Has anyon installed an in-car MP3 player?

[Justin]

If so, howeasy/expensive is it? How much capacity do they have?Is it worthwhile,, or is the quality not as good as CD's? I know this is a question for the technical forum, but I'd be interested in hearing of anyon'e experiences.

[WhipLash]

Justin, I've been looking into this myself lately as I'd like to be able to use my collection of MP3's in the car. There a good solution from Creative called the Nomad Jukebox. This features 6GB of storage capacity and stores over 100 hours of CD-quality audio, or over 150 albums and thousands of personnel playlists. It's more like a personel CD player, but Creative promise a car kit with DC power source from the cigarette lighter and a built in transmitter to your car’s FM radio.

Check out the official Creative Nomad site (http://www.nomadworld.com) for more details.

I'd say we'll see a better range of in-car MP3 players within the next year. If anyone knows more about a good in car player, do let us know!

[JSmith]

Okay, I'll have to go search out the article but yes, there is one.

It uses a 10Gb internal HD is actually mounted into the dashboard like a stereo.

As far as I remember, the HD is ejectable which means you'll need an IDE nest for your pc to connect it but the transfer rate will be EXCELLENT.

Like I said, I'll post all the specs when I find the article (I have to search through 50 mags to find out!)

Keep an eye out for it, if someone else knows it - it was published in ComputerActive so a few might...tell me so I can stop searching.

Thanks.

[Tony]

Any further info on this one JSmith? The MP3 player sounds like a good alternative to the CD stacker. No moving parts, digital recording, you can copy down your existing CD's, plus you can (illegally) download whatever tracks you want from the Net. The only problem is that you need a descent hard drive to accommodate a good selection of tracks. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem though.

[JSmith]

Here you go - this is the article I told you about. It's very out of date but it's a general idea of what it does. I made I mistake, the HD doesn't eject so there is no need for an IDE nest although, I'm not sure how this device connects to the PC. I've included the article and website of the company who makes it so you should be able to find out more about it. Sorry, I don't have time to get the latest details!

Issue #27 - ComputerActive - Published: Feb 1999 wrote:

"Digital music is the future - and in the UK, the future is now.

While record companies are still wrangling over the copyright issues concerning devices such as Diamond's Rio MP3 player, a small British company has come up with an unusual in-car sound system.

Called Empeg, this powerful computer fits in the standard space for a modern car radio and uses a powerful operating system called Linux to decode music in the MP3 format and play it back to you as you drive.

Unlike the RIO, which is limited to the amount of music you can store in its memory chips, Empeg offers up to 35 hours of recording time by using a hard disk with 2.1gb of memory. There's also a built-in FM radio.

The whole unit can be removed easily, so that you can link it up to your PC at home to download your favourite tunes. Expand the Empeg to the maximum 28 Gb of disk and you can have close to 500 hours of music - enough for your entire record collection.

The Empeg car player will cost around £600 and should be available soon."

For those of you interested in it...here's what it looks like:

<IMG SRC="http://members.tripod.com/Terenure/Empeg.jpg" border=0>

And here's the website: http://www.Empeg.com

Hope this helps!

[Tony]

The player looks quite flexible. You can detach it from the car and connect it to your PC to download new MP3's. It can also be connected to your stereo system allowing you to play the MP3's in the house. The only thing against it is the high cost, but I suppose that will fall as more players come to market and their popularity grows. Like all other new technologies I suppose.

[JSmith]

WOW!!! Just went across to Empeg.Com to take a look, US$1199 entry price seems a bit steep :eek:. Obviously they've change a lot about it, considering that ComputerActive had marked at a much lower price. Then again, I have a collection of 969 MP3s and I haven't even got to 6GB so when you think about it, it's not THAT bad.

[Justin]

Have a look at http://www.ssiamerica.com.

Also, got to http://www.netpath.net/~ppete/board/main.htm and go to the discussion forum and search under "MP3". I posted a similar query there and a few interesting ideas came out.

[friz]

*Bump*

Was wondering about these myself as I'm owed a father's day and my birthday is next month.

Saw a few advertised but requests for info were met with blank faces and data sheets.

Anyone got one of these gems yet?

[WhipLash]

As far as I know, Ford now offers MP3 playes on their standard options list.

If you fancy a portable model then Creative (http://ie.europe.creative.com) are ones to consider. Take a browse through their website and look at the different Jukebox models on offer - you can purchase online too.

The larger models cost €400+, but there are cheaper models available. The Jukebox 2 10GB costs €285, although I'm not too sure if the car kit works with this model - perhaps a quick email might answer this.

USB is slower to upload onto the player than firewire, but costs less, and wouldn't be too much trouble if you aren't going to be uploading MP3's too often. You'd also need a firewire card in your PC for the firewire model (or if you have an iMAC, it has a firewire interface as standard). Go for firewire if you will be uploading MP3's more often.

If you click on the Accessories list, they have a car kit for the Jukebox, costing €32.23 ex VAT.

HTH.

[lfcfan]

A Friend of mine used to make MP3 players with hard drives for the car. They were run on Linux too. Nifty wee thing.

[Airblazer]

Goodman's do a car mp3 player for about €180 in Argus. Quality is good but it'll only read mp3's recorded at 128kps. It uses CD-Rs,CD-RWs which each hold approx 200-280 songs. However it's a pain in the ass trying to find your favourite songs so I went back to the humble cd player as it works out to be faster and safer.

[alpine]

you can have a blaupunkt mp3/cd player for £129 or you could go down the ipod route and get an adapter for alpine or blaupunkt car cd players for £69
www.motorspeed.ie

[mo4]

Hi - I'm brand new to the forum so I wont pretend to know everything,
but I recently bought an Ipod for the car.
There is a small module (15 euro) which attaches to the Ipod and broadcasts the sound on FM, which you can then tune your car radio into. There is no need to buy anything in your car.
This works for me - excellent quality, no interference although sometimes I wonder if the people in the traffic beside me are listening to my MP3 collection too!

[blackie]

How much is an ipod for the car? Where are they available from?