[Sam Kapasi]

Hello Kids,

It's been a difficult difficult evening at TBHP. No I'm not discussing that. And I've been swooshing the alco too so, it's all a bit emotional. No not Rudraesque, not yet, i have many years to reach that level. And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.

SO! The Idea!

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune of acquiring a LaCie Silverscreen 80Gb drive. Price you say? It was Free. Gratis. FOC.Muft. The distributor for Apple, also distributes LaCie. So jolly good, free drive and all that. Yay. It's available at apple stores across India as around.

The drive is based on a laptop drive so it's mighty small, but very well built, looks like it can take a beating. LOOKS Like 2L8uloose can sit on it. (yes, gunbir, he's bigger than you)
This drive is special. Connect it to your computer and it has 3 folders, MUSIC, MOVIES, PHOTOS
Drag the right data into the right folder.

And hey presto tiddly ho & alley oop, it has it's OWN operating software and needs a computer no more. Simply connect it to your system and to your TV and it plays it all!! It has a super sleek remote by which you can navigate through music movies etc.
It has an audio out, optical out, spdif out, s video out everything.
Now here's the part that blew me away: It played EVERYTHING i threw at it. MP2, WAV, MP3 (320VBR,256VBR etc etc),
Video wise: Ripped DVDs, VOB files, ISO, MP4, MOV, AVI, MPG everything.

No computer needed hmmm..


Now my darlings, came the idea today, this evening. Today I bought a Motorola Phone charger. My Blackberry charges using the same mini USB pin that motorola phones use. The LaCie Drive also runs on a power supply that has the same mini USB at one end. Ergo, the motorola car charger spins the LaCie drive.

What if I did away with my HU? hmm?

Bought a car screen, connected the drive video to it and the audio to the amps? The LaCie drive has pre amp volume control. The sound is jitter free and clean and the pre-out is fairly loud. In my belief it will not need a tone control.
80 gigs of what-i-like, movie, music anything.

I see one drawback, no fader control. I think I can find a way around that.

Alternatively I can still connect this to the Aux In of my HU and that gives me all options, including tone and fader. Just thought of the freakish idea of not having a visible HU at all.

If I was to work on designing an ICE system OE level, I would simply make a SD/MMC slot in the dash. Buss. Then when you insert the card, it displays the list of songs in your dashscreen and ta-DAH!

Coming back to the LaCie What say friends, Roman ragazze, Indians, fellow whisky drinkers and other vice-lovers? I have not tried this yet. Should I?

[hydrashok]

Sam, don't you think an aux connection would be better than giving your HU the pink slip? Especially because I think you travel quite a bit, and what would you do if you bought a new CD on the road (after you ditched the HU)? You wouldn't be able to play it without ripping it first. You'll need access to a computer for that. Even if you have your laptop with you, won't it be a bit of a hassle just to listen to some fresh music? Ok, with 80GB, fresh music may not be so much of a problem, but still?

I can't think of any other drawback to ditching your HU.

[v1p3r]

Sounds terrible exciting. Genius is best accompanied by alcohol, too. Go for it, I say!

When can we except your presence on southern shores?

[Godfather]

Dam as hell try it... if it works i want one...

[v1p3r]

Ok, thinking logically, one drawback to using this as a ICE HU is the lack of playlists. I don't see you mentioning anywhere that this device can generate or segregate playlists. It would be tedious to jump from Bon Jovi to Scorpions, if you're in the mood to listen to 80s rock.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Ok, thinking logically, one drawback to using this as a ICE HU is the lack of playlists. I don't see you mentioning anywhere that this device can generate or segregate playlists. It would be tedious to jump from Bon Jovi to Scorpions, if you're in the mood to listen to 80s rock.

Ummmm.. what about this

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

If I was to work on designing an ICE system OE level, I would simply make a SD/MMC slot in the dash. Buss. Then when you insert the card, it displays the list of songs in your dashscreen and ta-DAH!

This is about displaying songs na.. i am also confused...
sam... explain please

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

If I was to work on designing an ICE system OE level, I would simply make a SD/MMC slot in the dash. Buss. Then when you insert the card, it displays the list of songs in your dashscreen and ta-DAH!

Hmm... Sobriety questions judgement now. Why did I say this? hmm...

Well let me explain Godfather, as you requested (Soft background music=Godfather theme)

IF I was to design an OE system, there simply would NOT be a system. Merely a little slot in the dash, which would accomodate a meemory card.
As far as the display etc, I would incorporate it into the in dash intelli-display.
This was a hypothetical statement of course.

@viper - The Music Management is Album wise. Works very well for me. I don't use playlists on mmy iPod either. Yes, I realise one minor inconvenience, genre-wise segregation. But thats a minor drawback. I prefer to listen to entire folders or entire albums.

Not to forget, te easy access to movies. This will work more for those guys who download movies from torrents (disclaimer:team-BHP does not promote piracy and never will), since this little bugger reads all formats in the world, directly. No codec required.

More important on my mind is the fact the the rear and front amplifier will have a singular input. A simple solution is to use the gain controls on the amplifier (since I use the electronic crossovers on the amp anyways)
But this doesnt provide a user-friendly re-adjustment, not unless I crawl into the boot everytime i want to make the fronts louder.

I am toying with the idea of an Alps Potentiomenter in the dash, but am scared of deteriorating the audio quality with it.
Navin unfortunately is indisposed right now, a little unwell. Perhaps he will be able to shed some hair on this whe he returns.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by hydrashok

what would you do if you bought a new CD on the road (after you ditched the HU)? You wouldn't be able to play it without ripping it first. .

