This is probably an obvious question, but do all car stereos with USB ports play whatever file is coming out of the attached device? I just need to know that if I connect my iPod, it will play the AAC purchased iTunes files. I assume that the iPod has done the conversion to play the file, and the USB port is then receiving some sort of standard audio signal. I should be able to purchase any stereo head with a USB port and just hook up any audio/USB device, right?
Not necessarily. Our stereo (an off-brand) has a USB port, but will only take jump drives with MP3 files in that port. To hook up an ipod or other MP3 player, it has a line-in jack.
Classic Dope answer: it depends. The USB in my car is very fussy about file structure and file type (it only plays vanilla MP3s). The iPod interface is really good, though.
Mobile Electronics installer checking in here. I haven’t installed too many aftermarket radios as of late, but I’m pretty sure Johnny Gentle is right.
Sometimes the USB port is for playing music files from a jump drive, and I’ve seen a few cheap units that appear to only offer the USB port for charging, not as an input. (As an aside, you can also by radios that take SD cards.)
If you have an iPod, you definitely want to get a radio that specifically says it has iPod controls.
Some include a cable to connect to your iPod, some have a proprietary cable you must buy separately, and some allow you to use the cable that came with your iPod (which means you have to remember to bring the cable inside the house when you want to add new songs.)
Some older radios have the capability to control an iPod, but only if you buy a separate additional module. Those modules are costly, so I’d say to avoid those radios altogether. The newer units have everything built in.
Also, the user interface on every one of these radios I’ve ever seen has nowhere near the good design and ergonomics of the iPod. If you just leave it on Shuffle you’ll be fine, but searching for a particular song is often difficult.
Because of that, try to choose a brand that also lets you use the iPod’s controls even when it’s plugged in to the radio. Some do this, but not all. I don’t remember which brand does what.
Brand suggestions: Alpine and Kenwood were some of the earlier brands to include iPod control, so if you don’t mind spending a few bucks, look into those. If you’re on a budget, Jensen and Dual have many low-cost models that even include the cable.
Yeah, I thought that a USB port would automatically mean that it could take an iPod on its USB cable, but I’m finding it to be like you guys are saying. What a bunch of slogging research. Even finding the manuals leaves you uncertain sometimes. It’s making me think of paying full retail at a store instead of doing my usual trick of finding stuff online.
I’ve been pondering buying something with iPod support, but I have yet to start shopping. Chris, thanks for offering your insight.
How good is the support for playlists? I have 32 GB of wildly varying music on mine. Shuffle is not appealing to me. Jumping from the Dead Kennedys to Beausoleil to Bach is too jarring, but I could see taking time to put together a few playlists of driving music.
About 3 years ago, I bought a car stereo with USB connection on the back that has a cable that connects to my iPod. It was specified as compatible with iPod controls on the stereo. It is nearly impossible to do much controlling via the radio, other than pause and skip. If I could get another one that would just let me use the iPod itself to control things I would be much happier. If I’m driving far, I tend to play my playlists which is handy.
I did most of my research through Crutchfield online, since they told me what fit my car. I also bought through them since they also include good instructions, a wiring harness for easier connection to my car, and tools to get the old stereo out of the car. Well worth it for this somewhat mechanically inept person.
Our head unit that I got a couple of years ago has both the USB port and a 3.5mm AUX in port.
Our primary use of the stereo is for our XM radio. It plugs directly into the front AUX port. I’ve hidden the wiring behind the dash, but can plug other music sources into that port.
The USB connection will take thumb drives and play them using the controls on the stereo. The ‘random’ feature doesn’t have a very good algorithm as we tend to hear the same song multiple times. We’ve got 2 4GB and 1 2GB drives in the car for swapping out. 1 is my music, 1 is my wifes and 1 has audio books and old radio shows.
We can bypass the USB plug and play any MP3 player (including the iPod) and using the MP3 device to control the music by plugging in a patch cord from the headphone out to the AUX IN.
