nick9871

Ok I am about to throw my car pc out on the freeway. It locks up all the time, the sound quality is not great, etc...

I need some help on some stuff.

1. What operating system do you guys run? I am running win2k and it takes like 3 minutes to boot up

2. I really like having the media car interface and all my mp3's, navigation, etc.. but SQ is horrible and I hate not being able to play cd's at times. Is there someway I can use a pre-amp HU (no power in it) and somehow hook my car pc up to it? or would the SQ be the same that way. I can spend under 800 bucks for a new HU. I have also heard of somekind of alpine system that you can run the optical out too?

3. Can anyone recamend a quiet hard drive? i only need like 30 gigs, but dont want to spend a lot. It can be a 5.25" drive.

Thanks!!!

MP3Car.com

 

nick9871

This is the thing im talking about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Sonicxtacy02

I was using media car for a bit there and i noticed alot of unneccessary lock ups and times where the software would freeze but i could otherwise use my mouse. Changing to frodoplayer solved that issue. The majority of us are using xp, though boot times are usually hardware/ software related. Kill some (if any) unneccessary programs that launch with windows. Tweak ur bios settings and remove any unneccessary boot options (like floppy,cd drive before hard drive, cancel the RAM check, etc). that should keep your boot times to a minimum. As for the sound quality we'd need to know a bit more about ur setup. Your running without a head unit? what do you use for pc to speaker connection? I'm running an alpine head unit with a miniplug to rca splitter, using high quality RCA wires. The sound from my pc is better than listening to a cd in the car. I noticed a diff between using mediacar and fp too (not to knock media car though)

Sonicxtacy02

oh, i wanted to say i would wait on purchasing a sound processor that expensive. A high quality sound card can do wonders and save ya 300 bucks off that particular unit. I'm using on board sound.

nick9871

Right now I am using a Sound blaster Audigy nx, with short leads to my 2 amplifiers. Phoenix gold for speakers and JBL for sub. I am indeed using media car, because i love the layout and my skin. But it does freeze A LOT. I am going to do a complete re-install today, see if that fixes some problems.

TruckinMP3

I was running win2k on a P 200 mmx and it booted in under 3 minutes.

Freezes can be caused by hardware or software.

Check all your connections and look for updated drivers for each bit of hardware installed.

__________________
TruckinMP3
D201GLY2, DC-DC power, 3.5 inch SATA

Yes, you should search... and Yes, It has been covered before!

Read the FAQ!

BassBinDevil

That Alpine box looks cool, but I'll bet it needs some particular Alpine HU to make it do anything.

I've occasionally seen car audio preamps, (maybe from AudioControl?), that just had volume/tone/input selectors. The ideal controller would also have a built-in DAC and digital input selector so you could run optical or coax S/PDIF from the carputer and XM tuner or whatever.

To play CDs... you could go with a HU that has an aux input or 1/8" input jack, and feed the carputer through that, which'll also give you AM/FM, volume, tone, balance etc. Or... if this is just for occasional use, how about a cheap Discman and plug that into the Aux input on your carputer sound card? Or put a CDROM drive in the carputer. I don't know if a computer CDROM will stand up to road vibration; search the forums: I'll bet that's been covered before...

2.5" hard drives are pretty quiet, low-power, only need 5V, and should handle vibration and shock better than desktop drives.

MP3Car.com