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Older freeper needs MP3 Player vs. I-Pod advice from younger freepers (vanity)
Brighthub.com ^ | 8 September 2012 | A plea for help

Posted on 09/08/2012 9:54:58 AM PDT by Vigilanteman

So here's the deal: After years of sacrafice, debt and driving a very old car to get three daughters through college and independent, they have made it possible for us to drive a vehicle as new as your average food stamp receipient.

Not only does it have a beautiful sounding CD player (all but the radio was shot on our old car), but it also has one of those plug-in things.

The girls tell us we need to buy an I-Pod or MP3 player of at least 4 gigabytes and a connecting cord to plug in so we can enjoy music of our own choosing as we drive and not fill our glove box with CD's.

(Excerpt) Read more at brighthub.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: automobiles; ipod; mp3; music
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To: Gay State Conservative

Don’t know. Don’t care. Sounds fine.


21 posted on 09/08/2012 10:21:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: Vigilanteman

Another thing that occurred to me...a good percentage of more recent cars have hard drives built right into the radios.In such cars you can load your music right into the car’s radio and voila! Might your car have that feature?


22 posted on 09/08/2012 10:22:09 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Voter ID Equals "No Representation Without Respiration")
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To: Vigilanteman

I’ve had several Sansas. They are pretty good, and cheap to replace if necessary.

I use Windows Media Player, drag and drop the music from my folders into a sync list, and push the sync button. Easy. :)


23 posted on 09/08/2012 10:25:30 AM PDT by Politicalmom (Liberalism. Ideas so great they have to be mandatory.-FReeper Osage Orange)
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To: All

Let’s say you get an iPod or a Sansa Fuse or similar. How do you get the music from the player into the in-car’s radio speakers?

To me that’s the biggest part of the battle. mp3 players are ubiquitous.


24 posted on 09/08/2012 10:26:29 AM PDT by upchuck ("Definition of 'racist:' someone that is winning an argument with a liberal." ~ Peter Brimelow)
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To: Gay State Conservative

I just replaced my car stereo, because the aux jack broke. I got one with a usb port. I LOVE using a flash drive. My mp3 player had to be recharged, so I was often without music. Wit the usb port, I’m always good to go, and I’m not limited to the memory size of an mp3 player.


25 posted on 09/08/2012 10:31:17 AM PDT by Politicalmom (Liberalism. Ideas so great they have to be mandatory.-FReeper Osage Orange)
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To: tomkat

Sansa allows the freedom of using explorer to manage your files. No iTunes and synching. And you get to keep all your stuff - not apple. Sansa clip is small and very cheap.


26 posted on 09/08/2012 10:32:13 AM PDT by corkoman (Release the Palin!)
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To: corkoman
Agreed re ease of use . . drag/drop from Windows Explorer . . no rental music from apple (pffft)  ;-)
27 posted on 09/08/2012 10:39:58 AM PDT by tomkat ( FU hussein)
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To: Vigilanteman

don’t make this complicated. what kind of port does you car offer? is it a USB port?

if you have a USB port, my car has one, then you should be able to simply plug in a flash drive with mp3 files on it. That’s it - don’t need an ipod, mp3 player at all.

In my car, I have a simple common flash drive with maybe 700-1000 mp3 files on it divided into 4 folders based on type of music. Plugs in to the USB port and I listen to the music.


28 posted on 09/08/2012 10:54:45 AM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: Vigilanteman

Do you have a smartphone? You can just use that to store and play your mp3 tunes. Downside is that it can eat up your batteries if you use it a lot, but if you have a phone charger in the car as well, then you can charge the phone while driving.


29 posted on 09/08/2012 10:55:29 AM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: Vigilanteman

Here’s what I’d do: On the next gifting occasion (birthday, Christmas, whatever) tell your daughters you want a music player that works with your new car, plus installation and instructions on how to use the danged thing.

Call it father-daughter bonding time.


30 posted on 09/08/2012 10:58:05 AM PDT by Jedidah
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To: Vigilanteman

The thing I don’t like about portable music players in the car is that the displays are too small and the buttons too tiny, and they fly all over the place unless you buy some sort of dedicated bracketry.

I searched long and hard for a large-display mp3 player that was easy to use in the car - I figured there’d be something on the market for the older set who can’t see so well (like my parents). But there’s really nothing out there. Even considered building my own, but that’s a bit beyond my abilities.

