[joybhowmik]

Sorry to have seen the deafeningly silent way in which the quintessential Apple ipod classic 160 GB was officially removed from Apple stores. It's a matter of time, until re-sellers will run out of stock, and a few more months until replacements/repairs will be denied by Apple. As it happens with every other product that has run its course.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...t-9724939.html

For those of us who have painstakingly collected the thousands of songs/movies in the ipod , and like to play it back through the ipod interface for commonly available HUs - what other options are there?

My backup of this content is the WD 1TB portable USB HDD which I own. But unfortunately, here in lies the pinch. No HU I have seen can address 1 TB of space through its USB interface.

The other option is to go the carputer way and hook up the portable HDD to it. But thats my least preferred option. Cost is one of the factors. The other is its relatively more complex than the plain old HU.

MODS: Please merge this thread to some other thread as appropriate.

[D4D]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

For those of us who have painstakingly collected the thousands of songs/movies.....what other options are there?

I'm sure you would have not been using all 160 GB of space.

I've got one viable option of if are having over 100 GB of music:

Buy a Lumia phone. Lumia 530 is the cheapest and supports upto 128 GB SD card.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_530-6523.php

And yes, it's not very expensive. Around INR 65xx in flipkart.

But this thing can't come close to an iPod. It truly was a revolution.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by D4D

I'm sure you would have not been using all 160 GB of space.

I've got one viable option of if are having over 100 GB of music:

Buy a Lumia phone. Lumia 530 is the cheapest and supports upto 128 GB SD card.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_530-6523.php

And yes, it's not very expensive. Around INR 6xxx in flipkart.

Nope not all 160 gb - 110 GB of Music, 30 GB of Movies.
Having this content and the content metadata interfaced to my HU is key. Let me explain.
The HU itself controls the ipod- i.e.navigate by Song/Album/Artist/Genre/Playlist etc. So my co-driver/passengers can scroll through the music quickly. (Yes, I am a bit of a nerd and ensure to have all music files tagged with the proper values i.e. song name, artist, album, even year etc , before I pop them into itunes).

It just pays off with a great musical experience in the grand outdoors. Switching from one genre or Artist to Album can be achieved with a quick touch on the HU screen. Having this feature is important for us especially on the longer drives. Scenery changes, mood changes, and so does the song!

Lumia 530 - now that's an idea.

But would it afford the same kind of flexibility that the ipod classic provided with the HU (Pioneer 8495BT)?

Is there some other HU out there, that can control the Lumia the way the ipod is controlled by my HU?

I guess I a little spoilt with too much of a good thing over the years.

[tsk1979]

There are actually very nice AV players from companies like creative/Filo which support MicroSD cards.
There are some android based AV systems also in the market. So you can shift to that.

If the usage is for car, you can buy any high end HU which takes in a pen drive and use it with a 128GB pen drive. High end HU's costing 12000-15000rs often have a large screen and good media player interface.

Android based systems are also coming in the market now

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

There are actually very nice AV players from companies like creative/Filo which support MicroSD cards.
There are some android based AV systems also in the market. So you can shift to that.

If the usage is for car, you can buy any high end HU which takes in a pen drive and use it with a 128GB pen drive. High end HU's costing 12000-15000rs often have a large screen and good media player interface.

Android based systems are also coming in the market now

Any android based systems that you can suggest? I know android media player has a pretty good interface

Originally Posted by D4D

Sorry, I googled and didn't find any results for your HU. I don't know what it can and can't support.

My bad - it's the Pioneer 8490 BT. Here's the manual

Originally Posted by SumitB

I am sorry to say but it seems you're mis-informed. I got a Parrot Asteroid Smart and a Pioneer AVIC-F60BT in two of my vehicles. Both head units are connected to 1TB WB Elements with about 14000 music files which occupy over 330GB of space. Nearly half of these are in FLAC format. Both these head units are capable of playing every song on these 1TB drives. The only limitation for the Pioneer is that it can read a maximum of 15000 files in 1500 folders. I don't know if the Parrot has any such limit.

Is there a specific folder/file depth at any level for the pioneer to read? The reason I ask is because when I had hooked up the WD to the USB port, the HU just froze. But it played a regular 16 GB pen-drive and the 160 GB ipod classic just fine.

[SumitB]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

My backup of this content is the WD 1TB portable USB HDD which I own. But unfortunately, here in lies the pinch. No HU I have seen can address 1 TB of space through its USB interface.

