# CD drives in a car?



## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I am still toying with the idea of getting the e3io. I will need some sort of transport mechanism, though. I know most mobile cd players have the mechanisms isolated with rubber/fluid, etc. The USB, SATA, etc. external drives do not seem to do this. Will I have issues playing while driving? My biggest concern would be scratching a disc.
I have an external USB drive and I plugged it into my desktop pc and played a disc on it and moved it around and it kept playing, so I think it would work...

What do you guys use?


----------



## palldat (Feb 6, 2011)

I have a portable bluray player that is usb powered. I would think that in the car you should be fine. We used to build custom car computing systems and used off the shelf units that worked fine in both usb and firewire.


----------



## porscheman (Jan 1, 2012)

i don't have an external on mine, the placement issues on my dash were more than the benefits. but i remember a lot of people use the slim drives from laptops for carpc use.


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

That e3io looks slick. Didn't even know something like it existed. 

Has anyone here ever used one, I was curious about a couple of things? For instance, resistive vs. capacitive touch screen. Resistive is one touch, while Capacitive is multi touch feature. But is multi touch necessary while driving? I guess it could benefit using windows 8.1. 

I guess the question is, is the Capacitive screen worth the extra $100? 

Also are there any good Navigation apps other than what they offer? How well does the Navigation even work?


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I might have answers to those questions soon!

That CoPilot Live nav looked like it was pretty good from what I read, I was going to give that one a shot.

I was going to chose the capacitive touch screen. It did seem like 8.1 would be nice with it.

The nav in theory should work as well as a double din, a screen, some maps and a GPS antenna are things they all have in common..


----------



## NealfromNZ (Sep 3, 2013)

When I had my netbook mocked up I had no issues with running a slim line Asus BD player. It ran better than my Alpine based factory cd stacker in terms of skipping. (If I nail the car in 1 / 2nd the alpine will skip)

Only issue I've had is it's needed a usb y cable with a usb power adaptor as the voltage drop on a 5 meter cable was too great (netbook in trunk)

Optical Drives - SBC-06D1S-U Blue - ASUS

Otherwise you could go down the HTPC drive route and have it open a flap somewhere in the dash. (I run a Antec HTPC case which conceals the drive nicely)

http://assets.hardwarezone.com/images/VFD.jpg
http://www.millsworld.net/images/projects/htpc/case_full.jpg


----------



## req (Aug 4, 2007)

i used a laptop CDrom that was slot load and i never heard it skip one time or scratch a disc.

i think those problems are stuck in the 90's joey 

a USB cdrom should be fine, a SATA drive should be fine. whatever you can make work will be perfect. i hope to swap my CDROM drive from my old LCD into my new setup here soon.


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

Joey, do you happen to know if you can still use hands free bluetooth phone? Also I was wondering what the shutdown of the unit is like. Does it turn off with ignition, or does it need some time delay to shutdown proper like a real PC?


----------



## req (Aug 4, 2007)

shuts off with ignition. my carpc works the same way. 

as far as hands free, yes. but there is some stuff that you need to do in order to get it to work. with centrafuse, you have to use a program called BlueSoil that integrates bluetooth with the computer.


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

Thanks req.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

I have been looking at this win8 head unit as an option also. Im thoroughly disgusted with the current head unit options lately. Im in the planning stages of my next build and leaning towards this HU. If i was going this route, i was planning to put a blu ray drive in the glove box..... sounds like your going down the same path of planning as me. Any input or discoveries anyone might have would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

Joey, when does your new unit arrive?


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

hot9dog said:


> i was planning to put a blu ray drive in the glove box...


I back my blurays up into digital format stored on a flash drive, and play through a WDTV media player. But with the Windows8 HU you could play directly through the HU. No need for a disc drive that plays a single movie when you could store and search through hundreds ok mkv files directly to the unit or flash drive.

The only down side to most car HU is the native resolution is 800x480, certainly not HD but on a small screen size it looks good enough.


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

One question I am unsure about is this HU ability to output video, to send to my headrests. I do not see a composite video out? I wonder if they could custom fit one? Looking on the website it says if you dont see something you want, to add to call them...


