Portable Hard Drive In My Car?

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

Very great information so far guys. Keep em coming.. im interested to read more about the Ipod and the PhatBox.

-Dante

 

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

Omg, Phatbox is not compatible with Alpine or Nissan/Infiniti cars....?!?!?!

 

[MrBlack 10+ year member]

Yep, that's gonna slow you down from integrating a Phatbox into your system. I still say stay away from getting an Ipod, but only because I can't stand Apples business model and would rather eat dirt than be given an Apple product to use daily. Ipod's are successful because they're flashy and most kids need one to look cool, very portable, and can be integrated into a number of external components. Ipods **** because of the Apple audio format exclusivity and Itunes limitations, and the less than stellar internal audio components.

Ipod's can be integrated directly into your system to be controlled by your deck (at least I believe your Alpine head is new enough to work with an Ipod adapter), but from what I've heard control is sluggish and seeking out songs from a large playlist is frustrating. From what I've gathered, most are just as happy with a simple auxilary input connection and simply being about to control it by hand. (plus then you don't need to use a crappy Ipod, you can use any external source of your choice such as something by Creative Labs or Toshiba) //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Like what? I am not pro ipod although i do own two. I prefer the creative ones myself and have had 2 of those as well. I switched to the ipod for the aftermarket products. I looked at the website that you listed and I don't see what is so great. True audiophiles are not going to use a compressed format such as mp3s anyway. The ipod is not perfect, but if you use the dock connection output vs the headphone output, the audio quality increases. You are talking about a price/per sound quality issue. Yes that device is cool, but it is not nearly as supported as something like the ipod and will not be around as long. I held out as long as possible when I got the ipod (although they were gifts) but unless your car is extensively done properly for sq, this is a mute point anyway. As for the rio car, hasn't it been discontinued?

Hello audionewb,

First, i didn't list a website, so you may be confused about what i have/haven't posted. Second, i posted it has been discontinued, plz re-read. You can find them for sale in various places around the net if you look for them. I've seen 60gb single drive variants go for ~350$. I bought mine for 350$ shipped with a 20gb.

An ipod is designed to carry around music in a very portable manner on your person. Alot of music. and to deliver that music to the user in a relatively decent sq. The riocar is a jukebox. It's got a badass 128x32 dot matrix VFD display for displaying visualizations, playlist information, track info, etc. You can modify playlists on the fly with the remote, shuffle content, tweak order based on title, artists, genre, album, year, etc...it's got a 7 band parametric eq with adjustable Q. It runs linux and has a web server that can stream to multiple users in the home environment. (along with a ton of other badass **** that would take all day to go into.) It's got a pair of rca outputs (2 pairs in your vehicle) for in-home use. It supports usb and ethernet for transfer of files, and has a radio tuner (if desired). It can play OGG and flak files as well as MP3 and other formats (can an ipod play OGG files? Flak? Hmm.) . It uses standard laptop harddrives and can hold 2 of them giving it the highest storage capacity of any mp3 player. It's got a remote control with full search capabilities available in the car. In short, the ipod doesn't come close to the flexibility or capabilities that a good in-car mp3 player should have.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

omnifi dmp1 hard drive 20gig with controller that looks like a hu face plate.

Complete trash and no support. I had one but it broke within 2 months of using it. The ****er didn't even ship with the ability to fast forward/rewind. LOL.

 

[cyantist 10+ year member]

I have some experience on this topic.. I have an Alpine iPod adapter and I think it makes my iPod sound pretty good, and it's easy to control on my current deck.. But I also had an Alpine 9855 recently and it was just about impossible to use, enough so that I ripped it out and got rid of it in a fit of rage!! Selecting certain songs is still tedious, but mostly I just hit random anyways, since seeking out one song out of approx 4000 is a pain.. I also once used an aux-in adapter, and while it was easier to select a particular song, fumbling with the iPod while driving just wasn't my thing.. Touchscreen LCD panels make it a LOT easier.. The Omnifi DMP-1 was also a little too buggy for me, and I didn't like the looks of the faceplate and had no practical place to mount it.. But when it worked, it worked well.. My laptop also did the trick, but was a bit cumbersome to use and pack around with me.. So far I have to say an iPod with a compatible deck/interface is the most elegant solution.. As for sound quality, well, I can't tell the difference between my iPod and a MP3 CD/DVD.....

Alpine is also coming out with a USB interface, but I haven't gotten my hands on one yet so I can't tell you how well it works.. I have one on order from my dealer..

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Even on your most elegant solution you've found, it's a pain to simply add a track to the playlist out of your archive? Doesn't seem very elegant imo //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

On a riocar, You can select any one track from any feasible sized library with less than 5 button presses after entering 'search by title' mode on a riocar //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif...most of the time less than 3. It's like dialing a phone...the dial-a-track. You can then choose to insert, append, enqueue or replace in current playlist that track. Same interface goes for genre, artist, album, or year. All tracks are given unique PIN #'s so you can pull them up with those if you have favorites memorized too. You can mark tracks on the road with a single button then get a playlist of all marked tracks displayed on your pc when you return home... it even has a self calibrating mode for it's PEQ a-la eclipse's microphone calibration routines. Weeee.

how you can say the omnifi DMP1 worked well when it worked is beyond me; it didn't even have a seek ability in tracks (until it was hacked into the player by a third party after the player was discontinued)

 

[cyantist 10+ year member]

Even on your most elegant solution you've found, it's a pain to simply add a track to the playlist out of your archive? Doesn't seem very elegant imo //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

As in elegant, I meant the most 'integrated' solution.. Clarion's iPod interface (a-la the VRX765VD) looks to be even better.. Alpine still has a long way to go to make it's interface truly 'iPod-like'..

