Is there something wrong with the CD player or does it not read MP3's at all? Just made an MP3 CD hoping it would work in the car, and nope. Kinda ridiculous a 2004 car with Premium Sound System doesnt read MP3's. Any way to get it to play MP3's w/o having to get a new HU? I think Im gonna go IPod now... stupid MP3s

 

The headunit can't read compressed MP3's. You could just convert the MP3's to CD format...

 

You have two options:

Burn your mp3s as a standard audio CD

or

Purchase the Acura mp3 player / your own mp3 player

 

Yeah, its just nice to be able to have sooo many more songs on one CD... couldnt fit all the songs i wanted on regular format, so i converted to MP3, last time ill do that i guess. Is the IPod conversion worth the $$$, considering id still need to buy an IPod.

 

Acuratsx03, i agree with your assessment, a 2004 Premium Sound System should be able to play the compressed MP3 format. I'm trying to decide how to install a MP3 player in my TSX. While overseas, i brought about 50 MP3 cds and loved playing them in my Accord , but i've since traded that car in for the TSX and would love to have that capability again :'( . Are you thinking of buying the OEM MP3 player or going with another option?

 

Guys, your best bet is to purchase an adapter that would allow you to plug an i-pod (or any other signal) right into the HU. Check out this thread: http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...&threadid=3148

 

I have the oem mp3 player and i use it all the time.. its nice because you can still use steering wheel controls for track etc instead of dicking around with an ipod or whatnot.

 

gfxdave, how is the sound quality with the OEM MP3 player? It's FM modulated right?

 

No it uses the aux input, it sounds just as good as the cd-player providing its not crappy mp3s.. nothing you can do about shotty mp3s

but good high quality mp3s burned to a data disc sound just as good as cds to me using the OEM player.

 

I think Ill probably go the way of the iPod, it just makes more sense. Plus its better than carrying a CD player around with all your CDs or forgetting a CD that your in the mood to listen to. Might as well just have all your music in one item. Im thinking 15GB will do, but gosh, 300 plus the SHOND3 and all that other stuff is gonna add up...

 

The development time for factory head units is 2-3 years, and most CD D/A converts don't decode MP3's. Most DVD MPEG decoders do, which is why DVD players almost universally play MP3's.

I have to admit, when I saw that Acura was selling a DIN CD player just to give MP3 ability, I like to died laughing.

 

i wouldn't pay $500 to buy the Acura Mp3 player. it's just better to save your money and convert your mp3s to wav format and burn onto a regular Cd-R or Cd-RW. but, sometimes the Acura cd changer can't read the Cd-RW, wtf is up with that?

 

I don't know why anyone would use CD-RW's anymore. CD-R's are $0.20/disk...

 

I don't know of any other factory sound system the plays MP3s without additional cost. Personally, I just keep a stack of CDs in the car and when I wanna listen to something, I plug it in. Hopefully the next generation of OEM audio systems will have MP3 compatibility.

JUst outta curiousity, does the TL play MP3s?

 

iPod!!!

 

I've never heard of a stock system that plays MP3s. You just burnt an mp3 CD and expected it to play?

 

Ford does, but I don't think it's in the "base model" audio systems, so yes there's additional cost there, too.. but it is built into the same CD unit.

 

Right but its an add-on option. Just like you can add it on to the TSX (albeit in a separate slot). Its not the norm, even in high end cars. ... thats for sure

 

If you don't want to spend that much money, you could always go for portable MP3 CD players.

They're pretty cheap, with the top end ones going at around $150 nowadays.

Same input, but will save you about $150 to $200 of initial cost.

 

A part of me wonders whether the availability of playing .mp3 as a base option is somewhat "political" for lack of a better word. I know the RIAA sued Diamond to try and prevent the Rio .mp3 player from being sold, alleging that it would "further" piracy. Even though the RIAA lost the suit, I wonder whether the reason that .mp3 playing ability being offered more widely has to do with the OEMs not wanting to draw the ire of others. (just me wondering out loud)

 

never ascribe to malice what can be adequately described by incompetence.