I am sorry to say but it seems you're mis-informed. I got a Parrot Asteroid Smart and a Pioneer AVIC-F60BT in two of my vehicles. Both head units are connected to 1TB WB Elements with about 14000 music files which occupy over 330GB of space. Nearly half of these are in FLAC format. Both these head units are capable of playing every song on these 1TB drives. The only limitation for the Pioneer is that it can read a maximum of 15000 files in 1500 folders. I don't know if the Parrot has any such limit.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Any android based systems that you can suggest? I know android media player has a pretty good interface

One option is
http://clarion.com.my/ax1/


There is a thread about android HUs and also using a regular tablet as a HU.
Some Pioneer models allow direct control of android devices just like ipods could be directly controlled.

If you search the ICE section, you will get a lot of info about the same.

[SumitB]

The Pioneer Asteroid Smart too is android based. However, if you're willing to spend that much, I recommend the Pioneer AVIC-F60BT instead. Not android based but better than the Parrot IMHO.

[RYP]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

My backup of this content is the WD 1TB portable USB HDD which I own. But unfortunately, here in lies the pinch. No HU I have seen can address 1 TB of space through its USB interface.

Have you tried with FAT32 formating on your WD HDD?. Even android doesn't support NTFS file type for SD cards and USB OTG, no surprise your pioneer HU is in-compatible.

[deathwalkr]

I blame my two friends for setting me up on this path and myself for taking that path :P i was an audio noob satisfied with listening to mp3s in my car. And these two guys made me listen to FLACs...BAH!

Anyway, the ipod classic became my friend to support my ever growing collection of FLACs and i hope it lasts for a few years at least

[GTO]

Joybhowmik,

We're sitting on opposite sides of the fence. My car has an iPod connected to it, and I'm just waiting for it to die . Reason = My smartphone! That's pretty much the same reason why Apple is pulling the plug on the iPod.

My suggestion:

- Get a high-end Android / iPhone with enough storage capacity. I've gotten a 64 GB SD card on my HTC One and carry my entire music collection with me all the time. Since you have 110 gigs of music, a 128 GB SD card will do just fine. As your music collection grows, so will smartphone memories & SD card capacities.

- With software such as iSyncR, you can sync your iTunes with your smartphone (playlists, songs, everything) over the air. Use Rocket Player to play Apple Lossless, FLAC etc.

- Connect via bluetooth to your head-unit. Why do you need an antiquated iPod? Modern Bluetooth head-units indeed allow you to browse your smartphone's music collection. In a car like the EcoSport, you could even give voice commands like 'Play Metallica'.

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

I am a bit of a nerd and ensure to have all music files tagged with the proper values i.e. song name, artist, album, even year etc , before I pop them into itunes

Same here Nothing like a well-organised music collection.

[Fabiaous]

Apple products are a passe.

For a true audiophile recomend Cowon with BBE and MP enhance and Jetaudio the quality of sound is superb,
Have Cowon J3 32 GB plus 64gb microsd card in car since last 4 years
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...splay.php?f=12
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=104

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by Fabiaous

Apple products are a passe.

For a true audiophile recomend Cowon with BBE and MP enhance and Jetaudio the quality of sound is superb,
Have Cowon J3 32 GB plus 64gb microsd card in car since last 4 years
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...splay.php?f=12
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=104

And are there regular product updates (SW) , and a place to go to for HW (here in India?)

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by GTO

Joybhowmik,

We're sitting on opposite sides of the fence. My car has an iPod connected to it, and I'm just waiting for it to die . Reason = My smartphone! That's pretty much the same reason why Apple is pulling the plug on the iPod.

My suggestion:

- Get a high-end Android / iPhone with enough storage capacity. I've gotten a 64 GB SD card on my HTC One and carry my entire music collection with me all the time. Since you have 110 gigs of music, a 128 GB SD card will do just fine. As your music collection grows, so will smartphone memories & SD card capacities.

- With software such as iSyncR, you can sync your iTunes with your smartphone (playlists, songs, everything) over the air. Use Rocket Player to play Apple Lossless, FLAC etc.

- Connect via bluetooth to your head-unit. Why do you need an antiquated iPod? Modern Bluetooth head-units indeed allow you to browse your smartphone's music collection. In a car like the EcoSport, you could even give voice commands like 'Play Metallica'.



Same here Nothing like a well-organised music collection.

Wouldn't a USB pen drive be much more convenient wrt to using the Head Unit to control the music rather than a mobile phone that would distract while driving?

[Tgo]

I was really sad when my 20 GB iPod from 2005 died 4 years ago. I always wanted to get the classic iPod rather than the new touch ones especially because it offered so much space and did one thing really well and that was to cue up the tracks in its shuffle feature as if it read my mind.

Lumia with their Zune player in-built, came the closest to this. But MS has killed Zune as well, I just hope their music player (whatever they call it now) has retained this good bit. That said, I think the only HUs that will offer iPod like functionality with Lumia are the ones which have SYNC (by Microsoft) in-built (like in the Fiesta and Ecosport)