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

palldat said:


> I have a portable bluray player that is usb powered. I would think that in the car you should be fine. We used to build custom car computing systems and used off the shelf units that worked fine in both usb and firewire.


if it plays in laptop without skipping it will play in USB powered drive.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

The main reason i would go for the blu ray drive would be for the resolution quality that it would provide for audio discs not for movie watching. Have a growing blu ray audio collection and dont like the idea of making copies... i like playing the actual discs... i hear the difference when i have made copies for my home system. I know in the car environment the difference in resolution wouldn't make that much of a difference. ... but im weird and quirky that way. Lol


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

So you saying that 16/44.1 files recorded on blu ray media sounds better?


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

This is my point of reference. ... a client of mine gave me a blu ray copy of soundgardens superunknown. .. and i loved it and that started me collecting blu ray audio. My teen age son lost that copy, so i bought the original soundgarden blu ray from japan.... and was happy until my son found the copy in the shop. I played the copy and i could right away hear a difference in dynamics. Now my home system is very high resolution and has headroom for days... so i understand that this is not norm, but since then i now only prefer to play original made discs. Im not sure about how that copy of superunknown made... nor do i care... lol . I just know i can tell the difference with that experience. The car environment will probably not reveal any difference between the original nor a copy.... its just something i prefer. Just my mindset.


----------



## crackinhedz (May 5, 2013)

hot9dog said:


> The main reason i would go for the blu ray drive would be for the resolution quality that it would provide for audio discs not for movie watching. Have a growing blu ray audio collection and dont like the idea of making copies... i like playing the actual discs...


backing up the disc does not alter anything quality wise unless you apply filters/transcoding etc.

No reason a direct 1:1 backup would _sound_ any different. Plus you dont have to fumble around with discs.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

The option to play or audition a disc with out the necessity of making a copy of it.... sorry im old school- for a reason.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Over 80% of my music collection is on my portable hard drive...but the reference / system demo material i prefer to be on original disc. I need and want the option of playing discs. Plus it ads to the cool factor to have a blu ray drive in the glove box. My next build that im plannng is going to be a showcase on daily driver install techniques and quality. The windows 8 HU coupled with the blu ray driver would be the perfect foundation for the build.


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I have too many cd's not to have a transport mechanism. I will get all that ripped and in digital format, but I am not ready to give up disc yet..


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

hot9dog said:


> The option to play or audition a disc with out the necessity of making a copy of it.... sorry im old school- for a reason.


No, I`m sorry but your reason is retarded. If you hear difference in digital copies that means that placebo effect at works because there is absolutely positively no difference. player can be different or dacs or anything else in signal path. You pay your hard earned money on optical media you better make exact copy of it that is a necessity.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Retarded. ... ? Ok whatever. I prefer to have the option to play the formats that i want. And yes... psychoacoutics has alot to do with how we perceive music. Music is an emotional vessel. ... unless your the kind of person who is detached from the experience. .. and thats nothing wrong with that either. Its how you choose to process that information ... thats all. So please dont refer my personal experiences as retarded. I have seen your postings and have seen the products that you build... i have nothing but profprofessional respect for you and your experiences. By using the word retarded hurts my feelings.


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

hot9dog said:


> Retarded. ... ? Ok whatever. I prefer to have the option to play the formats that i want. And yes... psychoacoutics has alot to do with how we perceive music. Music is an emotional vessel. ... unless your the kind of person who is detached from the experience. .. and thats nothing wrong with that either. Its how you choose to process that information ... thats all. So please dont refer my personal experiences as retarded. I have seen your postings and have seen the products that you build... i have nothing but profprofessional respect for you and your experiences. By using the word retarded hurts my feelings.


grow a little thicker skin, please, I did nont tried to insult you, just methods you referred to. Psychoacoustics has NOTHING to do with copied vs original digital media. according to that logic BR made at production studio way superior to any copies made at the factory making copies, right?
Psychoacoustics is a science, measured and repeated multiple times in the last 40 years. 
You know what I`m deeply offended by "detached from the experience" assumption. 
tHat`s what I do and according to many do well.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Thick skin has nothing to do with anything... you dont know me... and the placebo effect is the basis of any science theory.. that includes psychoacoutics These are the words that you chose to use... not me. If you cant accept the fact that i prefer to listen to music in the manner that i choose... then there is fundamentally something wrong going on. Have a good evening.


