This will no doubt be a boring discussion to some, but I'm just wondering why car audio manufacturers continue to flog CD players when DVD units that will play recorded MP3 discs are a much more logical alternative.

I recently replaced my Alpine 6-disc CD changer with an in-dash Alpine DVD player (no video screen; I don't drive and watch movies at the same time) that plays the full range of CD's and DVD's, including mp3's burned onto recordable discs (very hard to find at a reasonable price), and here's why:

I don't listen to FM radio anymore (far too much blah, blah, blah) and I'm certainly not going listen to satellite radio (why on earth would I want to pay to listen to the radio?!). But I still wanted to listen to my tunes when I'm out and about.

Now, indulge me while I perform some simple mathematics:

One 650 mb blank CD-R would hold about 160 mp3's (with an average mp3 size of 4 mb).
One 4.7 gb blank DVD-R would hold almost 1200 mp3's (again, with an average mp3 size of 4 mb).

If I were to burn my entire library of over 4,700 mp3's onto discs, I would have to use thirty CD-R's as opposed to only four DVD-R's.

Bear with me now, almost done.

Let's say the average length of an mp3 is four minutes. Each DVD, therefore would be equal to 4,800 minutes, or a whopping 80 hours of uninterrupted music! A recordable CD-R would give just over 10.5 hours.

Was it worth it for me to switch to a DVD mp3 player instead of keeping my changer? Four discs as opposed to thirty, eighty hours of music instead of sixty (minor maybe but still an extra twenty hours), changing one disc instead of six? Yes, I believe so.

Any thoughts?

 

You must spend an awful lot of time in you vehicle. I would say you are thinking way ahead of most people as far as having your music economically saved and very portable.

 

there is not even 80 hours worth of music out there for me to like.

i have driven many many miles, my stock cd players have all worked just fine and certainly not worth me spending 1 penny on to upgrade unless my cd player was broke, and even then i would just hook my laptop up with its external speaker system and listen to it before i ever spent that kind of money on some super duper dvd/cd player system for my car.

and even further, i would just hook my mp3 player up directly and listen to it and skip the hassle, thats what i did with the hyundai i use to own.

 

They aren't doing this becuase now they have found that people are just using MP3 players. So everyone is adding Aux inputs on the radios so you can just plug in your mp3 player and use it.

In the aftermarket sector radio manufacturers are starting to add SD card slots, or USB ports so you can put MP3 files on them and play them from there. Why buy and burn DVDs when you can just copy the files over and change them around whenever you want.

 

I've never in my life seen any form of cd hold 160 mp3s. Did i read it correctly?

 

buy an ipod?

 

That's what I was thinking as I read this.

To do a really cheapo upgrade, get one of those cassettes (if they still sell them) with a pigtail. Pop the cassette into your old car radio and play CD's or MP3's from a walkman or MP3 player.

This is probably what I'm going to do over Labor Day weekend when I go Upstate (NY).

 

Also, say you want to switch up what you are listening to, are you really going to sit there with your finger on the seek button while going 1200 songs untill what you want to hear turns up?? While driving down the road not to mention! Its almost an accident waiting to happen. With Cd's theres less on a disk, so you've most likely got to switch the disk to get some other form of music. Also 160 songs is a heck of a lot for one CD, where do you buy your disks at?

 

I totally agree with you man. My buddy likes to brag about his ipod and how he has several days worth of music on it. Like you said, i imagine thats a lot of fun scrolling through all that music while youre driving just for one song. It really dosnt take that long, but it takes longer than switching a cd. Im sure one day itll be the norm but that day is not here quite yet.

 

i got my mp3 sorted to genre and the music is all labeled in alphabetical order. i never scroll through music, just switch up the genre or playlists i have selected.

but then again, i do not like a lot of music and the music i do like i just let it play, i never get the "need" to go searching for the one song.

i also got some burned cd's sorted out into the music genre also that i can just pop in.

 

So you don't have Cable or Satellite tv then? 'Cause, "why on earth would you pay to watch tv?"

 

Logical and what sells are two different things. Hell, I think ford was offering cassette deck in the truck up until 2004-2005 before dropping it totally from the order sheet. Vast majority of the demographic that is buying trucks are older and have not migrated from their CD's to the current MP3/DVD offerings.

 

apples and oranges.

 

Another thing for manufacturer's to think about is vibration.

A DVD has a much higher data density, so it needs more accurate tracking...

Maybe building a set with a DVD drive that can withstand the vibration is not as cost-effective.

And if the demand isn't that high, why bother?

But I definitely understand, and will probably be shopping for a DVD-capable set when the time comes

 

Physical external disc media (CD/DVD) is going away as the choice of technophiles as many new top-line units have USB inputs for external hard drives.

CD and DVD mechanisms are durable and resist skipping in all but extremely high SPL/vibration situations.

Eventually we may see a move towards solid-state media as memory cards reach 50+GB levels. Eliminating parts that move is always a good thing imo.