My car is now a rolling MP3 player that you sit inside of

[uni57]

I just got a new car stereo that has a USB input.

This means that I can plug in a USB drive loaded with MP3s. No more piles of CDs in the car!

I got a 16 gigabyte Sandisk USB drive for $35. I am in the process of loading every CD that I own onto it. Now, instead of putting a CD into the car stereo, I turn a knob that scrolls through artists, albums, and songs.

This is truly revolutionary (and thread-worthy). In the past, I would always have a pile of CDs on the passenger seat. And more in the trunk. Often I would get a craving for a particular CD that wasn't in the car. Not any more! Soon I will have every bit of music I own at my fingertips. Thank you, Santa.

In addition to playing MP3s from a USB drive, some receivers can control an iPod via USB. Most also have an auxiliary audio input so you can plug in any MP3 player.


I highly recommend Crutchfield (http://www.crutchfield.com/). They have built their business around spectacular customer service. They will give you everything you need, including detailed installation instructions and adapters -- all specific to your exact car. And you can call them for technical support (such as help installing it or anything else) from 8 AM until midnight seven days a week. They are amazing. Picking out a stereo that is compatible with my car and then installing it myself was extremely easy. I only replaced the receiver so far. Everything else is still the factory installed stuff and it might stay that way. It was a premium sound system to begin with. It sounds even better with the new receiver but that's just a bonus -- the USB drive / MP3 capability was why I got it.

[john_childs]

Car CD players are evil. They scratch and destroy discs. A car is not the place for a CD player.

Your CD collection is going to thank you for not subjecting them to potential damage in the car. They are happy.

[saskatchewanian]

I agree with John, CDs belong at home in a nice stereo. I find working an i-pod is much less distracting than trying to find a CD out of a box.

I also never understood why a Jeep would have a CD player that would skip when you drove on the terrain it was designed for. I dislike CDs in cars almost as much as I dislike the stupid FM transmitter I am using now because my current vehicle does not have a tape deck or an audio input.

[surfer1024]

yes, not having to use cds in the car is amazing. I use a tape adapter (the cheap way) and hook my mp3 up and I can play whatever I want off my mp3.

Edit:
I dislike CDs in cars almost as much as I dislike the stupid FM transmitter I am using now because my current vehicle does not have a tape deck or an audio input.
yeah, many newer cars don't have tape decks. I don't like fm transmitters either.

[peleschramm]

Haha as soon as USB sticks came out, my dad had predicted that this will eventually happen :p

A year ago he was telling me he was surprised that this hasn't really caught on.

[Spudman]

We typically drive around with an ipod (or offbrand equivalent) plugged into an FM transmitter. It works alright, especially since we live far away from civilization, but whenever we take road trips through Phoenix or any other large cities, it's hard to keep a station that doesn't get all static-y. My Mom just got a new Silverado pickup last week (hooray for super car sales! go economy!) and it comes standard with an mp3 player and an audio input jack. It's quite an improvement over our other car stereo systems.

It's been a long time since we've kept CDs in any of our vehicles... in fact we stored them in our basement a few months ago to make more room for our dvds and widscreen television. Soon we won't even need those, since my brothers wii is able to play movie files from an external hard drive. Technology sure gets outdated fast.

[forrestunifreak]

My car is now a rolling MP3 player that you sit inside of
But does it fit inside your pocket?? :)


I use a tape adapter and hook my mp3 up and I can play whatever I want off my mp3.


Yeah that's what I do whenever i drive and I think it's great. Only cost me $5 too.
The problem with that though is a lot of newer cars not having tape decks, of course. But, my car being from the 80's, and both my parents cars happen to have a tape deck as well as a CD player, works out perfectly.

[Mikefule]

16 gigabytes? For a glorified phonograph?

As someone who paid the extra for a 48K Sinclair ZX Spectrum - it seems like only yesterday - 16 gigabytes?! It'd cost you a million Dollars to fill that with 3 minute rock and roll singles.:eek:

[peleschramm]

I use a tape adapter (the cheap way) and hook my mp3 up and I can play whatever I want off my mp3.



Me too.

[Jeremy R]

Thank you, Santa.

Did you mean "Thank you, Sansa."

[uni57]

Did you mean "Thank you, Sansa."LOL, I have one of those, too.

