I Pod / mp3 player ?

[electron]

Justonemore, all you need to do is get an 'iPod adapter', which plugs into the CD changer port. This allows you to plug any device with audio out directly into your car stereo system. They have difference names for these adapters, but Cruthfield should have them as well. I have one in my car, and used it a lot with my CarPC. Now I use it with my Dell Axim X50V, so I can use it as my mp3 player. Other options are FM transmitter (sucks), or upgrade your head unit.

 

[un-wired]

I am a toy fanatic, and I currently own (2) 4g ipod nanos a 20g ipod and a 60g ipod video. Prior to these I owned a 40g smartdisk unit which took both my smart drive from my camera as well as holding mp3s pictures and videos it displayed them nicely on a small screen. I found it to be slow and bulky.

The two smaller units are the ipods my wife and I carry for personal use, the larger unit is for when we travel so we are able to download and watch tv shows we like, movies to keep us somewhat entertained (haven't tried this yet), and carry all of our very large mp3 collection. The 20g was ou original travel unit and will now be passed to a family member for their usage. I use a simple light plug and cassette converter for use in both of our vehicles and it works like a charm. I'm not sure where I found the kit, but I have an ipod kit which came with a headphone splitter the car charger a headphone extension cable and some other sundry cables, it was well worth the 40 or so dollars.


I personally feel the ipod products are the most useful, despite their hefty pricetag. Honestly I would not own the three I do if it were not for the fact that I lucked into some pyramid type referral sites and received them for the price of signing up for some trial offers and having others do the same. This was purely a matter of luck and timing and I dont reccomend using this method to receive products.

 

[smee]

Justonemore, all you need to do is get an 'iPod adapter', which plugs into the CD changer port. This allows you to plug any device with audio out directly into your car stereo system. They have difference names for these adapters, but Cruthfield should have them as well. I have one in my car, and used it a lot with my CarPC. Now I use it with my Dell Axim X50V, so I can use it as my mp3 player. Other options are FM transmitter (sucks), or upgrade your head unit.

The CD adapters are not available for all cars/radios (trust me, I know).

From what I've heard, the audio quality (from best to worst) usuall runs:
1) aux input or CD input adapter
2) inline RF modulator (wired and attaches directly to antenna input of radio)
3) cassette adapter (but makes normal cassette player noise)
4) carrying some external speakers and an amplifier and connecting directly to player
100) using an FM transmitter that plugs into the player

 

[upstatemike]

Unrelated iPOD type question:

I ripped my music to MP3 at the highest available quality (least compression) setting a few years ago so I could use a music server (Audiotron then switched to SlimServer). I am thinking of re-ripping everything to a higher quality format like FLAC but I also might want to use an iPOD type device someday. Are there any portables that do FLAC or will I have to maintain two copies of everything if I want to use a portable?

 

[damage]

i've got an archos av-420 ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1628613,00.asp ). there's the newer av-500 out now. the archos is not as flashy or as small as the ipods, but it does a whole lot more, including recording video. it has a beautiful 3 1/2" widescreen that makes watching movies on it actually enjoyable (versus the dinky ipod video screen). we take it everywhere, especially since we have young kids, it helps pass the time for them at weddings, waiting at the dr's office, etc.

 

[smee]

I ripped my music to MP3 at the highest available quality (least compression) setting a few years ago so I could use a music server (Audiotron then switched to SlimServer). I am thinking of re-ripping everything to a higher quality format like FLAC but I also might want to use an iPOD type device someday. Are there any portables that do FLAC or will I have to maintain two copies of everything if I want to use a portable?

One of the reasons I chose mp3 for my rips was because it's compatible with just about everything and I didn't want to maintain multiple copies of the same tracks. Since hard drives are so cheap now (relative to when I started), I no longer have the storage space argument but it still takes more time to rip multiple versions.

My first mp3 player used smartmedia cards and I was pretty limited in memory. I used to rip two versions (64K mp3s for the player) to fit more in it's memory.

There are portables that will work with formats like FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. You will probably need to move away from the mainstream to find them. Look for players from companies like Cowon. Don't expect to find support from companies like Apple, Creative, etc.

Note that many of these players rate very highly among people who care about such things (features, format support, etc.). You are not necessarily looking at lower-quality players just because the companies aren't as well known.

www.dapreview.com is a good place to start looking into these other players. Check out www.iaudiophile.net for information on Cowon players.

 

[damage]

oh yeah, if you want to get a free ipod shuffle, you can apply for a schwab credit card and use it once:
https://promo.schwabon.com/AD046/AD046Home....5&mp=ccip05g4xy

or you can open a 1 year cd at netbank ($1k min, 4.65% interest rate)
http://www.netbank.com/pro349.htm

or if you've got $50k in assets lying around and have an ameritrade account, you can get a free video ipod:
http://www.ameritradeconferences.com/apex/offer.asp

or $25k for will get you a nano:http://www.ameritrade.com/offer/newtransfer05.html?uid=

 

[damage]

argh. well i posted where you can get complimentary ipods from schwab/ameritrade/netbank but it got spambotted. oh well...

 

[electron]

I updated your post so it will display.

 

[damage]

thanks!