ipod Shuffle and car hi-fi compatability??

Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 21:43

ThreadID: 36842 Views:3194 Replies:16 FollowUps:3

This Thread has been Archived

Member - Roachie (SA)

Just been looking at ebay for a new car stereo for the camper trailer and was wondering if anybody knows............some of the units available now have USB and SD slots in the front of them for direct plugging of external equipment.

Site Link

Does anybody know if an ipod shuffle which has a USB "post" on it's base, would work if plugged into one of those USB slots? Some of the car units state they are "IPOD READY", but seem to imply that you need to buy an adaptor of some sort.

I'm a bit confused (as usual).....

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Roachie

Back Expand Un-Read 0 Moderator Share

Reply By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 21:45

Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 21:45

Site Link

This is the other type of unit I meant to show in a link....this is the one that has the input slots at the front.

AnswerID: 189383

Reply By: Trekkie (Member - WA) - Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:19

Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:19

Hi Roachie
Just got an ipod 60Gb for my birthday. I have already loaded about 3 days playing time of CDs and it has hardly touched the storage space. I have been thinking of buying a new stereo for my cruiser and also have looked at Site Link
could be a bit pricey but looks good

AnswerID: 189391

Follow Up By: John R (SA) - Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:36

Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:36

Trekkie,
It appears to me that that device is basically a way of sticking the ipod display in a larger format in your field of vision, while allowing a separate mounting of the control knob. Getting the tunes into the car stereo happens the same way as if you were trying to go straight out of the ipod.

All worthwhile, but call me a tight-arse. I manage the same thing by sticking the ipod to the dash hehind the steering wheel with a bit of velcro!

Member
My Profile Send Message

FollowupID: 446902

Reply By: John R (SA) - Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:25

Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:25

No, not in a simple way.

The stereo is capable of reading from a memory card, so if you plug the ipod in with a usb cable, the stereo may well recognise it as an external hard drive and be able to play the songs on it.

However, you will have to navigate through the stereo. You won't be able to hit play on the ipod, and have that come through the stereo. In this instance you're probably as well off to buy an external hard drive, put your songs on it and organise them into folders (in lieu of playlists). Not user friendly, but possible.

The most common way to get your ipod to play through a car stereo is to buy a small FM radio transmitter. You set it to an clear frequency, tune your car radio to the same frequency and use your ipod as usual. You can carry the ipod around the campsite (range of several metres on the transmitters) if you like!

Transmitters are made by a couple of manufacturers. Not entirely sure about the shuffle, but you should be able to choose from ones which i. run off the ipod's battery, ii. allow you to plug into the cigarette lighter, iii. both.

Alternatively you could find a stereo with a line in jack or rca inputs, then for a few dollars buy a simple lead to go from your ipod earphone jack to the stereo.

Not sure about ones which claim to be 'ipod ready'. I've not run in to these before.

Hope that makes some sense!

John

Member
My Profile Send Message

AnswerID: 189393

Reply By: TerraFirma - Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:56

Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 at 22:56

The FM transmitters are useless, they drift in and out. You have 2 real options. Buy a stereo that has an Ipod dock / connector module. This allows you to charge and connect an Ipod albeit you have very little control over the Ipod via the stereo. The same stereo will also have a line input / auxillary connector. I also recommend you connect a simple line in as well, this way you hit play on your Ipod or via your Playlist and it plays through your stereo. Stereos are available through Pionneer , Clarion and Alpine, They start as little as around $400 when we bought ours complete with Ipod Dock Module. For more info talk to Gary's Car Radio In Vic or your local car stereo dealer.

AnswerID: 189397

Reply By: ozdragon - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 00:45

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 00:45

If you just want to play the music from your ipod through the stereo all you need is an auxillary in socket on the face. Most of the sony's have it.

Peter

AnswerID: 189404

Reply By: big fella - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 06:04

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 06:04

Roachhie just going through this myself so this is what i have come up with so far. Alpine head units come with a cable $69 extra but the ones on ebay have cable the cable is mean't to be high speed,alredy this enables you to leave ipod in glove box and use the head unit to search same as ipod with playlist, artist an the like as for the other ones they will require an adapter as you say and they startat about $200 and i don't know yet if you can search through play lists and artist on the head unit as well. As for the usb slot i have been told that it won't work if you plug your ipod straight into it but i can't see why it won,t maybe you still have to acess all music from the ipod and it still runs off its own power

As you can still see still searching let you know what else i find out.

