borgit

Hey guys, has anyone tried the Dice Mediabridge?
http://www.autotoys.com/x/product.php?productid=14279

With this unit, you no longer even need an ipod, just connect a usb key drive with music on it and it plays it for you. It sounds totally cool.

bzyrice

iTrader: (10)

Thats pretty cool.. but dang 100.00 more than isimple.. my iPhone has more memory than all of my USB drives..

I wanna see someone use the bluetooth thing tho!!

hidden72

I bought a MediaBridge not too long ago for my 06 TL Navi. I used the Dice Silverline for a year and saw the bluetooth functionality and was pretty excited about it.

Here are my thoughts after using it for a month.

1.) bluetooth audio is convenient, but sounds "tinny". Using a hard-wire through the 1/8" jack sounds much better. It's still better than an FM transmitter. Next/back track works with iPhone 4 so you don't have to dig your phone out to change tracks. You still need to select the playlist manually, though. I didn't try any other bluetooth devices to see if sound quality changed. I have an iPod I keep in the glove box 24/7. I started listening to audiobooks from my iPhone, and bluetooth was very convenient.

2.) When a call comes in and you're listening to music at a loud volume, the phone ringing will blow your ears out, along with the callers voice. You need to remember to turn the sound down when you're answering a call, and hopefully beat the ring to the volume knob. (at least with iPhone 4).

3.) it's nice being able to hold down the iPhone voice dial button, have the radio mute, give your voice command through the car, and have the call stay on hands-free through the radio. At least it <was> nice until I updated to 4.2.1. That broke.

4.) They ship it with a cable long enough to reach from the back of the radio all the way to the center console. Very nice.

5.) bluetooth integration with the phone (this replaces the Acura Handsfree) is pretty cool. The phone #s show up on the radio display for caller-id. It comes with a microphone that you'll run back up through the center console up to the dashboard somewhere. You answer by using "next track" and hanging up with "previous track". you initiate calls from the iPhone either manually or through voice-dial.

6.) it's firmware-upgradeable (by the user), so hopefully if they fix some of these problems, those who have already purchased can get these things fixed.

7.) doesn't seem to remember when I set "random" for a playlist after shutting the car off. Next time the car comes on random is disabled.

8.) the main showstopper: if you don't remember to turn the car stereo off BEFORE you shut the car off, then you're in for a treat. The next time you turn the car on, it will start at the beginning of the currently-selected playlist. Yes, it plays the SAME SONG over and over each time you turn the car on. It drove me bonkers. I even tried using playlists with "last played is not in the last x days" or "last skipped is not in the last x days", but that didn't help. Every time I turned on the car I heard the same song, and the same next songs, always in the same order. About the only way to get around this was to take the iPod out of the car every night, sync it so the songs would come out of the playlist, and then put it back in the car the next morning. Either that or REMEMBER to turn the stereo off before the car went off. I don't recall having to remember to do something to get a CD, record, tape, or 8-track to resume from where you left off.

Tech support's response was "sorry, that's just how we do our initialization".

So the MediaBridge is going back tomorrow.