carputers? what's that.

xtraxmechx · 06-04-2005, 10:13 PM

For the past 7 years I have been involved in the car audio hobby. In gathering ideas for my car I always wanted to do the things that the sponsored “deep pocket” car owners had. A car with a mp3 jukebox, gps/nav, dvd, games, ect. . Individual pieces of equipment would take up way to much room. To my knowledge, up to a week ago it would cost literality thousands of dollars to have all of these features. Carputers already set up are way to costly. Why is it that I have never seen a article in any car audio magazine. The way I see it carputers should be huge

. Or have I just not been looking in the right places? Why is it when I go to a car audio store on the net there are no listings/references to carputers what so ever?

I guess what I’m trying to say is I found this forum and it was exactly what I wanted in carmedia. The next night I spent close to a grand on equipment. Wish I would have known about this sooner.

thanatos106 · 06-04-2005, 10:24 PM

You think this is huge??

This is a hobby for a lot of people, but now even the audio guys like you going to start seen the car pc has a better solution for incar media.

evandude · 06-04-2005, 10:26 PM

I think he meant "huge" as in "popular".

you aren't finding carputers in car audio magazines because not many companies are making prebuilt ones... most of us are building our own from scratch.

thanatos106 · 06-04-2005, 10:27 PM

One more:

thanatos106 · 06-04-2005, 10:29 PM

ohhh ok!!! they are "HUGE" FOR us then

Anyway keep you audio equipt and build yourself a car pc.

WebDog · 06-04-2005, 10:29 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by evandude

I think he meant "huge" as in "popular".

you aren't finding carputers in car audio magazines because not many companies are making prebuilt ones... most of us are building our own from scratch.

And it seems like most the prebuilt ones are 2-3K+ and you wont have the fun of installing it in your car...

I hope he meant huge as in popular, my carpc is only 2"x7"x10" total.

xtraxmechx · 06-04-2005, 11:31 PM

Huge = popular for clarification

The question still remains why have I not seen this any where else? You guys may think this is a hobby but I don’t understand why so few companies have taped in to this yet. Even being a hobby, “New car pc….. increases sound clarity” “ Car pc. One unit. All your accessories” could very easily be the headline on a major audio mag. Still don’t understand why this market hasn’t been tapped. Maybe I could tap it………

it would have benefits too.

xtraxmechx · 06-04-2005, 11:37 PM

i have a big trunk.

Nic · 06-04-2005, 11:51 PM

i think the biggest reason is that having a computer in your car requires the user to somewhat know what they are doing, i wouldnt go putting a computer in my mums car, if something happened to go wrong she wouldnt know what to do.

installing a computer in someones car who wasnt knowledgable about the subject would be a nightmare to provide support for, and for those who are knowledgable they are prepared to install it themselves anyway

Bugbyte · 06-05-2005, 12:42 AM

People expect stuff they pay a lot of money for to work properly and without bugs. Car PC's don't fit that bill. Not only do you have to invest time and effort in figuring out what's wrong with them, you also have to actually keep up with what's going on in the hobby and translate that to your install.

It's not a slam dunk. If I'd paid twice as much for my install and it crapped out as much as it does, I'd be ****ed. But I didn't. And I have only myself to blame when it ****s the bed.

-zip- · 06-05-2005, 01:11 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Nic

i think the biggest reason is that having a computer in your car requires the user to somewhat know what they are doing, i wouldnt go putting a computer in my mums car, if something happened to go wrong she wouldnt know what to do.

installing a computer in someones car who wasnt knowledgable about the subject would be a nightmare to provide support for, and for those who are knowledgable they are prepared to install it themselves anyway

Amen

aoLhaTer · 06-05-2005, 03:10 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Nic

i think the biggest reason is that having a computer in your car requires the user to somewhat know what they are doing, i wouldnt go putting a computer in my mums car, if something happened to go wrong she wouldnt know what to do.

installing a computer in someones car who wasnt knowledgable about the subject would be a nightmare to provide support for, and for those who are knowledgable they are prepared to install it themselves anyway

Well, we all know that there are hitches when running these computers; always some weird quirk. But the general objective is to make a system that works flawlessly. With that you can add a friendly frontend and you have a system that all users can appreciated and use.
Things are relatively stable in regards to problems; I would install for friends or family without a problem. Once you have experience in installing you know what to do to erase any problems before they pop up

Nic · 06-05-2005, 03:20 AM

as far as i'm concerned anything on windows dosent work flawlessly :P as soon as someone develops a linux or similar distro that is a frontend i'll install it for those technically inept

Cris · 06-05-2005, 10:32 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bugbyte

People expect stuff they pay a lot of money for to work properly and without bugs. Car PC's don't fit that bill. Not only do you have to invest time and effort in figuring out what's wrong with them, you also have to actually keep up with what's going on in the hobby and translate that to your install.

It's not a slam dunk. If I'd paid twice as much for my install and it crapped out as much as it does, I'd be ****ed. But I didn't. And I have only myself to blame when it ****s the bed.

Couldn't agree more. That's why most choose to deal car pc parts.

aoLhaTer · 06-05-2005, 07:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Nic

as far as i'm concerned anything on windows dosent work flawlessly :P as soon as someone develops a linux or similar distro that is a frontend i'll install it for those technically inept

Its not like we're running Windows 95 here
The NT platform is incredibly stable. Ive never had any software problem with my carputer; the only problems have been wiring and EMI