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MP3 Mass Storage

6K views 32 replies 21 participants last post by  OldOneEye 
#1 ·
Does anybody know of other methods beyond an ipod to have mass storage of mp3 type files?

My goal: Obsolete CD's with MP3's (or equivalent) on them, carry your complete music collection in a car that is readily accessible with the touch of a button. CD-R's are ok but having to carry them around still sucks. Being really progressive here would mean having a storage device that does not only have a propreitary format such as MP3 but also supports open source ogg vorbis .OGG files. I would like to get a removable hard drive that just plugs into a car stereo (a custom designed plug-in mind you) and you could updates files pretty easily as needed.

Kenwood use to make something called the Keg but it has been discontiuned. It was only useful with Kenwood decks anyways. I have an Eclipse deck but I also have AUX ins. I could go out and buy and hard drive based ipod and an ipod controller for it but I have some reservations. Maybe somebody out there has dealt with this: It would be my intent to install an ipod permanently in my car because I don't like the idea of having to carry the ipod thing around. That is just a problem waiting to happen whether it gets stolen or breaks due to the handling and the constant plugging in/out. The other thing that bothers me is that it doesn't seem that the ipod is that rugged to be able to handle temp extremes. If you look at the ipod specs, it can only do 32 deg to 95 deg. A car's interior can exceed that fairly easily.

I don't know why there has not been a market entry where a company would have a hard drive that you can fill up and then provides audio out via RCA jacks to go into AUX in, and also supply a little control panel so that you can pick songs. Something made for a car environment is much better than an ipod. Also thought about seeing what it would take to do this on my own. Kind of a ponderous musing of sorts. This would be a major effort but maybe somebody has done so I don't have to.

dennis
 
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#2 ·
Do a search for omnifi. It was a device made by rockford fosgate that was very similar to the kenwood music keg. It also allowed you to wirelessly share music between your computer and your car(assuming your car was in wireless internet range). its no longer made but you should be able to score one on ebay
 
#4 ·
I know this isn't really a valid option, but the Sony etc. decks with the USB inputs will use a USB hard drive. Made the clowns at Best Buy test it out one day.

The other option that comes to mind is a full-on carcomputer. :D
 
#5 ·
I don't know why there has not been a market entry where a company would have a hard drive that you can fill up and then provides audio out via RCA jacks to go into AUX in, and also supply a little control panel so that you can pick songs. Something made for a car environment is much better than an ipod. Also thought about seeing what it would take to do this on my own. Kind of a ponderous musing of sorts. This would be a major effort but maybe somebody has done so I don't have to.
Somebody does. I put one in a kids Nissan Hardbody last summer. Pretty cool. Damn, wish I could remember the brand. Got a memory like Teflon these days... **EDIT** Yup it was an OmniFi. You guys are quick!

My setup is kind of an alternative to the alternative. I have an Alpine CVA-1005 Monitor hooked up to a modded Xbox w/160Gb of storage. I use the Xbox DVD remote to navigate via an IR repeater.
When I need to manage my Xbox library I just bring it in the house and network it to my home PC.
Not the slickest thing in the world, but it works and its different.
 
#6 ·
There's a member here that uses some sort of Kenwood HU with a giant external harddrive connected to it. I don't know how intuitive they are to use or how flexible. His sig never changed so I guess the set up has been good to him. I always felt compelled to ask that member about the gory details of its use, but then I forgot their user name :kicks self:. Forget mp3s though. You're going to want to download Exact Audio Copy and extract to wav to approach obsoleting CDs.
 
#7 ·
Does anybody know of other methods beyond an ipod to have mass storage of mp3 type files?

My goal: Obsolete CD's with MP3's (or equivalent) on them, carry your complete music collection in a car that is readily accessible with the touch of a button. CD-R's are ok but having to carry them around still sucks. Being really progressive here would mean having a storage device that does not only have a propreitary format such as MP3 but also supports open source ogg vorbis .OGG files. I would like to get a removable hard drive that just plugs into a car stereo (a custom designed plug-in mind you) and you could updates files pretty easily as needed.

Kenwood use to make something called the Keg but it has been discontiuned. It was only useful with Kenwood decks anyways. I have an Eclipse deck but I also have AUX ins. I could go out and buy and hard drive based ipod and an ipod controller for it but I have some reservations. Maybe somebody out there has dealt with this: It would be my intent to install an ipod permanently in my car because I don't like the idea of having to carry the ipod thing around. That is just a problem waiting to happen whether it gets stolen or breaks due to the handling and the constant plugging in/out. The other thing that bothers me is that it doesn't seem that the ipod is that rugged to be able to handle temp extremes. If you look at the ipod specs, it can only do 32 deg to 95 deg. A car's interior can exceed that fairly easily.