Regards BigFella

AnswerID: 189406

Reply By: Landie - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 06:36

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 06:36

Hi Roachie

I just purchased a Sanyo car radio that has an 'auxiliary in' where you plug in your Ipod. Plays fine and cost about $150, not the world greatest radio, but fine for the 4WD.

Previously had an FM transmitter, absolutely useless as someone else mentioned.

Regards

AnswerID: 189407

Reply By: Joombi - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 07:57

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 07:57

Roachie, Buy a CD player with a 3.5 plug on the front & plug your Ipod directly into it that way,lead $5.00. no interference at all and you can use a cigarette lighter charger for the ipod at the same time $10.00
I have a 30 gig video model, have 6 days worth of music + photo's & contacts & hasn't touched the memory bugger all.
hope this helps ya,
Rick.

AnswerID: 189417

Reply By: Scoey (QLD) - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 08:23

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 08:23

This whole discussion seems a bit wierd to me! I mean you all have these 'portable' music devices and then go to great lengths to plug them in to just about every device imaginable negating thier portability! How many people actually use thier iPod's to listen to music whilst on a run or something? haha!

I'm assuming that this idea of plugging ones iPod into the car stereo is so that you can listen to a heap of music without having to change CD's?

Here's my tip, get a head unit for your car that play's MP3's and burn some CD's. No, you won't get 3 days worth of music onto one CD but if you had to change CD's 6 times in 3 days is that really a hassle? How time poor are hoildayers these days?

If that's not a good enough solution, get a head unit that accepts DVD discs and also has MP3 capability. 4.7gb on one disc, no cables, no FM transmitters no stuffing around with dicky little ipods.

Now, how do I get down off this soap box? I think someone needs a cup of tea! ;-)

Cheers lads,
Scoey!

AnswerID: 189423

Reply By: Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 09:09

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 09:09

Roachie, I have looked through some of those units myself and also some that may play DVDs while travelling. My main concern is that they may also have the important AM radio as well as FM which seems to be a bit of a priority to some. AM radio sensitivity isn't just the quality of the antenna as has been asserted by some, but getting reliable AM reception is something you can't go back to your retailer about. AM is important to me out back.

AnswerID: 189430

Reply By: mfewster - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 09:26

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 09:26

Roachie, this must all be pretty confusing by now. I will try to summarise.
There are 4 ways to connect an MP3player.
1. Use an FM transmitter on your mp3 player and tune your car tuner to same frequency. Can work very well, seems to depend on whetheror not local stations use same or close frequencies. Some radio/FM transmitter/mpc player combinations seem to work much better than thers. Bit of a gamble.
2.Get a car unit with aux in jack on fron and just plug this in to your headphone out jack on mp3 player. Works real well, fast and cheap. You can get car audio units from Repco and Suoercheap cfrom about $40 upwards that have this feature. Disadvantage is that apaert from volume, you have to make all track selections etc on the mp3 player. This is a problem while you are driving due to small dispays and tiny controls on mp3 players. We just stick our unit on shuffle and enjoy the variety, or set up a playlist in the mp3 before we leave.
3. Get a car unit with uSB connector on front panel. Quite a bit more expensive than 2, In theory this should enable you to see thracks being played on the car's display (MUCH bigger than the display on the MP3) and also to change tracks etc from the car units controls. Just how much control you have over the unit from the cars controls will vary from car radio to radio.
4. If you have a carunit with a tapedeck, you can buy a unit with a tape adaptor on one end that plugs into your car12v outlet and the headphone jack on mp3 player. Work pretty well. About $40.00

There is an American mob called Boxwave that have all sorts of useful MP3 add on gadgets, adapters/cases/chargers/extra power supplies etc . Do a google search for them and check some of their stuff. Good prices.

AnswerID: 189433

Reply By: John R (SA) - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 13:20

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 13:20

It's not as difficult as it sounds.

In pratical terms, my ipod basically lives in the car. I stick it to the dash, plug in the transmitter/power lead and that's it. I play with it only as often as I want to change what I'm listening to, and that's much easier than fishing about for cds.

I can travel to Melb or Adelaide without any conflict on the frequency I use, bring the ipod in once a week or so for an update and any song on my computer is on the ipod.

Two things used to annoy me when I used cds - they'd inevitably get scratched, and often I'd want a cd which was not in the car.

