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General discussion

In Dash Player w/Hard Drive?

Jan 8, 2008 12:19PM PST

I will start with what I am looking for, and then tell you what I've found. Hopefully you can help me in better finding what I'm looking for. What I WANT is an in dash player that has all of your typical features but in addition has a hard drive where, instead of using a player and hooking it in via line in, I can copy songs onto the hard drive and then the in dash player just recalls them and plays them thus eliminating any middle man. Now I have FOUND all sorts of things. Most of these things falling in the realm of car computers, or carputer, or car pcs, or auto pcs, etc. I'm not quite looking for an in dash computer that has wifi, gps, hard drive, dvd/cd, windows, bluetooth, etc. I pretty much just want a purely audio player with no video function that has a built in hard drive. Now if I had to go the in dash computer route I'm not particularly opposed. I like the idea of having dvd, gps, or wifi built into my car. I just find them unnecessary and potentially hazardous in a moving vehicle since they could be potentially distracting. Also theres of course the cost issue, hence why I don't really feel the need for a "carputer" as some say. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you have any particular models in mind that have the built in hard drive please tell me.

Discussion is locked

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You can make your own
Jan 23, 2008 1:21AM PST

There are several head units that have USB inputs that allow you to plug any properly formatted hard drive into the deck. The deck will read and play the files, but I haven't seen any that will rip music to the harddrives. I am looking for a similar device and have found nothing. I am actually quite disgusted with all of the manufacturers out there, as the technology for such a device has existed for years.
If any manufacterers are listening then please build an audio deck that plays cd's with mp3's, wma's, etc, has a good bluetooth interface with a nice tft screen, a built in large capacity hard drive to copy and store music from the CD's or other audio source, and front USB and Aux inputs. Oh and please make it compatible with my existing steering wheel controls! Hold the cheesy teenage grafix, lights and moldings and use an actual turning knob for volume and scrolling. Also, if you build a unit with a motorized touchscreen, build in a secondary display that allows use of the stereo without having to motor the unit out.

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Check out this unit
Feb 3, 2008 4:23AM PST

Hi,
I have been trying to figure a way to put a hard drive in my car as well. I started with an Omnifi. It worked alright but I wanted more. Here is a unit that you can rip to, it still has problems but it might work for you
check it out
Sony MEX-1HD Car Stereo