usb or hard disk plug in head units... help!!! need buying advice

[hysteria]

are there any head units that will support an external hard disk?

i know that usb head units exist with somewhat low size allowances (usually around 1-2 gigs... not too much improvement over a 700 mb mp3 cd) but i want something with a more unlimited amount. is there anything out there for me?

i found a pretty cool all around system that's just a step below a computer that you can dress up with whatever hard disk you want. the mediagate mg-25 and mg-35. they seem great, but the problem is that it's designed for home use, which means the little 12 volt car battery won't really do the job. also it would be really easy to steal out of a car unless i cemented it in.

anyway i am looking for something similar to this in a cd style deck for my car. does it exist? i've done a bit of searching and have nothing.

thanks for the help.

[Looneybomber]

I too am looking for a HU with a USB front port for my s2k. I was not aware of their limitations on external memory size. I was hoping to plug in an external HDD instead of having to buy an iPod. What brands/models have this limitation?

[Defiant]

Well, eighty bucks from Wal*Mart online:Yeah, it's not going to win at the audio competitions, but it's being listened to in a damned car. And who cares if it gets stolen? It does MP3 cds, SD, USB, and a front AUX socket. And a remote, so you don't have to reach all the way over to the dashboard. If nothing else, it's a good stopgap until the rest of the audio industry catches up with what's going on out here in the real world.

[lofapoo]

Holy crap!

MP3, WMA, USB, AND 3.5mm audio port?? Doesn't say anything about a remote, though (but the manual does, so hmm) I wonder if it's USB 1.1 or 2.0? :p Man, wouldn't an external USB hard drive work with this (assuming you had a way to power it)?

4x45w, 21w RMS!

2 sets of RCA outs, including subwoofer out!!

Rotary volume knob!

For 80 bucks, that's a friggin' steal! Glad you posted that, cause I think I'll be buying two of them

Man, the deals you find on things that don't say ALPINE or PIONEER on them :p

VRCD500SDU is the same headunit but has a more Alpine-style layout. I think this will be the one for me!

VR500CS-BT is the friggin' Bluetooth model! Use your ****ing stereo as your phone! It has a mic jack in the rear and (I believe) an internal mic

How the hell have I not heard of this before? I know it's Roadmaster and all, but I haven't found a negative review yet
Modified by lofapoo at 2:32 AM 1/5/2007

[hysteria]

pretty much all of the units i have seen have a limit to the usb plug in size, unless it is being controlled from outside (ie an ipod) which forces you to buy one of those damn things if you want a higher storage capability. usually i see them with 2 gig limits, but if there is one that doesn't have limitations and doesn't require an outside controller i'll take one. i was really wondering if anyone knew of models that had no usb limitations. i have an external drive that i would love to just lug around with me instead of the 10 different cd cases i have...

really there is everything and more working on A/C, i just want to find something that i can operate on 12 volts... especially if i end up buying these mb quarts i have had my eye on.

[Defiant]

I've not even gotten around to trying the USB yet- all the music I've ....uh..... "found" in MP3 format that I want to listen to fits on the 2GB SD card I use in it.It is interesting that the lowly Roadmaster would be the ones to come up with this sort of thing, but some of us wonder about the goings-on in the tech business anyway. Odd how things seem to be introduced just about the speed people are willing to upgrade at...

[PoorManQ45]

The problem is that the internal processor doesn't process to a high enough bit rate to allow for a couple hundred(maybe thousand) songs.

When you plug a usb or SD card in the HU has to sort through EVERY song and classify and/or sort them to its internal specifications/filing method.

As you can imagine this would take either a very long time, or just not happen if you had a couple thousand songs of ~2~3 minutes length each.

This requires a good bit of processing power.

What you're asking of lower HUs can only be achieved with an external brain, ie and ipod

[Defiant]

Something over 300 MP3s on the SD card takes about fifteen seconds to start making noise when I plug it in. From there, about a five-second start when switching from radio. I don't have folders set up or anything, just one folder off root for all the music.Now you have me all curious to start effing with it and find some reason to not like it anymore.

[phuphyter]

Sorry for the late response, I just saw this thread. I've been running pretty much the exact setup you described. You need a head unit with aux. inputs, the external hard drive (I'm using Sarotech AIVX Portable Media Player with the additional Car Kit and some male RCA to male RCA cable from Radioshack.Kinda pricey, but I personally use it more than I would an iPod video, especially with 300GB worth of storage, even more (or less) depending on the size of hard drive you choose to use.

The cool thing about this model of media player is that you can just press the Music button on the remote and it will start to play your M3U playlists that you create on your computer (I use winamp to do so) so there's no need to navigate through the GUI.I'm sure there are other better media players out there with this feature, but I'm not familiar with them.

I hard wired the power converter into my cig lighter, hid the remote infrared sensor underneath my headunit, routed the RCA's, and slid the media player underneath the passenger seat. Stealthy, easy to hook up and remove, and you still get to keep the original quality of the movies/music. In the end it cost around 50 dollars less for 10 times the storage of a 30GB iPod.

It's awesome... to a certain point. It is made in Korea and has some quality control issues: The fan crapped out on me pretty quickly. It can be easily replaced from radioshack. No biggie. I've been running without it for months and the only difference is that it's quieter.

It doesn't like to play certain poorly encoded avi files. It does play DVD rips flawlessly, though.

Sometimes there will be some kind of artifact that looks like a dead pixel on the screen. I just rewind it a couple of frames and it disappears.

You can upgrade the firmware.

Plays music perfectly, as long as it's not WMA's.

Any questions, let me know.


Modified by phuphyter at 12:34 AM 2/6/2007