iPod in your car

Hello everybody. I am new to the forums and have a few questions. I wasn't positive of which forum to post my question at since it is on multiple topics, but since most are about the iPod I decided to go here.

I am going on a long trip soon and I am trying to figure out a way to get music from my iPod in my car. My girlfriend has the thing that hooks into your iPod and your cigarette lighter of your car and signals it through the FM radio. It is pretty old (around when iPods first came out) and I was really unhappy with the quality. It constantly fades in and out, it is fuzzy, sometimes you pick up another radio station, and there is absolutely no bass.

So, does anybody know if the quality of these has greatly improved and which one to get? Also, is there another way of doing this? I am brining my MacBook in the car with me and was wondering if I could possibly just hook up my MacBook to something and play things right out of iTunes. Is there a way to have my MacBook charging in the car as well (via the cigarette lighter or whatever)?

Thanks.

JP

FM transmitters seem to vary a lot. Mine was junk, I used it for about 2 days - exactly the same reasons as you.

OTOH, if you can connect your macbook, you can connect your Ipod, so stick with the Ipod.

Does the radio have either; a cassette deck - in which case you can use an adapter which will give better quality than an FM transmitter, or b) an auxiliary (aux) input, which you can connect directly to your Ipod via a cable with 3.5mm stereo jacks on either end. That'd give great quality.

There's also a way to do it if you have a separate CD changer - ie the kind you have in the trunk with multiple disks. That's more work, but if that's all you have, post back with the model and we can advise.

Other than those, the FM transmitter is your only option. You could grab some external speakers I suppose and forget the radio, but that's probably not appealing.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't have a separate CD changer in the trunk or anywhere. I think I have an auxilary hook up with my head unit, however the head unit is really really old (and a little broken). How exactly would that work?

The head unit is a JVC, model KD-S590 I believe. Would I have to buy a cable and pop out the head unit to hook up like you said? Where do I get that cable, how easy is it, and how expensive?

Thanks much for your post. I wish there was some other option. Maybe an MP3 disc might make more sense if mine plays it. I wonder how to find that out as well.

Also, not so much for the music topic, but more for the sake of traveling, is there something that you can buy to keep your MacBook charged while in the car (via the cigarette lighter or something)?

Thanks again.
JP

I have the Griffin iTrip and it sounds absolutely amazing. I bought a first generation iTrip a couple years ago and that was a great product too.

As for connecting your Macbook to your car, you'll need a converter similar to this

Check the specs on the JVC website to see what kind/type of aux inputs it has. It's not that hard if you have basic knowledge or ripping apart a dash. Just a few clips and screws. If you're uncomfortable, you might need to seek outside help. MP3 disc would probably be better if the deck supports it.

As far as keeping the macbook charged, you can buy an ac/dc inverter that plugs into your lighter or powered accesory. It works and there are some for around 40 or more. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies.

Kash -- I'm not sure if it's my head unit, but it sounds terrible in my car. Is the Griffin iTrip reliable? I found that there was no bass and poor quality singal on the one I tried.

JP

I found the description specs of my head unit online:

Description: JVC KD-S590 CD Receiver CD-R playback • detachable face • 17 watts RMS x 4 • HS-II tuner • Advanced Sound Control Memory • direct track access

Does the CD-R playback include only music discs, or does it include data discs?

How does it look for the auxiliary hookup?

JP

I have a Griffin RoadTrip which so far has sounded great using three, wait, no four different car stereos: My wife's GM OEM CD player, my car's Alpine CD head unit, my parent's Chrysler OEM CD player, and whatever is in this rental car I have this week (new Chevy Impala with whatever stereo comes with those.) This would be one of the $100 deals, as opposed to a $50 deal. I had an iTrip for my first gen Nano, but the connector design was a little poor, and bumps would cause it to keep pausing. Even as light as the Nano is. The Roadtrip, however, has a bracket that keeps my Video solidly joined to the transmitter. I get plenty of bass and it renders the audio CD compilation version of my music collection to archival status. Well, occasionally I'll pass by some place that uses the frequency I'm using, like this college radio station I occasionally get within range of or, (less frequently but it's happened) if I'm in traffic with someone ELSE who is using the same frequency with THEIR iPod and I don't feel like switching. I'll just hit a button to switch to whatever CD happens to be in the slot.

