USB In Dash Units and USB Drives

[[email protected]]

I had a 50+1 dish changer mounted in the trunk of my convertible. It
decided to crap out on me so I started looking for a new solution. I
have 4 vehicles, and would like to have all my music available in all 4
with as little effort as possible.

I've been looking at a few different In Dash systems with USB and SD
interfaces on the front. I have contacted most of the sellers and
asked about the USB port and if I can connect say a 60GB Hard Drive and
play any mp3s on it. I've gotten answers from we're not sure to
absolutely, none of which I was comfortable with in the context which
it was put to me.

Yesterday, I went to a local Best Buy and the they have a JVC model
which runs about $250. The sales rep said they tested it with a USB
hard drive (NOT just a flash drive), and it worked. They also had some
lesser known brands which he said they hadn't tested. I have an old
Archos 20GB USB Drive / MP3 player that I'm going to take in today and
see how it interacts. The next step would be to get one of the Western
Digital Passport portable drives. I just won one on ebay that's 80GB.
I figure I can use it either way, but hopefully I can just move that
from car to car, along with my Sirius receiver.

I can post what I find if anyone else is interested, but I would love
to hear if anyone else has had much experience with this technology.

[[email protected]]

If anyone is interested, which I doubt based on the number of replies:)
The in-dash in the store recognized the USB drive, and started
scanning, then came back with a FAIL error. The lower end unit
recognized it once, and never tried after that. I called another
online vendor who explained that the In Dash units have 16 bit
processors, which limits them to FAT partitions on the USB interface,
or in other words under 2GB. Apparently there are heat issues with
larger processors. The bad news is this technology isn't quite there
yet. I don't think it is worth my time yet to buy 2GB Flash drives.
Maybe by Christmas 06.

[[email protected]]

Good info, I've been checking out out the same thing lately, and I was
almost sold instantly on the same JVC at best buy. After hearing your
results, it looks as if i'm back to a unit that plays mp3s off dvds....
ugghhhh

[[email protected]]

There are external drive enclosures that use USB to also power the
drive. I have one of these for laptop drives, I'm not sure if one
exists for 3.5" drives.

[[email protected]]

I'm pretty sure the Western Digital Passport Series fall into this
category.

wrote:
> There are external drive enclosures that use USB to also power the
> drive. I have one of these for laptop drives, I'm not sure if one
> exists for 3.5" drives.

[[email protected]]

By the way, I can confirm that the Passport's get power through the USB
connection.