In Dash Car MP3 Player with 802.11?

An anonymous reader asks: "I'm looking for a car MP3 player, either with a tuner and CD player built in, or with a line-out to connect to the existing car stereo. The Omnifi DMP1 looks good, but you need to use their Microsoft Windows software to upload to it. When you take the harddrive module out it plugs into a USB port on a PC and can be used as a USB mass storage device, but none of the files you copy to it will be put into the database, so they won't play. It's also got an optional 802.11b adapter (plugs into a USB port), but it only works with their software. No SMB, let alone SSH, NFS, or FTP server is running." While this is an itch many of the more enterprising among us can scratch on their own, are there dash units currently available that aren't tied to any particular PC platform? "I looked around some more and found the empeg/riocar, but it was discontinued some time ago.

Yes, I know you can build one yourself. I built a navigation system for my car (which I took out again after my MS degree presentation because it was a PITA to use), and a PVR for my house (which I had a mishap upgrading when the source of TV guide data changed, and I haven't bothered fixing yet). This time I want something that works out of the box, but with a little more freedom for transferring files than I've found so far.

If I don't find a new product with all of what I want, I will either look for a used Empeg/Riocar, which there is a large development community for, and I'd try to add 802.11 and SMB to, or get an Omnifi DMP1 and attempt to hack it's database so I can add music without the WinXP software. Then if that goes well, see about getting an SMB or SSH server running on it (yes, it runs Linux)."

Comments

MP3 CD

[webgit]

A friend of mine has stereo in his car that you can just insert a CD with a collection of MP3's on it and it will play them just like a normal CD. Of course, it does also play normal CD's and lets you listen to the radio.

an easy solution.

[4nd3r5]

Buy a pda with wifi and GPS.
Buy a 1 gb memory card.
Hook the lineout[pda] to linein [radio].
Buy a nice PDA mount for your dash board

now you have a navigation system, and a wifi enabled mp3 system

Now move to a nice neighbouthood, so it won't get stolen...

Alpine head unit + iPod

[pauljlucas]

No 802.11, but this allows you to connect an iPod to an Alpine head unit. (This is the generic version of the iPod/BMW thing.) I'll be getting one of these as soon as it's released. (I also highly recommend Crutchfield as an on-line vendor. I've bought from them several times. They also include extra detailed installation instructions and parts for your car.)

On Cliff's moderation: I posted your exact same question about a year ago and it got rejected.

Go for the empeg

[Drakino]

Several owners of the empeg units do indeed have them hooked to an 802.11 access point in their car and upload music wirelessly. The one do it yourself part of this will be to make the ethernet dockable. To do so, pull the tab off a cable and shave a bit of the plastic off. Then just mount the connector firmly on the dock the empeg comes with.

There are still used empegs being sold on the empeg boards at www.empegbbs.com . Feel free to stop on by and introduce yourself, the community is very much alive and active development from both Rio and the empeg community occurs. In fact, we now have lyrics displaying on our displays thanks to a third party developer.

As far as the PhatBox, it's ok, but you loose a lot of control the empeg gives you. Kinda a shame that the empeg was the first car player on the market, and still nothing has gone beyond it in features or usability in 5 years now.