Discussion
Ok so I am behind the times of this fast moving technical world we live in . Today I am collecting the first car for wifey that doesn't have a CD player . She loves her music on CD rather than radio . The car has a USB socket which apparently can be used to supply endless favourite music to keep wifey happy. What goes into this socket ? Where do I get one ? Where /how do I get the music onto it . Its ok for techys to just say " oh yes theres no CD ,it runs off the USB" . I am confused but I know I will get wound up when wifey has no music and I don't know how to supply it . HELP. 
As above, you can use it to plug your phone in (if you don't have bluetooth streaming in the car) and play music off the phone. Again, as above, you can buy a USB stick from Amazon (a 32gb one will set you back around £10 and will hold thousands of songs).
All you need to do is plug the usb into your computer/laptop, copy the music files onto it and that's it. Plug it into you car, select the USB from your media settings and you can choose the music from that. Very little setup required.
Apologies if any of that comes across as condescending.
All you need to do is plug the usb into your computer/laptop, copy the music files onto it and that's it. Plug it into you car, select the USB from your media settings and you can choose the music from that. Very little setup required.
Apologies if any of that comes across as condescending.
seeby said:
What goes into this socket ? Where do I get one ? Where /how do I get the music onto it .
A USB memory stick, available from a zillion on-line retailers, supermarkets, Argos etc...etc. Alternatively you can store music on a smart phone providing the your phone is compatible with the head unit.You get the music onto it by either buying the music in a digital format to start with (which will be from an online retailer such as Amazon) and transferring the files to your memory stick, or by "ripping" your existing CDs to a suitable digital format on a PC/Mac etc.
Ripping software is freely available, I have used Exact Audio Copy for years.
To complicate things there are many digital music formats, likely your car stereo will not support all of them. Supported formats will be in the manual for the head unit if you have it, you may be able to download it if not. Also the manual will tell you what size USB memrory stick the head unit will support, some have problems with the larger sizes (e.g. 64GB/128GB)
Formats can be broadly divided into lossy and non-lossy. Lossy formats provide much smaller file sizes so you get more music on your USB storage, MP3 is the most widely used lossy format and supported by pretty much everything. There is some reduction in audio quality as a result, though you can choose how much compression to apply when you rip a CD. Unless you are a golden eared audiophile then MP3 encoded in high quality with variable bit rate (VBR) is a good compromise between quality and file size and almost certainly more than adequate for your purposes.
Non-lossy formats such as FLAC do not suffer any reduction in quality, but the resulting file sizes are much larger than e.g. MP3 so you need quite a lot more memory to store the same number of tracks. Not all head units support these formats however.
Sit down at your computer, stick a CD in the drive and follow a guide for Windows Media Player or iTunes (but change the setting so it does MP3s). You'll end up with a file per track, hopefully in a folder and hopefully all named correctly.
Buy a USB stick. Other colours/sizes/capacities available but 16GB should be enough for over 100 albums.
Copy the files/folders the USB, plug it into the port in the car, then pick and play your albums off that. Keep your CDs at home, safe and unscratched.
Buy a USB stick. Other colours/sizes/capacities available but 16GB should be enough for over 100 albums.
Copy the files/folders the USB, plug it into the port in the car, then pick and play your albums off that. Keep your CDs at home, safe and unscratched.
seeby said:
Ok so I am behind the times of this fast moving technical world we live in . Today I am collecting the first car for wifey that doesn't have a CD player . She loves her music on CD rather than radio . The car has a USB socket which apparently can be used to supply endless favourite music to keep wifey happy. What goes into this socket ? Where do I get one ? Where /how do I get the music onto it . Its ok for techys to just say " oh yes theres no CD ,it runs off the USB" . I am confused but I know I will get wound up when wifey has no music and I don't know how to supply it . HELP.
Can't you get The Light Programme on the car radio?
sonnenschein3000 said:
What car is it?
Maybe you can ask the dealer if a CD changer can be fitted to it (such that it integrates with the navigation system/radio screen thats already there)?
Nothing too impressive ,just a Peugeot 108 ,the sales guy seemed to think that a CD player wasn't an option as he kept pointing out the simplicity of using the USB socket . Maybe you can ask the dealer if a CD changer can be fitted to it (such that it integrates with the navigation system/radio screen thats already there)?
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