It takes OEMs 3-4 years to develop an audio system with a vendor (such as Alpine or Panasonic). MP3's were not on the screen back when this head unit was conceived. Trust me, there are some folks in Japan working their butts off to put in MP3 decoding, but OE programs schedule their parts buys so far out that they literally can't make quick changes.

It'll come. In fact, it will probably be a DVD player that plays MP3s, as decoder chips to do that are plentiful, while CD digital-to-audio converters usually don't have MP3 ability.

 

I think one of the other reasons why we don't have MP3 players in cars is that the interface of the players needs to be improved. It's pretty tough to browse through your collection of songs while trying to keep the car between the lines. One of the beauties of CD is it's simplicity. Sure you could just play through your list sequentially but when you have 120 songs on a MP3 CD or 5000+ on a HD player, finding a song is not exactly easy. I think voice command is essential but it's probably a while away.

 

iPod x2

 

If you have a PC, I'd say go for something else.

Why pay for an iPod when the competition is giving just as much, better PC compatibility, and waaaaay better battery life?

I have an iRiver iHP-140 and its 16 hour battery life time is way better than the iPod. Plus, it is a standard USB storage device, so it shows up in Windows 2000+ with no drivers needed.

 

Hey Rev.. I heard about the iRivers... Does it come with a remote? You can also use it as a recorder right?

 

Yes, LCD remote.
Yes, Recorder - comes with both an internal mic and an external mono clip on mic.

 

Is the remote pretty decent sized?

 

i agree with the battery life....and any mp3 player is better than not having one, but ipod + itunes = GOLD, for windows and mac. an ipod will mount as a hd as well.

the battery thing hasnt effected me much, i only use it in the car (dc car adapter) and only on the plane a little, so 8 hrs is cool.

 

I would love to see a PC like interface, which would allow you to organize the songs by title, artist, genre, etc. and then skip straight to a letter of the alphabet. This might be easier to integrate into the touch screen of the navi system. It would be cool for all the cars to have a navi screen, but the navi unit would still be optional.

 

i definately think it would need a larger screen (navi) touch preferably. now that would be sweet!

 

Depends on what you define as decent sized. The display is pretty small - I can read it at best, at around 2 feet, but it's great when you're just walking around - you can control the player without having to take it out.

The remote duplicates all the functions of the main unit, so you never really have to take it out if you don't want to.

 

TSX 'R' US:

 

I like the iRiver too. It's storage capacity isn't as big as the iPod though.

 

Ummmm - there are currently 3 iHP series players, iHP-110, iHP-120 and iHP-140 - 10 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB respectively.

Basically a mirror of the iPod line in terms of storage.

 

The Rio karma is a great device too. Support for lots of formats including ogg vorbis and FLAC, and its got a nice dock with an ethernet jack to put your mp3 player on the network.

 

Whoah...really? I thought they were a lot smaller. Hmm...maybe I'll look into one soon.

Thanks for the info.

 

Damn...that looks sweeet!! I think we may have a winner!!

 

Well how many mp3s do you have?

I have 280 GB of mp3s so no device is going to be a one size fits all which is why i decided to go with the OEM player because i could burn 'themed' cds to fit my moods

Although it would take 409 cd-rs to burn my whole collection (EEK)

 

You know, I never checked. All my MP3 are on CD and I'm up to around 20 or 30 CDs so that's about 10 or 20 GBs.

And I don't collect MP3 by whole albums either, for the most part. I just pick and chose the ones that I like. Combine that with my rather discriminating taste in music, and my MP3 collection doesn't grow very much.

 

So what you really need are HDD cartridges.

Same basic HDD player design, but with 40 or 60 GB HDD cartridges that you exchange like flash memory.

Of course, nothing like that exists right now, so you're still screwed.