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

hot9dog said:


> Thick skin has nothing to do with anything... you dont know me... and the placebo effect is the basis of any science theory.. that includes psychoacoutics These are the words that you chose to use... not me. If you cant accept the fact that i prefer to listen to music in the manner that i choose... then there is fundamentally something wrong going on. Have a good evening.


You right luck of knowledge does.placebo effect is basis of science theory? I havent heard such nonesense for a long time. problem as I see it that you promote inaccurate information as scientific fact confusing unexperienced members . answer my question before bailing out Do you believe that master record used in cd production sounds better then cds made from it?


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

Im' gonna jump in because this is my thread..

All of hotdogs original posts talked about how he heard a difference, and that was what mattered to him. He never said "I hear a difference and everyone should do what I am doing". He kept it all very relative to him and his quirkiness.

Victor_inox, you kind of jumped on him for that.. It's his car, his stuff, his money, his choice to do that. He never said everyone else should do it, just that he wanted to.

So, guys, chill out in my thread!!!


----------



## NealfromNZ (Sep 3, 2013)

If you did go blueray the studio master 24 bit / 192kbps recordings would be available via the format via lpcm.

A few BR music videos are in this format. Would pay to check if the audio subsystem in the pc is capable if this is something your interested in.

Could be a mute point as many car stereo dacs aren't capable of running this resolution at this stage


----------



## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

what I think is possible, is that the same "master file" one gets in high rez blue ray from the factory, as you'd buy it in the store is better than a copy someone at home makes of the same music, starting with a red book reference, on a blue ray burner.

since the music of Superunknown was created in a time of red book reference, the actual recording would have to be re-mastered in blue ray high rez, from the original actual studio tape.

This uptick in quality is certainly able to be heard, and why a blue ray from the factory sounds better than a blue ray made from a red book reference, there's a lot more stuff in there. Ideally, with exact audio copy you should be able to make a duplicate disc using a blue ray burner off of the factory blue ray disc, that is bit perfect and plays just as well as an original but some people believe burned copies of anything is less quality, a consumer player can't read all the dots and dashes of a burned disc as well as that of a factory disc.


I think if somebody finds his blue ray discs to sound better, there's a reason for it and we don't know what happened to the music from when it was first mastered on 16 bit, to when they re-mastered it on 24 bit.

maybe they just took the red book reference, didn't go back to the analog masters, and just upsampled to 24 bit architecture without doing anything else, your blue ray wouldn't have any more music information. I think I remember reading how doing a conversion causes changes in the eventual bit stream that can be audible, someone could explain that, probably.


----------



## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

in any case i think the point of all of this is that Joey needs to get into the 20th century, and maybe take a leap of faith into the 21st century...  
You know back in 2002 when my car was broken into, and i lost 3 full binders of cds and a 10changer i swore never again to be held hostage by physical media......If you ship them to me, I'll convert all of your music for you into what ever format you want.....


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

cajunner said:


> what I think is possible, is that the same "master file" one gets in high rez blue ray from the factory, as you'd buy it in the store is better than a copy someone at home makes of the same music, starting with a red book reference, on a blue ray burner.
> 
> since the music of Superunknown was created in a time of red book reference, the actual recording would have to be re-mastered in blue ray high rez, from the original actual studio tape.
> 
> ...


That`s all nice and dandy but most music mastered in late 90th was done in 24/48, in 1997 I was building recording studio for TV station, digidesign`s protools of that time was sold with master version of Madonna recording in24/48as demo. in tandem with Genelec monitors that sounded so ****ing awesome I made a copy on CD, that obviously sounded not as good as I was unable to preserve original bit stream. Experimenting thousands times after that with different bit rates I never been able to tell the difference between masters and copies of the same stream 44,48,96 or 192and up to 32bit resolution.. Whoever telling you otherwise is full of ****, end of story. Upsampling from lower bit rate will not sounds better unless some other processing took place like equalization, compression, expanding, Psychoacoustic effects, etc.


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

[email protected]insound said:


> Im' gonna jump in because this is my thread..
> 
> All of hotdogs original posts talked about how he heard a difference, and that was what mattered to him. He never said "I hear a difference and everyone should do what I am doing". He kept it all very relative to him and his quirkiness.
> 
> ...


