why do ICE manufactures make stereos compatible with ipods but no other mp3 player type (unless doing it through aux-in cable)???

Ive got a sony walkman, probably the next best seller to the ipod yet i cant connect this to ICE stuff. You'd think at least sony would make their products compatible. My walkman uses ATRAC-3 format and the only thing that can read them is sonicstage/ connect, sonys own programmes.

I just get a little annoyed that in order to take advantage of "ready for Ipod" stereos means i would have to buy an over-rated ipod and waste my time transferring all my songs over.

im looking at the witson unit in the octy2 section and dont suppose i could upload sonicstage onto it could i???

There are many units out there now that use USB connection as apposed to IPOD connection which will connect to pretty much any MP3 player.

Off the top of my head JVC, Alpine and fusion all do at least one.

Alpine has a nice bit of kit for about 150 squid which is a MP3 only unit (No cd slot) but is ready to con to usb

they are all compatible with ipods for one simple reason, its the best mp3 player ever made and thats froma die hard apple hater!!

and how are ipods over rated?

i have an 8gb nano and the screen is excellent, the interface is excellent, the sound quality is very good, the size and weight are excellent, the button configuration is excellent and works amazingly well. tbh the only downside i can think of to my ipod is having to use itunes ad thats not that bad really but drag and drop would be much nicer.

My car stereo is Ipod ready and supports other players to via USB.

Most players are just normal folder / file structure, where ipod is slightly different so they let you know its ipod ready, hope that makes sense.

Ipod Rules

ok well ipods may be good. i just dont like things that everybody goes mad over and that everybody has, i.e. ipods, facebook.

my walkman has a usb but surely playlists in atrac-3 wouldnt be shown on HU?

Are there any members near you with one of the ipod ready HU that would let you connect your Walkman and see what it does? Don't know if Halfords have any that they would let you plug into to try them.

There are many units out there now that use USB connection as apposed to IPOD connection which will connect to pretty much any MP3 player.

id agree, and if you look up this pioneer DEH-5000ub

it has alot of colours you can mess with to fully match you dash lol

say a red display with a light green button set up lol ta da octy dash

i just had to put 1 in my mrs mates vauxhall lol amber face white buttons lol presto vauxhall astra dash lol

plus alot of features and a usb in the rear for your mp3 lol

very cool :orb_cool_

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/8024.html

id agree, and if you look up this pioneer DEH-5000ub

plus alot of features and a usb in the rear for your mp3 lol

very cool :orb_cool_

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/8024.html

I just installed one of these in my vRS and it IS very cool (am just glad I can finally hook up my iPod without using one of those horrid FM transmitters) but I'm pretty sure it won't play files from a Sony player if they are in ATRAC-3 format. You have to be pretty careful if you definitely want to plug your player through the USB port, as the majority will only recognise MP3s and WMAs. I have my files saves as uncompressed WAVs, cuz I'm a bit of an audiophile and am crazy about sound quality, so I bought a Pioneer as it is supposed to be one of the few units that recognizes WAVs, but now I think that may be only on CD-R/RWs as mine had trouble recognising any files on my iPod, though I think that may also be because I am running RockBox software instead of iTunes. But I was OK going through the AUX in, as I have a special cable that goes out through the bottom port of the iPod and converts it into 3.5mm standard so the sound quality is ACE (not like through a headphone jack). And besides that control of MP3 player functions through the head unit is almost always super fiddly, so it seems easier (for me) to use the player itself to select tracks and do everything I want to do (IMHO).

If you do some research, you should be able to find a player that will work. I just went to all the corporate sites (Sony, Pioneer, Alpine) and downloaded manuals for the different players in my price range and you could then be sure if it would do everything you needed. I'm pretty sure from what I remember Sony's HUs SHOULD recognise their own portable players, otherwise that would just be stupid. I'm pretty sure I did read that they recognised ATRAC files, as it confirmed it would be useless for me.