It was essential in the rental car, since I decided to drive up to north Jersey on the same day that three tractor trailers decided to converge somehow on one another and burst into flames. Traffic was backed up about 20 miles, but I was enjoying my iTunes while we crept forward at no more than 10 MPH.

Okay I did have to change the frequency as I approached New York, but that was no bother. I usually use 91.5 around my fairly sparse suburban neck of the woods but apparently that's a spanish language station near Manhattan so I switched that to 88.9 or something like that.

Oh yes, you had another question: Most modern cars will play CD-Rs just fine. The aforementioned cars (with the exception of the rental, and thats only because I don't know) all play my compilation CDs made with iTunes just fine. My parents have one car with an older CD player that won't play burned CDs but I think it's at about the same vintage as the vehicle, which is 1996.

Direct connection is, of course, the holy grail of audio goodness but not all head units can accomodate that. There is, however, an adapter or two that tie your iPod into the antenna connection, which all head units have. That's how most of the satellite radio units interface with most cars existing OEM or aftermarket stereos, and the same can be done with an iPod.

Another vote for the Griffin iTrip! Have the one that also charges... good quality and I have to change the station once in a while on a bigger trip when another station is on that frequency. other than that, great.

Thanks for the input.

Looks like a lot of people are liking the Griffin and I might do that.

I have a Corolla, but it is not the stock cd player. I have a JVC head unit but I'm sure it's pretty old. It has no problems play burned CDs, but I think it can only play audio CDS, and not data CDs. It only says CD-R playback. So, I would have to make an audio CD of 70 minutes, instead of a much bigger data CD which would be way more convenient.

Hooking it up to my head unit will be the best from what I'm gathering from the replies. But how do I know exactly which cable to buy? The JVC site did not seem to tell me much about anything. The specs that I listed above are from another website but I don't know what most of it means.

JP

Doesn't look like you have an Aux input. If it had one, it'd be somewhere reasonably obvious. I don't think you'll have much luck connecting it directly - there doesn't seem to be any kind of input connection on that unit, so unless you're going to try and hack directly into the amp circuit, you're stuck with either CDs or the FM transmitter.

FWIW, the one I had was a Belkin one. I haven't tried the Itrip, but it sounds like it might be an improvement.

jonnyd said:

Doesn't look like you have an Aux input. If it had one, it'd be somewhere reasonably obvious. I don't think you'll have much luck connecting it directly - there doesn't seem to be any kind of input connection on that unit, so unless you're going to try and hack directly into the amp circuit, you're stuck with either CDs or the FM transmitter.

FWIW, the one I had was a Belkin one. I haven't tried the Itrip, but it sounds like it might be an improvement.

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Not always. With most aftermarket decks, if they support a CD changer, then they have an aux input, which is usually in the back of the deck.

StretchR said:

Not always. With most aftermarket decks, if they support a CD changer, then they have an aux input, which is usually in the back of the deck.

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Looking at the spec of the unit, it doesn't look like you can attach a changer.

Even if you can, if you don't actually have a changer attached, the unit will almost certainly not recognise that there's something attached to the aux input - when you go to select a changer as the source, it doesn't find a changer so it skips that selection.

Most decks that I've sen have an option someplace to turn on that port so you can see it in the source list. You would just have to buy a cable to plug into the port so that you can plug in a headphone cable or the RCA audio cable.

StretchR said:

Most decks that I've sen have an option someplace to turn on that port so you can see it in the source list. You would just have to buy a cable to plug into the port so that you can plug in a headphone cable or the RCA audio cable.

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Some newer Sonys have Aux lite, but very few if any older models will do it, as far as I know.

Anyway, that unit does not have an aux input.