When we plug the iPod into the stereo, we use a specific plug that has the iPod connection wired to a USB plug and 3.5mm plug. They both get plugged in to be able to use the stereo to control the iPod. The music is actually coming in over the 3.5mm cord, so it doesn’t matter what format the music is, or whether the music is licenced for more than 1 device since it is still the iPod playing it.
All that said, we rarely use the MP3 players as we usually listen to XM or USB thumb drives. It’s handy and inexpensive to pick up a couple of cheap USB drives to leave in the car.
I think you can assume that as a 99er, I’m not a shill for this, and this is what I’ve decided on: http://www.electronicsbonanza.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=17736&sku=13007&src=g
That’s using Sony’s site to find the features and noticing that the next step down needed an optional box to truly integrate the iPod, and using Froogle.com to find the best price, in this case, over 1/3 off. This also uses Bluetooth to connect to the phone.
A USB allows you to plug something like thisin and leave it. I use an 8 gb chip which gives me about 6 days of continuous music. I group the music in folders and my car stereo (JVC) has buttons that will scroll through folders and buttons that will scroll through songs. It’s about 5 years old and after checking the manual I can confirm it only reads mp3’s and WMA’s.
Just to be clear, the object I linked to is the size of a nickle and only a 1/4 inch sticks out of the stereo. I also keep non-music files on it for travel purposes and the stereo system just ignores them.
The problem with iPods is that the music is stored in an odd location \iPod_Control\Music\F*, where F* means a bunch of different folders starting with F, e.g. F00, F01, . Both the iPod_Control and Music folder are hidden, and the filenames are all randomized combinations of four letters. (At least, that was the format as of the Nano my friend got a couple years ago.)
If you can navigate folders, you might be able to find the files. And if it doesn’t use the filename to name them, but the ID3 tags, and they are all MP3s, you might be able to get it to work.
I have a Kenwood head unit that I installed myself, and aside from some modification to the wiring system that was entirely down to the CAN Bus in my car, it was very easy.
Mine is not this exact model, but it looks exactly like this: http://www.mynewcheap.co.uk/products/details/kenwood-kdc-bt8044u/37147/
with the two dials on either side and the 4 line display in the middle. The USB port on the back is on the end of a short cable and it’s a standard USB female port like the ones you would find on a computer, so you can just plug a normal iPod cable into it. When you do this, you can navigate the iPod’s playlists from the unit itself (and it even works with my factory-fitted steering wheel controls, although I did need a Kenwood>Citroen adapter).
It’s not as elegant as using the iPod interface itself, but it does work. It’s easy enough to skip back and forth through an individual playlist while driving, but navigating between playlists (if you want to look at the one you are going to) is more involved, but equally simple. It has favourites so you can quickly jump to a driving playlist and so on to make this easy.
I already had my favourite playlists tagged with my ghetto bookmark feature - they all have a period as their first character, so the iPod lists them right at the top. The Kenwood unit also orders them this way too. It will also play any song that the iPod can play (including store purchases), and you can set it into “iPod by hand” mode so it can be controlled from the iPod itself. This is an either/or - I think it’s a limitation of the interface; either the head unit has control or the iPod’s normal controls do. You can’t have both at the same time.
It also charges the iPod, which is handy (do check - some USB units do not feature charging on all iPods/iPhones).
I have tested mine with a 30GB classic iPod, and my iPhone 3G (using the iOS 3.2 software) and it works very well.
To add more confusion, my car (Honda Insight NAVI) has a USB input. If I hook my Droid to it, it kinda sorta works. I’m sure if I loaded some vanilla MP3s onto the SD card they would play, but I’ve been trying to get it to work with my Podcaster, DoggCatcher. It sort of works. I have about 10 podcasts I receive, each one has a few episodes. Using the radio controls on the steering wheel it will kinda jump around and seemingly randomly decide what to play, sometimes it’ll display the info on the radio screen sometimes not, sometimes it won’t work at all, and it always deletes my car talk pod casts, also, I can’t get it to play anything from Pandora. My understanding is that to get it to properly play the podcasts I would have to save them to the SD card, but I have no idea how to do that. What I should do is just plug it into the Aux Input, but since I’d then have to fiddle with the touch screen while driving, I’ll just stick with my XM.