I bought a NOS Omnifi DMP1. Rockford Fosgate abandoned them several years ago, but IMHO, it’s a pretty good idea for in-vehicle music. Little more expensive, but I think it’s worth it. Haven’t installed mine yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

I don’t know why there aren’t portable music players designed to be easily used in a vehicle. About the best solution is one where the head unit interfaces with the device and becomes the control unit.


31 posted on 09/08/2012 11:09:20 AM PDT by chrisser (Starve the Monkeys!)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Well, I learn something new every day! Since I have a 10-year old car, no wonder I don’t have a USB port, and I don’t see a new car in my future. In fact I don’t see much of a future if something doesn’t happen in November. I’ll just have to sing to myself in the car.


32 posted on 09/08/2012 11:21:14 AM PDT by MondoQueen
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To: corkoman

Agree. Sansa mp3 players are affordable and so easy to use! I have a cord and connect it in the car. Love it! Then again, I avoid all Apple products, if at all possible.


33 posted on 09/08/2012 11:22:41 AM PDT by ozaukeemom (Time for some R & R. Respect and renew. Romney and Ryan)
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To: Vigilanteman

I bought an Ipod Nano and set up an Itunes account. I then went online and reviewed the top 100 rock and roll songs for every year from 1964 thru 1989. I picked out 173 and downloaded them from Itunes into my Nano. It makes driving my 2008 Shelby GT500 or 2012 Infiniti FX35 even that more enjoyable. Life is good.


34 posted on 09/08/2012 12:03:50 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: Vigilanteman
Like others here, I would stay away from I-Pods. I know my children love them, but the one I had died after two years from battery failure, and there was no easy way to simply drag and drop MP3/WMA files as you want to do. Everything has to be stored on the I-Pod in Apple's own format. My kids like it because they are all into I-Tunes, for which the I-Pod is perfectly integrated. The one big advantage of the I-Pod is that everything seems to sync with it easily, and most newer car radios have features allowing you to do this.

I prefer the Sony Walkman line of MP3 players. You can drag and drop as if to a memory stick, they are very easy to use, and their sound quality is suburb (much better than an I_Pod). Sadly, Sony seems to be discontinuing them, but they are well built, free of any quality issues, and would seem to last forever. I suppose if you cannot find one Sansa would be a good choice.

To connect an MP3 player to a car radio you'll need to use a patch cord that plugs into you radio's accessory port, if your radio has one.

35 posted on 09/08/2012 12:10:02 PM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: Vigilanteman
Does your cell phone have a usb charger? If it does, chances are it will store mp3s. Check your user's manual. I use Blackberry-formerly my cell phone-to store audio and video.
36 posted on 09/08/2012 12:21:07 PM PDT by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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To: tomkat

“2GB is a TON of music (~500 mp3s)”

Of course, that is dependent upon the kbps sampling rate.

I have compared, 128k to 320k. Unless you have decreased hearing, the difference is noticeable with the naked ear. The flip-side is that a “clean” 33 1/3 album blows them both out of the water.

The lower the kbps then the bass is accentuated. I like to hear the entire audio spectrum.


37 posted on 09/08/2012 12:21:35 PM PDT by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (I wanna start a Seniors' Motor Scooter Gang. Wanna join?)
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To: MondoQueen

If your car has a cassette tape player, you can get an mp3 minijack to cassette cartridge convertor. I do this with an older car that doesn’t have a port.

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-USA-PH-62050-MD-To-Cassette-Adapter/dp/B0007R4LI8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1347132774&sr=8-5&keywords=cassette+to+mp3+converter


38 posted on 09/08/2012 12:35:46 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Well, were an mp3 player able to decode them, my average 10 track album in uncompressed FLAC format runs on average ~400MB, which would translate to ~5 albums @ 2 GB.
(and actually it can if i were to ignore the pita and convert 'em to .wav)

I rather imagine that the OP, given his tech threshold, would be more concerned with how to make all the buttons work than fiddling with 320 vs 160 vs 128 kbps   ;-)

39 posted on 09/08/2012 12:47:49 PM PDT by tomkat ( FU hussein)
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To: Vigilanteman
I have a tiny 4GB SanDisk Sansa Clip from Radio Shack for about 35 bucks ... it has been rugged, reliable, and easy to use, and holds almost 800 songs currently with room to spare. You may have to put on your glasses to plug in the tiny mini-USB connector tho ... ;)


40 posted on 09/08/2012 1:02:55 PM PDT by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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