Newer style headunits with face inputs

[Slim]

So it seems the newest trend for manufacturers to incorporate into their designs is to have a USB input and/or a 3.5mm stereo jack input on the face of the unit. Seems pretty convenient to me - one can use an iPod, USB key, or even 2.5" HDD ("laptop size" HDD) or a male-male connector with their whatever-brand mp3 player.

But is it really that easy? Apparently units need to be "ready" in order to use these features, sometimes needing a converter/adaptor or special cables and, of course, at extra cost.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Are there any combos that do/don't work for sure? Things that one should look further into before committing with purchasing a unit?

I'm in the market right now and thinking that having both a USB and stereo jack input would be handy - I can use my mp3 player (don't have an iPod and would like to avoid spending the money to purchase one) or a small laptop HDD for the longer trips.

More info would be great. PATIA!

 

[7.5L_STX]

My New Pioneer Premier has An Ipod Mode That Will actually show your song list on the screen but that feature will only work with ipod videos, nanos ar Itouchs and it wont work with any other mp3 player which sucks for me because i just sold my Ipod So That i could buy Tha Damn cd Player In the first place.

 

[exbass94]

I just bought a Sony CDX-GT920U. It has a rear USB input and a 3.5 mm jack on the front. I ran the wire to my glove box where I have a USB flash drive which stores all my music. I bought it cuz I was sick of CDs skipping every 2 seconds, and lugging around my huge CD wallet. I just installed it a few days ago, but I love it so far. I only have a few songs on my flash drive because I haven't had time to download them, but I tested it out and it works fantastic. If you want to control an iPod with the buttons on the unit, you have to buy a $40 adaptor. I don't have an iPod, so it's not an issue for me.

 

[Sunk]

I've got a 3.5mm stereo jack on the front of mine, and all I do is put in on AUX input and start up the MP3 player.. I'd imagine the others are more or less the same.

 

[4x4fun]

yes it is that easy, with the 3.5mm jack. just put it to aux. only mp3 player that can be controlled that i know of is ipod and you need the $50 cable and it just lets you controll the ipod from the head unit. but with the 3.5mm jack will take anything with a 3.5mm jack on the other side mp3players cd players cassette 8 tracks some cell phones my nephews lil toy laptop from v tech

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

ive got a USB equipped head unit in my escort (panasonic cq-rx400u) that i feed info from a 40gig laptop harddrive in a penguin external USB enclosure. i had 2 minor obsticles to overcome in order to run my setup:

first, USB head units only read drives formatted in FAT32 or under. the problem is, windows will not let you format media in excess of a certain size (IIRC 30GB is the cutoff) in FAT or FAT32. i had to research and download a simple DOS program to format the drive in FAT32 through a CMD prompt.

second, the 5 volt power supply from the USB jack on most head units only supports a few hundred milliamps. more than enough to power a flash drive, but not enough to power my particular harddrive reliably. fortunatly, my HD enclosure had a 5V DC input jack for supplying power to the drive from a secondary source. so it was a simple matter of running down to wally world and buying a 12v cigarette lighter "USB device charger" for $5 and change, gutting it, and connecting its input to a switched 12v power supply and its output to the jack on my HD case. the "guts" were then wrapped in tape and stuffed behind the dash...out of sight.

my harddrive is wrapped in foam to protect it from vibration, and located in the glove box. the wires run from behind the glovebox and plug into the drive. the head unit gives me complete control over the different folders and songs as well as displaying file names on the screen. if you'd like, i can snap some pics of the finished setup (ive been meaning to do so anyways).

here are some pics of the drives 5 volt power supply:

 

[Slim]

ive got a USB equipped head unit in my escort (panasonic cq-rx400u) that i feed info from a 40gig laptop harddrive in a penguin external USB enclosure. i had 2 minor obsticles to overcome in order to run my setup:

first, USB head units only read drives formatted in FAT32 or under. the problem is, windows will not let you format media in excess of a certain size (IIRC 30GB is the cutoff) in FAT or FAT32. i had to research and download a simple DOS program to format the drive in FAT32 through a CMD prompt.

second, the 5 volt power supply from the USB jack on most head units only supports a few hundred milliamps. more than enough to power a flash drive, but not enough to power my particular harddrive reliably. fortunatly, my HD enclosure had a 5V DC input jack for supplying power to the drive from a secondary source. so it was a simple matter of running down to wally world and buying a 12v cigarette lighter "USB device charger" for $5 and change, gutting it, and connecting its input to a switched 12v power supply and its output to the jack on my HD case. the "guts" were then wrapped in tape and stuffed behind the dash...out of sight.

my harddrive is wrapped in foam to protect it from vibration, and located in the glove box. the wires run from behind the glovebox and plug into the drive. the head unit gives me complete control over the different folders and songs as well as displaying file names on the screen. if you'd like, i can snap some pics of the finished setup (ive been meaning to do so anyways).

here are some pics of the drives 5 volt power supply:

Wicked, as usual, you have outdone yourself.

The particular unit I have been eyeballing the most lately is the same Panasonic unit you have. I asked my local trusted dealer for an entry level unit with both inputs and he pointed it out. He reports it's actually a surprisingly well put together unit for the money.

