HydrogenAudio

Lossy Audio Compression => Ogg Vorbis => Ogg Vorbis - General => Topic started by: Alexxander on 2004-12-09 14:05:59

Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Alexxander on 2004-12-09 14:05:59
I have looked everywhere on the Internet (I think). I looked on major search engines, forums and on trademark sites and couldn't find any car radio which supports ogg or flac. Well, I did, just one, Kenwood Music Keg based on Phatnoise box. It's based on cartridges but I am actually looking for a car radio supporting CD's with Ogg, or even better: supporting DVD with Ogg. Neither did I find car radios with integrated DVD supporting mp3. It should be much cheaper to produce than Phatnoise based ones.

It should be simple and cheap to implement since there are several portable players supporting ogg out there. Why still don't exist CD- or DVD-car radios supporting Ogg? Any ideas about why or upcoming models?

Please correct me if I missed existent models.

Thx in advance
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: hangman on 2004-12-09 14:34:36
Well if it does exist (haven't seen such a thing either) I would buy one. So there ya go Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, Alpine, etc. you already have two customers lined up, although if you send me a free one I reckon I still got some more room for stickers on my car.

Guess the problem is that the average consumer wouldn't even know what to do with it.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Teqnilogik on 2004-12-09 14:41:21
My guess is because the average consumer doesn't even know what MP3 is, or just has a basic understanding.  Ogg Vorbis is way out there to the average consumer.  Most have never even heard of the format.  I guess manufacturers don't feel dedicating resources to Ogg Vorbis development in their product is justified since the majority of their customers aren't even aware of the format.

I would like to see more formats implemented in players rather than just MP3 and WMA in the future.  My hope is that AAC catches on as well.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: kotrtim on 2004-12-11 02:36:02
Oh Please don't give up
Keep checking this topic

I still can remember there's a member here who owns a Ogg Vorbis Car radio which has HDD....

It can only support max bitrate at 192kbps??????

JUST WAIT FOR HIS/HER POST
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Otto42 on 2004-12-11 06:27:03
Generally, car stereo and other hardware manufacturers will support whatever format the chipsets they're using support. They're buying a single chip for the decoder and sticking it in there. If it'll do MP3 and WMA, then their product will do MP3 and WMA. These aren't generic processor solutions, usually.

If you want hardware support for OGG, then get chip manufacturers to produce OGG capable decoders at low prices.

I'd be absolutely thrilled if there existed a hardware decoder that could decode MP3, WMA, AAC, M4A, OGG, MPC, FLAC, SHN, APE, etc, etc. A one chip solution that could decode anything would be the holy grail, IMO.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Alexxander on 2004-12-11 23:16:51
Quote
Generally, car stereo and other hardware manufacturers will support whatever format the chipsets they're using support. They're buying a single chip for the decoder and sticking it in there. If it'll do MP3 and WMA, then their product will do MP3 and WMA. These aren't generic processor solutions, usually.

If you want hardware support for OGG, then get chip manufacturers to produce OGG capable decoders at low prices.


What about those portable players which suppport mp3 and ogg? It's very reasonable to suppose they work with one decode chip (for less power consumption). Anyone knows for sure?
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: rjamorim on 2004-12-11 23:42:13
Quote
Oh Please don't give up
Keep checking this topic

I still can remember there's a member here who owns a Ogg Vorbis Car radio which has HDD....

It can only support max bitrate at 192kbps??????

JUST WAIT FOR HIS/HER POST
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=259045"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Meh, that's the PhatBox.

And said member is probably ScorLibran.

The max bitrate is actually lower than 192kbps, IIRC. That's why it isn't really an usable solution - at least, one can't claim "vorbis compliancy".
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: slippyC on 2004-12-12 01:22:38
I would much prefer upgradability/expandibility and some cost increase than be stuck with a chip that only supports a couple of codecs(decoding is built into chip, instead of processing some external algo from some flashable source or the chip itself could contain rewritable memory).  Something along the lines of the I-river players.  I admit I don't know alot about Hardware on this level, but another thing is you wouldn't have to worry much about power consumption. 

