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The resurgence of American amateur radio equipment companies is one of the great untold stories recently. I mean, one still has Japanese industry stalwarts Icom and Kenwood, who led the Japanese domination of the industry in the 1970s, but even Yaesu was bought by Motorola a few years back. The real news, though, is the new, innovative startups, doing state-of-the-art, truly wonderful designs, with simultaneous high performance, high quality, and reasonable prices. Companies like Elecraft and software-defined radio pioneer FlexRadio Systems come to mind, producing products unmatched by any of the mainstream companies.

It's a refreshing change.

High-end car units (Kenwood) with intergrated GPS (Garmin), video, digial music, IPOD intergration, Bluetooth, SAT radio, traffic data and AM/FM are a must have system for my cars now. Who needs a hand-held device when your car has everything.

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Mobile_Video_n_Navigation/DNX9140

The best method would be a standardized docking cradle with a digital interface.

There is a standardized digital interface (but not a cradle/dock.) It's called a USB mass stoarge device. And this Kenwood can play from it. Since mine was a retrofit, the installer filled the gap above it with a small in-dash pocket that's perfect for holding the USB device. (I'm using a Palm Lifedrive, but I've used a memory stick with good results, too.) It's a very generic solution that works for iPods, iRivers and Zens, too.

Of course, it's not without its shortcomings; the car stereo has to read the entire directory structure (every time it boots) before playing a note; it doesn't recognize existing playlists or remember to save new ones; and the tiny buttons have even tinier unreadable labels. But I think the choice of USB-B connectors as a "universal" interface was a good one, and works with most equipment that's out there today. The only thing that would have been better would have been Bluetooth's A2DP, but that hasn't been widely adopted yet.

Kenwood has a networked home theatre system. It has a NIC at the back of it, you can connect it to your wireless router and then use your laptop to play music etc. I use this and its pretty useful to stream music, pics and videos using your home theatre system. You need to install a java based client onto your PC/laptop and create playlists and then you can start listening to music/videos etc. The only limitation is that you need to use it from the hometheatres' remote control and you can't PUSH the audio from the client itself. This idea doesn't seem to be very popular though. Does anybody else have this ? or considered this ? I wish I could tweak this so that I could PUSH the music and control it from the PC itself. Would be cool if you could write up some scripts to control the music! It also has an option for a firmware upgrade, if only kenwood could provide more firmware for it. Just the fact that the firmware is upgradable is pretty cool since just a s/w upgrade could make it ipv6 capable! Pretty futuristic I'd say, but not sure if it is going to reach that phase....

Kenwood offers a media server that sets up a network through your telephone lines. You have to buy 'Axcess'(sp) points to pull the data streams out but they work nicely.

Check it out here

it is a pinch dated technology so don't expect to spend anywhere near the $1750 they quote on their web site. Referb models go closer to 500 bucks.

man , all I did was get one of these.
I thought I would fill up the 20GB capacity but I am nowhere near that. Added bonus is that I have enough room in my trunk for a SUB

the omnifi is quite a piece of junk (i know, i own one).

the best product i've seen so far is the phatbox. it's being sold by volkswagen and audi as optional equipment. the kenwood music keg is a derivative of the phatbox that only works with kenwood stereos, but you can buy a phatbox that works with many types of car stereos.

there are several other makers of in-car mp3 players. ssi neo, the omnifi, the now defunct empeg/riocar. none of these made any inroad with real manufacturers because of poor quality and terrible usability. after having used the phatbox SSA interface (it talks to you, so you can find your songs without ever having to look down at a display), i'm never buying another product without it.

Ooops

Kenwood 5900M

Kenwood has a HD radio module that you can add to an existing car receiver. $500! What a bargain!

Kenwood KTC-HR100

1) Ogg/Vorbis is supported by (obscure mp3 player). Why should I get that (*drool*) new, affordable iPod?

2) Ogg/Vorbis can work in a DRM-based business model! Here is how: Step 1: Get five candles and a live goat.

how about a phatbox harddrive-based player for your car? there is probably one that is compatible with your truck's existing headunit (so you don't need to buy a new one), and you can have 20-60 gigs of music, instead of shuffling cd's. and yes it does support ogg.

this product is sold directly at audi and vw dealers so you can bet it's a pretty solid product. it's also the same as the kenwood music keg, but works with non-kenwood stereos.

i have one and i love it. i can't imagine having to deal with switching cd's to find my music ever again.