[johnfoss]

16 gigabytes? For a glorified phonograph?I was thinking the same thing, but only in relation to my 60GB iPod. Not that I need to carry all my music with me all the time, but it's handy to have it all together. But thumb drives are so cheap now, you can just buy another one when the first one fills up.

I have an iPod adapter in my car from NewerTech. Only $30, it's fixed to a single FM frequency, 87.9. Works almost everywhere since hardly anybody uses that frequency. I don't know why, but the adapters on the market these days don't even go that low, they all start at 88.1. Why? And they all cost more. NewerTech doesn't make that old one anymore... :(

My 2004 Toyota has a cassette player, and 6-disc CD changer. I rarely use either, but the cassette is a good backup for playing the iPod...

[uni57]

But thumb drives are so cheap now, you can just buy another one when the first one fills up.16 gig is probably more than enough for my entire CD collection and then some. I don't buy much new music. Unless my listening habits change, the 16G drive will be enough. Or, by the time I actually fill it up, the 32G will be out (and cheap). I'll just get one of those, transfer everything over to it, and be set for life. I calculate I can fit 300 CDs on my 16G drive at my current rate of consumption (50 CDs so far totaling 2.5G).

What a cool time to be alive.

[john_childs]

(50 CDs so far totaling 2.5G)

Has Geddy Lee been on that many CDs?

My complaint with in car MP3 players and most other MP3 players is they almost all fail to play gapless tracks. I'm not aware of any in car MP3 players that can play gapless. The only way to get gapless playback in a car is to use something with an iPod connection or something with a line in that you can connect a Zune or a Rockbox MP3 player to.

It's all great technology but they are failing to be a true CD replacement till they manage to get gapless playback done right. It's not impossible to do. It just does not seem to be a priority at all for the vast majority of manufacturers.

[johnfoss]

My complaint with in car MP3 players and most other MP3 players is they almost all fail to play gapless tracks.You are an audiophile commenting on in-car music players. You're never going to be happy there. What you need is a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a Walkman for your CDs. And a driver, of course. :)

Or, an iPod connected to some kind of "good" device to wire it into your car's stereo so you don't have to muck about with FM transmitters. The iPods can do gapless (though probably not to your standards)...

[Goats_On_Unicycles]

my friend has this in his car.
it's fantabulous.
he's got thousands of songs...

[Jerrick]

You are an audiophile commenting on in-car music players. You're never going to be happy there. What you need is a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a Walkman for your CDs. And a driver, of course. :)

Or, an iPod connected to some kind of "good" device to wire it into your car's stereo so you don't have to muck about with FM transmitters. The iPods can do gapless (though probably not to your standards)...

Nah, you dont even have to be an audiophile to make Johns points. I have lots of cds, from Dream Theater, Symphony X, Operas and other classical pieces, and just basically tons of songs that get separated into a few tracks because thats how they are put onto the cd. Playback from the cd is perfect, but when you are listening to a 30minute prog piece or anything like that, and you hear that quick 2.5mm gap, its amazingly annoying.

John, just get a tiny laptop and use Foobar2000 on it, then use the line in or a RCA cable to hook into your cars audio system. :D Haha, I may actually do that, and build the electronics into the dashboard.

Right now I just throw in all the tracks into cubase and export it all as one track to get rid of the gaps, then put it onto my player. A few mins of extra work but the annoyance of a gap is gone.

[john_childs]

John, just get a tiny laptop and use Foobar2000 on it, then use the line in or a RCA cable to hook into your cars audio system. :D Haha, I may actually do that, and build the electronics into the dashboard.
I just use an iPod. Problem solved for now. Though I don't like the direction that Apple is going by making the Touch and possibly future iPods more proprietary. You can't use 3rd party software to sync and manage the Touch. I don't like a system that locks me into using one particular piece of software to manage the music on the device. Same reason that I don't have a Zune.

The future I see for gapless playback is the iPod and Zune being proprietary, Rockbox on obsolete hardware, and no-one else stepping up to the plate.

[Jerrick]

I just use an iPod. Problem solved for now. Though I don't like the direction that Apple is going by making the Touch and possibly future iPods more proprietary. You can't use 3rd party software to sync and manage the Touch. I don't like a system that locks me into using one particular piece of software to manage the music on the device. Same reason that I don't have a Zune.