I can take a dozen cds in one of those sun visor thingys, but with an ipod I've got 5600 songs or 83.2 days of continuous music which I can use in any vehicle, even the busted arse tractor which chews up tapes. Excuse my rant, but I'm very pleased with my gadget, and honestly believe that all the connection methods look confusing until you actully start using it.

Member
My Profile Send Message

AnswerID: 189481

Reply By: Member - Wayne M (WA) - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 13:20

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 13:20

Hi Roachie,
I purchased one of these 12mths ago and they work well with there usb slots and hard drive but I can't get my ipod to work through the usb slot. I,m no great tech when it comes to these things so there may be a way but I can't find it. I've found the best way is to burn mp3 cds as they are much cheaper than buying memory sticks etc. regards Wayne

AnswerID: 189482

Reply By: Old Scalyback & denny - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 16:55

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 16:55

goodday bill
mfewster has the same idea as mine i bought earplug lead ,plugs into the earplug on the ipod has stereo leads from it we use it on our outside stereo and soon to get a in dash dvd player (no screen will get overhead later)with inputs available plug leads in and bobs ya aunty ipod into ciggy lighter to keep charged

ps we had no problems with our fm transmitter over 5000ks this trip except when close to tourist radio fm1 88 we run on fm2 88.2

steve

AnswerID: 189529

Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 17:09

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 17:09

G'day Steve, and thanks for your input.....as well as thanks to all the others who have replied.

I won't attempt to answer everybody's input individually, but will make the following comments:

The unit I have is a ipod Shuffle which is different to the other ipods and mp3 players as it doesn't have a screen or a hard disk. It does have a standard USB thing on the bottom and a earplug socket on the top. To input music into it, I plug it directly into the back of the puter and the software in the pc recognises the ipod and immediately opens up the apple music shop program. So, I guess it would be too much to expect the car radio to automatically recognise the ipod when it slids into the dock....so I'm guessing that won't work.

I do already have a FM transmitter thingo in the Patrol. The ipod's USB gizmo sits in the dock and automatically re-charges the ipod's battery. I can set the transmitter to any frequency right throughout the range from 87 to 107. (Actually, that is not strictly correct....I can choose every SECOND frequency....eg: I can use 96.3 or 96.5 or 96.7; but not the ones in between.....96.4 or 96.6 etc). I have found this transmitter to be less than satisfactory and am tempted to get one of those cassette cartridges.......I could still use the transmitter thing as a charger for the ipod, but plug the cassette's cable into the earphone jack instead of relying on the FM transmission.

However, this set-up is for the camper trailer. I have actually today purchased a JVC CD player from Betta Electrical. The box it came in was damaged and it was there last one, so I got it for $149- instead of $179-. I know I could have got a "apparently" better unit off ebay for that price; one which would have had DVD playing capability and a few other things, but I'm a bit shy about buying stuff like this from HK etc.

Thanks again to all those who have contributed to this thread.

Cheers

Roachie

FollowupID: 447018

Reply By: Mark - Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 21:21

Thursday, Aug 17, 2006 at 21:21

I bought a Sony CD player from Strathfield with aux in n the front. Sony have a new range that all have aux in so you can plug in an MP3 player, cost me $148 & 200w flip face etc, good value.

AnswerID: 189573

Follow Up By: The Landy - Friday, Aug 18, 2006 at 06:30

Friday, Aug 18, 2006 at 06:30

They are good value for the 4WD, bought the same one the other day........

FollowupID: 447071

Reply By: The Fox - Friday, Aug 18, 2006 at 10:32

Friday, Aug 18, 2006 at 10:32

i bougth a similar cd unit for 150 with postage from ebay. I do not own an ipod, but load music onto sd cards, plug the card into the stereo, and lsiten to the music.

No jumping on rought roads. Unit handles up to 1gig cards and up to 1000 songs. Random play, or all sorts of orders selectable. Song name displayed on stereo. Fanastic. 2/3 full 512mb card has 5.5 hours of music. Same cards as my camera and Navman Pin.

Copy your cds onto your hard drive using Windows media player whilst connected to the net, and media player finds the album, artist and song names from the web and names and files everything automatically. Pick and choose which which songs you want onto Playlists, then load the playlists direct onto your cards.

Also has usb port at front for memory stick, but i prefer sd cards. 1gig on ebay are less than $50

AnswerID: 189631