Maybe the size has something to do with it, but that still gets back to the upgradability of the I-River players and their size. 

Why nothing like this for mobil audio yet?

It may all be part of product cycles, but that is only a guess.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: indybrett on 2004-12-12 02:11:20
Be not troubled...

It is in the works, and I will be one of the first to buy one.

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2004/irivercar.html (http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2004/irivercar.html)

It says MP3, but I expect it will support Vorbis too. My H140 does.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Calufraxis on 2004-12-30 14:59:36
I would upgrade car radio immediately if I could find one that would play flac/ogg off a dvd, but I don't see that for years...

As far as expandability and such, that's why I purchased a car CD player with aux line in on the front. So I have mp3 on CD, plus if I want, I take my Karma and play Flac or Ogg on trips. 

Admittedly, this isn't a perfect solution, or even all that convienient but it does allow me to be in control of my music. It also allows me to use laptop (all formats), and even my pocketpc. I just keep the cable in the visor so any device works. It will also support satellite radio if I can ever get beyond how it sounds.

If you like to build your own, then there is always www.cajun.nu 

And just for info, I saw a lowend car radio at CircuitChity for only $70 with an aux line in. So it really isn't that expensive of a solution.

Good Listening,
Cal
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Lucem on 2005-01-02 04:21:07
Wouldn't be better if  someone come with an in-dash adapter for IRivers H or Jetaudio M3 players ?.
Something that you can just plug in and detach?
That seems to be the perfect solution, since your songs library is always in one place and there is no wasted resources for other device.
That could also work for a others players like IPod, and Creative Video players, this could be accesories best seller, and would be cheap to manufacture.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: jakamoko on 2005-09-24 21:32:03
This might be of interest:

Yakumo Car Radio (http://www.yakumo.de/produkte/index.php?pid=1&ag=Autoradio)

It's an in-dash cd player/sd card reader/usb reading radio that can play ogg (this is only specified in the pdf manual available from that page. No DVD capability, but it's a step in the right direction, and cheap too - Amazon (UK) is selling it for £70
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Nero on 2005-09-24 22:50:52
In my old car I had an 80GB Kenwood Music Keg, and it would play WMA, MP3, WAV, Vorbis, AAC and my format of choice: FLAC.

At the time, it couldn't play Vorbis over about 192kbps because of buffer underrun issues, but they've since upgraded the decoder and firmware (with some of my help testing prototype code), and now it can decode up to 320 (is that -q 9?), according to my experience.

But the PhatNoise forum (the company that produces both the PhatBox and Music Keg) is defunct now.  I think the company is still around, though.

It's the only option I know of that offers Vorbis playback in a car audio system.  I agree that it'd be great to have one that's CD or DVD based, or even a HD in the head unit (as some companies do, like Sony, but with Vorbis decoding).  The PhatBox/Keg was a Linux-based system with a removable cartridge that was usually installed in the trunk.

Consider, though, that there are three ways you can have a portable player work with your car's head unit, and therefore be limited only by what the portable player can decode.  (1) Mini-jack to head unit, if the head has such a port.  (2) Some setups allow wiring the portable's output into the AUX input of the head, but it involves pulling the head and doing some wiring by hand.  Same result as (1), but with more installation work.  (3) Use of an FM modulator.  There are some available for the iPod, as well as for some other portables (and possibly one that is Vorbis-friendly).
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: rompel on 2005-09-25 00:32:03
Also worth mentioning is the Empeg/RioCar.  The alpha versions (http://www.empeg.com/v3alpha/) of the player software support Vorbis and FLAC.

