Honda EX --- mp3?

has anyone connected an MP3 player to one of these? The EX sound
system does not seem to have an auxiliary input as far as I can tell.
FM transmitter only? grrr...

it is beyond me why car manufacturers are still not selling CD changers
with the ability to read DVD MP3s. the part cost is about $30. one of
them can store about 50 CDs, so a DVD changer could easily store 600
CDs, not the 6 that it currently can hold.

/iaw

 

I just bought an old Civic and it came with an Aiwa stereo with an aux
input. I connected my Palm Zire 71 to it and it cranks out songs I
downloaded to it (errrr...legally archived from my own CD's, I mean). A
quick search for aux input head units shows not a huge selection but
not a big markup over standard units. Maybe some of those DVD video
units with the little slideout lcd's can play ripped DVD mp3's? Burn a
disk and head over to Best Buy!

 

the 2005 civic special edition has a 6 disc cd/MP3 player.

 

I go to iTunes and download songs for $.99 each, then burn them to
cd's. I can get 17-18 on a cd. These are in mp4 format. Also the new
'05 EX's come with XM radio.

 

and?

do steros play mp4 format, as well? i can fit about 130 songs on a CD,
encoded at 128kbps.

 

isn't mp4 a "mac" format? usually associated with QuickTime?

 

Yes, it's a mac format, but you can play them on pc's as well, or burn
them to cd's and paly in any cd player.

 

The FM transmitter is far from ideal.

I added a simple audio adapter to my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid stock in-dash
single CD player. The widget plugs into the 14 pin port used for an
external CD changer. Now "CD Changer Disc 1, track 1" is an external
mp3 player. PIE HON98-AUX Auxiliary Input Converter
<http://www.logjamelectronics.com/piehon98aux.html> $49.95

This has RCA inputs. I added an RCA-mini cable for $1.50.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B34D15D1A has some installation details.

 

It is actually M4P, not MP4. MP3 is "MPEG2 Audio Layer 3" (or MPEG1
Audio Layer 3, depending on who you ask, audio layer 3 is virtually
identical in MPEG1 and MPEG2), and is an audio compression standard.

The MPEG4 standard also allows the use of AAC (Advanced Audio Codec),
which has some advantages over MP3.

M4A, M4B and M4P are not audio compression standards per se, they are
standards for encrypting AAC files.

The Apple Ipod has AAC as the preferred audio compression standard,
packaged as M4A, M4B or M4P files. In addition, the Ipod will accept MP3
in both the fixed bit rate and variable bit rate varieties, WAV files
and a few other formats.

<RANT>
At less than $1 / song, I'd be very happy to pay for music if it didn't
come with all sorts of hassles. If I buy a CD I can bring it anywhere I
want and play it anywhere I want. If I want to make a mixed CD for the
car, from CDs I own, I can do it. Don't know about the legality, but I
feel perfectly justified in doing it. If you buy a song on the web the
first thing that bites you in the butt is that you can't play it in the
software you have (OK, I still have Win2k and the media player that came
with it. It does not support DRM). Every software upgrade causes two
problems for every one it fixes, so I am not getting a new media player
just so I can pay for music. Then if you want to move your legally
purchased music files from one computer to another, copy it to more
players etc., you get all sorts of license issues. The biggest joke is
the Napster subscription where you can download as much music as you
like. Once you stop paying the monthly fees, the music you already
downloaded will expire! This world has too many MBA's.

If I should happen to find an MP3 file on the net, I can do with it as I
please. No hassles, just a small sting of bad conscience.

</RANT>

 

any ways around that?

 

I bought one iTunes song. Then I couldn't figure out how to get it onto my
Sony NetMD discs, which is about the only device I use for playing music.
Sony changed music services a couple of times, and I've never bought a song
from them. I hadn't heard about previously "purchased (?)" Napster songs
disappearing. That's very rude.

 

Go to the library, borrow CD's and rip them at home. ;-)

--

"This notion that the United States is getting ready
to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. Having said that,
all options are on the table,"
George Bush, Feb 22 2005

http://www.quantumphilosophy.net/files/clips/TimRyan_Medium.mov

http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html
http://www.worldmessenger.20m.com/weapons.html#wms
WHY IRAQ?: http://www.angelfire.com/creep/gwbush/remindus.html
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/chickenhawks.htm

"Bubba got a BJ, BU$H screwed us all!" - Slim

 

There are programs out there (like FreeMe) that will remove the
draconian DRM (Digital rights management) from songs that you have the
license file for. Potentially you could use this program to remove the
copy protection before it expires, except I don't know if Napster uses
DRM or some other rights management system.

 

iTunes is set up deliberately to work with only the iPod line of music
players. I have never used iTunes, but my first test would be to burn
the songs from iTunes to CD and then try to rip the CD to MP3 files. If
some sort of copy protection is put on the CD, it can usually be worked
around by simply turing "auto insert notification" off for your CD-ROM
drive. The interesting thing about iTunes is that the files are sent
un-protected to you computer. Apple's copy protection is only added
after the song arrives at your computer. A program called PyMusique
works in much the same way as the iTunes software, but it does not add
the copy protection. That way you can buy songs from iTunes and use them
however you want. In Europe, the record industry has indicated that
since PyMusique does not actually break any copy protection mechanism
(it just snags the songs before they are protected) they don't think
they have ground for prosecution.

 

That was related as a working solution by someone.
I don't want to burn to CD, though. Even CD-RW seems like a silly extra
step to me. I like my NetMD, and I bought it just before iPod came out,
but it seems to be totally abandoned by Sony. RealPlayer has an addon to
write to it, which probebly works with their downloads, but pretty much all
I've done is copy my CDs to MiniDisc.
I think about iPod occasionally. I also think about a 512MB MP3 player,
downloading an occasional assortment from my PC, which becomes just a
storehouse for music data, never used to play it. Then I think about some
WiFi gadget to play music at home from the PC storehouse.

Then I just stay with what I have ;-)

 

i was under the impression that MD was dead the minute CD burners came
available, in 98 or so. hell, even DAT is dead, unless youre a
professional recording person.

 

DAT certainly has limited appeal these days. MD is still alive, though.
With he current models you can copy MP3 files to the MD as well as using
it with the older ATRAC compression. The capacity of one MD is up to 1
GB.

The problem remains that if you have a player that requires plain old
MP3 files, you don't have many options aside from free downloading. It
is actually kind of funny, the recording industry has pushed so hard for
encryption and digital rights management that the only viable option for
many is to steal music.


=======================================================
A very modest collection of Honda tech info can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/ng_randolph

 

I hadn't thought about DAT or any "large" minidisc player.

I considered an MP3-capable portable CD player, a solid-state RAM MP3
player of about 256MB, and the MiniDisc. The MiniDisc is a lot smaller
than CD, with disks about 160MB, five hours of the Sony format. The MP3
player is smaller still, and I presumed I would periodically download a
fresh 256MB, just like I swap minidiscs.

I don't consider a standard writable audio CDROM a substitute, because of
playing time limitations.

Portable MD is reduced to a niche machine, but the support for it is sorely
lacking. The first iPod probably made it a poor choice, and the Mini-iPod
makes it almost obsolete.