Head Unit W/a Hard Drive?

[greggbzz]

Does anyone know of a receiver unit with a hard drive built in?

All I can find is the Sony's, which, as far as I can tell, only allow you to rip a CD you've inserted, and of course, it saves it to the hard drive in ATRC3 codec.

I'd like to get my 20GB of music into the car. I don't really want to have an iPod hanging off of an input.

I could home brew something with Linux and an ITX motherboard maybe, but that's a PITA and probabbly there's cheaper dedicated solutions. I just can't find them at crutchfield of bestbuy.

[Sov13t]

Yeah, I was checking out JVC line of decks before - 24gb of space with 16gb of maps 40gb total... here is the one I wanted to get about 3 months ago... haven't done more research since then though.

http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?mo...hId=126&page=1

-Sov13t.

[greggbzz]

If iPods are $150 hows this thing $1100?! Holy Moly!

I could build a PC with a 27" LCD TV in the backseat for that much.

[processengr]

Hi all,
Could you use a head unit with an USB input, maybe rear mounted, with a portable HD?

[Sov13t]

Problem with using portable hard drives becomes powering them and securing them... which pretty much overrides the idea of "not using an ipod."

Seagate had a great idea with D.A.V.E. a solid slate disk powered by a battery with bluetooth and wi-fi interface. However, for some reason that project never got off the ground. If it did, I would throw one of those under the passenger seat.... and forget about it.

I am sure pretty soon we will start seeing decks that will take advantage of SD cards that have bluetooth and wireless USB (WUSB) standards, which will solve such issues fairly well.

Yeah, that deck is expensive

-Sov13t.

[ridered777]

I've got a 120gig external Western Digital hard drive that pulls the power straight from the USB. Unfortunetly, my DVD deck doesn't have any external inputs for it, but I use it all the time for the Xbox 360 to stream music.

[Roo]

Originally Posted by Sov13t

I am sure pretty soon we will start seeing decks that will take advantage of SD cards that have bluetooth and wireless USB (WUSB) standards, which will solve such issues fairly well.

Alpine IVA-W205 is what we have in our SVX. Mated to the Blackbird, it accepts our iPod Touch, our iPhone, our 2GB SD cards (into the Blackbird), CD's, DVD's, and has complete Bluetooth integration with our phones.

California has a cellphone law now that you can't have it up to your ear while driving. Never mind the woman with the makeup and hairstyling going on during the morning commute, or that guy using both hands to munch on his McMuffin or his breakfast burrito...

[JaySVX]

There are many headunits with rear mount usb ports. You could easily mount a hd in the glove box or arm rest, and run it up.

Here's an external 80gb USB powered drive:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...LB80-R&cat=HDD

It does have 2 usb plugs, that you have to use the second if extra power is needed. However there are 12v cigarette lighter adapters that have usb ports for the purpose of charging things like this, ipod, etc.

My new headunit I have coming in is a am/fm/cd/mp3/dvd/etc with 7" screen, but my USB port is on the front, which is annoying. However, it does have an SD card port, I was thinking of getting an 8gb SD card for music on the go for it. I figure this is plenty, as i have an 80gb Zune, that only has 3gb of music on it...

[apocalixto]

I am a strong believer in Pioneer products...so I would say if you want to spend the time doing a little customizing...you could have a GREAT system with the Pioneer AVIC-Z3. And now there is even the bypass instructions for the video available online if you are interested in that. The customizing is going to be difficult, but I believe that it can be done.

[Crazy_pilot]

Originally Posted by apocalixto

I am a strong believer in Pioneer products...so I would say if you want to spend the time doing a little customizing...you could have a GREAT system with the Pioneer AVIC-Z3. And now there is even the bypass instructions for the video available online if you are interested in that. The customizing is going to be difficult, but I believe that it can be done.

When I eventually get around to my audio system I want to use the AVIC-D3 unit, the Z2's cheaper cousin. Especially now that it's come down in price a good bit (from ~1K to $650).