Of course it was discontinued 4 years ago today (http://www.empeg.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?section=news&article_id=114)  but still has an active user base (http://empegbbs.com) (with a whole bunch of 3rd-party add-ons) and used units frequently show up on eBay.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: de Mon on 2005-09-25 00:57:05
You can buy VW Golf next year  . Since next year every VW Golf is equiped with Ogg Vorbis playback capable car audio. You can check for this on www.vorbis.com.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Mr_Rabid_Teddybear on 2005-09-25 01:19:41
For selfbuilding projects there's Cajun (http://www.cajun.nu/), as Calufraxis mentioned, which is Linux based. In addition you have various links from this page (http://mpxplay.net/) to projects using MPXPlay on (Free- or MS) DOS.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: VEG on 2006-01-04 00:02:05
Ural ConceRt CDD plays Ogg Vorbis.
(http://vorbis.org.ru/_temp/ccd.jpg)
http://www.cdd.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=299 (http://www.cdd.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=299)
http://www.cdd.ru/repository/video/UralCDD.mpg (http://www.cdd.ru/repository/video/UralCDD.mpg)
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: suhrim on 2006-01-04 00:23:17
Quote
Neither did I find car radios with integrated DVD supporting mp3.


I found this (http://www.lowcostcaraudio.co.uk/shop/JVC-KD-DV5101-Car-Audio-DVDCD-Tuner_productJJ1050ZZcategoryJJ/multimedia/jvc/) one that supports mp3 from DVD.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Thoifl on 2006-01-07 13:39:28
Some companies are really strange.

In Germany a big discounter (Aldi) sold an Car Radio with MP3-Support for 70€.
The quality is quite ok. The strange thing is: in ads and in the manual you only could read about mp3 Support, none other codecs. But in fact, it supports Ogg Vorbis perfectly, with Tags, seeking, gapples play, all the stuff. But they didn't tell even one sinlge word. No idea why...
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Triza on 2006-01-07 20:11:30
Quote
Some companies are really strange.

In Germany a big discounter (Aldi) sold an Car Radio with MP3-Support for 70€.
The quality is quite ok. The strange thing is: in ads and in the manual you only could read about mp3 Support, none other codecs. But in fact, it supports Ogg Vorbis perfectly, with Tags, seeking, gapples play, all the stuff. But they didn't tell even one sinlge word. No idea why...
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=355289"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


What is the manufacturer and the model number? I am interested finding this.

Triza
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Hanky on 2006-01-07 20:25:29
The brand name is most probably Tevion.  You can find a picture of it here (http://www.discountfan.de/artikel/200508/844.php) or here (http://www.billigdrucker.de/article6965.html)

The last review tells us it is mostly identical to the Micromaxx MM 80455.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Triza on 2006-01-08 09:28:42
Thanks Hanky
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Thoifl on 2006-01-08 11:35:00
Quote
The brand name is most probably Tevion.  You can find a picture of it here (http://www.discountfan.de/artikel/200508/844.php) or here (http://www.billigdrucker.de/article6965.html)


Yeah, you're right, that's it!
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: zilexa on 2006-01-15 20:46:07
Quote
Some companies are really strange.

In Germany a big discounter (Aldi) sold an Car Radio with MP3-Support for 70€.
The quality is quite ok. The strange thing is: in ads and in the manual you only could read about mp3 Support, none other codecs. But in fact, it supports Ogg Vorbis perfectly, with Tags, seeking, gapples play, all the stuff. But they didn't tell even one sinlge word. No idea why...
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=355289"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


This is true! it's a very low price and you get a car radio that not only supports OGG VORBIS but also has a SD cardreader and USB slot.
In the Netherlands, these radio's (about 3 or 4 different brands, varies in no USB/SD or only SD etc) are also being sold by Kijkshop.
Please check kijkshop.nl to check if this company is also in your country.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: HotshotGG on 2006-01-15 21:28:50
Quote
This is true! it's a very low price and you get a car radio that not only supports OGG VORBIS but also has a SD cardreader and USB slot.
In the Netherlands, these radio's (about 3 or 4 different brands, varies in no USB/SD or only SD etc) are also being sold by Kijkshop.
Please check kijkshop.nl to check if this company is also in your country.


