Has anybody in the B.R. installed one of these units in their cars and if so how is it performing ???
With a storage capacity of 6000 tracks and priced around £220, it seems competitive against a multi play C.D.- that is if the performance is o.k.
Any feedback would be much appreciated.
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What's the need? Both Maplin and CPC do CD/MP3/Radio (ie to replace a car radio) units for under £100 - indeed well under in some cases. OK it won't hold as many tracks but you can get many hours on a CD and can burn compilations etc.
Maplin did at one time do a DVD unit for around £100 but I don't know if it could play MP3s from DVD or just from CDs.
For a sort of comparison BTW, I have a portable CD/MP3 player I use in my car on long journies and the quality is fine.
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A cassette adaptor works well in my car as I have not got round to ordering the device to connect my iPod directly to the stereo. The battery lasts long enough for a decent journey unless you use track skip a lot. The 4th generation iPods are supposed to be much better in this respect giving almost twice the life.
As far as skipping tracks goes it isn't easy when you are in the car to dial up what you want so the remote control comes in useful to move forward and back.
I have 2450 songs on my iPod and that is enough for a holiday. You can't get anything like that on CDs and it is much more fiddly to find what you want when it is spread over several discs. The other useful thing is that you can use an iPod on a train/plane journey.
A quick net search will reveal the link to the people who can connect your iPod up to the factory stereo. That way charging and forward/back skipping is from the head unit or steering wheel. I think Carphone Warehouse do one.
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I have never really had any luck connecting an i pod to the car stereo. The FM transmitters that I have tried have been average at best and annoyingly bad most of the time. An FM modulator is the only other option. Anyone tried this?
If I had a tape player in the car, it would be a god send, but unfortunately I have a CD so can't use a cassette adaptor.
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I got a Rio Riot when they went end of life. 90 quid for a 20 gig one - I wouldn't be without it in the car now, still haven't filled it up yet.
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I bought an I-trip on ebay and find it is fine. The only annoyance is when I'm shuffling and it hits the redundant I-trip "tracks" although I suppose if I could be bothered I'd edit them! It was great on holiday as it meant music in the car and on the hi-fi of the house we were in.
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The 2004 Mondeo even has a aux-in socket in the glovebox to plug your mp3 player into the (Sony 6006) car system - an excellent idea!
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A girl I know has an FM modulator designed for the ipod in mind, You plug it in and it broadcasts to an FM station, it does sound very good quality.
I also see BMWs now come with ipod dock in the glovebox.
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These FM transmitters (iTrip etc.) are illegal in the UK....
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"These FM transmitters (iTrip etc.) are illegal in the UK..."
Round here, in Nottingham, the Police even pay to advertise (against gun crime) on one of the Pirate radio stations around here, I guess this can be taken as tacit approval for breach of the wireless telegraphy act by normal people on a much smaller scale. Anyway, you'd never get caught.
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There is a proper adaptor from Denison, the 'ice>Link:iPod' :
www.dension.com/main.php?pageid=50&topid=42
which connects to the car's CD input, so sounds nicer than an FM transmitter .... bit more expensive, tho ' ....
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There's a site called "everythingi-pod" or something in a hurry sorry
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I also see BMWs now come with ipod dock in the glovebox.
Do they? Any idea whereabouts?
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>> I also see BMWs now come with ipod dock in the glovebox.
Do they? Any idea whereabouts?
www.apple.com/ipod/bmw/
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Excellent info on the Mondeo 2004 model with the Sony 6006 stereo having the Aux-in socket.
Tried it today, and after having to enable aux-in via the menu (press and hold button for a bit) it works a treat. Never saw anything about my car having this socket until your post. I wonder how many others are unaware of this socket?
Rob
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As an utter cheapskate I use the cassette adaptor I already had for my portable CD player, a spare SD card for my camera I had kicking around in a draw and spent 12 quid on an SD card mp3 player.
tinyurl.com/8l2qo
An extra 30 quid got me Replay Radio
tinyurl.com/apqsh
which allows me to record any audio output off the internet into mp3's, not just the bits they choose to podcast. (A godsend for the Archer's Omnibus.) I can highly recommend a long running weekly US public radio show, Car Talk, which is mostly funny but also fairly informative as two Boston mechanic brothers sort out callers' car related problems.
tinyurl.com/77k37
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>>I have 2,450 songs on my iPod and that is enough for a holiday>>
I should jolly well think so...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I have a 20GB IPOD and have recently purchased a CarDock FM. It allows the Ipod to link to the Stereo through the FM band allowing you to play your music through the stereo. You then use your stereo to control volume, bass, treble etc...
It plugs into the power / lighter socket, so it also powers the Ipod. It takes 30secs to set up and is priceless on long journeys as I have 3000 songs downloaded from my CD collection.
Just hit play and it will play (current time estimate from the Ipod is 3 days of music)
The CarDock costs appox £50 and is worth every penny.
Carse
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Just as a follow up to this thread, one year on, are these fm modulator thingies any good? You can pick them up on ebay for about a tenner, will plug into mp3 player, tune radio station into the given frequency and hey presto?
I am not thinking of day to day use, moreso for long journeys. As long as sound quality is as good as normal FM then I would be happy with that, but I wouldn't want any interference from wipers, indicators etc?
And yes I know they are illegal.
Is anyone using these or, ahem, has a friend who does?
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Being middle aged iPod owners, we've both had suitable tuners fitted to our cars, both are identical DIN sized Alpine units, with proper iPOD connectors (not jacks), they work brilliantly and have superceded the CD Stacks in both cars.
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I have a Sony minidisc head unit and an adaptor that links my ipod to it. Tracks appear on the head unit's screen and I can use my steering wheel ocntrols to navigate tracks.
Only disadvantage is that I have to drill a hole in the side of the glove box to run the cable.
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What about the fm modulators like
tinyurl.com/8l8eu
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I have a cheap FM modulator which has just one showstopper of a problem. The car radio won't find the signal, and I can't manually tune to the frequency!
However, I've used it in another car and it was fine.
Gone back to using the imitation cassette now which also works well.
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I'll join in the willy waving. Get an i-River, not an i-Pod. It is more flexible, has a larger (40Gb) storage capacity, and is cheaper. I have about 10,000 MP3s on mine, plus data.
I used to use it in the car via a cassette interface, but the new car doesn't have a cassette player :(
I'll have to use the FM transmitter I bought 2 years ago.
I have to say, I'm disappointed that VW don't do MP3 CD players.
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