Ever since my girlfriend destroyed my 6 MP3 changer, I find it extremely tiresome to carry CDS to the car. PLUS I have installed a HK D+P iPod interface. Put simply i ONLY listen to my iPod in the car.
I find this also to be of great use while travelling, even when I purchase a new CD, I rip the CD it immediately. Then Leave the CD at home and listen to it on my iPod, since you rightly pointed out, I travel a lot.
I find this to be more of a convenience than inconvenience. I simply, put the powerbook on, get it online using my reliance aircard and iTunes gathers all the ID3 data from a CDDB server. I rip at 256VBR as I find this satisfactory.

As far as movies are concerned, (since I am a mac user) I ise a software called Mac The Ripper. This basically tranfers the entire contents of the DVD, uncompressed into a folder and that folder becomes a virtual DVD. I find this to be a better visual experience than a compressed DIVx or similar.

I must also explain, v1p3r, when you witch the drive on, it has a friendly graphical screen where you can choose to play music, movies or photos.It's really easy to use.

I'm really gravitating towards this option. I will also soon find out what this thingy costs, so it can be declared as a viable option (or not)
Keep the ideas coming gentlemen.

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

when you witch the drive on, it has a friendly graphical screen where you can choose to play music, movies or photos.It's really easy to use.

Now if you can find a way to ditch the big@$$ remote, and get the drive to work with a touchscreen input (an overlay on the screen you're getting anyway -- can this be done on an aftermarket basis folks?), you'll experience ICE + Gadget Nirvana. WOW!

[tsk1979]

1. Fader control : If its not important to you you can give up your HU
2. Make your own fader control. Since your system may have 4 speakers, you can have two channels going to rear, and parallel 2 going to front, a volume control the likes of which are found on sony headphones will fix your problem.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Ever since my girlfriend destroyed my 6 MP3 changer, I find it extremely tiresome to carry CDS to the car.

man, what were you doing with her in the boot ? adjusting the fader or the gain ???

sam, this looks pretty promising, but there is no way in the world you could ditch your HU. how will you listen to FM ? there are almost 70 FM channels ready to begin service very soon. and how do you plan to plug the gaping hole in the dash ?

[navin]

THanks Sam.

I have considered solutions like these. I like stealth. I was looking at an idea which would just have a USB port to download new music onto a hardsisk that was hidden behind the dash. We can expect 200GB (1.8") HDs by 2009. Why 1.8"? because 1.8" HDs seem to more resilient to shock.

The Hard Disk would have an OS (the LaCie has that), a Music Manager and maybe a Video Manager (does the La Cie have these).

The Music Manager would allow custom EQ options as well as setup for the filters (parametric) and levels.

Your dash would have 2 conectric controls (like these used to be in the dash of the 2-stick stereos - seen on old US cars. Control 1 will control Volume and EQ and Control 2, the Balanace and Fader) and a slide control (a la Alpine's Glide touch) to choose artist/album/track or even playlists (for those more sophisticated than Sam and myself).

see the 1st pic this link (ignore the stuff between the 2 knobs).
http://www.vintagevibes.net/Stereos/STEREOS.htm

Via the USB port you could even program the Music Manager for newer EQ options or various filter options and even create playsits.

Till this becomes the norm my Ipod will have to do.

Sam, 256K VBR is nice about the minimum for the car. However I think LAME has a better encoding than iTunes esp snice one can configure LAME to apply Wavgain and Accurate Rip. a 80GB hard disk would contain about 700-750 albums at this compression. When the bigger hard disks come out you can either add more albums or switch to FLAC or WavPack. Now that Freedb is dead (I was current till July 1st 2006 if you need the database) CDDB (Gracenote) is your only real option.

You will still need to control Volume, Fader, Balance, Delay andTone (EQ) and have some way to set the filters (these can be done at the amps as well). When I drive alone for example I fiddle the Balance and Fader to set the soundstage directly in front of me with my wfe I set the soundstage in front of the gear shift (you need Delay, Fader and Balance to do this). If you are ok with a prefixed soundstage and tone maybe you can have these settings in the Music Manager and then all you need is the Volume and ofcourse the Artist/Album/Track selector. Most Automotive Information Displays are still not up to displaying this information correctly.

[jkdas]

heard IPod 80 GB is out

[swale84]

Sam,
The idea sounds nice, but.....this way your becoming completely dependant on your LaCie..

What happens in case (god forbid) it gets spoilt, or you forget the charger at home, or your girlfriend borrows it (It will happen)..then your left without any music.

Atleast if you stick with the Aux in idea, you have other options....Even I use my Ipod in the car and dont remember the last time I listened to anything on CD, but for the one off time when you want to listen to radio for a change, or someone in the car has a CD they want you to hear, its nice to have the option available.
If I were you I'd stick with a Head unit, you can still attach a screen & all the other gadgets that you want with it..atleast until hard disc based car stereos become cheaper..

@JKDas: Yup I think the iPod 80 Gb has replaced the 60 GB Video..

[Steeroid]

Sam

Take a look at these - you're talking 320GB of storage and ANY format playback here. I bought the first just a month back and THEN they released the second one which in hindsight is the one that I REALLY should have bought

http://www.argosy.com.tw/product-detial.php?prod_id=89

http://www.argosy.com.tw/product-detial.php?prod_id=82

The second one features a cassette-type, removable super-capacity hard disk that can either be used standalone (for your car?) or simply pushed into the DVD player to connect to your television or rip directly from the DVD to the HDD!