 Joey, I have no problem with anyone believing in anything they want, I do however have a problem when nonsense presented as a fact. Some people believe that music they paid money for sounds way better then same music copied over, no amount of science will convince them otherwise. I call it Psychoconsumer effect.


----------



## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Listening to music and the science and theories with its reproduction is a hobby of mine. A hobby... not the living end of all things considered. I leave that kind of passion to the industries that i work in.... sooooo with being a hobby of mine, i would either like to build or purchase a pc head unit and associate a blu ray drive to said unit. Thats all. When i saw this posting i thought it would be a good idea to follow this posting, so i might get some insight into making my build come together. Thats all.


----------



## req (Aug 4, 2007)

listen guys. here is the deal.

ive ran with and without a CD player in my carPC build. i have been there and done that.

when people get in for a demo - a LOT of times they have their own music, and more often than not it is on a disc. it is VERY convienent to just let somone pop in a CD and let them rock and roll instead of saying

"well, you dont have any digital media - ugh get with the times! i guess you can only listen to whats on my hard disk then..."

because ive been in both situations. having an optical media device in a car is never a bad idea. i dont have one right now, and i plan on putting one back INTO my car because it is so convienent - specifically for people into music like the folks around here and at meets and competitions.

there is nothing wrong with having your whole library ripped to uncompressed wav files or FLAC or whatever - i prefer it. but having a physical copy works just as good, and is even better when people want to be able to quickly and without having to import music or find folders or files or get USB devices working.

just simple and effective.

i support both ideas, i dont think having physical media is stupid - just not as easy\fast to access as digital media (assuming its a lossless copy)


----------



## NealfromNZ (Sep 3, 2013)

cajunner said:


> what I think is possible, is that the same "master file" one gets in high rez blue ray from the factory, as you'd buy it in the store is better than a copy someone at home makes of the same music, starting with a red book reference, on a blue ray burner.
> 
> since the music of Superunknown was created in a time of red book reference, the actual recording would have to be re-mastered in blue ray high rez, from the original actual studio tape.
> 
> ...




My reason for going car pc was to get beyond the bounds of Red book. 

My issue is that I've been around long enough to remember AAA transfers onto half speed record masters played via soft plastic. For the amount of time they'd last on a turntable they sounded superb. Then came 16bit , the 1980s doldrums of audio. I was in denial and held out a decade before embracing the format of convenience .

Roll on 2000s and came the new area of started of the high def digital formats. DVDA and SACD at least 24 bits of 96k bit rates , substantially more for Sacd

Of late companies like Linn Records (use to do the old half speed master catalogues) have been doing studio masters direct or doing AAA to 24bit /96 or 192k bit rates without the current loudness issues of many current recordings. Check out some of their 192k / 24bit recording samples. It currently my only source for music downloads

Guess what, the odd studio master is appearing on bluray now. Not just re-samples of 16 bits or the standard movie studio Dolby 24/48 mixes in 400.1 audio

Possibly wasted on my modest system ....... but these high end moral / mosconi systems I see on here could no doubt do justice to audio recording containing more audio detail. 

Word of warning , if your happy with red book or 320k MP3 do not visit Linn Records. They sell crack to audiophiles and there is plenty of music to choose from.

Otherwise, build a car pc, get you bluray drive for optical options and explore hi res audio.

Recording Formats


----------



## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

point taken, Neal.

I believe I can't afford the reacquiring, of a collection that is in itself small compared to most...

and if I were to spend money on getting better copies of music I already own, I would be forced to admit that the money I spent there, was wasted compared to just buying some new music and dealing with the quality of my older music as a philosophical exercise.

It's great that people out there are embracing the new high resolution substitution, and not questioning the costs.

Unfortunately that's not my position and/or station at this time in my life, I do find 320k mp3 to be sufficient, as well as putting on vinyl or the odd cassette, since I have music on each of those mediums that I didn't dedicate time towards making digital copies of, or thieving, off the torrent sites.

for the car, plain CD's are fine for me, still. Even if there's better quality available, I'll still buy the ol' 16 bits of audio goodness for the lower price, because I'm pretty cheap as a rule.


----------



## DLO13 (Oct 24, 2010)

[email protected]plicityinsound said:


> Im' gonna jump in because this is my thread..


not anymore...


----------



## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

DLO13 said:


> not anymore...


Once you posted it on public forum that is.


----------

