Patrol and cd stacker

Peter
What are the ways you can connect an ipod to the cd player?
Is there a jack in the back of the radio?

You attach an FM transmitter to the IPOD and pick the signal up on the radio. There are seevral brands to choose from. Griffin make a neat one that sits on top of the IPOD. This means you don't need to change the player or burn MP3s onto CDs.

My son has one, it's called a Griffin RoadTrip. IPod sits in it in a cradle arrangement and it plugs into the cig lighter and transmits to the radio.

Works really well.

I've just spent about an hour looking over the offerings on ebay for all these ipods/mp3 players etc..........bloody hel, what a minefield of gear!

I am convinced this is the way to go when my ST's CD player starts palying up more than it currently does...(it has the occasional wobbly, when a disk doesn't want to eject, or when it jumps for no apparent reason).

However, I'm confused as to what is the best way to go. Some of the players use AAA batteries and some seem to have their own 240v and USB charging capabilities (which I prefer, as AAAs don't last long). I don't reckon I'd need more than about a 512mb memory, but did see a nice player on there that has no memory, but instead uses SD cards. I would have preferred that one, but it uses AAA's GGGGRRRRRRR hahaha

What have others done in this regard?

My ideal unit would be:

512mb memory (and possibly takes a SD card too)
Inbuilt lithium battery rechargable from a 12v, 240v or USB input
Capacity to connect the FM transmitter so I can play music through car FM radio

The other thing I don't profess to understand is how do you set about getting the music from existing CDs onto the MP3 player/ipod etc? Do I have to transfer the music on the lappy to the hard drive and then attach the player to the USB port? If so, how long is this likely to take to download a CD? I can see this whole job taking several days to load say 260 songs onto a player!!!! Is there a simpler/quicker way?

Cheers

Roachie

Roachie, the iPods come with their own software called "iTunes".
It's a snap to configure and is pretty quick to download files. Uses "wma" format which means each song is quite small.

My daughter has a 512MB iPod shuffle (got it as a freebie with a mobile phone, sounds AWESOME!) which holds about 120 songs. You need at least the iPod mini to connect to the FM transmitters others are talking about.

iPods use a proprietary battery which charges from the USB port on your laptop (or the cradle of the Griffin RoadTrip). Battery life is about 3yrs (where have we heard that before?) Mate's went kaput and it was cheaper to buy a new iPod rather than get the old one repaired, so a unit that uses rechargeable AAA's may be a better way to go....

Cheers....

You can also get a 2-year warranty on the Ipod so if the battery calls it a day you get a new one, Or just run it off the Griffin RoadTrip.

Have a look on eBay/Google for a FM transmitter called an IRock - I scored mine for about $70. Plugs into cigarette lighter (no batteries) and you can plug in any USB compatible storage device (flash memory, portable hard drive etc - IRock also powers these devices) It also accepts any existing MP3 player etc. Has a USB charge outlet to charge phone etc as well. I raided a trashed laptop from work, pulled out hard drive (20gig) placed in external USB housing. Is a ripper and very cheap all up. Even a better model out now than the one I got. Sure IPod etc probably bit better quality, but way more expensive. Just had this one up beach and all worked fine

Cheers

Age