• Neuros Digital Audio Computer
• Rio Karma 20 (Picture)
• PhatNoise's PhatBox, Kenwood's Music Keg (Powered by PhatNoise) These are in-car players that are installed into the trunk of your car and hooked up to your car stereo. Both players run ARM-Linux and support playback of FLAC files. Beta firmware to support Ogg Vorbis is available at http://phatbox.sixpak.org/phatbox/ogg.phtml.
• KISS Technology's DP-450 and DP-500 DVD Players
• MPST Digital Jukebox
• Freemax FW-960
• iRiver iHP-120, iHP-100, iGP-100, possibly others
• Umax/Yamada have a few standalone DVD players that support Vorbis.
• Neuston provides a standalone DVD player (model DVX-1201) that supports Vorbis.
• Samsung The MCD-CM600 is now available in Korea. It is a CD portable that can play Vorbis, MP3, and WMA. Page with photo of MCD-CM600. Closeup of MCD-CM600.

how about a phatbox car mp3 player. it plugs into your stock stereo and emulates a cd changer with voice feedback. linux software is here. up to 60 gigs.

or a kenwood music keg.

or a vw/audi phatbox.

can you tell i love this product? works with the audio controls on my steering wheel. no need to look down at an ipod screen while speeding.

Agreed. I have a Kenwood KDC-MPV7019. The format needs to MP3!

oh yeah, and here's some compatibility info on various head units that are supported. not suprisingly, the kenwood unit only supports kenwood heads. i can however highly recommend kenwood's in-dash mp3 players. just burn a cdr with your mp3s and hit the road. you're still left juggling cds, but with roughly 10-12 albums on each disc it's at least a little easier. the top of the line model (KDC-X959) even allows you to upload your own mpgs and jpgs to the unit for display on the road. i like it so much i run a site for 959 movies to download and info on hacking the movie format for optimal playback (and even a handy perl script to do it for ya!).

make sure the players support upgradeable firmware for future codec upgrades

you are definitely right about firmware upgrades. there is no reason a player that can read a filesystem should not be able to play any format that can be stored on it (obviously it must have enough horsepower to do so).
a good example is that i have been able to upgrade the firmware on my car mp3 player (Kenwood Music Keg) to play Ogg (and FLAC). apparently it's made by this company and they keep updating the software (it runs linux, you can see the system files on the harddrive) to support more features. very cool to have paid for something and then gain additional functionality at no cost.

well, the kenwood music keg and phatnoise phatbox support both ogg vorbis and flac (in addition to mp3 and wma). flac has turned out to be the best way to keep single session recordings (ie, concert recordings) continuous without gaps on digital music players. i'm guessing we'll be seeing more firmare upgradeable devices start adding support for flac real soon now.

Personally I prefer the PhatNoise PhatBox. Supports MP3, FLAC, Windows Media, Audible, and soon to support Ogg (available in alpha test now). It comes in either 20 GB or 40 GB carts and interfaces with a bunch of head units. Also the Kenwood Audio Keg is the same thing (licensed PhatNoise). It uses 10 GB carts and works only with Kenwood Headunits (I got an Audio Keg myself). There are a lot of cool features including m3u playlists and text-to-speech technology to announce the name of each playlist.

i saw this (and the pioneer one) at CES. 10 gigs (unupgradeable) of music that rips from your cd player. unuseable (atrac3) format that you can't take out of the car. the only way to get music on it is by inserting a cd and waiting for it to rip or by magicgate (drm'd) memory sticks (which means my music collection is useless with it). and how do you manage, navigate, control all that music through the stupid headunit interface?

these guys had it right. create playlists on your desktop (mp3's), transfer them to a removeable hard drive via usb, plug that drive into a device that emulates a cd changer in your car. don't even have to change out your headunit. sounds like it does just the opposite of what the sony unit does, and is much more practical. they also make a model specifically for kenwood, so it does look like they're gaining headway in the market.

The Kenwood Music Keg.

Has a 10GB hard disk, and any Kenwood head unit can control it.

I have an Alpine stereo with the MP3 player as AUX. The MP3 player has a 5 line text LCD, which assists in selecting from the 300+ albums in mine. Mine is the Neo 35 (Now out of date, see the Neo 45) from SSI America. It is a pullout cartridge that slides into a bay on my PC. Or into a base station for use as a home stereo device. I put a 40Gb HD in mine. Most of the players use off-the-shelf IDE hard drives, and are user installable.

If purchasing new I would recommend the Kenwood Music Keg (based on the Phatnoise Phatbox). Simply because of the level of integration between the head-unit and jukebox. It turns out that using a separate interface to control your CD player and Receiver versus the MP3 player, has really annoyed me. The Music Keg displays song titles, time remaining, etc. on the stereo faceplate, operates just like an OEM CD changer. It also works with BMW, Audi, and VW stereo systems.