This is interesting, it's something we don't see quite often car radio support for multiple audio codecs, etc. The last Car Radio system that I knew of that supported Vorbis and FLAC was Kenwood Music System or maybe it was just Vorbis.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: seantellis on 2006-03-02 15:44:23
The Tevion unit seems to be the same as the Yakumo Hypersound Car, which is getting a real mauling for basic firmware flaws and poor radio reception over at Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...4307734-5733220 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009MZ7P2/qid%3D1141312025/026-4307734-5733220)

I have a Yakumo and I'm afraid that, even with Ogg support, I would not recommend it to anyone. (This may change if they produce a firmware update.)
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Supacon on 2006-03-23 22:49:24
It seems that manufacturers like to claim that their firmware is upgradable as a key selling feature, but when their users actually want to see an upgrade, they don't quickly go about getting around to it.  I suppose they'd rather focus R&D on developing new products.  Upgrading firmware probably doesn't sell a lot of units.  Once you've bought it, you've bought it.

In some instances, I might be willing to actually pay a small fee for a firmware upgrade, but I don't think that it's really fair to sell "Lifetime upgradability" as a feature, then be expected to fork over more money when a new version comes out.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: SlowPulse on 2006-04-02 10:55:17
Quote
Quote
Neither did I find car radios with integrated DVD supporting mp3.


I found this (http://www.lowcostcaraudio.co.uk/shop/JVC-KD-DV5101-Car-Audio-DVDCD-Tuner_productJJ1050ZZcategoryJJ/multimedia/jvc/) one that supports mp3 from DVD.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
(http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=354366")


Seems Sony has one also: [a href="http://www.incarexpress.co.uk/view_product.php?partno=MEXR1]MEX-R1[/url]

From the page:

* Giga MP3, store up to 1000 songs on 1 DVD
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: tsioc on 2006-04-21 06:32:01
It seems that manufacturers like to claim that their firmware is upgradable as a key selling feature, but when their users actually want to see an upgrade, they don't quickly go about getting around to it.  I suppose they'd rather focus R&D on developing new products.  Upgrading firmware probably doesn't sell a lot of units.  Once you've bought it, you've bought it.

In some instances, I might be willing to actually pay a small fee for a firmware upgrade, but I don't think that it's really fair to sell "Lifetime upgradability" as a feature, then be expected to fork over more money when a new version comes out.



where's Rockbox when I need it?  I'm gonna start writing the companies that make car stereos and requesting support for Vorbis.  I'm guessing that others have before, but it can't hurt to have one more potential customer asking for it.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: blandoon on 2006-05-15 00:37:56
I am happy to report that the JVC KD-G720 and KD-G820 (at the very least) support Ogg Vorbis playback. 

I went into Best Buy today with my USB thumb-drive armed with one MP3 and one OGG (both VBR, relatively high-quality, but I forget the exact specs), and they both worked like a charm. Check the photo below; sorry for the crappy Treo camera-phone quality:

(http://monkey.org/~blandoon/gfx/ogg_jvc.jpg)

The song is Nebula - "So it Goes." Notice that the file name is truncated in the display - annoying, but probably not a show-stopper.

The -720 is going for $189.99 at Best Buy right now. The -820 (shown in the photo) is pretty much the same but has a high-res animated display. The JVC literature, as you might expect, says absolutely nothing about Ogg Vorbis support.

Alpine and Kenwood also make units with USB ports, but theirs are both accessible through cables on the back, and the Best Buy drones had wired an iPod and a Creative Zen respectively into their display - and as we know, neither of these support Ogg Vorbis because they suck. I couldn't find anyone knowledgeable to ask about trying them out (no surprise there). Maybe I'll try again later when I have more time to haggle, or see if I can find some of those units at a local stereo place.

