"Ipod ready" headunits (car)

[ShipitFMA]

I've been looking for a headunit for my new car, trying to find a decent cheap LCD touchscreen.
Old thread: Multimedia Head Units

Im not an expert on the topic and a mate has directed me to his dads friends who imports these units direct from China (unbranded). Generally the units i've been looking at have all said "Ipod ready" - as in there is a cord run through to the glovebox and you can ONLY control it of the headunit

This is the site for the importer here

Can anyone tell me if they are "ipod ready" and if so suggest what i should buy

[Wynton]

I have no recommendations, except one general comment.

About a year ago, I spent extra to get a setup that allowed me control and display with the headunit. I now wish I had it bought something cheaper that allowed me control on the ipod itself. The problem is that the controls on the head unit are much, much more cumbersome than the ipod itself.

[ShipitFMA]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no recommendations, except one general comment.

About a year ago, I spent extra to get a setup that allowed me control and display with the headunit. I now wish I had it bought something cheaper that allowed me control on the ipod itself. The problem is that the controls on the head unit are much, much more cumbersome than the ipod itself.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I am looking to get a decent sized screen, from what i've been told the sound quality from systems that allow you to control it from the headunit are by far the best quality of any option. Reason behind looking at a touchscreen is because i cannot imagine sifting through thousands of songs with only 1 line of text.

[Wynton]

I'm no audiophobe, but I don't see why the sound quality would be different based upon whether the system provides for control on the headunit or not. I'm also skeptical whether any headunit will have controls as easy to use as the ipod.

But if you learn otherwise, please let me know here. I need to get something for another car too.

[pergesu]

I bought this unit, and should be getting it installed late this week or early next week. I'll post my opinions on it then. If a week goes by and I haven't posted anything, send me a PM to remind me (if you're interested)

[MrWookie]

Wynton,

Part of the reason why the sound would be better is the connection that's implied by being able to control the ipod through the deck, not just that you can control it. The units where you control the ipod necessitate that they're connected through the digital port on the bottom of the ipod. The ones that don't control the ipod usually get their music inputs from an Aux jack and a cable that plugs into the ipod's headphone jack. You're more likely to get some quality deterioration through that system.

OP, all,

If you decide to get a unit that plugs into the ipod's digital port, you have to be careful. I got a Sony system, oh, 6 months ago or so. I wanted to get the digital connection, but unfortunately, it wasn't compatible with a video ipod. It'd only work with the previous generation and earlier. It wasn't just the Sony deck, either. Apparently it wouldn't work w/ any other deck there. I'm not totally sure why. Anyway, if you have a slightly older ipod, no problemo. If you have a video ipod, then you'll want to make absolute sure that the deck you get is compatible.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

I went with a unit that uses a simple AUX line-in. it worked fine, but then the line-in broke, and the connection wouldn't work anymore. this was covered by the Sony warranty , but in order to get it fixed I had to send the radio back to Sony, wait for it to be sent back, and then pay someone to reinstall it.

that sucked, so I just bought a new unit, had it installed, and bought the store's warranty to cover me in the future. I returned the Sony unit, and finally got it back, and I'll try to sell it on craigslist for $50 or whatever.

not sure what the moral of the story is.

[MrWookie]

Yeah, since I couldn't get the digital jack to work, I just went with the Aux in. It works pretty well for me.

[LuckOfTheDraw]

Yeah, I also have a sony. It's one of their "x-plode" series or something. It has both a jack I run through the glove box and a front aux input.

A few things:

1) The built in jack also charges the ipod, which is nice.

2) The head unit is irritatingly slow at scanning through artists/playlists. Also, you scan up and down with 2 buttons. How difficult would it have been to let you scroll through them with the volume wheel?

3) Also, the head unit does not use good logic when browsing through artists with multiple albums. You can't go to artist, then select from that artists' albums. Instead, it groups all of the songs together from that artist. At least it separates the albums and keeps the tracks in order, but why not let you browse through the albums?*

4) I've taken advantage of the fact that the headunit does let you browse by playlist. To counter the downside of 2), I've taken the time to make several playlists per style/mood and then just select one and put it on random. Sometimes, I select all songs and put it on random. To deal with the stupid situation presented by 3), I wrote a little java script that will create a separate playlist for each album you have in your itunes/ipod library, its format is simply "artist name - album name". Then I just browse by playlist. It works, but it's still very slow. Takes a few minutes to browse from A to Z.

5) Also, I end up using the front aux input on short drives. I can only tell a difference in sound quality between the two inputs if I listen with the car turned off. And, even then, it isn't very noticable. Note that my actual speaker system is not very good, so I can't speak for how much of a difference it will make for you.


Overall, I'm a little disappointed, but it's nice to be able to plug it in on long trips and have a fully charged ipod after the drive.


* It actually does let you browse by albums, but no per artist. It just lists all albums alphabetically by album name. Yes, very stupid.


Here's the java script I was talking about. Open up notepad, and paste this in there, and save it as "whatever.js". Its name doesn't matter, just make sure it is a .js file, not a .txt. Like I said, it will create an separate playlist for each album and group everything accordingly. Just go into itunes and select (highlight) the songs in your ipod music directory that you want to do this for and run the .js file (double click it). Mac users, I believe there are apple scripts out there that will do the same thing. I had to write this cuz I couldn't find anything for windows that did this. One more thing; this won't work if after you select the songs, you minimize itunes to the system tray. Keep the window open.

var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");

var tracks = iTunesApp.SelectedTracks;

if (!tracks)
{
WScript.Echo("You did not select any songs. Javascript ended.")
}
else
{

var source = tracks.Item(1).Playlist.Source;

var numTracks = tracks.Count;

var i;

var albumArray = new Array();

for (i = 1; i <= numTracks; i++)
{
var currTrack = tracks.Item(i);
var artist = currTrack.Artist;
var album = currTrack.Album;

if ((album != undefined) && (album != ""))
{
if (albumArray[artist + " - " + album] == undefined)
{

albumArray[artist + " - " + album] = new Array();
}

albumArray[artist + " - " + album].push(currTrack);


}
}

for (var albumName in albumArray)
{
var trackArray = albumArray[albumName];
albumPlaylist = iTunesApp.CreatePlaylistInSource(albumName, source);

for (var x = 0; x < trackArray.length; x++)
{
var currTrack = trackArray[x];
albumPlaylist.AddTrack(currTrack);
}
}
}

[okayplayer]

I am thinking about getting an iPod (or maybe a Zune or Toshiba Gigabeat - something with 30Gb+) right now, and one of the important things for me, is being able to connect it to my car's stereo (I plan on getting a new car in the next year - likely a BMW 335i, G37, or Lexus IS-F). Preferably, I'd like to be able to connect it to the car's stereo directly, and be able to control it through the car's stereo (also preferably with steering wheel controls as well). If it means buying a new stereo, I'm fine with that too. But my main question is do I have to get an iPod for this to work, or will these work with any of these mp3 players (do they just hook up through the headphone jack)? I am kinda leaning towards the Gigabeat as it looks to be very user friendly with good reviews (and no itunes!). I think I read in this or another thread that the video iPods won't work? Or just with certain stereos?

Thanks,
OKP