Any - Hard drive for music ?

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 20:31
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Benet

My imported Honda Stream, which may have to be pensioned off, has a hard drive to automatically record all the CDs that are played. We have 125 albums on it and counting. This is a very useful feature. -Far more convenient than playing music from a mobile phone, even with bluetooth. Does anyone tell me which other cars, preferably meant for the British market, have this feature?

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 20:42
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Adampr

To my knowledge, none. I suspect it would be illegal to market it in this country.

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 21:08
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Benet

To my knowledge, none. I suspect it would be illegal to market it in this country.

...But not illegal to use it if you have it. An interesting moral dilemma. Thank you

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 21:10
Any - Hard drive for music ? - badbusdriver

To my knowledge, none. I suspect it would be illegal to market it in this country.

Can't see why it would be illegal to record your own CD on to your own hard drive for your own personal use?

But surely the obvious solution would be to record your CD's on to a computer and then transfer them onto your phone which you could then play through the car via bluetooth or a cable depending on age of radio/infotainment system in the car?

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 21:20
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Adampr

To my knowledge, none. I suspect it would be illegal to market it in this country.

Can't see why it would be illegal to record your own CD on to your own hard drive for your own personal use?

The legal situation isn't 100% clear and has changed back and forth over the years. In reality, nobody really cares if you are ripping your own CDs for your own use. What I meant was that it would get harder where a manufacturer was providing you with equipment the sole purpose of which was to rip CDs. You could see that, were a court to decide that it was a crime, that manufacturer would be potentially be on the hook for millions in compensation. As such, they're very unlikely to fit it as standard.

Shame really, because it sounds like a cool toy. Presumably, it's a double din head unit that could be removed from the car and put in a new one.

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 22:17
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Benet

Shame really, because it sounds like a cool toy. Presumably, it's a double din head unit that could be removed from the car and put in a new one.

so would it be reasonable to ask an auto electrician to take this out of my old car and instal it in a new one so we could still listen to it?

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 21:48
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Brit_in_Germany

There was a law case 40 years or so ago where Amstrad were sued for selling dual casette decks where you could record from one casette to the other. I believe Amstrad won the case in the end.

knyvet.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1988/15.html

Edited by Brit_in_Germany on 03/09/2024 at 21:55

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 07:35
Any - Hard drive for music ? - FoxyJukebox
My CX 3 allows me to plug in a data stick filled with 2000 mp3 files in folders which happily play in shuffle mode. Just transfer the files to the stick from PC.
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Tue 3 Sep 2024 21:48
Any - Hard drive for music ? - mcb100
Dim and distant memory, but I’m pretty sure BMW E90 had a hard drive for music, as also (maybe) Peugeot 4007/Citroen C-Crosser.
Probably an option on all of those.
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Tue 3 Sep 2024 22:03
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Benet
Dim and distant memory, but I’m pretty sure BMW E90 had a hard drive for music, as also (maybe) Peugeot 4007/Citroen C-Crosser. Probably an option on all of those.


Thank you!

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Tue 3 Sep 2024 22:30
Any - Hard drive for music ? - mcb100
The Peugeot & Citroen were the same car as the Mitsubishi Outlander, so that may also have a music HDD.
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Tue 3 Sep 2024 23:18
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Ethan Edwards

I used to have a iPod classic with about 100 albums on it. From memory it was at least 1gb orobably more? Loaded mp3's via iMusic on the computer. Used to be able to connect it via a USB to the head unit in the car. Kept it in the glovebox.

All good eh? Well no. Change the car and it's no longer backwards compatible with the iPod classic. Had it through a Qashqai, a Vitara then now a new shape Mokka. Nope not compatible with the Mokka. So had to download a lot of Mp3's to a couple of really big Thumb drives. They were compatible.

Though to be fair I play a lot of music off my phone while in the car.

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 11:42
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Terry W

My car can either play via phone on bluetooth, or from a memory stick.

A hard drive may have been the bees knees when originally fitted - but now sounds like a high cost legacy system to be avoided.

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 11:48
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Benet

A hard drive may have been the bees knees when originally fitted - but now sounds like a high cost legacy system to be avoided.

It is actually really, really convenient. We listen to a lot of CDs. We don't use Spotify. This way the car *automatically* makes a copy of the CD for us. No faffing around with computers

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 12:56
Any - Hard drive for music ? - corax

It's great until the hard drive fails. Then you lose all your music. Unless there is some way of backing it up, doubtful if it's a head unit.

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 12:59
Any - Hard drive for music ? - mcb100
Not really in with a chance of losing their music unless the CD’s are thrown away.

Edited by mcb100 on 04/09/2024 at 13:00

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 13:08
Any - Hard drive for music ? - corax

Maybe I should have said, losing their music in a compact, convenient place against a whole stack of CD's.

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 13:12
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Gibbo_Wirral

Its the 21st century, just rip all your CDs to a USB stick or your phone and plug either into your replacement car's stereo.

CD Ripping isn't frowned upon now and Windows Media Player or VLC Player should convert the CD into handy MP3s.

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Wed 4 Sep 2024 17:15
Any - Hard drive for music ? - Warning

Here's a YouTube video that demonstrates this feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UsVqnMRAA

I've converted my music collection from CDs to MP3s and kept the original CDs for legal reasons. Despite the claims of being durable, some of the older CDs no longer play. However, PC software can attempt to extract the songs multiple times, increasing the chances of success.

Ripping CDs on a PC offers higher quality and faster conversion, often with the added bonus of downloading album art. I typically convert at 320 Kbps, though your Honda might have used a lower bitrate to accommodate more songs on the hard drive.

Additionally, many cars support playing music directly from a USB stick and it is nice to see the album art. It all depends on how good the audio player it.

Newer phones have limited storage, so placing a music collection might an issue. Newer phones don't have memory card slots....

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