you do with the iPods or the Creative Players.

falteringstar

well when you drag and drop music to the iPod, the car stereo doesnt read that either, im thinking of selling the iPod, its too restrivtive, and getting an iRiver H10 instead.....

sprinkles

RicardoSmith wrote:

Not 100% certain but AFAIK iPods do not store music in the part of the disc which is seen as a mass storage devices. I suspect the Zen touch is the same. You have to dedicate some of the storage to act mass storage devices and copy a duplicate of the MP3 files there as well. The iPod won't be able to see mp3s in the area dedicated to mass storage device as music, only data.

iRivers and Rio Carbon on the other hand are mass storage devices. Which is why you can just drag mp3's to them as if they were a disk. You don't need any special software as you do with the iPods or the Creative Players.

You can drag and drop witht he zen touch as well. It does work as a mass storage device afaik but when I connect it to the sterio it either just turns on or starts charging and the sterio can't find any music. Might just buy an external HD

RicardoSmith

sprinkles wrote:

You can drag and drop witht he zen touch as well. It does work as a mass storage device afaik but when I connect it to the sterio it either just turns on or starts charging and the sterio can't find any music. Might just buy an external HD

Do you need drivers to enable the drag and drop? Or can you just plug it into a machine and use windows explorer to drag and drop the files across?

sprinkles

RicardoSmith wrote:

Do you need drivers to enable the drag and drop? Or can you just plug it into a machine and use windows explorer to drag and drop the files across?

Not 100% sure. I installed the drivers before I tried. To be honest I think you prob need the drivers so I see what your getting at. I'll check it out though.

CuppaCocoa

Bummer - my cd player doesn't have an 'aux' mode. Just switches between CD and radio. Tried all the buttons. It's a Sony - 5 years old. Is it worth taking it out to check the connections at the back?

rhonddageff

I have an iRiver H320 but cant get the Goodmans gce7205usb to play any music. I connect the iRiver and usb play comes up on the display on the head unit and the iRiver says connected, but I cant get anything to play. Anyone got any ideas on how to solve this?

Geth

CuppaCocoa

Just bought a 'Belkin Tunecast' from Ebay to hook up my iPod in the car. Cost about 11 euro incl. delivery! Cheap as chips! Took 2 seconds to tune into the radio and my iPod sounds super! Don't know how long the batteries will last (takes 2 AAA) but can always use rechargeable.

falteringstar

Ya same here, I just got a H10, cos i was told that that would do the job with the goodmans, but I tries it out earlier, it says USB CONNECTED and them SAFE TO DISCONNECT but no music plays......

Why.....?