Is there a good tuner solution for car PCs?

**mundungus** · 05-10-2009, 09:34 PM

Hi All,

I'm new to this car PC stuff. Currently ramping up what progress has been made, and what features/modules/accessories are available for car PCs.

Can someone enlighten me as to whether there is a decent tuner solution for car PCs? I.e. support for RDS (traffic announcements etc).

Have searched the forum and internet but cannot find anything that is really suitable.

**colin** · 05-10-2009, 09:44 PM

There's no way you've searched the forum and the internet and can't find anything suitable. Searching the internet yields a ton of USB FM receivers. Sure, they all suck, but they exist and they work. Searching the forum yields the Visteon or Directed HD Radio units with a special cable made by a member of these forums, MitchJS.

For the record, the HD unit will set you back about $100 total and is incredible all around.

**mundungus** · 05-10-2009, 10:15 PM

Oops, sorry, you're right. Perhaps my wording was badly chosen.

I found loads of FM receivers that's true, but they seem to be suited to the home PC market. They don't appear to support RDS features that are usually found in ordinary car head units.

The ones you mention seem so bulky. Almost the size of a DIN radio on their own.

I was hoping to find something like a USB key that would support the features that would normally be expected from any car head unit. Something that could easily be integrated into a PC based system without having to accommodate another bulky box.

If this kind of thing doesn't exist, is it the norm to fit many different boxes in the car to supply all of the features that you would usually get from a head unit?

**csfile** · 05-11-2009, 06:37 AM

i'm using an HQCT-i, and it fits inside my case.

**FusionFanatic** · 05-12-2009, 10:09 PM

The Visteon HDZ300 receiver (with Mitch's cable) works very well. the size of the receiver isn't important as it doesn't need to be accessible once it's connected to the PC. everything is controlled/displayed from the touchscreen so you can hide the receiver somewhere out of the way.