MP3 based hard drives for the car...

[Steiner]

For months I've been planning to purchase a Neo Car Jukebox...



...so in anticipation of that purchase I even bought a head unit that was fully compatable with it. However I just discovered after talking to their customer support line last night that this product has been discontinued! Apparently there were problems with the chipset manufacturer.

So now I'm looking for a similair type of setup sold by one of their competitors. I'm looking for an MP3 based hard drive that can be mounted like a CD changer. Problem is I can't find any other company that sells the same type of product with the same storage capacities.

Rockford Fosgate sells something called the Omnifi that only goes up to 20GB, so does Apple's iPod (but it's dash mounted too ), a similair product by Rio (that's also been discontinued), and something called the "Phatnoise" Kenwood Keg. I need something that's atleast 60GB since my MP3 collection is 40GB and growing. Is my best bet to give up the search and wait for a used Neo Car Jukebox (of atleast 60GB) to end up on eBay, or is there another option?

I'm totally shocked that this niche market is not blowing up! Everyone of us have an MP3 collection on our computers. Eliminating the need for CD's seems like such a common sense solution but it doesn't seem to be catching on.

[bjboertje]

i agree with you, if you ever find anything let us know. i would like one of those too, how much was one going to cost you?

[Steiner]

Originally Posted by bjboertje

i agree with you, if you ever find anything let us know. i would like one of those too, how much was one going to cost you?

If I remember correctly, depending on the size of the hard drive, the Neo Car Jukebox sold anywhere from about $350 (20GB) to $600 (120GB). I was expecting to spend about $450 for their 60GB piece.

Right now I'm looking at the Omnifi set up manufactured by Rockford Fosgate. There's a way to swap in a larger hard drive (although you'll void your warranty) but it's also considerably cheaper than the Neo setup: for about $250 you can get their 20GB setup. One of the things I like about it is you have the option to transfer the files straight from your PC to their HD without ever taking it out of your car. You'll need a wireless router and about $30 of their hardware, but that does appeal to me a little bit. Think of it as a receptacle for FTP tranfers.

http://www.omnifimedia.com/products/...12541&partner=

[CBFryman]

that isnt a bad idea. why not just put a whole ocmputer in your car? lol. hell just get a 10" flip down screen, mother board, CD drive, hard drive, etc.. and have a whole computer in your car. then if you where to get one of thoes programable ECU's you wouldnt even have to use a lap top, you could use your in car computer, now that i think of it...i may just do that...that would be pretty neat actually.

[mike5721947]

Originally Posted by CBFryman

that isnt a bad idea. why not just put a whole ocmputer in your car? lol. hell just get a 10" flip down screen, mother board, CD drive, hard drive, etc.. and have a whole computer in your car. then if you where to get one of thoes programable ECU's you wouldnt even have to use a lap top, you could use your in car computer, now that i think of it...i may just do that...that would be pretty neat actually.

there is acually a guy at my work that is doing that exact thing!! just with a flush mounted 15inch monitor into his dash all on a fiero GT

[ngsm13]

Originally Posted by CBFryman

that isnt a bad idea. why not just put a whole ocmputer in your car? lol. hell just get a 10" flip down screen, mother board, CD drive, hard drive, etc.. and have a whole computer in your car. then if you where to get one of thoes programable ECU's you wouldnt even have to use a lap top, you could use your in car computer, now that i think of it...i may just do that...that would be pretty neat actually.

Been done plenty of times before...one of my good friends has done it. I would...but no room in my Truck at the moment. Other friend is gutting an old NES case and building a PC in it...mounting it in car

But, i'd say the best bet would be to go with an iPod and use either Alpine's hook-up that let's you control through the HU(Alpine kca-420i if i remember) or Clarion's new one...with they in-dash touch-screen that actually has an on-screen iPod control. And think, you could take it with you as well! Also, you think your's is growing...i have 255+ gig's of music only

NG

[Steiner]

Originally Posted by ngsm13

i have 255+ gig's of music only...

Dayum. What's the estimated RIAA fine on that collection?

[ngsm13]

Originally Posted by Steiner

Dayum. What's the estimated RIAA fine on that collection?

Fuck the RIAA...

NG

[Steiner]

OMNIFI

I finally got a chance to install the MP3 based hard drive I bought last month. The install wasn't too bad at all. The biggest PITA was swapping out the factory 20GB notebook drive with a 60GB. The hardware swap was easy but the OMNIFI software didn't recognize the new drive until I assigned a drive letter to it...(C: Local Disk, D: CD Drive, E: DVD Drive, F: OMNIFI). Here's the website I pulled the how-to off of...

upgrading the hard drive

All in all I'm very happy with this new toy. Having 40GB+ of MP3's on tap really changes the way you listen to music. Navigating through the library is pretty easy and the sounds quality is outstanding...no hissing, whistling, etc.

My biggest grip so far is the wireless feature...or rather lack thereof. Rockford Fosgate, the manufacturer, claims that if you buy their d-link, hook it up to the OMNIFI, and have a wireless router you can upload (they call it synchonize) MP3 files to the hard drive without ever removing the hard drive from the car. Sounds great, huh? Problem is the software (called Simplecenter) is the absolute dripping shits. Half the time it will simply begin uploading my ENTIRE library to the hard drive rather than the 5-10 MP3 files I recently downloaded to my computer. The connection will drop and bam...no man's land. Whenever a "synchronization" fails the only files left on the hard drive are the ones that were uploaded before the connection dropped. The other half of the time you'll get a critical error that makes the har drive un-readable. In that case you have to remove the hard drive, delete the contents, create a new partition, and reformat...then hope the sofware recognizes the hard drive and, if it does, wait another 8-10 hours for it to upload my library to it. It's a joke...really. I'm pretty computer savvy and I've given up. The software is way to buggy and the customer support is non-existent. For example...if you don't use the wireless feature...files are transferred from the computer to the hard drive via a USB interface and power supply. My power supply kept turning off. Consequently it took me 19 hours to synchronize the hard drive...and that was just the little 20BG hard drive that came with it. When I emailed the company explaining the problem and asking for a new power supply they replied with the specs and a list of online retailers I could purchase one from.

Anyways...overall I love this thing and would highly recommend it. It changes the way you listen to music in the car. My buddy is a Linux geek and is gonna take a crack at the code. Maybe we'll release an underground patch for the wireless bugs one of these days.

[PaulD]

man I LOVE this stuff .... when the consumers get to do the R&D (and troubleshooting/ debug) for these big comapnies.

[cpcg32]

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Belki...oductDetail.do

I have one of these for my archos and it works great. You can use my existing hardware (cd player, mp3 player) rather than paying a lot for all the crap you guys are talking about. There are also some specifically for iPods.

[Diceman83]

ewww... radio = Noise.... ewww.............well, not always, but still. I'm just gonna use my laptop in my trunk on a dock, with a little DC to AC converter, long video cable, and wireless stuff, and everything. It's gonna be snazzy Now.... where am I gonna stash the LCD screen?

Oh the possiblities coming into my head Thanks Steiner!

[aznxthuggie]

they actually have computers made for the car

i forgot what it was called, but google it, something will come up

[Diceman83]

I'm thinking an older Laptop like mine is a pretty ideal solution... just rig up a relay switch to the powersupply so it turns off with the car, and have a remote turn on button. Actually, for a laptop, that might be tough. Hmm.....