I don't know why there has not been a market entry where a company would have a hard drive that you can fill up and then provides audio out via RCA jacks to go into AUX in, and also supply a little control panel so that you can pick songs. Something made for a car environment is much better than an ipod. Also thought about seeing what it would take to do this on my own. Kind of a ponderous musing of sorts. This would be a major effort but maybe somebody has done so I don't have to.

dennis
I've looked into that problem and for my iPod Photo I did a search for the manufacturers spec sheets on all the chips inside and they all were rated well into the 150 degree range, even the LCD was that high. Granted I only had the numbers for the major chips, which I estimated were 95 percent of all the components, but its safe to assume that the remaining would have the same temp range. The only thing inside that I found that could give the Ipod that restricted temp rating would be the battery which has that same non operating temp range rating as the iPod. You can find high temp battery replacements for iPods online.

Even though all the components are rated much higher, it is possible that the temp inside the iPod case after the hard drive heats up a bit will reach those higher rated temp levels and damage the iPod. What I would do is mount the Ipod under the seat away from direct sunlight and heated interior pieces (my thermometer never passed 105 in Miami at noon at 95 outside while in the glove compartment it went up to like 130. I would also open up the case of the iPod and mount it open faced securely on something with the hot hard drive separated as much as you can from the main board (don’t worry about the LCD heating up and damaging the main board since it will probably be off when whatever you are controlling the iPod with is active), cover it all with a thin grill cloth like material to let heat pass thru and keep dust out. Maybe a micro 12volt fan attached somehow if you want to get really detailed. Keep it away from under seat AC vents hitting it since that will cause condensation and short something out on the iPod.
 
#8 ·
or a simple car computer. a really low power mobo (the via fanless ones) a harddrive and an lcd display. you can get winamp to display track and title information on the lcd display and you could possibly control it via your head unit as well (depending on what brand you have)
 
#9 ·
how about the best MP3 player ever made for the car?
its the EMPEG (aka Rio Car) player. look it up... its pricey but well worth it in my opinion.
20 band parametric EQ, 4 vrms output, remote control, upgradable to dual 128 gig hard drives, aux input, playlist control, blah blah blah. i love mine!!
look it up!
 
#10 ·
Alpine is coming out with a new model that uses your ipod like a hard drive and brings the music in digital form into its intermal processor (which is actually pretty nice). It is odd in that it will offer the best - near cd quality - ipod quality yet, but it doesn't have a digital output or even aCD player attached! I believe it will run a changer but none on the head unit...

Things are finally moving the way i have prayed for a long time extreme quality portable music (video, audio book, etc.) servers!

I am anxious to see who gets on this first with the most.

Less
 
#11 · (Edited)
There's a member here that uses some sort of Kenwood HU with a giant external harddrive connected to it. I don't know how intuitive they are to use or how flexible. His sig never changed so I guess the set up has been good to him. I always felt compelled to ask that member about the gory details of its use, but then I forgot their user name :kicks self:. Forget mp3s though. You're going to want to download Exact Audio Copy and extract to wav to approach obsoleting CDs.
I use a Kenwood HU with USB input and a 250 GB HDD. There are a couple very small, easy hurdles with it but it works out very very sweet. You can get an 80 GB that can be powered by the USB cable on the HU or you can hardwire it with a voltage regulator like I did. Looking back, I would have gotten LaCie Mobil 80 GB drive because the HU can power it.

The iPod fans will complain about its one and only drawback (1 min. intial index times with ~25 GB of music) but it doesn't bother me at all. By the time I get my seatbelt on, check my mirrors, back out of the driveway, and get out on the road, the music is on.

The advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. I have all the music I want at my disposal and navigating it is pretty easy and relatively fast. It is slower than an iPod but you can get to an album faster than you can switch CDs and it's much safer than an iPod or CDs. The fact that it speaks out the artist or album or whatever makes it easy to navigate without taking your eyes off the road. This is a definite plus if you ask me.

It has the usually features like searching by Artist, Album, Genre, Playlist or Folder. You can also Randomize or Repeat any one of those. All the navigation features except time seeking through a song can be done with the included remote. The unit also has 4v preouts and some simple front/rear highpass and sub lowpass crossovers.

With 250 GB at my disposal, I am never worried about the size of my mp3s and I use soley 320 kbs mp3 on mine. The quality difference can be heard over CD don't get me wrong, but for every day listening it will not bother you if you're even considering looking into it. I don't even notice.

