malkamus

That is the thing, When my car is off you can not see the monitor. I built a cover that slides up into the dash and comes down to cover the monitor when not in use. From outside the car it looks like an empty dash.
For a remote, get a gyromouse and program the extra buttons to control your media, you drop it in the console when not in use.

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FusionFanatic

that sounds pretty cool, got any pics of that sliding cover?

also, with regards to security, couldn't that cover also hide a head unit as well? even if it didn't, you could just remove the faceplate.

also (yeah, another also), the gyromouse idea is no good for me for two reasons; 1.) you have to have an ugly gyromouse on the console; and 2.) that's just one more thing you have to do each time you want to use it (or put it away). it that works for you, then thats great; but it's no good for me.

like I said, I want a head unit for convenience reasons; most of the time I'm just listening to music, i don't need a carputer for that, nor would i want to wait for one to boot-up to use it. i also don't like the idea of having no audio if something like the HDD fails. with a head unit, there's no worries, no fuss, just simple, reliable audio that comes on as soon as I turn the key.

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koolaidkitten

I'm not understanding the people saying they want headunit cause they dont want to wait for computer to boot up when they are driving 2 blocks to the store or something.

My computer is booted and playing a song by the time I back out my driveway <.<

RedGTiVR6

ditto!

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Nomader

my computer is booted before i even open up my cars door... my car electrical circuits turn up as soon as i press the remote key , then they are tutned of in 3 minutes if no door is opened (by the way it will automatically lock the doors in that case aswell)
----i love my car------ :P

crooper

I think it depends on what kind of setup you want or have. Having the volume knob and being able to play music on a regular HU might be nice for some. I personally love having surround sound and PC-based crossovers (bass redirection) and everything. I love the sound of my X-Fi card and I think it's cleaner going straight to the amps.

I don't really think about security. I've thought about getting ahold of a broken stock double din Bose stereo to use as a faceplate when I'm not in my car (since my Maxima originally had the Bose system and all the speaker covers say so).

FusionFanatic

oh-no! my side is losing.. come on "pro-head-unit'ers" I need your support! LOL


well, for me; I don't back out of my driveway, I back in (and drive straight out). it takes me about 2-3 seconds to pull out of my driveway and I'm at the end of my street before my PC is booted up.

currently my laptop takes forever to boot up, however, I just "n-lited" my windowsXP [as much as possible] for use in my carputer. hopefully that will cut boot time down to less than 10 seonds. but for convenience and reliability reasons, I still want a head unit to control audio functions; leaving the carputer free for other dedicated tasks like fullscreen GPS (frontend-embedded GPS is limited and is not fullscreen).

I may change my mind at some point down the road, but for now I like having my head unit control audio functions while my carputer controls more advanced computers apps.

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turbocad6

it's got nothing to do with your side loosing, there is no right or wrong, both setups have there advantages & disadvantages, either can make a great system overall. depends what you want from your setup really

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malkamus

Correct, I did not mean to insinuate differently. It is all preference. I just never understood driving 2 blocks.
Yes it could hide a headunit as well. I can take some photos of it and post them.
It basically slides up into thedash to expose the monitor and slides down to cover it. A lot like infiniti I believe does with their storage space in their dash on their suvs.

FusionFanatic

I agree with you. I was never said that either way was the right way. I stated my reasons for wanting to keep a head unit, and encouraged others to state their reasons as well (regardless of which method they use).

I decided to create this poll because while I browsing through many threads on this forum I've see numerous posts where people claim that "most people" or "most members on this forum" do it one way or another, yet people who reference non-existing statistics like that are just making blanket statments based on unfounded assumptions. for example, I read one post that claimed that "90% of users on this forum have a carPC without a head unit". I didn't think an extremely high number like that could be true. the wide margin just seemed too large to be accurate, so I wanted to get a more realistic number for people to reference next time somebody makes a blanket statement which claims that everybody does is one way or another.

a poll is just a popularity contest, this poll is intended to show which method is more popular among mp3car forum users. as of now the poll shows that 56% prefer to run their system without a head unit (24/43); and 44% prefer to run their system with a head unit (19/43). now that does show a small majority, but not a significant one. keep the votes coming guys!

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RedGTiVR6

a poll on here is also not an accurate representation of the users of the forum.

a base of 47 users compared to 60,000 members is not an accurate reference sample.

I'd also like to note in the post that you had originally linked to (one of my own), I said I thought that, never that I researched it and knew it to be 100% true. Of the posts I've seen and the people I talk to and have met, 90% is accurate in that regard. The fact that you would take it so serious is a bit unnerving.

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1RyanRs

I choose to have a head unit aswell.. Mainly for simplicity.. CarPC > Aux IN. then from there, everything is the same in principle of wiring speakers,amps etc etc as in a normal car.. Also not to forget it has a FM radio without any hassle.

My head unit is a high end Alpine unit, which gives me control of Time correction, remote control of amplifiers, extensive control over frequency filtering and EQ's etc. also, by the head unit taking care of all of this , it takes a lot of strain off the carputer, as using software to control this many advanced functions would take a serious amount of CPU resources.

the only other reason i use a head unit is... We all know how computers can be sometimes.. some days they just do not want to behave.. and it gets very stressful when you just want to do something simple, like play a mp3, but it keeps throwing up error codes / crashing etc etc.. With a head unit there, i can just turn off me Tft screen, put in a CD and it will play -no questions asked!

crooper

Since when does an EQ and sound mapping take "a serious amount of CPU resources"?

It's just a matter of preference and simplicity. Personally I think attaching my soundcard directly to my amps and controlling everything with the carpc is much simpler. Also, I don't imagine you can have real 5+ channel surround sound with a HU, right? I sometimes wish I had a volume knob, but I know I could add one if I really wanted to.

RedGTiVR6

Doing EQ and sound mapping on any level above absolute amature level stuff does take up a good deal of processing power.

I'd suggest you read here to find out more about what is actually being referred to and what all is actually involved in tuning your system beyond the most basic of tunes:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/car-...ns-tuning.html

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crooper

I stand corrected. I guess the Winamp EQ and built-in X-Fi sound mapping are adequate for my amateur level needs.

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