Hi all,
Looking for a head unit that will play DVD-ROM's full of MP3's.. they play CD(RW) with MP3's but I haven't seen one that'll play DVD's.
I could use USB etc but that means something hanging out to snap off, plus I want a disc for each music mix/genre (and having 6 USB keys is a PITA)

Ta
Ben

If there's a malz near you, you could look in there. There is a website called ryda (Aussie site) they'll have what your looking for. As for the 4x50 watts all common single double din head units have 50 watt outputs (20-25wrms) some of them will try to make it sound fancy by saying MOSFET,
Hope this helps

JVC used to do some. They called it giga mp3.

On the USB thing, I was worried about that too, so I got a headunit that had rear USB as well as front, but then I found this and I don't need to worry about it breaking off.
http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/pr ... SDCZ3332GB

^^^^^That's quite a nice unit.

A lot of the car audios/visuals nowadays have an SD card slot along with the USB port. 4 Gb cards are pretty cheap - maybe get a couple and have your respective genre's on them separately. House them in the centre console coin slots.

Be easier than shuffling CD's.

Nah we don't have a Malz, and Strathfield closed down years ago. I'm checking Ryda now.

You're probably right, flash/usb will likely be what I'll end up with.
I actually do use micro SD's a lot in tiny adapters I've got maybe 8 2-4gb's)..I can get a 4gb microSD and adapter cheaper than actual usb flash drives.
I found a particular adapter that is high speed, and the whole thing is barely any longer than the USB plug assembly itself.
Maybe I'm just too old fashined, but I did love the sunshade-mounted cd holder, just slip a disc out and pop it in the drive without taking eyes off the road - all by touch. Easier than srabbling thru a pile of keys with tiny writing with polarised connectors.

I'll keep hunting.. thanks for the input lads

Get an iPod compatible deck and set playlists?

at the end of the day (in me eyes) the brand you pick will prob have usb, cd/dvd, ipod compatibility anyway. i dont think manufacturers will drop the whole disc idea anytime soon...

Ugh.. sorry mate, ipod's are a sore point with me. Apple has the most disgusting music management architecture ever. The old days of copying MP3's into dirs manually as quasi-playlists is better than using itunes and Apple's "playlists".

Windows Media Player (MTP-compliant) compatible devices have the second-best sync I've seen, with WMP supporting auto-playlists based on almost any criteria. It'll transcode/recode to a lower bitrate if configured, has two-way sync, etc.
I use MediaMonkey Gold for music management and syncing, it'll do almost anything you want it to but the question is what playlist formats do decks support nowadays?
And how hard is it (eg eyes-off-road time) to change to another playlist on most decks?
I must admit I'm a long way behind the times with head units, I kept my CD deck cause it had simpler buttons and interface than all the new stuff that came out. I crashed and burned that car.. so I'm forced into the present

Guess if I end up with a flash-based deck, I'd like to make it as easy to use as possible.
Do many of them have remote interfaces where you can manually wire nav buttons into the deck? Or of they have IR remotes I might be able to hack one of those up, bring the buttons out into a PCB with row of maybe 5 micro tactile momentary switches, sitting vertically in front of the hazard light button.

You're right fullyforded, from what I've seen USB, ipod, CD features are pretty standard.

I would like to know how people sync and navigate playlists on their decks (non-Apple ), and any niggles/pitfalls to watch for.

anyhow zzz's..

LMAO.......100% agree. Sorry to all you Apple Mac dudes. The most overated, complicated and expensive product on the music market.

And they have the attitude (as do many iPod users, mistakenly) that they "imvented" portable music.
Truth is they were late on the scene. I was using a 512MB MP3 player/FM radio/FM transmitter device the size of a lighter ten years ago.
And it was a hell of a lot easier to manage music on it than an iPod.. no crap software, sync issues, proprietary connectors etc. And it was cheap for what it was.

And the whole one-way sync issue cheeses me off the most. Can't sync a device back to a PC.. only with the original PC used to load the iPod. No end of pain trying to update people's iPod music collection without deleting everything already on there.

Yeah bugger Apple

Jvc made a head unit that did DVD USB , I've been using it for awhile now no complaints here .
I'll go find the model no: and post it up soon , but these units are rare to find

A few units you can train to the existing steering wheel controls, there is an aftermarket one called 'the cat' IIRC, which has been covered in these forums.
IMO, they are limited with their features.
I made my own - bought cheap HU's from Aldi, ordered extra remotes, made keypad from old trashed remotes, buttons are jumpered on the HU remote circuit board, this resides in a recessed area below the airbag. IR LED sits in the steer column shroud, pointed to the HU, this uses one of the cruise lines, and the extra audio line of an AU clockspring (6 wire) - EF/EL 5 wire won't work.
So this gives me the most common used functions that I need.

 

 

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That's a horn setup there mate.. creative using an AU clockspring for the IR line and sticking the LED in the shorud..
Hardest bit would have been making the control pad and attaching it to the wheel, wouldn't it?

I'd probably just go for a small encapsulated board bracketed onto the top of the column shroud.. bit more fiddly to use, not as cool looking but easier to do. Other things on the car need attention first..

FFS, in this era we've tiny, powerful cheap SoC PC's, phones, tablets with enough horsepower to sink a ship... why don't head units have voice interfaces and/or gesture recognition?
Even if the voice command needed a single coin-sized-remote (mounted anywhere) button pressed to activate voice first (so it knew when to subtract music playing from the received mic pickup),
Gestures could be in front of the unit or to a small wired remote, you could tap it to play/pause and use left/right/up/down, circle for next playlist etc.
Anyways maybe one day they'll get around to it once they've made enough cash from flogging premium features like bluetooth, Pandora, satnav, iPod/USB etc. Most products except phones seem to use the auto inductry tactic of feature-trickling incremental updates.. minimising dev costs and maximising lifecycle profits. So much more is possible..

Been poking round the web, not many feature comparison sites available. From what I've seen the higher-end models like I'm after all have gutless 4 x 17W RMS amps in them.. or maybe all those stating "4 x 50w" are actually quoting peak power. Just have to make sure the unit I choose is as loud as my old Sony and I'll be happy, even if it turns out the Sony was really 17W RMS as well.

Seems you can get mechless "digital media players" from the big brands, with better screens (some advertise multi-line text to avoid scrolling), among other features.

The biggest question is, how to compare the usability of the user interfaces (esp when managing playlists etc)?

I might have to find a decent car audio shop to get any sense of the different units. Trouble is, I'd probably have to drive to Melbourne (400km trip) to find a decent store. Locally I'm only familiar with Autobarn and Superchump which aren't going to have much of interest.

Yeah, something like a Strathfield Car Radio store would give you some gear/ideas to look at.
You'd think with voice recognition in new cars now, the aftermarket sector would have some thing pretty soon.
Pretty much - making it look like part of the wheel setup takes the most time.
All ADR's seem to specify that the switches don't impede Airbag deployment, or hand positioning on the wheel.

Strathfield went bust years ago didn't they? The local shop closed years ago anyway,
Do they still exist? they were very good. Big range of demos so you can actually try thngs like USB sync, and the unit UI's for yourself to weed out the crap ones.
Where would I find a StrathField in Vic (prvided they're still around.)