On a riocar, You can select any one track from any feasible sized library with less than 5 button presses after entering 'search by title' mode on a riocar //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif...most of the time less than 3. It's like dialing a phone...the dial-a-track. You can then choose to insert, append, enqueue or replace in current playlist that track. Same interface goes for genre, artist, album, or year. All tracks are given unique PIN #'s so you can pull them up with those if you have favorites memorized too. You can mark tracks on the road with a single button then get a playlist of all marked tracks displayed on your pc when you return home... it even has a self calibrating mode for it's PEQ a-la eclipse's microphone calibration routines. Weeee.

I looked into a RioCar a while back at the same time I was looking at the DMP-1, and I picked the latter for it's price.. I'm not a fan of having so many faceplates installed on my dash.. It looks like ass IMO.. Hence the reasoning for my 'elegant' solution above..

how you can say the omnifi DMP1 worked well when it worked is beyond me; it didn't even have a seek ability in tracks (until it was hacked into the player by a third party after the player was discontinued)

Yes, I hacked mine, although it was for reasons other than seeking in tracks (which it was now possible to do) since I've never found the need to do that.. Is it really necessary when listening to music? I also found the DMP-1 to be very easy to navigate.. But it was buggy and had to be rebooted daily, some days more than others..

 

[cyantist 10+ year member]

Honestly tho, now that I have a deck that plays MP3-DVD's, I don't use my iPod all that much anymore other than for a jukebox of random tunes.. The DVDs are much easier to navigate (over the iPod on my deck), and hold a shitload of songs.. They might be the best solution yet, if you have a DVD-capable HU..

 

[SqUaReD 80 10+ year member]

... I'm still waiting for StreetDeck.

 

[prochobo 10+ year member]

My HU FTW! Can't use an external HD though, you can use a 4GB thumbdrive.

 

[StuartV 10+ year member]

Ipod's can be integrated directly into your system to be controlled by your deck (at least I believe your Alpine head is new enough to work with an Ipod adapter), but from what I've heard control is sluggish and seeking out songs from a large playlist is frustrating. From what I've gathered, most are just as happy with a simple auxilary input connection and simply being about to control it by hand. (plus then you don't need to use a crappy Ipod, you can use any external source of your choice such as something by Creative Labs or Toshiba) //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Not true any more, with Alpine's 2nd gen iPod interface, aka FullSpeed. I've got 5000 tracks on my iPod and, using the touchscreen on my W200, I can navigate about 95% as quickly on the HU as I can on the iPod itself.

The only notable drawbacks I've found to FullSpeed vs iPod native are that FullSpeed doesn't support genre, and it doesn't support creating/modifying playlists on the fly.

The genre thing is really a non-issue, since you can create a Smart Playlist in iTunes for each genre that you have and then all your genres will showup on the W200 as playlists.

And the on-the-fly playlist thing is a non-issue for me just because I pretty much never use that feature on the iPod anyway.

 

[MadAudio 10+ year member]

Errrr, ummm. You can put data on the iPod without having to partition it.
And, you can use it and control it from MANY HU's without having to clutter up your car with a separate wired controller.

And, if you have a decent HU, you should be doing your EQ there, not with the MP3 player.

you are correct but the fact is ipods **** A$$ and are way over priced not to mention the built in battery ( ask people who have had to send one in to get a new battery) cheap screen that breaks easy not mention all the extras ipod needs to be on an even playing field with the zen ( zen has better sound quality) plus built in voice recorder comes in handy for memos and replaceable battery .

i got my 6 gig zen for $169 local no way ipod can touch that . the only advantage that ipod has is the marketing makes it the "in" product with more add-ons . and your also right about the eq in car should be done with the radio but seeing as its an mp3 player you will end up using it out of car also and the wired remote will hardly clutter anything its a tiny little thing. i tried both out before i decied to go witht he zen and havent looked back since.

 

[Starky 10+ year member]

I have a kenwood keg and I love it...the only downside is that you have to have a Kenwood HU

 

[StuartV 10+ year member]

you are correct but the fact is ipods **** A$$ and are way over priced not to mention the built in battery ( ask people who have had to send one in to get a new battery) cheap screen that breaks easy

I reckon you get what you pay for. And I did send my 3 year old 30gig iPod in to Apple for the $69 battery replacement program. I got back a 30gig iPod that is, as far as I can tell, brand new. Sweet deal, as far as I'm concerned! How much are batteries for a Zen? Are they Li-ion? How long do they last before needing to be replaced?

i got my 6 gig zen for $169 local no way ipod can touch that . the only advantage that ipod has is the marketing makes it the "in" product with more add-ons .

I can get a 60 gig iPod for less than double what you paid for 6 gig. And you think you got a good deal?!?

Even if I *could* get a 60 gig Zen for less than a 60 gig iPod, it wouldn't matter if it was FREE, if I couldn't control it (with good usability) directly from the head unit. For that capability (plus all the other features of the iPod), a 60gig iPod is definitely worth the price (around $350 - $400), TO ME. I would pay that over a free 60 gig Zen, for the difference in controlling it from the head unit and seeing all the track info on the head unit.