If anyone has a chance to try any of the other USB units in a store I suggest it, and we'd all like to hear the results...
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-05-15 10:13:05
Great find!  I wish Alpine would support Vorbis...I've an old head unit whose volume rotary knob is failing and makes volume adjustment a hassle.  However, I have an Alpine 10-disc CD changer in the trunk, which still works like a charm so I don't want to chunk it.  I have to wonder if JVC makes any mention of said format support on their website.  It's ridiculous that they couldn't add 3 measly letters to the spec to reveal all that it plays.  It makes you wonder how many other hidden features exist in the wild...

I also wonder if this will read files and dirs from the Nano with a Rockbox installation.  It behaves slightly differently than your average USB storage memory device.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: tycho on 2006-05-15 11:00:48
Interesting that the JVC player supports Vorbis. However, does it playback .ogg songs from the CD, and not only from the USB device? Also, the model you mention does only support CDs and not DVDs. JVC has serveral players with Giga-MP3, i.e. DVD support, e.g. JVC KD-DV5101 and JVC KD-DV6101 (no USB input). Would be very interesting if they played both .ogg and .mp3's from the DVD!

Edit: Well I think I found the answer (and it's not good news):
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-935j336oifE/c...DG820&id=review (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-935j336oifE/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=300&I=257KDG820&id=review)
Quote
USB support is not all it's made out to be.
Written by Tommyj, Minneapolis, MN on April 19, 2006

I've had this deck for about two weeks and it is going back as soon as my new deck shows up. I bought it almost exclusively for the front USB input, which I had planned to use to connect my 20GB iRiver and 60GB portable hard drive. A couple things that you should aware of before purchasing this deck for the USB are that it only supports a 4GB partition, which eliminates most hard drive players. The deck will also only read 2500 tracks and a smaller number of directories. The deck also appears to have corrupted the filesystem on my iRiver when I tried plugging it in.

The deck does have undocumented support for vorbis .ogg files, but this is limited to usb connected devices, not CDs. The vorbis support also seems to be poor, I experienced a lot of skipping on normally perfect files.

Another issue I encountered was the clock display freezing. During the first 20 minutes of a drive, my clock read 8:16. I turned the deck off and back on and it displayed (and promptly froze again) 8:34.

IMHO, this deck has some serious issues and any one who is remotely picky about their electronics will be ultimately disappointed.
[/size]
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: LongJohn on 2006-05-15 13:12:34
Dear All,

Try this:

Yakumo Hypersound:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...6188554-3035023 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009MZ7P2/202-6188554-3035023)

You can get it form Dabs.com too.

cheers

LJ
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-05-15 21:27:02
That's unfortunate, Tycho.  Since I only have flash players up to 4GB, those limitations wouldn't harm me but the crippled Vorbis support has me worried.  I'm thinking of bringing my Nano and/or I5 with cable into the local Best Buy and attempting playback of some of my q1 Vorbis files.  I read in another review where the unit is incapable of resuming after turnoff and the shuffle feature is only half-baked.  It very well might be too good to be true.

Thanks for the link, LongJohn, but reviews are pretty mixed on that unit, too.  Additionally, Amazon only ships that unit within the UK and I didn't find the product on Dabs' page...
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: blandoon on 2006-05-16 05:15:12
For what it's worth, I did try popping off the faceplate, and it resumed correctly when I put it back on. It might be different if you shut the unit off with the actual power button. I guess I (or someone) need to do a more thorough test, such as bringing in a CD as well as a USB drive, etc.

I did read some of the reviews on that Yakumo unit, and "mixed" is pretty generous... unless you mean a mixture of bad and horrendous. It's a shame, too; it seems like a great opportunity for a smallish manufacturer to really do this right and open up a new market. Best Buy is also selling a USB model by Insignia, which seems to be getting similar reviews (it might even be a clone of the same unit).
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: pepoluan on 2006-05-16 07:36:48
I'm gonna start writing the companies that make car stereos and requesting support for Vorbis.  I'm guessing that others have before, but it can't hurt to have one more potential customer asking for it.
Grrrrreat idea. Where do you write to? I mean, it's pointless to write to the Sales Dept.