The future I see for gapless playback is the iPod and Zune being proprietary, Rockbox on obsolete hardware, and no-one else stepping up to the plate.


Yeah, it sucks. At least there are free audio/wave editing programs to combine tracks into 1 continues play. Works for me cause I usually listen to a full cd instead of a few tracks and then switch.

Im surprised more media players dont offer gapless playback.

Hopefully someday we have all-in-one media programs and mp3 players that arent based on proprietariness and really have something to offer. For now ill stick with vlc for video and fubar for audio.

[john_childs]

You are an audiophile commenting on in-car music players. You're never going to be happy there. What you need is a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a Walkman for your CDs. And a driver, of course. :)

Or, an iPod connected to some kind of "good" device to wire it into your car's stereo so you don't have to muck about with FM transmitters. The iPods can do gapless (though probably not to your standards)...

I'm an audiophile in the sense that I'm a bit of an audio hardware geek. I'm not much an an audiophile when it comes to high end audio quality. I'm happy with what the true audiophiles would consider entry level audiophile sound.

I'm just cursed with the preference to listen to whole albums, many of which require gapless playback to be correct to their original form.

The iPod does gapless well and that's my current solution for portable playback.

[UniKid2]

Media Monkey?

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Works with My iPod..

[john_childs]

Media Monkey and many other programs can sync an iPod. They all have had to reverse engineer how to do it and future firmware updates to an iPod can break that support. Support for the Touch and iPhone is different though. Media Monkey has managed to figure out how to sync a Touch or iPhone. They do it by automating iTunes. They send commands to iTunes and iTunes does the sync. It's a fragile setup. A future change in iTunes could easily break that support.

Apple needs to make an open API so that 3rd party programs can sync music. But they're never gonna do it. They want everyone to use iTunes even though iTunes sucks for managing large diverse music collections.

[UniKid2]

Ouhhh lots of words... Cool though,

Should have said , no.

[skrobo]

Media Monkey and many other programs can sync an iPod. They all have had to reverse engineer how to do it and future firmware updates to an iPod can break that support. Support for the Touch and iPhone is different though. Media Monkey has managed to figure out how to sync a Touch or iPhone. They do it by automating iTunes. They send commands to iTunes and iTunes does the sync. It's a fragile setup. A future change in iTunes could easily break that support.

Apple needs to make an open API so that 3rd party programs can sync music. But they're never gonna do it. They want everyone to use iTunes even though iTunes sucks for managing large diverse music collections.

Zune is worse, and their software is immensly worse, but i like my zune far better than an ipod... i've seen too many broken/dead (battery) ipods because apple messed up

[skrobo]

i have my Zune [30gb] hooked up w/ a high bandwith auxilary cable, and a home-made dock so that the cables don't wear out...

i have not met anyone in person who cares if they have the skip on thier mp3 player...

[phlegm]

My complaint with in car MP3 players and most other MP3 players is they almost all fail to play gapless tracks. ...

I got a Honda Fit a few weeks ago to replace my Saturn VUE that was totaled earlier this year, and it came with a nifty USB input. I've noticed that the tracks don't seem to play in order for every album even though the filenames are numbered. I haven't really messed around with it to figure out why, but it is quite annoying when I want to hear an album in order. I think it's not gapless too. Dang engineers have no aesthetic sense. :p

[uni57]

I've noticed that the tracks don't seem to play in order for every album even though the filenames are numbered. Some of them play in the sequence that the files are written to the USB drive.

(kids who can only read a few words at a time can stop here)

Keep in mind that the USB drive is formatted like a hard drive -- there is a file system on it (FAT16 or FAT32). Internally, in any file system, there are tables that store the directory information. There is one table entry for each file or directory within a directory. There are further entries that say where each chunk of the file is physically located.

The FAT file system is a simple file system, but even so, it was designed to be read by a computer running an operating system. But here we have car radios instead. How much computery sophistication did they build into the radio? I think not much. Just enough.

As such, some radios are documented to play the files in "the order that they are written." This really means the order that the files appear in the directory tables. Say you delete the second file in a directory. That entry in the directory table is then marked as empty. If you copy another file into that directory, that second entry in the table is re-used. The player would probably play this new file as the second song even though alphabetically, the song should come last.

