The link shown below is the car stereo fitted in the car i just bought,and i pick it up next week,it has the optional Ipod connector fitted,so i guess I need an Ipod
Now,i have never even held an ipod,never looked at one,but i guess i need one
I dont want anything flash,just something i can load my mp3 on,and connect it via this cable
It doesnt need a masive hardrive,Even 2GB will suffice
I have been looking on ebay,for an apple ipod,but they seem expensive for what i think i need,remember the car stereo will contain all the info about tracks etc,as thats where you control the playlist etc.
Are there any alternatives i can look at,that use the same connection?
really i dont want to spend more than about £30
Do i need a apple ipod?
There are 2 types of car sterio to mp3 player connections. One is a generic input plug which uses the mp3 players out put as input. The great thing about these is they can use any output. You must use the mp3 to control what is being played. The other is a device specific connection in the back. The car player has control of the player. These are specific to a brand of player.
I couldn't clearly see the input jack so I will assume it is in the back. That is what I have but I never installed it. I was not able to buy the sterio and controler together. By the time I got the controler I changed my mind. Car sterio controlls are not really designed to navigate a vast storage of tunes. I guess you could run play lists and navigate through the list. The CD player is an mp3 CD player. An mp3 CD holds about 200 tunes. That is sized right for me in a car while driving. Each disk holds almost 10 hrs of music. I keep about 50 CDs in my car. Swapping disks and only having to navigate 200 or less tunes per disk is best for me in a car. My navigation while driving is limited to skipping tunes. Scrolling down to ZZ Top on an ipod is painful for me. It takes minutes of hard work using that STUPID scroll wheel to scroll though a few hundred artists. Other mp3 devices allow you to hold down on the button and the display will scroll. That is too easy for the Apple. You must I can't do that while driving. At least you will not need to use the wheel. Still you will need to contend with the tiny display. Mine holds one line but will only display a half line at a time. Hunting through hundreds if not thousands of lines would be too painful for me.
If I didn't dissuade you, use google shop. If the connection is in the back you can only use an ipod. I would pick up a returned 8 g from the apple store. I have not been able to find the used section of the Apple store without a search engine. The solid state mp3 players either work or not. The returns are probably not the fault of the device and they have a warentee. ipods or any other good mp3 player is a wonderful little device if you like music. 8 G will hold about 2,000 tunes. You can always use more space except when you need to scroll. I have a 4 and that is a bit cramped, except while scrolling to ZZ Top. I rarely scroll artist let alone tunes. I use play lists or play random music to avoid the effort.
Thanks for the reply
The cable in question is already fitted,as it came that way
all i have is the lead sticking out through a panel in the car dash,ready for an ipod
I was hoping to just load an ipod full of mp3's,and control it from the car stereo,and forget about the ipod.
In reference to your mp3cd,with 10hrs of music...how do you get that on a cd? Burn them as data?....might sound a daft question i know,but i have always used nero to burn my cd's as a standard Audio CD,and can normally just fit an album on there which i then play in the car.I have never looked any further than this method of burning and playing music in the car
Are you burning them as data?,and they play?,if this is the case,it will save me hassle
although i have just been offered a 2gb nano ipod for £30
NO! Burning them as data works but is a nasty way to do it. I use Media Monkey to do the job. When done right the tag data is displayed by the player. MM does a great job in burning the disk and also checks your tunes for dupes. You can scew up with play lists that large. You get used to than in about 20 tunes and will never go back. You would be surprised how cheaply you can get a 'used' nano at the ipod store.
I have not ever experimented with any other burning app. I make play lists so I can burn it again or put it on my ipod. It is a pain in the ass to come up with 200 good tunes. It is nice to be able to save them or use them for other things. A 4 g nano will hold 5 700 meg playlists.