Anyway, when you write letter, mention also the growing support for Vorbis. Amongst others:It also helps to say that since many portable players now support Vorbis, you plan to use a cheaper system from their competitor linked to your portable player, but you decide to give their company a second chance...
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: halb27 on 2006-05-16 07:50:15
Can you consider using a mobile DAP in the car (Lucem wrote about this idea already)?

I do it this way and have plugged my iRiver H140 to my car radio.

It's a pity that car radios usually don't have an adequate connector for this purposes.
But if you are able to solder a little bit it's not a problem if you buy a car radio with the possibility to attach a cd changer. This is the case with my car radio.
I bought a cheap adapter that plugs to the cd changer adapter of the car radio, and soldered a 3.5mm cable (attached to the player's earphone output) to the cd changer connector. Moreover a pin of the cd changer connector called 'cd bus' has to be connected to ground on the cd changer connector to tell the radio it is to use the changer (I do it via a switch so that I can still use my car radio cd drive, but I actually never did it after having connected my DAP).

That's all. I love the idea of a universal music machine I can use on its own and plug to whatever I like.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: pepoluan on 2006-05-16 08:09:42
halb27: Actually I personally prefer using my iPaq2210 for all my playing needs. Saves from synchronizing necessities.

Unfortunately, my iPaq2210 also goes with me into my office, and it's a bit quiet there, so I have to use -q 1. At least.

On the road, it's not that quiet, and I pay more attention to the strange sounds coming under the hood than to any artefacts. So -q 0 is acceptable. Fits more songs into the CD/FlashDrive/CF/whathaveyou.

Of course I don't (yet) have an Vorbis-supporting head unit so it's kind of a moot point now. Who knows in the (hopefully near) future.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: HbG on 2006-06-27 22:45:37
This is true! it's a very low price and you get a car radio that not only supports OGG VORBIS but also has a SD cardreader and USB slot.
In the Netherlands, these radio's (about 3 or 4 different brands, varies in no USB/SD or only SD etc) are also being sold by Kijkshop.
Please check kijkshop.nl to check if this company is also in your country.


Hey, i live in the Netherlands, so i'm very interested in such a radio. I've checked their site, but couldn't find anything in the descriptions. Could you confirm the MARQUANT MCR-720 one of the kijkshop models supporting vorbis? Marquant themselves don't seem to have any web presence and google is inconclusive. It's currently the only non-brand radio they offer with SD and USB slots, it seems.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-07-12 10:38:35
As a followup on this thread, I visited Best Buy yesterday with both my Iaudio I5 and Rockboxed Nano (both containing files at q1; aotuv-b4.51 encapsulated in a recent Lancer build).  I tested them on 2 JVC units, the KD-G820 and KD-G720 (Best Buy didn't have either of JVC's DVD units on display).  On both units, the "drives" loaded in about 5 to 10 seconds and played back without issue.  Playback was not gapless (I wasn't expecting it to be) and resuming is not possible after shutting off the unit (no placeholder is set).  However, it is possible when switching between sources (radio, aux, USB, etc.).  Navigation was decent and I could cycle up and down through the folders alphabetically using a couple of scrolling buttons.  The first 8 directories under root can be activated directly with 8 numbered keys below the panel.  The display truncated the folder names (not the files interestingly), making navigation slightly annoying but nothing I couldn't work around.