My player does sort everything alphabetically. It must have enough memory and processing power to do that. Others don't. Some get even fancier and they read the metadata from each song file and build a database by genre, artist, and album. This is what any portable MP3 player would do. But I've read complaints that that process takes five minutes -- every time you drive the car!

So, players vary in sophistication regarding how they access the file system. If you want to play everything alphabetically, you need to start with a freshly-formatted file system -- then copy the files onto the USB drive alphabetically (which Windows does NOT do). If you format your USB drive, select FAT32. Make sure you do a quick-format so you don't needlessly wear out the drive. There is also a question of compatibility -- will a USB drive formatted by Windows work in a car radio? Does "anyone" know? I think formatting before copying is the right way to go, but don't rush into it. It might end up not working at all.

[phlegm]

Some of them play in the sequence that the files are written to the USB drive.

I've never had an mp3 player that does that, although it did cross my mind. It would be pretty ridiculous that I can spend thousands on a car and they can't even put a proper probably sub $10 mp3 player chip in it. :rolleyes:

[john_childs]

There are utilities that will sort a directory of files and write them to the directory in sorted order. Here's a listing of a few: Sort MP3 Files On MP3 Player (http://www.murraymoffatt.com/software-problem-0010.html)

I remember the old Norton program. PC Tools also had a way of sorting a directory like that.

[forrestunifreak]

There are utilities that will sort a directory of files and write them to the directory in sorted order. Here's a listing of a few: Sort MP3 Files On MP3 Player (http://www.murraymoffatt.com/software-problem-0010.html)


Think that would work the same for an SD flash memory card, by any chance?

[Klaas Bil]

Car CD players are evil. They scratch and destroy discs. A car is not the place for a CD player.

Your CD collection is going to thank you for not subjecting them to potential damage in the car. They are happy.
I use only (legally, i.e. my own) copied CDs in my car, also because of the risk of theft. In the cassette tape era I lost some irreplaceable music to theft, and some to what was called "tape salad". Everybody happy now, except the thieves maybe.

[john_childs]

Think that would work the same for an SD flash memory card, by any chance?

Yes, as long as the SD card is formatted with the FAT file system, as most are.

[BillyTheMountain]

I just got a new car stereo that has a USB input.

This means that I can plug in a USB drive loaded with MP3s. No more piles of CDs in the car!

My car is now a rolling MP3 player that you sit inside of

I put headphones on my head, and when I unicycle, my head is now a rolling MP3 player that I live inside of.

[uni57]

I put headphones on my head, and when I unicycle, my head is now a rolling MP3 player that I live inside of.Clever. And funny. But not correct. Your head is not playing the MP3s. My car is. It's a sit-inside MP3 player. Your head, while it is capable of many great feats, is not.

[nimblelight]

In a few years flash drive type technology will replace dvds, too. :D:D:D

[BillyTheMountain]

Clever. And funny. But not correct. Your head is not playing the MP3s. My car is. It's a sit-inside MP3 player. Your head, while it is capable of many great feats, is not.

Technically, all music actually occurs IN your central nervous system (ie, brain).

Those waves emanating from your speakers are not music.

Do I win now?

Billy

[uni57]

Technically, all music actually occurs IN your central nervous system (ie, brain).

Those waves emanating from your speakers are not music.

Do I win now?If your central nervous system is reading the music file, then yes, you win.

[hobo_chuck]

File ->MP3 Player->Ear->Brain
or
mp3->soundwaves->electrical impulses->euphoric hormonal reaction:)

Does that count?

For me personally it's still
neuro-network->blaaaaaah

[BillyTheMountain]

If your central nervous system is reading the music file, then yes, you win.

In a binary way, it is.

[BillyTheMountain]

In a binary way, it is.

Dave,

Your comment in the other thread: Very funny. http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/images/smilies/mad.gif

Is this research scientist a robot android too? Because he is saying the same thing I said:

http://www.mymathforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4917

"Basically, a 'zero' means the brain cell is inactive, while a 'one' means the brain cell fired a pulse. So, for each cell, my recordings look like 00100000000000000000010000000100000000010000000000 00000001001000000000001000000000001000...etc. and I have hundreds of cells recorded at once."

Billy

[Michaelgoround]

yes, not having to use cds in the car is amazing. I use a tape adapter (the cheap way) and hook my mp3 up and I can play whatever I want off my mp3.

