Anyone else using your ipod as your portable hd for music?

replicant · 06-02-2006, 12:17 AM

After reading someone's post on the roadrunner section about using their ipod as their primary source of music, i decided to try this out with my aging 20gig ipod. Aside from it being slow to go from track to track (by about 2-5 seconds), it is working out quite well. I am using a firewire cable for it and it is a relatively handy setup. I use roadrunner primarily (centrafuse would be good, but it takes about 10 minutes to load up the 20 gig ipod's music each and everytime), and it handles ipod connectivity pretty well. I had thought about getting the latest greatest 60 gig ipod video since i really only listen to about 40 gigs of worthwhile music now adays anyway.

Anyway else using this setup? The way I see it, it's essentially a portable hd anyway, but is ultra easy to bring inside to update tracks, and id3 tag fixes, etc. I carry a copy of yamipod on it (runs without installation) that acts as my ultra itunes replacement, so i can rip or add music to it at anytime and on any computer.

I'd like to hear you're successes and with which frontend(s).

replicant · 06-02-2006, 12:18 AM

just to clarify, i meant using the ipod as a portable hd connected to your carpc, not connecting it to a headunit like most aftermarket car audio folks do.

knownasilya · 06-02-2006, 02:10 PM

I'm planning too.

breaker021 · 06-02-2006, 03:58 PM

I use a USB flash drive and wrote a small copy script that copies all my "new music" from my flash drive to my car pc's hard drive. You can play music off of usb devices but they're going to be slow, as you mentioned. besides, assuming your car pc has usb 2 ports, copying the music over would be very fast. maybe a couple of seconds per song - tops.

if you have a large collection on your ipod (lets say 20 gigs worth) you can do a complete copy onto your car pc (assuming you have the space) and then from then on, only copy your "new" songs.

you can use the briefcase folder or even the folder sync. features on xp to do this.

to summarize, i dont see a need to play music off of ANY USB device (ipod, flash drive, etc). simply copy the stuff over...

my setup: as stated, i have a script that copies songs from my flash drive to my carputers hard drive. from there, im using road runner as the front end. when the songs are copied i simply launch road runner, browse to the "new music" folder in which the songs were copied to, and im off and running...

- sh00k

replicant · 06-02-2006, 05:38 PM

breaker, you mind sharing that script/app that you use for the detection of a plugged in device, copying of designated music, and launch of road runner?

your idea sounds great actually.

thanks.

breaker021 · 06-03-2006, 12:41 PM

Replicant,
When you plug in a USB device, for the most part, it uses the same drive letter and takes about 3-5 seconds for the system to recognize it. I make sure i copy the music i want to transfer to my car pc into a folder called 'newmusic' on my flash drive.

this is what i do:
1) plug in the usb drive
2) click on the script that i have on my quick launch bar

the script is simple as hell and this is what it looks like

@echo off

cls
echo copying music
copy e:\newmusic\*.* c:\data\newmusic
echo y | del e:\newmusic\*.*
explorer c:\data\newmusic

it copies songs from e:\newmusic (the flash drive) onto my local folder for new music (c:\data\newmusic) then from there, it deletes the mp3s from the flash drive (to clean up space since the files are now on the car puter) then launches explorer and opens up the folder where the new songs were copied.

i dont have it launching road runner but all you would have to do is replace the "explorer..." line above with the correct path to road runner, whatever it is, just like c:\progra~1\RRunner\rr.exe <- just made this up - i forget the default install folder for RR.

simple as hell and just takes a single click onto the shortcut i have in the quicklaunch bar. i use this all the time.
- sh00k

jackso11 · 09-04-2006, 12:58 PM

does anyone have any interface software to control an ipod via usb though. Its not only my own I want to be able to use. If I give a friend a lift I want to be able to just plug his ipod in and access it through CF or something.

Anyone?

samc · 09-04-2006, 09:06 PM

I use my old ipod as well, a 2nd, 3rd gen ? 15 gig model. It seems kind of slow to transfer alot of files but for a few songs it works well.

merk350z · 10-31-2006, 10:11 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by replicant

After reading someone's post on the roadrunner section about using their ipod as their primary source of music, i decided to try this out with my aging 20gig ipod. Aside from it being slow to go from track to track (by about 2-5 seconds), it is working out quite well. I am using a firewire cable for it and it is a relatively handy setup. I use roadrunner primarily (centrafuse would be good, but it takes about 10 minutes to load up the 20 gig ipod's music each and everytime), and it handles ipod connectivity pretty well. I had thought about getting the latest greatest 60 gig ipod video since i really only listen to about 40 gigs of worthwhile music now adays anyway.

Anyway else using this setup? The way I see it, it's essentially a portable hd anyway, but is ultra easy to bring inside to update tracks, and id3 tag fixes, etc. I carry a copy of yamipod on it (runs without installation) that acts as my ultra itunes replacement, so i can rip or add music to it at anytime and on any computer.

I'd like to hear you're successes and with which frontend(s).

i have a full car pc set up in my car but sometimes i don't feel like turning on the computer. so what i do is i used the ipod ran a line to the screen and 2 sound lines to the aux inputs for sound and i used the ipod video and music and there is no delay on my ipod

BarryWoods · 10-31-2006, 03:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by samc

I use my old ipod as well, a 2nd, 3rd gen ? 15 gig model. It seems kind of slow to transfer alot of files but for a few songs it works well.

If it's transferring slow then something isn't set up right. iPods transfer info about as fast as gigabit ethernet.