Ultimate Car PC player?

http://computex.gigabyte.com.tw/Prod...ral_mqd1.shtml

FM, DVD, CDROM, mp3 player, VFD screen.
Is this thing perfect???

Hard drive?

i think it would be good if it was a self condained unit (it isn't.... is it?) but also it is still a cd based unit, as it is a cd rom, but would look good in a dash

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Originally posted by Rob Withey
Hard drive?

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I wondered that, it says it is compatable with most windows OS's, i wonder if that is just for Docking with a main PC to transfer files? Or wether it is just the File systems for DataCDs which is a bit of a fudge seeing as on most X86 OSs the only thing to know is ISO9660 and joliet, Maybe Rockridge on certain Unixes?

Looks bloody good though, what do you reckon Disc on Chip, or Compact flash?

I get the impression from the specs that it is just (!?!) a DVD rom drive to sit on the IDE bus. Like the Creative Infra drives of a few years ago, it has extra features.
IMHO it would be a perfect replacement for the dash board as it just looks like a radio and can obviously replace it rather well.

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Originally posted by thenominous
I get the impression from the specs that it is just (!?!) a DVD rom drive to sit on the IDE bus. Like the Creative Infra drives of a few years ago, it has extra features.
IMHO it would be a perfect replacement for the dash board as it just looks like a radio and can obviously replace it rather well.

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true, it is very good looking piece of hardwear.

Wonder if it can be hacked like an iOpener? It obviously has Composite out to play DVD's, So maybe the onbaord OS/DOC/Compact flash could be replaced with either a DOC with embedded Liux or XP, or maybe a Laptop IDE drive used instead.

Unless it is a Bios embeded media player like those Lindows Media PC's used. In which case, it is probably next to useless, as they were.

That product page is pretty useless.

It looks like is not a head unit nor a embedded computer, it is just an overglorified DVD drive that sits on your IDE bus and has a built in radio and display for the front end. It is listed under "Peripherals : Multimedia DVD" in their computer products section, so it is probably just a drive for use inside your computer, not as a standalone unit.

I see no evidence that it has an amplifier or composite out or anything else, and since it says that it "fits all PC form factors" and the drive size matches 5.25" drives, my guess is it is just a drive for use in your computer like your CDROM or DVD drive is. It might however "play" mp3 cds like normal CD rom drives can "play" audio CDs with a headphone out jack, but that's probably it. It might have a sound card embedded but that page doesn't seem to give you a lot of information.

However if you wanted to dash-mount your computer, then this would be a pretty cool drive to use, but probably prohibitively expensive for what it actually does.

http://www.warp2search.net/article.p...thread&order=0

A brief review is posted on the above link. It is a drive, but can be used with the PC Power off. I'm rather curious what the two knobs control, or if they can mapped to certain functions (hello Girder!).

The question is: what can be used with the pc power off? Probably not DVD.

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Originally posted by az1324
The question is: what can be used with the pc power off? Probably not DVD.

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It is possible that it can.
Have a look at the Lindows Media PC (lousy computer BTW). That has a DVD/MP3 player embedded into Bios.

If you turn it on, you either choose PC or DVD player.
In this case, if the hardware detects a PC conected when it gets power it will run as a fancy DVD, if it is switched on on it's own and detects no activety on the IDE bus, it's own Bios kicks in. Thats how I figure it anyway.

Having said that. It might make a nice attractive Dashmounted DVD to go on a decent system. Especially if the knobs on the front can be used to control the PC to do master Volume (or even DVD/CD volume), and track skipping/tone adjustment.

Might make a nice combined DVD rom, and controller in one.