Some of the research i've been doing points out that only non-partioned drives can be used, since the headunit acts as a read-only device (iirc, this was something I read in Pioneer literature). Did you have to concern yourself with this? Is it safe for me to assume that you simply have a ton of mp3 (or whatever format) files and nothing else?

Other questions would include;

Size - does the headunit have any problem reading through that large a device? Is there any kind of "lag", so to speak, with the headunit reading through the files? (how much of that 40gB are you using right now?)

PATIA!

 

[Slim]

Back to the 3.5 stereo input crowd .....

Okay, so all I need to worry about buying would be a male-male 3.5 stereo cable - understood.

So since the headunit would read this as a signal coming in, would that not also mean that as you increase the volume on the mp3 player the volume through the speakers would increase? I'm thinking that this would be the case as the headunit would simply put out what it takes in, right?

PATIA!


On a related side note - I finally took a look to see if I can mount my headunit the way I want. Geez there's a TON of room back in there! YES! Woohoooo!!!!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

i am actually on my 5th panasonic head unit. ive been impressed time and again with their price, build quality, sound quality, longevity, and "feel" of their head units. having a sturdy face-plate that doesnt "squeek" when i push the buttons is very important to me (do i have particular tastes? lol). the one time i had a problem with a panasonic (my fault due to feeding it an irregular shaped disk), i shipped it to panasonic and they had it repaired and back in my mailbox within 2 weeks (and this was in a remote part of alaska).

i did not even attempt to partition my drive, so unfortunatly i cant relate any experience in that area. my drive is 1 big 40 gig partition with only about 8 gigs taken up. i started with about 4 gigs and have added music regularly over the months without any noticeable increase in the initial read time. it does take about 15-20 seconds when the car is first started to read the disk. i was told load time shouldnt increase much as i load up the drive because the root file (or whatever its called) doesnt increase in size. it's similar to adding words to a text document...the size doesnt increase much.

i have a mix of MP3 and WMP files and both play with no problems.

and you are right about the 3.5 headphone input. its just a audio input and increasing the volume of the device supplying the signal will increase the volume from your speakers. that input is just a generic sound input. you could buy an adaptor to go from 3.5 to RCA jacks and connect anything with RCA output. for long road trips, i connected my laptop via the 3.5 input in the truck so mary could watch movies and hear through the trucks speakers.

 

[dgndngrngr]

if you'd like, i can snap some pics of the finished setup (ive been meaning to do so anyways).

yes please!! thats awesome! nice work

slim, ya if you turn it up on the mp3 it will slightly increase the volume but the sound might get muddy. its best to turn it up more from the head unit

 

[Slim]

Excellent!

And yes, Wicked, please feel free to post pics here. If you wish to start a new thread all your own please be kind enough to post a link to that thread in here for future searching reference.


Good, the easy part is over - now I just gotta figure out the rest of my system!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=304384#post304384

its long, but its mostly stuff i already covered here, but with new pics. one thing i added: i timed the startup of the head unit tonight. from the time the screen lights up and says "welcome" to the time sound comes from the speakers is 39 seconds. longer than i thought...but not as long as it sounds. its usually loaded by the time i get the heater controles set, seat belt on, and the engine idles down.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back to the 3.5 stereo input crowd .....

Okay, so all I need to worry about buying would be a male-male 3.5 stereo cable - understood.

So since the headunit would read this as a signal coming in, would that not also mean that as you increase the volume on the mp3 player the volume through the speakers would increase? I'm thinking that this would be the case as the headunit would simply put out what it takes in, right?

Yes, I have to have my Zune cranked all the way up to come out about the same as a radio station... if not I have to have the HU cranked up to hear it and I get a mega surpise when I switch back to FM.

I have always like Pioneer radios up until my latest one. I was queesy about getting it because it has one big knob that does pretty much everything. I recently hit some button on accident on the remote that reset all my presets... basically it grabbed the first 6 stations it could find with the best strength, only about 3 I can stand to listen to. I can't find the manual to reprogram them, and it doesn't have preset buttons... irritates me to no end. I got it when this style first came out, I wish I would have gotten the style that it replaced.

It is supposed to be "Ipod Ready" and came with the cord and everything, I don't have an Ipod though so I don't know how it works.

 

[wally]

I have a Panasonic head unit with a USB and a 3.5 input on the front. I only use a 4 gig flash drive at the moment. It does have a delay when it first reads the drive, but it works great otherwise. It also has a 7 ban EQ for better sound quality. So far I'm happy with it. The only down side is no sub control on my unit. same unit as wicked's

 

[Slim]

I have a Panasonic head unit with a USB and a 3.5 input on the front. I only use a 4 gig flash drive at the moment. It does have a delay when it first reads the drive, but it works great otherwise. It also has a 7 ban EQ for better sound quality. So far I'm happy with it. The only down side is no sub control on my unit. same unit as wicked's

You sure about that? I have been looking into the same unit myself and to my knowledge it only has a 3-band parametric eq, not a 7-band graphic eq.


Oh, and Wicked, thanks for sharing that info and link!!!!! Appreciated muchly.