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-   -   What is the level of control in USB HUs? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/27190-what-level-control-usb-hus.html)

With HUs having USB connectivity, what is the level of control you can have (i..e changing tracks, Play / Pause, display of song info on the HU etc.) w.r.t. these three sources:

a) A Flash Drive
b) An iPod
c) A non-apple hard disk based mp3 player (e.g. Creative Zen Xtra)

most HUs have wires (cost extra) that allow you control an ipod. with a USB port a HU will recognise the flash drive and allow you to control it (skip songs etc..) but i am not sure if it will display artist name etc..

In all of these, I can assure you that the HU will have the capability to show ID3 v1 (File name.mp3) data and ID3 v2 (Track name/artist name/album name) in all 3 cases.

for a Creative zen wont the connection be via line out or headphone out. in that case i dont think viewing ID3 tags on the HU will be possible.

Ahem. Navin, USB connectivity. Not an iPod connector. With a USB proper connector, where you can plug any Mass Storage Device, including MP3 players, card readers and Flash Disks.

Yesterday I fooled around with a Pioneer 7950USB and I was able to do all of this with many brands of MP3 players.

Hmmm, the only thing is that I don't think the Creative Zen Xtra is a "Mass Storage Device" as in you need drivers for a computer to recognize it. (Although with the new firmware I think wmp recognizes it without drivers.

Anyway for that I can go on a Creative forum.

Thank you for your replies!

The pioneer 7950USB works with most MP3 players, not only Mass Storage, even iPods through the USB jack.

Now I get IT. stupid:

SAM, can you please post some honest comments on 7950?

Sam i was going through the Pioneer site and compared few models along with 7950 and most of USB supported HU says:-
USB Control Capability Yes (CD-UB100 Required) for 7950,
Built-In USB for 6950,
USB Control Yes (CD-UB100 Required) for 5950
so this CD-UB100 is another USB adapter unit need to buy to make HU USB compatible isnt it to many things putting around?How u connected 7950 with USB.
Pioneer Electronics - Sound. Vision. Soul

I was just having a test drive in my friends brand new Santro with all Sony ICE. I dont know the model number but it had front USB port (no wires). I plugged my USB drive that I always carry in my pocket. I was skeptical whether it will find the songs as my songs were buried inside a subdirectory. But with few seconds of scnaning, it started playing the songs. It was displaying the name and artiste of the song. I dont know about all the controls, but I could skip to the next song using HU controls.

I purchased the DEH-7950UB. When a Pioneer HU ends in UB, that means it has a built in USB jack. This unit had a standard USB cable as part of the harness. They even supplied a USB extension cord with a cap at the end.

Panky, I did not hear it enough to pass judgement. But it was a good HU, nice sound, great convenience, no TA though.

@raduk: It must be [COLOR=#0000ff]CDX-GT460US[/COLOR]. Thats the one I have, and yes as you mentioned it picks up songs from the sub directory in a matter of time. You can skip folders, or songs at a go, as you feel.

So say I had a 40GB Creative player that has 16GB of music, and I connected it to a HU with USB. (Assuming that it is Mass Storage) does the HU take any time to read and process the mp3s before it can start playing them (such as what people report for Flash drives)? Or can I expect that once I start my car, the music starts playing in a matter of 5 - 10 seconds?

Also if the player is chargeable via USB, do USB HUs normally give out enough current to charge the player?

Vebmetal, as far as i know & experienced with CDs, the HU should look only for recognizable music files, process them for a moment (Sony HU) and then start playing. Some of the discs (full Mp3) in my system take longer intervals (more than 30 sec) to play.