Anyone else see this from a link from a link of a link on slashdot. Sony is introducing a car mp3 player that has a 10 gig hard disk and cd player. It auto rips CDs. Cost is $1500. Sounds like the Empeg next gen that they are trying to sell to OEMs, but totally different interface.
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2002/sonycar.html

Also, Kenwood is officially selling a Phatbox unit.

-Hoagy.

Mmm.. sounds like the usual "they don't quite get it product". Not much use having to sit in my car at -15C with the motor running just to rip some CDs that won't have titles or album names on them..

Ugh.. no thanks.

-ml

In reply to:

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Originally posted by mlord:
Not much use having to sit in my car at -15C with the motor running just to rip some CDs that won't have titles or album names on them..

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That was the first thing that came to mind, also no breakout or pong!

But people (average consumer) will probably "get" this product fairly easily. Once people start to purchase them, they will suddenly realize its short comings and develope a "need" for something that has been available for years - the empeg. A product before its time. My hope is that products like this will help develope the market and make it easier for the empeg team to sell the "mk iii" to oem's.

Most people only 'get it' at $200-$300, never at $1500 regardless of quality. Case in point empeg/Rio closeout sales.

Just my $0.02.

-Zeke

Oh, I got it at $1500.00 but could not afford it. I can't explain how happy I was to be able to get one on the cheap.

Steve

Sony isn't the only one stepping into the hdd mp3 player market. Look what Pioneer is making: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/CarProducts/CarProductDetails/0,1429,21417,00.html

Sorry if the link doesn't work, just copy and paste the whole thing.

There was a previous discussion of these units, including a pretty extensive review by Empeg CES man-on-the-scene Hugo Fiennes in the thread here

That thread was in the (ahem) ICE forum (not here in General....!)

Unghghhgnnn... Pioneer uses Greednote, er Gracenote CDDB... I have no desire of supporting them. Either way, the 1 grand I spent on my empeg beats the hell out of spending $2100 on this Pioneer.

I bet you cant pull the Pioneer out and plug it into a stereo or ethernet and play/stream music out.

CDDB or a similar database would seem to be an essential feature for a product of this nature. Sony seem not to have it, and the usability suffers as a result.

Rob

BleachLPB seems to have issues with a particular (very) commercial provider of collaborativelly collected info (Gracenote). There is always FreeDB. They have recently passed half a million albums mark, the newest version of their protocol supports previously missing data such as the year of publishing, and more and more of SW vendors seem to be swithching to them.

Me? Issues with Gracenote?? Ha! Thats proposterous.

Yeah, I should have pushed FreeDB in my msg. FreeDB has worked very well for me.

Out of general curiosity, Anyone here familiar with Escient?

Yeah why use gracenote when you can download the FreeDB database for free?

freedb seems to have a better coverage of non-US artists too.

Another wrinkle to add to the Pioneer unit is this: CDMA Not sure about the Sony, but it is my understanding that the Pioneer unit is A.) not removable and B.) features copy protection.

I also agree that most joe 6 pack consumers don't like a price point that high.

Another unit to watch out for is put out by Kenwood, it is basically the Phat Noise player with Kenwood branding and it's controlled from a Kenwood head unit like a CD changer.

I'm hoping that one day one of the OEMs that the Empeg team works with would be an aftermarket company like Alpine or Eclipse or something. Of course those would still be post 1000 dollar players.

The first DVD player from Sony was $1000. Within 2 years, $300.

Same thing with the CD player.

Yep, though DVDs were the fastest consumer elctronic item ever for consumers to "get" But I agree, it will be a short time before this technology moves from early adopters to every new mini van.

Steve

Scarey considering the average person doesn't know how to set the stations on their FM radio

CDMA? huh? Code Division Multiple Access?

Perhaps you meant SDMI?

Maybe he's talking about a Sony head unit / PCS handset.

I'm glad my empeg is GSM.

Bruno

I wish my empeg was GSM. Being AMPS makes it sound like crap. (The instructions said I needed an amp, but I thought it meant to make it AMPs cellular, and then...)

Yeah, that second job as a comedy writer never did pan out...

Those players are very RIAA friendly. They don't let you take music off the hard drive. The Pioneer will only rip off a CD, and at that, only a CD that's in CDDB, not a custom burned CD.

The Sony unit seems to let you load tracks off the memory stick. Also, the unit at CES only ripped at 2X. The rep pointed at some strange port and said it was USB, so maybe you'll be able to do things with that.

CDMA? huh? Code Division Multiple Access?

Perhaps you meant SDMI?


DOH! I was just shopping for a cell phone so I think I got the terminology on the brain now For the dough these new players cost they should have cell phones built in

Steve

That also begs the question what bit rate can they rip at? Most companies seem to think 128k is just dandy. It is not dandy at all.

Steve