Team-BHP - What's my best mp3 solution?

Here's what I want from my HU, so any suggestions would be well appreciated:

I have about 2500+ mp3s which I would like to have accessible (I can maybe trim that down to 2000 if necessary) in one place (so I don't want multiple mp3 cds / dvds).
Usually I listen to songs in shuffle mode, but occasionally I might get in the mood to listen to a particular song, so a HU where mp3s are easy-to-navigate would be awesome.
I don't want cables all over the place (but at the same time I don't want to solve this problem by cutting holes in my dash etc.).
I would like to not have any power hassles - once I start my car, it should be a fairly straightforward 1-2-3 go process. I would not want a solution that requires making sure that, say, a mp3 player is charged or not.
A Steering wheel remote would be sweet to change tracks and volume.

What options do I have? Thanks!!

A 4GB USb 'pendrive' wouldn't do for 2000 songs, even at 128kbps. At least 2 such would be required.
Haven't tried whether HU usb ports can 'recognize' 2.5 inch hard-disc drives (bus powered, and of, say, 20GB). If yes, that would probably be your best bet. And HDDs are A LOT faster at data transfer rates than any pendrive. (Would be useful for quick search of specific files/folders).

Quote:

Originally Posted by rranjith_kum (Post 554547)

quiet off topic ... but do we get pendrive 4gb for 1500??

1 place- cochin:)
more options will be suggested by others!

btw, as said earlier a pio 7950 with a pen drive seems to be the best bet

veb, how much are you ready to spend?

If you want to have all 2000 songs in one place, I'm afraid a 4GB USB stick will not do (Taking 4MB per song, you need about 8GB). You'll have to spend over 3k for a 8GB flash drive (Yuck! :eek: HU will have to read files and folders for a long time before it starts), in which case, you may consider a basic iPod instead (Not a shuffle of course :deadhorse).

If I assume that you're buying an iPod for about 7-8k, you may consider any of the HUs from Alpine/Pioneer which have direct iPod connectivity and charge the iPod simultaneously. Add another 9k + 1k for the HU + Cable.

The above is the best bet according to me. I run a 30GB Video iPod on an Alpine and the HU never takes more than 5 seconds to start off, charges the iPod and gives me all the luxury that you've asked for.

Unfortunately I don't have a iPod otherwise it wouldn't be much of a decision. I have a Creative Zen Xtra, which was at it's time much better VFM than apple's iPods.... unfortunately HU manufacturers pretty much only support iPods.

I didn't even know that the Pioneer 7950 and other HUs with iPod control charge the iPod also!! That would be the perfect solution albeit requiring me to buy an iPod :( and that puts it way past my budget.

The mp3s btw take about 15+GB on the hard disk :) so pen drives unfortunately just won't cut it, unless there is some way I can hook up 4-5 of them simultaneously!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vebmetal (Post 554333)

[*]Usually I listen to songs in shuffle mode, but occasionally I might get in the mood to listen to a particular song, so a HU where mp3s are easy-to-navigate would be awesome.[*]I would like to not have any power hassles - once I start my car, it should be a fairly straightforward 1-2-3 go process. I would not want a solution that requires making sure that, say, a mp3 player is charged or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsk1979 (Post 554728)

vebmetal, you don't need an IPOD.
All you need is a HU which has "USB" support. IF your Creative Zen Xtra is recognized as a HDD on your system, you can plug in to your HU via the USB port and your HU will easily see the player as an external HDD

But reading the directory structure/ file list would take a whole lot of time. I'm talking about clean 3-4 minutes (minimum) here.

That is one of the reasons why I did not recommend a Giga-MP3 HU. HUs with Giga-MP3 take a disturbing amount of time to read, especially when there are over 1000 files. Otherwise, veb could have had all his music on a couple of DVDs.

veb, we still don't know your budget. And if it is 15GB+, what is the capacity of your Zen and will it be able to suffice the need?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rranjith_kum (Post 554547)

quiet off topic ... but do we get pendrive 4gb for 1500??

Yes. you can easily get a pen drive with 4gb for around Rs. 1500. You can get Buffalo 4 gb pen drive for Rs. 1800 (good read and write speads)

veb, I tend to go with tsk1979. Please note that the 'read' time would be un-acceptably long with pen-drives. Hard-disc drives read an order of magnitude faster. I did a google on your Creative and found this:

Zen Xtra is a high-capacity, pocket-sized digital music player at an incredible price - 30% less than the Apple iPod! Zen Xtra doubles up as an external hard drive, not only will it store your entire music collection, you'll have plenty of room for all your photos, documents or other data files. Plus, the anodized aluminum casing protects your 16,000 songs1 and files anywhere you go. With the 98dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio, your music will be loud and clear, and as good as any expensive hi-fi systems!

So it should work out quite nicely for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vebmetal (Post 554683)

I didn't even know that the Pioneer 7950 and other HUs with iPod control

Hu's have been supporting the ipod since atleast 2003 maybe even earlier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anupmathur (Post 554843)

Zen Xtra ........

Today many HUs have USB support and they should support the Zen. Some might require that the Zen is powered seperately. USB on HUs typically puts out 500mA, many hard disks demand more than that.

Can someone give the model numbers for the Pioneer/Alpine HUs with ipod support? If you can also include the price, it would be great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rranjith_kum (Post 554547)

quiet off topic ... but do we get pendrive 4gb for 1500??

Yes we do :Cheering: