# Android double din??



## MasterMod (Jul 14, 2011)

I've seen this a couple times on the net, here. But I have yet to see anything beyond some basic tech stories and the website...does anyone have any info or experience with it? Seems like an awesome idea imo, and decent specs. Release date is supposed to be Spring 2012 I guess.

Please discuss.


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

It was only a matter of time.

Soon, head unit hardware in cars will be all about the interface. Function will be determined by software.


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## piyush7243 (Sep 9, 2009)

Thats a great development. The specs look good but not much info on the Audio capabilities front. They have to get an Android based software which is plugin based to get the audio settings in place. But over a good combination of tech.


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## denetnz (Jul 31, 2009)

Cool! 

But WOW! - This looks even better - has USB 2 ports and mini pci-e, so you could use if purely for control and processing and use a decent quality outboard DACs. SATA ports for your 4TB+ of storage. Possibilities are endless once suitable processing software becomes available. I wonder if it has enough grunt for phase linear FIR filters?

7″ android car pc with intel Atom? | Android car audio

◦Intel graphic media accelerator
◦Processor Intel Atom
◦Graphic: 3,150, supports DirectX 9.0
◦HDD: built-in 8/16GB SSD, no mechanism and completely quiet
◦Expansion: 1 x mini PCI-E and 1 x CF port
◦IDE: 1 x mini IDE
◦SATA: 2 x SATA ports
◦GPS: SIRF-III chip, supports multiple navigation software and map
◦Screen: 7.0 inches touch screen, 800 x 480 pixels, Contrast ratio: 500:, 600mcd/m2
◦Amplifier: 4 x 50W amplifier speaker
◦I/O front: 1 x USB 2.0 and 1 x SD card reader
◦I/O bac:2 x USB 2.0, 2 x RJ45, 1 x VGA, 1 x PS/2, 1 x mic,1 x out audio jack
◦Video input: AV x 2 AV2
◦RAM: 1 x DDR3 1,066/1,333MHz 200 pins SODIMM (maximum 4GB)

Don't know what they cost yet - probably not cheap. 

This has got me real excited about what the future holds!


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## denetnz (Jul 31, 2009)

Looking at the specs on atom chips it may be a little short on processing power, but man, you can see where we are heading!


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## tornaido_3927 (Nov 23, 2009)

Chaos said:


> It was only a matter of time.
> 
> Soon, head unit hardware in cars will be all about the interface. Function will be determined by software.


Is it silly to hope that they build a decent headunit and lace it with the Android software, rather than pretty much build an Android tablet in a double din size with a couple of pre-outs..?


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

tornaido_3927 said:


> Is it silly to hope that they build a decent headunit and lace it with the Android software, rather than pretty much build an Android tablet in a double din size with a couple of pre-outs..?


All in good time, I'm sure.

When typical everyday customers walk into the shop expecting to stream audio over bluetooth links in their cars as easily as they once played a CD, you can practically see the market evolving right in front of you.

Do the manufactures notice this trend? Of course they do.


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

piyush7243 said:


> Thats a great development. The specs look good but not much info on the Audio capabilities front. They have to get an Android based software which is plugin based to get the audio settings in place. But over a good combination of tech.


IIRC somebody was working on making an Andriod interface with the MiniDSP so you could do it all via USB cable and a tablet. If that is correct this would be an awesome way to hook it straight into the HU and do real time tuning via a HU rather than having to carry another piece of hardware around. 

Didnt somebody also say that one of the reasons for the delay of the 3Sixty.3 was and Android and iPad interface?


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## Candisa (Sep 15, 2007)

I think this is a great, but nothing more than a logical evolution in caraudio!

Carputer-enthousiasts have computers with customizable and expandable software and hardware in their cars for years and the main reasons why this didn't become mainstream are:
- the ready-made double-din solutions were/are crap and a custom solution needs a lot of work, probably voiding the warranty of new cars
- boot-times were slow with HDD's and HDD's didn't last very long in a car.
- a lot of configure/maintenance work to let it work properly

This new generation of headunits can be the solution for all this problems:
- A good double-din system is easier to build properly when running a very light-weight OS
- SSD's are getting cheaper, don't mind sitting in a moving car and are fast
- Android is a pretty low-maintenance, easy to configure, easy to expand platform that is perfect for stuff like this (not having to run 50 programs/services at the same time, not having to work with heavy spreadsheets/databases/simulation tools/...), that's why it's so popular on smartphones!

Isabelle


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## mikepf68 (Dec 24, 2009)

Well theyve come out with the iPhone as a headunit so a tablet im sure is next.


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## BowDown (Sep 24, 2009)

Major draw back to using an android tablet, or something like this HU is going to be processing. Either create an audio based version of android to control 8 channels of audio.. or give us an optical audio out so there's no digital to analog loss with using external processors. 

This is why I have my samsung Q1 running the show. It runs Windows XP (or 7) and allows me to run a standard USB soundcard for optical out (to my H700). The computer is a bit underspec'd to run 8 channels of processing, but 5 channels it can do without a problem.


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## soloz2 (Dec 20, 2010)

Something like this would be great. Get an OBD Bluetooth adapter and stream all your vehicles live data... Set up what graphs or gauges you want to see and you can monitor in real time. Perfect for high performance cars. Switch over to GPS if you want, or audio/video etc.


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## dutchschultz (Jul 27, 2011)

From what i remember there's a released android headunit for e46 bmws


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## Svendingo (Jun 17, 2008)

http://www.androidcaraudio.com/2011/05/dynavin-e46-on-android/




Found that in the link above. 



Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


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## Bampity (Nov 2, 2010)

Neat.


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## slim142 (Aug 5, 2010)

That is really cool.

A Tegra based hardware device with Android 2.3

As long as the top of the line heat units dont go above $1k, it will definitely grab a decent market share within a short amount of time.


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## xyvyx (Feb 16, 2009)

denetnz said:


> Looking at the specs on atom chips it may be a little short on processing power, but man, you can see where we are heading!


I don't know which Atom chip they're using, but I built a Windows 7 machine using an Atom 330 (and nvidia ION graphics) and it was quite speedy! If it can handle windows, Android should be a piece of cake!


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## deadrx7conv (Aug 25, 2010)

Thats all I need is a head unit that crashes when I'm listening to something. 

I'll take function over form. I don't need big/bloated software running the stereo. 

I want and will keep the volume knob. And, I don't want any frilly features that are not usable by the majority. 

The simplicity of a quality system that sounds great will be replaced by a gimmick for the gee-whiz crowd, like just about every other product out there.


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## nomed (May 17, 2008)

I prefer to wait for a minimum I3 based hardware. Atom base CarPC is a very limited and slow. At least he quite cheap.


E7500 RULE!!!


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

I've wanted to get full android integration for a while, and the major drawback with android and the carpc solution is that pretty much every interface software runs on windows, and unless it's changed in the past couple of months, there's no emulator/virtual machine app to run windows apps on android. To me, one of the biggest bonuses to a carpc is being able to use the tuning software on the fly. Past that, getting software and audio processing power is no problem, it's just getting windows apps to run.

When I can make my source unit an android tablet and connect to a DVD rom drive and use tuning software and rta from the deck, I'll be the first to switch. I'd love to do this.

It may be possible to have a carpc installed, then use a smaller tablet like the HTC one, and have an app that lets you remotely control the carpc. I know there are vlc remote control apps for media, so there may be a way to do it like that, but you'd be doing it over wireless or Bluetooth, which isn't necessarily bad, just not as reliable as a cable. That would be pretty ideal though. The tablet is your main interface for whatever, and you remote connect to tune or update your PC.

There are some Linux setups that get the job done pretty well. With enough horsepower, virtualbox could be used for the windows based apps.

A universal android USB driver seems to be the main discouragement for a lot of integration projects like this.


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## link2009 (Dec 16, 2010)

I disagree with the above poster.

Windows is made for a desktop, not for a car. I find Android is much better suited for actually getting things done quickly (fine-tuning options in a car). You will never need Windows in your car (even if you use vLite to remove unnecessary components) simply because all of the applications you want on Windows are probably ported to Android.

I can hardly wait for this to come out, as long as (as someone pointed out) they don't just throw in an amplifier with pre-outs and leave the Android O/S as-is. They definitely need to fine-tune a ROM that is actually specialized for your car. Bootstrapping should be extremely quick and by that I mean 5 seconds. I don't want to wait for my HU to boot as slow as my phone does (2 minutes).


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## Se7en (Mar 28, 2007)

At the rate in which IOS and Android platforms are evolving, I'd hate to have something that I paid over a grand for, be out of date in 3 months and yet be confined to a particular chassis.

At lease with a mobile pc, you can upgrade the parts as you go.


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## ecbmxer (Dec 1, 2010)

For me to really want to get into one of these, I think I would want it to have all the audio processing on board, so there would be no need for another $500+ processor unit in addition. How do these thing handle internet connectivity? Do they have a built in bluetooth adapter that uses a phone as a hotspot, or their own connection built in? Pretty cool stuff.


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

android phone -> hdmi out -> converter box -> 3sixty or other processor of choice. need a cd to tune? rip to mp3 and play through device. you're going to delete them after you're done so rip in flac or aac or whatever the lossless is. That is my plan. Just need to find another car dock that I'm will to hack up into my dash.


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## kelrog (Apr 11, 2009)

Thumper26 said:


> A universal android USB driver seems to be the main discouragement for a lot of integration projects like this.


The next Android release ICS Ice Cream Sandwich will be combining Honeycomb (tablet OS) and Gingerbread (Handset OS) and with USB host support (mice, keyboards, etc.)


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

spl152db said:


> android phone -> hdmi out -> converter box -> 3sixty or other processor of choice. need a cd to tune? rip to mp3 and play through device. you're going to delete them after you're done so rip in flac or aac or whatever the lossless is. That is my plan. Just need to find another car dock that I'm will to hack up into my dash.


show me a decent converter.
decent means firstly 96/24 as minimum requirement for the optical output and then we have other thinks to discuss (decent player , eg foobar2000 or equivalent etc)
people using carpcs in their majority dont give a $%I7 about sq , while they really dont understand what those nuts mean that centrafuse player really sucks and needs to be replaced. same persons have no idea what is flac and why is superior to mp3 ( and even some of them tryed to compre mp3 and flac , with the later being created using as source not a cd , but a downloaded mp3 !!!! - go figure...)

so still i have doubts that we will really see a decent carpc/win7/android out-of-the-box solution in the near future


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

You're expecting perfect SQ out of this? Not likely. Space is a premium in the phones/double din. I would take a hit of SQ to have convenience. I drive while I listen so that "hit" is lost while I'm driving anyways.


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## Speedcult (Sep 2, 2011)

Personally I'm looking forward and can only hope they offer different "types" just like in pc. Such as a basic all-arounder, wifi tether, etc. and then a more multimedia powerhouse type. Of course Android has the ability to be configured but to control cost, having 2 or 3 models might make it more accessable and by doing so, the more hands (and minds) that can help build upon and explore limits. Isnt that why so many enjoy doing stuff and building stuff out of parts, to see what we CAN do? Android was basically open source for those that had a little programming skill, now look at where it is. I'm sure the same will be possible with thr Android deck.


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## kelrog (Apr 11, 2009)

just wait till all those HTC products have Beats Audio in them, they are going to kick ass....... 


haha, i can't keep a straight face with that one.


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## bakkenar (Jun 8, 2010)

I thought long and hard about buying a 7" tablet instead of the 7" pioneer that I ended up buying, but it raised more questions than it answered. The software would be the easy part, its just that someone with a lot of hardware expertise needs to interface it with the rest of the car. It'd be nice, but it doesn't need 100 discrete channels blah blah. Let's start simple, and work our way up. I just want 5 channel out, a nice equalizer/crossover, some place to plug in steering wheel controls, and the ability to act as a USB host


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## cvjoint (Mar 10, 2006)

So what is the benefit of this? We had double din car pc s before. This one just runs Android as opposed to the much more flexible Windows. 

The Android solution has always been there in a much better package, it just requires a 1+1 combo. I've been docking my Droid X in my car and connecting it to a P99 head. This gives me everything I need with a 4.3" screen. 

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/1342732-post17.html

For those of you that want a larger screen you just need to figure out how to dock an Android pad like this one:

Samsung Galaxy Tab preview -- Engadget


Basically the audio gets routed via Bluetooth to a capable headunit. The head does other stuff the Android can't do like radio and a CD transport. In turn the Android does all the media playback and comes loaded with GPS and boundless internet. You just need to make sure the Bluetooth works fine. Some heads come with USB that can be converted to mini usb to charge it in case you GPS for long drives. If it doesn't you can simply get a hardwired miniusb in a car to charge it.


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## kelrog (Apr 11, 2009)

Droid Bionic mod brings HDMI mirroring and Webtop to your car, please drive responsibly -- Engadget


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## MasterMod (Jul 14, 2011)

denetnz said:


> Cool!
> 
> 7″ android car pc with intel Atom? | Android car audio
> 
> This has got me real excited about what the future holds!


This would be pretty sick to say the least...bringing carpc capabilities to the masses.



chefhow said:


> IIRC somebody was working on making an Andriod interface with the MiniDSP so you could do it all via USB cable and a tablet. If that is correct this would be an awesome way to hook it straight into the HU and do real time tuning via a HU rather than having to carry another piece of hardware around.


Must have lol. Would take everything to a whole new level when it comes to in-car sound tuning, streamlining everything.



soloz2 said:


> Something like this would be great. Get an OBD Bluetooth adapter and stream all your vehicles live data... Set up what graphs or gauges you want to see and you can monitor in real time. Perfect for high performance cars. Switch over to GPS if you want, or audio/video etc.


This has been happening for a while lol...look up Torque on your phone...the capabilities are already in place and ready. I have a few friends running this type of setup on tablets and phones in their cars.



ecbmxer said:


> For me to really want to get into one of these, I think I would want it to have all the audio processing on board, so there would be no need for another $500+ processor unit in addition. How do these thing handle internet connectivity? Do they have a built in bluetooth adapter that uses a phone as a hotspot, or their own connection built in? Pretty cool stuff.


Here's my thing...there is absolutely no reason that there wouldn't be a way to do full processing capabilities on the HU itself. Even if it didn't come built-in, someone could easily create a program and sell it for $20 on the marketplace (quite expensive for the market but cheap for what it can do). It could easily handle 8 channel time correction, 32 bands eq per channel, 3 and 4 way crossovers...software-wise all if would do is correct everything digitally before it even goes to the rca outputs, so there's no need to 'take-over' any stock capabilities, if you will. Get yourself a usb-style or phone jack mic depending on how the HU is manufactured, and you can do *everything *from the HU, no need for *anything *external.

As far as processing power goes, Android already has the capabilities to handle the processing without any real issues...just make sure you don't a ton of crap on it like you do with a phone and you're good to go.

And in regards to internet connectivity, all the unit has to have is a sim card interface or whatever else is needed (ie Verizon) embedded into the unit...just walk into your cell phone provider's store and add an extra line...or add a built-in capability to run off your phone's wireless tether (if you don't have that, then just root your phone and get it already).

One more thing that I haven't noticed anyone mention yet (beyond pandora) is the capability with Google Music to stream your complete music collection to your HU! On the Google note, with them buying Motorola's phone manufacturing capabilities, I could see Motorola coming out with one of these in the next couple years, too, and then cell service integration would happen even faster and easier.

That's all my rambling for now lol...in case you can't tell, I kinda want one of these 


Larry


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

streaming music to hu is not a problem today , streaming and reproduction of hd files is yet to come.
to my point of view either minidsp can be intergrated to android tabs or somebody develops driver for usb audiocards.
until that time the best solution (imho) is to use logitech squeezybox and the free app that gives you control and send the optical out to your beloved processor. 
but 
there is no radio option (not to mention that tab radios are not the best of the market) unless processor has analog input.
in this way you have all the android goodies in the tab while music is not handled through the onboard processor but through squeezybox and your processor.
yes you still need a volume control (and i do not mean the tab which will kill your dynamic range but control on the analog stage of the processor , eg alpine pxah800 with rux) so things are complicated for everyday driving.
for this reason I m staying with my w505 until all above are solved. 
on the other hand existing carpcs can intergrate all these with some effort but i find it silly to spend eur500 for an 8" monitor that has resistive touch screen and hardly reaches 800x480 resolution. with the same money you get samsung tab with a display that cannot be compared.


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## R4a2m0o (Sep 22, 2011)

Cool.


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## BowDown (Sep 24, 2009)

Sounds good on paper Master Mod, but until the hardware is out there the software can't exist.


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## Kryptoroxx (Jul 3, 2011)

I will be the one out of the group to mention that a Droid powered HU will be the easiest however I think that the lesser known Linux might have more of an edge in this market than you might think. I have played around with some of their audio programs and there are some that are already very complex but what's lacking is the useability of it. I use linux at my house and I'm working on setting it up on my home server simply for the fact that linux(when set up correctly) doesn't crash as much as windows, has some great features that are ot anywhere else, and it is constantly evolving into a better and better product. Anyway to make a long story short I wouldn't count out linux for this type of application. It happens to be one of the best specialized application OS out there. There's a TON of different versions of it all dedicated to a different type of user. Most computer hardware now-a-days supports 7.1 audio without any kind of add-on card. Add-on cards can bring supreme SQ very easily into the realm of possibility. However what the key is again is the software. A couple of technologies still need to be developed/get cheaper before we have computers running our audio system and our cars though. The SSD needs to get cheaper which it is....slowly. Bluetooth and the mythical Redtooth is still in development. There also will need to be a standard platform on which to build from. Maybe it's android and maybe it's linux but all the producers of HU's are bascially going to have a little product war on this like the HD DVD and BLURAY products did a few years ago. Just my 2cents. Looks like a cool idea though definitely. I think in the end though until tech gets a whole lot better carputers are going to live in the glovebox for a good one until the circuits get small enough to jam everything into the dash....and then cooling will be an issue lol.


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

android runs on linux. You can remove the android code and run linux if you want. but there is no linux level development going on for it.


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## BLD MOVS (Sep 23, 2007)

Subscribed. I. cant. wait. for. this.


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## MasterMod (Jul 14, 2011)

BowDown said:


> Sounds good on paper Master Mod, but until the hardware is out there the software can't exist.


Then how the hell do we make it...I've got a soldering iron lol 


Yes I know this, my point was that it's not much of a leap at all...it could easily be implemented (and developed) in less than a year tbh. Just someone needs to take the leap and get it done.


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## JMooney5115 (Aug 5, 2009)

I like this talk of ready made in dash carputers, but I'd rather build my own. So, I have a plan for my carputer. This plan is to run Honeycomb on an Intel x86 chip. It will run on a custom built computer with a 7" touch screen with an Intel x86 chip and SSD. The thing is, I'm unsure if Honeycomb will interface with the touch screen which is why I am waiting for others to test this. If anyone is interested in Android on an x86 chip, check here: android-x86 - An open source project to provide android support on x86 - Google Project Hosting. A live Honeycomb .ISO is available in the download section if anyone wants to test this out for me .


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## BoonDoggie (Aug 22, 2010)

JMooney5115 said:


> I like this talk of ready made in dash carputers, but I'd rather build my own. So, I have a plan for my carputer. This plan is to run Honeycomb on an Intel x86 chip. It will run on a custom built computer with a 7" touch screen with an Intel x86 chip and SSD. The thing is, I'm unsure if Honeycomb will interface with the touch screen which is why I am waiting for others to test this. If anyone is interested in Android on an x86 chip, check here: android-x86 - An open source project to provide android support on x86 - Google Project Hosting. A live Honeycomb .ISO is available in the download section if anyone wants to test this out for me .


 x86 has little place in a car, its really overkill for 99.9999% what you would do with it. But build till your hearts content, would be nice to see.
Android running with ARM processors is the ****. Mind you, the commercial versions of Android we see on our phones and tablets is still bloated compared to a blank slate version. Not that its bloated by much, it runs quite well on 256 MB. This is neither here nor there as Android in its current state runs sweet on a dual core ARM setup (whether Tegra or TI IMAP or Snapdragon, the more popular licensees) And, frankly, we've seen the tip of the iceberg. When Tegra 4 core (Kal-El) drops, I think we'll truly see prime time for Car audio based applications to shine. I haven't seen any real workload audio apps fro Android (FIR filters, sound processing, et c.) but I do play with music-making apps, notably synthesizers, and one app, Jasuto, which is a modular type synth environment, makes my dual core Tegra based Motorola Atrix beg for mercy on some relatively simple synth designs.
My opinion on this is the idea of efficiency. I hate to buy devices that just bridge gaps. I think tablets are ridiculous, mostly, and I really hate to buy a HU when my phone can do almost everything a HU can and more (I can have my phone hooked up to my car comp and run engine diags with a Bluetooth connection in real time. And that's only with one simple $5.00 app. I'm easily confirmed that there are many more apps that would do even better, how many HUs do that? Not carpcs of course, I mean your big bang Alpine or Pioneer nav unit. Not many, if any have the facilities to do such) What I love about the open ended Android enviro is that the limitation are the developers, and the money you spend, which, app-wise, aint ****, really. So if our phones can perform the function of many HUs, why spend money on one?
The post with the guy using his Moto phone with its lame ass Webtop modified laptop is genius. Not perfect, but if i can use my phone, but hooked to a bigger touch sensitive interface, using my phone as the engine.... Oh yeah, we're on our way. Put this in perspective: this is the alpha build of something like this. Refinement is easy, needing 3-4 geeks locked in a bedroom with four days and unlimited Bawls sodas. Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but you guys should get me.
Somebody mentioned the whole sq thing. I've been working with 24/96 for a decade now, in music. Digital is a simplicity nowadays. Its everywhere. You can pick up a $40 Audigy soundcard and get decent 24/96 multichannel. My point is: it aint hard, so we need to stop treating it as if its this holy grail of audio, only reached by a delicate few. Now I honestly don't know what my phone puts out, but it does have an HDMI hook up. HDMI can do 24/96 quite well, and multiple channels of it. 7.1? Cake. Maybe Motorola hasn't used an multichannel implementation, I don't know (haven't seen a review site go that far into detail, and my phone wont play AC3 files, which I'm sure is a software limitation, not hardware.) Let it be know that my phone uses top quality Wolfson D/A converters, so I just don't think Moto would skimp on anything digital. But getting decent digital audio out of a device as simple as a phone, easy peasy.
So to sum this rant up, what i'd like to see: and universal touchscreen (well, even device specific) that will display your phones display, with bigger icons and what not, and your phone using an App software system for what have you (like Android already has) your phone connected to a dock, with an HDMI (or better digital) connection, then to a D/A converter using whatever quality (of any brands making), you can afford (Rockford, Alpine, Pioneer, all the names make something similar to this, but no HDMI connection), then analog out to your fav amps. Is this madness? Is it? IS IT? (that was Loki for the new Thor movie, love that scene!) Navigation, audio, video, phone, internet, engine diags, all this easily done with a phone.
I'm out.

Well, no, I'm not. I'd also like to add an analog volume knob, a sound processing app (time delay, auto filtering, Audessey type stuff. There is a Room EQ software/app, Room EQ Wizard that does pretty much what i'm asking. Theres a Linux version, which means it possibly could be ported to Android easily, however, it would require now an audio input for my little dream system, for a mic.). Im not going to add a DVD player, as its time is fading, and you can just rip a dvd to your phone (x264!)


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## JMooney5115 (Aug 5, 2009)

You're right, x86 would be overkill. I'm looking for fast boot and no lag anytime, not to say there is lag on Android phones I just don't want the ability for it to happen. Also, I'm worried about the screens manufacturers will use not displaying well in bright sunlight. I will most likely wait and see what technology comes out within the next few months to make my final decision. One big reasons for the x86 is if Android Honeycomb can run on it. Having the home, menu, back, and search button on the bottom of the screen at all times would be great.

There is technology which I believe has been discussed in this thread to where you hook an iPhone/iPod to a touchscreen with an electronic interface. This allows you to completely control you're iPhone/iPod. If this device was in existence for Android, all I would need is a nice touch screen since I have an Incredible.

What I don't like about the HDMI out and VGA out is that the screen has to be on for it to function, not sure if HDMI requires this but I assume so. I think that's all for now, if I have something else I'll chime in later.


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

pankrok said:


> show me a decent converter.
> decent means firstly 96/24 as minimum requirement for the optical output and then we have other thinks to discuss (decent player , eg foobar2000 or equivalent etc)
> people using carpcs in their majority dont give a $%I7 about sq , while they really dont understand what those nuts mean that centrafuse player really sucks and needs to be replaced. same persons have no idea what is flac and why is superior to mp3 ( and even some of them tryed to compre mp3 and flac , with the later being created using as source not a cd , but a downloaded mp3 !!!! - go figure...)
> 
> so still i have doubts that we will really see a decent carpc/win7/android out-of-the-box solution in the near future


remembered seeing this a while back. like years ago. going to break apart my old droid x and see if i can find the audio chip, its outputs and get enough mustard from the phone for this. 
HOW TO ADD TOSLINK DIGITAL OUTPUT TO YOUR CD PLAYER FOR LESS THEN


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## AAAAAAA (Oct 5, 2007)

IMO this wouldn't breath back any life into after market HU's.
More lickely is something like this making it's way into OEM's.

We have often talked about how much of a pain it is to remove and loose stock features that come with todays complexe receivers... but some of them are coming with larger screens...this will only become more and more popular. If you car comes stock with a 10inch screen, no way the average user (and even most of us) will contemplate switching that out.

HU days are goin going....

But this is good, as OEM give us better and better integrated systems, it will be easier to, like smart phones, put apps on them to do what we require them to do... or hack them...

Think about having a deck that has 6 8 10 outptus... not that uncommon... put a program on there with TA xovers EQ everything we owuld ever want... sure it would come out through high level inputs but that's no biggie.


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

spl152db said:


> remembered seeing this a while back. like years ago. going to break apart my old droid x and see if i can find the audio chip, its outputs and get enough mustard from the phone for this.
> HOW TO ADD TOSLINK DIGITAL OUTPUT TO YOUR CD PLAYER FOR LESS THEN


i wouldnt bet on this!
pcb has quite tiny tracks for such a job
you will also need some decent power supply but this can be built later on.
so I guess that everybody believes that all optical outputs are same because digital signal is just 0 and 1. 
it certainly doesnot sound like this and there huge differences from a digital output to another.
about analog output driving amps directly , this has little to do with sq.
even single din hu lack of power supply to the analog stage in order to properly drive the input of an amplifier (ever played with line drivers?) so phone or tab have even less capabilities. dac lets say not exactly the problem, what about final stage? opamps need no less than +-12V (opa2134 works better with +-16V) , a tab certainly lacks this power supply so until something new is in the semiconductor market it will never drive the input of the amplifier. this is why i insist in the external audio card , which if made for proffessional audio applications have much more to offer to sq part.

even using only their digital output there is a difference. 
ideally we should be able to use something like this which stream asynchronously digital signal to the input of a dac (or a dsp) with minimum jitter. but somebody has to write the android driver for this.


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

if someone wrote the driver, my phone could host this is a usb device. but then its just getting dumb. I may buy one of the cheap hdmi converters that creates a spfid output and go from there.


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

this is something id like to try also


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## jimmydean (Jan 4, 2011)

I'm running a rooted Nook Color. It's removable, too.


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