xD's and mp3's

bier9999 · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 39

I have the xD with the regular Pioneer stereo with single CD/mp3 player. A while ago I was getting tired of burning all my songs into CD's to listen in the xD since each disc holds an average of 20 songs. It's already overcrowding my glove box with 20 CD's.

I thought I might borrow my sister's mp3 to try out with the AUX port. She has a SanDisk Sansa e140 mp3 player so I went to the store and bought an AUX cable.
Mind you that this is the first time I'm using mp3's in car but after I hooked everything up, turns out the mp3 player was worst than the CD player. I couldn't select songs from the steering wheel nor the Pioneer system, my mp3 player had to be on all the time, songs didn't play randomly, and the sound was so low I either have to pump up the volume to 50 on SSP neutral or use SSP FEEL. I could only browse through songs from the mp3 player itself.

I'm planning to buy a better mp3 player ,the SanDisk Sansa e260, but before I do just want to know if I should get it and what mp3 players or iPod's do you people use and if you have to control browsing through the player or the stereo system.

SanDisk Sansa e140:
http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/sandisk-sansa-e140-1gb/4505-6490_7-31326052.html
SanDisk Sansa e260:
http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/sandisk-sansa-e260-4gb/4505-6490_7-31684139.html?tag=prod.txt.1

cdyerkes · Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 136 Location: CT

The car has integrated ipod functionality which I'm sure you know. For that reason, you should get an Ipod. I use my iphone and it lets me control the iphone through the steering wheel and on dash. Works fantastic and the car should have come with both an Ipod cable and an aux cable (mine did at least)

So if you are in the market for an mp3 player...ipods are fantastic. the price might be a little higher, but you know you are getting quality and it is guaranteed to work with you xD.

jonathan110987 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1766 Location: HoustOn/Katy, TX

get an ipod... and everything will be fine...

with ur mp3 just turn up the volume with the actual mp3 player and it should sound a little better... when u hook up the mp3 player with the aux its just like plugging in giant headphones...

postman · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 195 Location: yonkers,ny

I think you would be better off with an Ipod..With itunes you can adjust volume for sure...You can also control the music with your Ipod directly.....Even with Ipod it can be a pain....But the Ipod is King...... :lalala:

bier9999 · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 39

I can't afford a new regular iPod or a used one. I can afford an iPod shuffle but that is too simple for me.

cdyerkes · Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 136 Location: CT

bier9999 wrote: I can't afford a new regular iPod or a used one. I can afford an iPod shuffle but that is too simple for me.
Perhaps you can wait a little bit and use cd's while waiting to save up?

If you want an MP3 player, the Ipod is really the best thing to use in the xd. maybe you can sell something on ebay for some quick cash.

Just suggestions.

Cylon_xD · Joined: 15 Jul 2008 Posts: 325 Location: Manheim, PA

Does anyone know, does the Scion/Pioneer radio's CD player recognize MP3 CD's at all? Most players do nowadays... I'm not sure, but if the Scion radio does, you could just burn all your MP3's directly to a CD without converting them back to CDDA format - you can copy a couple hundred MP3's onto one 800 MB CD... In your burning software, you just burn a Data CD instead of a Music CD, so it doesn't convert the MP3's back to WAV files...

That would save you all the $$$ of buying an Ipod, and all the CD controls will still work on the steering wheel and radio face...

bier9999 · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 39

Initially all my songs on my computer are WAV format and I use a program to convert them to mp3. Then I use Windows Media Player to burn the songs onto a disc. I'm not sure if the songs are further converted to CDDA format. Assuming each song is 4-5 minutes long, a CD with 700mb - 80 minutes only holds about 20 songs.

massadar · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 26

bier9999 wrote: I can't afford a new regular iPod or a used one. I can afford an iPod shuffle but that is too simple for me.

Anyone with a part-time job can afford an ipod. It's a matter of knowing how to save up money for a month or two.

The older models are usually discounted steeply right before a new model arrives. The newer iPods are expected to be announced by Apple next month (September 2008), so when that happens, that would be a good time to buy last year's model at a huge savings.

I just looked at Scion xD's website... and it says this exactly:

"Pioneer AM/FM/CD Head Unit (MP3 and Satellite Radio Ready)"

Well, it says that it is "MP3 ready". Now, I'm not sure if that's the same thing as saying "MP3 CD Ready". Stating that its "MP3 Ready" only tells us that it can play individual MP3s, like coming directly from an MP3 player, for example. But can someone else confirm that it can actually play MP3-format CDs?

Cylon_xD · Joined: 15 Jul 2008 Posts: 325 Location: Manheim, PA

OK, I just answered my own question above, YES, the CD player will play CDs with Either MP3 or WMA format music files, Up to 10 hours of music on one CD...

So that's the cheap and easy solution, over buying the Ipod. But if you're in the market for an Ipod anyway, you can go that route too!

equinox2355 · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 2590 Location: Pleasanton, CA

Cylon_xD wrote: Does anyone know, does the Scion/Pioneer radio's CD player recognize MP3 CD's at all? Most players do nowadays... I'm not sure, but if the Scion radio does, you could just burn all your MP3's directly to a CD without converting them back to CDDA format - you can copy a couple hundred MP3's onto one 800 MB CD... In your burning software, you just burn a Data CD instead of a Music CD, so it doesn't convert the MP3's back to WAV files...