If you want more information let me know. Clarion has also just came out with an attractive USB head unit at a reasonable price. IMO the Alpine solution is too expensive (another $150 on top of the Alpine HU of your choice).
 
#13 ·
Thanks a lot for the responses and ideas. I never heard of the Omnifi thing and that may be a good thing to check out more in depth. It does look pretty cool.

I will consider the ipod again. It is simpler in that all I have to do is buy everything and all of the attachments are ready to go. Thanks for your take on this t3sn4f2. There is a controller for eclipse HU so my life does become slightly easier.

Thought about putting an old laptop computer in the car. Kind of overkill for the situation but may work.

Even though there are other HU's that do have USB connections, I am planning on sticking with my Eclipse unit because I think they sound the best. I have had clarion before (two of 'em) and the sound between the eclipse and clarion was no contest. I loved clarion before now that is a distant memory. Eclipse is very good for me.

I have nothing against cd's. It just has come to the point with storage so cheap, and provided that you get decent SQ from MP3 type files (there are formats that do sound better), that maintaing CD's is becoming pointless. If you could carry everything all at once in your hand, you are golden. No changing cd's, no burning cd's, etc. I think that maybe the next carrier in music may just be the USB thumb drives that plug into a car stereo. No moving parts at all. Just wishful thinking on my end.

dennis
 
#14 ·
#15 ·
I too am curious about mass storage, but more so the ability to use portable/laptop hdd's. I know many manufacturers now offer some sort of usb input (whether integrated or as an add-on). will these systems (mainly the pioneer add-on due to my recent purchase of a 880) read such a large size? I have a feeling you would probably have to come up with an external power supply (even many laptops wont power drives through usb only), but i have that issue under control for the moment.

also have an EPIA800 mb thats collecting dust, but not really feeling like dropping the money for a good car pc psu or case...
 
#19 ·
One thing to watch out for with these new USB-ready head units is the number of tracks and folders they can index. I know last year's Clarion and Alpine models only indexed about 255 songs so anything more than a gigabyte memory stick is useless.

It sounds like from previous posts that Kenwood does not have this problem but with any solution, indexing the songs will take some time.

Another option is a carputer. Check out www.mp3car.com to see what options are available. It is probably more than you are looking for (initial buy-in can be steep) but you never know.
 
#25 ·
Hey, where'd you find that? I've been trying to find the Pioneer specs for max indexing and couldn't find anything. The other thing you want to watch for is how the HU navigates the songs and folder structure. The gold standard uses the ID tags and allow browsing and selection via any one of the tags (artist, genre, year, or any custom field you want to add). Add to that, playlists as well as dynamic playlists and those 4000 or so songs become a little more managable. Most of the HU I've seen (except Kenwood), use a very basic file and folder browser. ID tags may be displayed while the song is being played, but cannot be used for searching and song selections. If the Pioneers do the former, I'd really like to know.
 
#24 ·
I guess it depends on how many songs you define as "mass storage." I ordered a Sony MEX-1GP. With 1GB of Flash memory, the GIGA Panel can store up to 500 tracks or 60 hours of tunes. There isn't any software required: you simply detach the face, and with a USB connection, plug it in your computer and drag and drop the songs onto the HU storage base. When you are done, place it back in your car. For me, that is plenty.

You can buy one here for $227 and free shipping.
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=16406
 
#26 ·
I am also very interested in this, I ve got everything for the carputer sitting in my basement, minus the lcd touchscreen. I just haven't decided if its worth all the trouble. I use my Ipod right now, but it sucks for a few reasons. First, its only a 20 gig, and its full. I ve got 40 plus gigs of music on my home computer right now, and its expanding everyday. The 80 gig would surely be filled very quickly. Second, as far as temperature ranges go, I live in NW Indiana, and I can vouge(sp?) for the fact that the Ipod does NOT like extreme cold weather. If I happen to forget mine in my car while I m at work, and come out 10 hours later, it will play for about 5 minutes before freezing up(figuratively). It still seems that, as far as having mass storage at your fingertips, for now, a carputer is just about the only way to go...
 
#27 ·
The Pioneer piece is an external add-on, much like a sirius or xm tuner. It attaches via the IP-Bus. I found the specs in the owners manual available online. According to them, it is USB 2.0, Max storage of 250GB, supports FAT12/16/32, 15000 files/500 folders max, ID3 1.0/1.1/2.2/2.3/2.4, no M3U support (oh well), AAC & WMA support, VBR WMA and MP3. This thing has just about anything I could want at this moment and may be of use to some of the other 880PRS fans around here.
 
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