I like the idea of the new systems with USB support. This allows me to buy CDs, rip them with my laptop and sync to the drive on the fly.

Overall, there are not a lot of reasonable offerings in a marketplace which shows a lot of promise. What I would like to see is a complete car package that offers:

• Large Capacity with standard drives
• Radio and CD player
• The CD player doubles as a ripper
• Wireless Access
• Car 2 Car IM
• Easily Navigable

Imagine a car player with built in wireless access so you can easily add songs to your car but also trade songs with others, sort of like a p2p network on the road. Besides trading songs people could also IM each other, I think this would really catch on among teenagers, a demographic that tends to embrace IM, likes to cruise, and many teens tend to have run down cars with nice stereos. Obviously there are safety and security considerations to consider but I'm sure a compromise could be made.

Overall, there are not a lot of reasonable offerings in a marketplace which shows a lot of promise. What I would like to see is a complete car package that offers:

• Large Capacity with standard drives
• Radio and CD player
• The CD player doubles as a ripper
• Wireless Access
• Car 2 Car IM
• Easily Navigable

Imagine a car player with built in wireless access so you can easily add songs to your car but also trade songs with others, sort of like a p2p network on the road. Besides trading songs people could also IM each other, I think this would really catch on among teenagers, a demographic that tends to embrace IM, likes to cruise, and many teens tend to have run down cars with nice stereos. Obviously there are safety and security considerations to consider but I'm sure a compromise could be made.

That Kenwood component costs $1,800 and the user manual doesn't mention that the 20 gig HD can be upgraded. Everything else looks pretty nifty, though.

Surely it would be more economical and practical to connect a video output to one's television, like the Kenwood Entré does. You could program/navigate it using the remote control instead of having to stand right in front of it, and the box would be half the height to boot.

i can't believe this wasn't picked up by slashdot already, but Kenwood USA is releasing a car mp3 player that runs linux! this is yet another victory in the embedded market.
i believe the product was actually made by these guys, but now it's being carried in retail chains.

other than this, ces was a total disappointment. nothing new or original there.

Almost there.

Game consoles have Component Video outputs, too, and I could tell the difference between composite, S, and component video on my PS2.

The only component (other than my TV itself) I've found that has more than one CV input (without costing $2k) is this one:

Kenwood VR-510

prices and (glowing, possibly astroturfed) reviews

I got the $399 one; $27 for ground shipping. It should arrive early this week.

--Blair
"No, I did need a new receiver, too."

I think I can do one better. For fun, I hacked my Dodge Avenger. Starting by adding one of Kenwood's highly featured KDC-X917 radios. Plus CD Changer. Then got the hacked the din pinout for the cdchanger. Then hooked the dinpin out to a pic16c57, allowing me a little expansion. From the Pic, I go to a homebrew 500mhz machine, running linux, also hooked to the "aux" input on the CD changer, giving me yet another source on the radio. When on Aux on the radio, the left and right(skip buttons) then control my MP3 player. Anyone else with similair setups, or am I the only one with too much free time on my hands? When I get some info pics, I'll post them...

but still too expensive. Kenwood has a product called the Entre Entertainment Hub that truly integrates with a stereo system, controls a DVD changer, and even offers remote listening if you buy the extra Axcess Remote Portal gadget. Unfortunately, the Entre all by itself is $1800 and the other bits that hook up to it are similarly expensive.

but still too expensive. Kenwood has a product called the Entre Entertainment Hub that truly integrates with a stereo system, controls a DVD changer, and even offers remote listening if you buy the extra Axcess Remote Portal gadget. Unfortunately, the Entre all by itself is $1800 and the other bits that hook up to it are similarly expensive.

but still too expensive. Kenwood has a product called the Entre Entertainment Hub that truly integrates with a stereo system, controls a DVD changer, and even offers remote listening if you buy the extra Axcess Remote Portal gadget. Unfortunately, the Entre all by itself is $1800 and the other bits that hook up to it are similarly expensive.

Kenwood released a similar device not too long ago: the Entre entertainment hub. Yeah, it's about twice as expensive, but it's targetted at audiophiles and offers additional features to boot: a graphical user interface that displays on your television, indexing and control of Kenwood's 400-disc DVD/CD player, Internet radio, and homePNA support so you can send audio anywhere else in your house.

I'm already using consumer devices that use mp3. The cost of switching them out to OGG or any other format is too expensive. A Kenwood Z828 isnt pocket change. And I dont have the time to convert my 100's of mp3 cds to OGG...

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Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

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Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

Kenwood is supposed to have a car mp3 deck out this summer in the US. That's what I'm holding out for.

If you want to read the information straight from Kenwood, look at The Response To My Post On Kenwood's Support Board


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