I would do that but my tape player doesn't work.:(

[Catboy]

My ipod plays through my Alpine stereo deck. It's hidden in my center console, but I can control my Ipod through the stereo! No skips, no charging, all slumptastic BASS~!

[Michaelgoround]

My ipod plays through my Alpine stereo deck. It's hidden in my center console, but I can control my Ipod through the stereo! No skips, no charging, all slumptastic BASS~!
I wish I had slumptastic bass, heck I wish I had an I-Pod.

[cathwood]

I have had a new car stereo for christmas that let's you connect up your MP3 player by USB port.

I don't have any problem with the albums playing in order but what does bug me is that it always starts at the beginning when I plug it in and there doesn't seem to be any way to select the music I want, except for fast forwarding throught it all. Is there a way to select where I start, or at least to stop it from starting at the 'beginning' all the time?

Thanks.

[uni57]

Is there a way to select where I start, or at least to stop it from starting at the 'beginning' all the time?LOL, mine does the same thing. If I turn the radio off while it's playing a song, it will remember where it left off. But if I unplug the USB drive (in your case, the MP3 player), the next time, it starts playing the first song. Always the first song. That Same. Song. Every. Time.

Here's what I did: I made a five minute MP3 of silence. The song is called Waiting by a band called Waiting. The album name is "Please Make a Music Selection Now..." The file is named "000_Blank.mp3" in a folder called "000 Blank". Since my player plays alphabetically, this naming causes it to be the first "song" played (FYI, all my other folders and files are prefixed with numbers, so I just followed suit with this one to make it alphabetically first -- your mileage may vary).

So now, when I turn on the stereo, it plays my "song" first. I hear silence. I have five minutes to make a selection while the display says the following --

Waiting / Waiting
Please Make a Music Selection Now...

I created a wav file using Goldwave (http://www.goldwave.com/) (you should be able to do this with the trial copy). I simply made an empty wav file and saved it. Then I converted it to MP3 with LAME. If you are not all set up to do that stuff, I uploaded the file so you can download it. You can get it here (http://www.outpost57.com/uni57/000_Blank.mp3). It's a little over a megabyte in size. I optimized the artist name, song title, and album name to give the nicest display on my particular stereo. If you want me to put different words, just let me know and I'll change it for you...

Hope this helps!

Edit: if yours plays alphabetically by artist / album, then we will need to use names other than "Waiting" and "Please". Mine goes by file name, not artist / album. If you want to use my idea (and my file), let me know what to call the artist / album / song and I'll make the change and re-upload it. It's no trouble at all.

[cathwood]

Thanks uni57. I'm pretty sure that my stereo uses the artist's first name as it starts with Adele and then goes on to Amy. It would be great if you could ajust it and I could use your idea. Perhaps it could be called 'Chose your tracks' by aaaaawaiting :-)

Thanks

[uni57]

Perhaps it could be called 'Chose your tracks' by aaaaawaiting :-)Done. The artist and album are "aaaaawaiting" and the song is "Choose your tracks".

I changed the file name, so if you want to try it, get it using this link (http://www.outpost57.com/uni57/000_aaaaawaiting.mp3).

If you try it and want the words changed to something else, let me know. It only takes a second.

[cathwood]

Done. The artist and album are "aaaaawaiting" and the song is "Choose your tracks".

I changed the file name, so if you want to try it, get it using this link (http://www.outpost57.com/uni57/000_aaaaawaiting.mp3).

If you try it and want the words changed to something else, let me know. It only takes a second.

Thank you very much.

I have downloaded it but can't try it out yet as my car, overwhelmed by the new stereo and on the first time that I used it with the new stereo in, has broke. (Aparantly the break lining has come off the breaks and I can't drive it til it's fixed - hopefully Monday. I had a nasty minute, when all the TV progs I've ever watched about failing breaks flashed across my mind, when the breaks failed to work properly. Funny, I thought it was your life that was supposed to flash infront of you at these times.)

[cathwood]

Done. The artist and album are "aaaaawaiting" and the song is "Choose your tracks".

I changed the file name, so if you want to try it, get it using this link (http://www.outpost57.com/uni57/000_aaaaawaiting.mp3).

If you try it and want the words changed to something else, let me know. It only takes a second.

The track works great. Thanks.