That would save you all the $$$ of buying an Ipod, and all the CD controls will still work on the steering wheel and radio face...

It should be able to, my stock 06 deck recognized MP3 CDs just fine. (and that allowed for track information)

One way to kinda see if it can read MP3 CDs is if you see any "Folder" buttons. (not always the case but if you see those then it can)

Cylon_xD · Joined: 15 Jul 2008 Posts: 325 Location: Manheim, PA

bier9999 wrote: Initially all my songs on my computer are WAV format and I use a program to convert them to mp3. Then I use Windows Media Player to burn the songs onto a disc. I'm not sure if the songs are further converted to CDDA format. Assuming each song is 4-5 minutes long, a CD with 700mb - 80 minutes only holds about 20 songs.

Bier:

Open your CD burning software, select the option to "Burn a Data CD," then select all the MP3 files on your Hard drive you converted your music into, and drag them onto the blank disk, and burn the CD. You should be able to get at least 200 songs on one CD that way...

Cylon_xD · Joined: 15 Jul 2008 Posts: 325 Location: Manheim, PA

A single CD holds 700MB of data. an MP3 Song is what - 3-4 MB in size, maybe a little larger depending ion the length of the song and the compression quality of the MP3. Say 4MB per song, that comes out to 175 mp3 files to fit in 700MB...

You're looking at times of uncompressed music instead of file sizes - if you burn mp3 files using the "Music CD" setting, the software will convert your MP3 files back to WAV files (CDDA) and burn those to the CD, basically a copy of your original Commercial CD....

You have to burn it as a "Data CD"...

Sorry, I just noticed you said you used Media Player to burn your CDs - I never used that for burning, maybe someone else can tell you if you can make an MP3 disk with that, PROBABLY only a WMA disk, knowing Microsoft... you may need to get Nero or Roxio or some other burning software (if you have a burner, it should have come with SOMETHING to burn with other than MP)

oboogie · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 177

MP3 CDs are the way to go if you can't afford an iPod right now. You can download iTunes, and it will automatically covert all of your WMA files to MP3s.

Good luck!

Boiiinng · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5 Location: Covington, KY

cdyerkes wrote: The car has integrated ipod functionality which I'm sure you know. For that reason, you should get an Ipod. I use my iphone and it lets me control the iphone through the steering wheel and on dash. Works fantastic and the car should have come with both an Ipod cable and an aux cable (mine did at least)

So if you are in the market for an mp3 player...ipods are fantastic. the price might be a little higher, but you know you are getting quality and it is guaranteed to work with you xD.

I was wondering if the iPhones worked or not because the manual doesn't list them as being supported. But I'm sure the manual ws made prior to the iPhone release. I'm thinking of getting one soon, but I didn't want to have something that cool and not be able to use it in my car. Thanks for letting us know.

cdyerkes · Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 136 Location: CT

Boiiinng wrote: cdyerkes wrote: The car has integrated ipod functionality which I'm sure you know. For that reason, you should get an Ipod. I use my iphone and it lets me control the iphone through the steering wheel and on dash. Works fantastic and the car should have come with both an Ipod cable and an aux cable (mine did at least)

So if you are in the market for an mp3 player...ipods are fantastic. the price might be a little higher, but you know you are getting quality and it is guaranteed to work with you xD.

I was wondering if the iPhones worked or not because the manual doesn't list them as being supported. But I'm sure the manual ws made prior to the iPhone release. I'm thinking of getting one soon, but I didn't want to have something that cool and not be able to use it in my car. Thanks for letting us know.
yup. it works fine. when plugging it in, it will say on the iphone (this device is not supported..do you want to go into airplane mode...etc..." Just hit yes. You won't be able to recieve calls, but you can use the iphone like normal otherwise and listen to music at the same time.

HomelessGuy · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 376 Location: Ambler, PA

x50 on the ipod, i just got one recently after using a sandisk mp3 player for a while, the ipod is so much better at interfacing with the car. sound quality is alot better, and you can control the whole thing from the stock head unit. also the car charges the ipod while your driving so you dont have to worry about getting a car charger, or taking it out to charge it.

robbiej · Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 3461 Location: SW Washington

I miss my old deck, I had the 6 disc changer in my xA, that thing was great, I had it full of mp3 cd's, got me the Vegas and back without having to hear the same song twice.

bier9999 · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 39

Thanks Cylon, it worked. So I just extracted like 20 CD's worth of music into my computer totaling around 160 songs and then used Windows Media Player and burned it all into one disc using Data CD format. Now I have to throw away 20 CD's in the trash and I have this $17 cable lying around (can't refund it, threw out receipt). But on the plus side I saved about $70 if I was going to get the mp3 player.

B1GP1MP1N · Posted: 8/8/08 10:37AM Post subject:

I think the problem with using the AUX cable is that you are basically using the earphone jack from the MP3 player. That alone will reduce quality. Have you tried cranking the MP3 Player's volume as high as it will go prior to plugging it in to the aux jack? That could help. IPOD jack works fantastic!