And you say you don't like to follow trends and bought the Sony over the iPod, but I'd be more concerned with compatibility issues. I have lots of Sony gear (CD players, TV, PS3) but you wouldn't catch me buying their MP3 players as the formats they use are just a pain in the ****. At least Apple allows the use of different file types without issue, and I get a little annoyed with some Sony products that only allow use of their (usually more expensive) memory sticks, download shops, file types, etc. I understand they want to protect their products, but at the expense of convenience for the user, it just becomes another BETAMAX experience, ha-ha.

Best of luck with your search.

I have a couple of the sony walman MP3 players and i'm pretty sure you get a choice which file type to use from the sonic stage software :confused: If so, just transfer them as MP3s and then everyone's happy

I blame Sony's use of the ATRAC-3 format, personally :P - they just had to be different didn't they?

If I knew someone who had one, I'd test it on my Alpine X001 for you. It's perfectly happy with an iPod connected, or a USB stick. But the common ground here is that both have MP3 files stored on them.

Steve

For ATRAC, read Betamax. If they haven't dropped it already I can't help but feel that Sony will be distancing themselves more and more from their own proprietary format once again...

Have a look on Car Audio Direct or other similar ICE retailers, there are loads of headunits that will run USB. I've got a Kenwood with USB and just have my music loaded on a 4gb memory stick.

what is the point of owning an mp3 player that is not an ipod.... ? (and thats from another apple hater.....)

its a std... far better that the world has a std....

moby phones are just annoying for this why cant every phone use usb to charge?

Atrac-3 isn't a bad format in itself IMO (audio quality wise). My guess is only Sony HU's will read atrac-3 and then that will probably only be with them burned to CD.

It's a shame formats like Flac aren't as common as the MP3, although in the car you wouldn't ever tell the difference between 320kb/s and lossless, even with a super-dooper system.

I have an Alpine MP3 unit (no CD) and its works via USB. I used to have a Creative MP3 player and got fed up with it not being compatable with anything, so I bought an iPod. I really wish I had bought one sooner, they are just so easy to use.

It works flawlesly with my Alpine unit.

the problem with buying an ipod is firstly the unnecassary cost when my mp3 player is not very old and works fine. secondly, it would mean id have to transfer 1000+ songs onto it. the bad thing about my sony software is that it wont let you copy files from mp3 player to computer :( meaning id have to rip all my cds again. i think i'll just settle with my sony. it does the job and plugs straight into my jumbo box. ok so its not 'interactive' with the HU but i dont really mind now. thanks for all your comments anyway.

the bad thing about my sony software is that it wont let you copy files from mp3 player to computer :( meaning id have to rip all my cds again.

Are you saying you ripped all your CDs to your computer, transferred them to your MP3 player and then deleted them from you hard drive?!? So if your MP3 player breaks or gets lost/stolen, you'll have to rip them all again in any case? Scary! I sure hope you don't have too many CDs, otherwise you should back up your music files, man!

:eek:

i uploaded my songs about 2 yrs ago and since we had to wipe the computer which unfortunately deleted all my songs ( i made back up copies of everything bar the music files)

oh well...

i made a simple lead for my £50 (probably now £10) 1gb sony mp3 walkman it lets me play it through the stereo and cost me about £5 to get the parts to do this mod. i personally cannot see the fuss of a ipod, swmbo has one and all i use my mp3 player for is to listen to pod casts.

the ipods just work so well mate, thats really the thing about them.

i have an 8GB nano and its flawless! screen is excellent, sound is excellent, transfer speeds are excellent and they are so easy to use. i've watched a few films on mine nad used it to play games when on planes/trains/buses.

awesome bit of kit!

i used to hate ipods till i bought a macbook and actually used itunes. once i figured out how to import all my albums correctly and it updated the names, album art and basically let itunes take control, its bloody brilliant. stick a cd in, rips it to mp3, gets the track names, album art and next time i plug my ipod classic in, its all updated onto it.

no messing about with id3 tags, dragging and dropping, its all beautifully automated. Just wish VAG offered better support for the ipod other than allowing you to play 6 play lists