For those with USB input on your HU, what are you using with that input?

I am getting ready to install a Pioneer AVH-P4000DVD which supports USB devices. I am trying to figure out the best way to make use of this feature. The HU supports USB capacity up to 250gb. I'm wondering if I should get a 250gb external hardrive or maybe go with several smaller 2/4/8gb flash drives and break things down a little more.

What are you doing? Any thoughts on the subject?

 

I simply do not have THAT much music to justify the purchase of a 250gig eternal harddrive price. I have a 32 gig USB hooked up to mine.
Its divided into folders with either playlists or artists or whatever i want that folder to have. I can access them on the fly and 32gigs is really quite enough memory for music without the need for a bigger hard drive. the 32 gig flash i have is actually smaller than most 2/4 gigs out there.

Another thing to consider is the filesystem which the HU may use. Most ext drives use a NTFS filing system which was incompatilbe with my kenwood. the whole drive needs to be formatted to FAT system and i have heard there are complications to that as windows doesnt want to file anything over 32 gigs into a FAT type file system.
It can be done, i thought about partitioning my drive to seperate 32 gig FAT partitions to see if it would work, but i honestly dont have the use for over 250 gigs of storage so i just used the external at home to back up documents, files, music and vids incase my laptop and my pc decide to die at the same time.

Also there have been people experiencing difficulty with their HU trying to read and process that much memory. Many have claimed that their HU runs super slow with the external, and some simiply cant get it to read past a certain point.
The flash drrive in mine takes about 5 to 10 seconds to load up upon starting the vehicle once it is loaded, it will shuffle and search thru them like nothing.

 

Thanks. Good information.

I don't currently have that much music, either. I do have around 65gb, but I rarely listen to over half of that. I do anticipate adding to my collection over time, and also add some videos, pictures, etc. One full length movie can take quite a bit storage.

As for the filesystem, the Pioneer unit also uses FAT. I have a couple of external drives, one is a 3.5", 300gb and another is a 2.5", 80gb. Both of these drives are formatted FAT32, so that is not a problem, at least with Vista.

I hadn't thought about access speed. It might be a good idea to play around with the storage devices I already have before investing in something that may not work as well as expected.

Thanks again for the insight.

 

no problem, and you know, i never even tried to format the drive in vista, i just figured i didnt need that much storage so i just didnt try.

Now, if the headunit would read a/v like movies and music videos from the usb connections, then hell yea, i would probably have a 300 gig drive hooked up full to the max with video!
Does the pioneer do av thru the usb?

 

Probably the best way is to use an ipod. You can get a 'classic' for a bit more than an external hdd and play audio, video etc. from it. I was going to go the route of usb or sd cards with my Avic f700 but there's not much point once you try an ipod with it.

 

Sorry, I am confused. This Pioneer does not play video from the USB.

 

Ipod is an option and I have been looking at them on EBAY.

Right now, all of my music is on my PC hard drive in mp3 format. I have a small (4gb) Insignia mp3 player that I plug into the stereo in my workshop. It's real easy to copy the mp3's to the Insignia so I thought it would also work well with a flash drive or a usb hdd.

The downside of the Insignia and mp3's in general is the loss of sound quality. I have heard and read that the sound quality from the Ipod is very good. What file format does the Ipod use for the best quality sound?

 

I have a 8G thumb drive hooked to mine.

 

I have tried several different USB drives in my Kenwood DDX-512. The 8gig Sandisc Cruzer was the worst. The one I am using right now is a 16gig Patriot XPorter. I have about 12 gigs of music on it right now, and it takes around 10 seconds for the HU to display the music list when I first start the truck. I can only imagine how bad the read time would be with a portable HDD. The only downside to using usb with my HU is that I can't fast forward or rewind the music. I can only do that if I play the music from a disc. No biggie.

 

I always thought IPods used MP3. The important thing is that you rip your music at a minimum of 256kbps. It sounds pretty good at that bit rate.

 

Most of the music I have was ripped from cd's using Itunes. Unfortunately, most of those were done for me by someone else at 160 kbps. All of the cd's that I ripped myself were ripped @ 192 kbps.

I also have some tracks from the Itunes store. Those are always downloaded at 128 kbps.

The Pioneer unit itself supports bit rates up to 320 kbps.

I wonder if this HU would play a .cda file from a usb device?

 

I've just got a 4gb USB stick hooked up to my Pioneer F700BT. It's plenty for being in a car.

 

Are you serious? Itunes store only sells 128k music? Lame. Sounds like just one more reason why I will never own an IPod. All Amazon downloads are at 256, and have no DRM.

I have tried 320 in my Kenwood, and I noticed no audible difference, so I have been using 256. I doubt cda would work from usb, but I've never tried it.

 

The best quality is to rip your own. I rip minimum 256 to AAC format (extension .m4a). YMMV but if you check the wiki page, aac is supposed to give you better quality than mp3. The downside is that it isn't as portable to other devices such as small mp3 players. All of the recent Pioneer decks I've owned will play AAC files though directly off of a thumb drive.

The thing about the ipod is that you get all the control functions from the deck. I wasn't an Ipod fan but at some point you're almost forced into into with all the aftermarket accessories and support available for it.

 

Oh, its just that you said you had your HD loaded with music and video i thought you were wanting to play video from your USB on the HU.

I was just saying that IF the units supported video i would so get an external and use it.


and hedge i know what you mean, i have tried my hardest to stay away from ipods, i dont want one, nor need one.
If want a portable mp3 i use my phone, i can put 8 gig cards full of music in it and it functions as an ipod except when a call comes in i can answer or text or browse online as needed. I can aslo bluetooth the phones audio to the kenwood deck and control all the music players functions from the HU too without having to remove my phone from my pocket.
screw those apple folk, i refuse to buy thier ipods.

sad thing is i did buy one... not for me but for the girlfriend.
So in the end those bastards won anyway.