Interestingly and more surprisingly, I tried my I5/Nano on a couple of Insignia (Best Buy in-house) units with marginal success.  First, the IN-MP101 (which Best Buy actually lists on their website as supporting "OGG"  ) would not even load my Nano after a minute, at which point I gave up.  I neglected to test the Iaudio on this device.  However, the NS-C5111 (which also has an SD card slot, which I did not test) detected the Nano and I5 in about as much time as the JVC devices did and even detected the sampling rate and bitrate of the files.  Navigation and display was similar to the JVCs also.  Also, no resume after switching the unit off and no gapless playback.

These Insignias are clearly not top of the line but at least the NS-C5111 gets the job done in relation to Vorbis playback on the go in a very affordable package.

I've heard the CD units in the JVC devices do not support Vorbis playback, though I don't know about the Insignias.

Alpine disappointed me the most with their Apple-like (accessorize!) approach in obtaining portable media device playback.  It's too bad because I have an approximately 10-year-old Alpine head unit and CD changer (the latter still works perfectly) that have served me well but I may have to retire it/ebay it, as I'm seriously considering getting the JVC KD-G720 tomorrow....
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: kritip on 2006-07-12 12:02:24
Those JVC's were using the additional KS-PD100 right?

I only ask as I have just bought a similar item for my existing Pioneer Head Unit, and was never expecting it would actually work with rockbox!! If the possibility is theres, thats fantastic

Kristian
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-07-12 12:30:03
No, it's even simpler than that!  The KS-PD100 is not needed.  The USB ports are directly on the front of the JVC device.  I don't know how your Pioneer will fare but a Rockboxed Nano behaves very similarly to a USB device, so connecting the device to the head unit is the equivalent of connecting it to a PC.  All the files can be read by the head unit without any additional hardware.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: kritip on 2006-07-12 12:39:17
Ah I see, and that unit has undocumented vorbis support.

With the unit i have on order, it has a completly different approach, it controls the ipod through teh dock, and uses the ports line out for sound. I guess this will only work with the apple firmware, which is what i initally thought, till i got confused by the way the JVC works.

Will report either way, when I get it though

Kristian
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: themaiday on 2006-08-08 14:10:48
So blandoon,

can you recommend the radio? Does it freeze on Vorbis playback? Any other flaws?
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-08-08 17:24:43
I know that question wasn't directed at me but I can provide an answer, having purchased the JVC KD-G720 (assuming that's the unit you meant). 

It does not freeze on Vorbis playback via the USB device.  The 2 most significant caveats I've found are lack of resume (after a power cycle) and gapless playback.  I haven't tried Vorbis playback via the CD deck yet (it's reported in another review elsewhere that it does not work) but I have noticed some occasional skipping on an MP3 CD that I've tested.  It's only a single disc and occurs on a handful of files on the disc, which has also been subjected to some environmental extremes (inside my car in the summer sun plus all the humidity that can entail).  I wouldn't really hold that against the JVC.  It's the only disc I've tested in the unit so far.  It's a decent unit...hopefully, they expand on the functionality in future models.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: themaiday on 2006-08-08 23:31:04
I just need a reliable vorbis car player. whaat about the 4 gigabyte border?
Does it spport vorbis via any smart card?

thanks again!
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-08-09 00:14:16
I've only connected my 4GB Nano and 1GB Iaudio I5 to it with success thus far...it only has a USB port, so I'm not sure about this "smart card" you speak of (if you're referring to SD, CF or otherwise, then those *might* connect via a card reader).  It will take USB flash drives (perhaps even portable hard drives).  It's all down to the USB spec, the power requirements, etc.  I don't have any large-capacity USB drives to check the supposed limit but I read in another review where even a 60GB drive was successfully connected and accessed in full.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: themaiday on 2006-08-09 20:34:19
I don't have any large-capacity USB drives to check the supposed limit but I read in another review where even a 60GB drive was successfully connected and accessed in full.


Another review? Could you post the link pls?
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-08-10 02:36:49
I didn't bookmark it. I found it through google....it may have been on Cnet.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: vinnie97 on 2006-09-08 04:46:32
As another followup, I should mention that the JVC unit *does* resume when playing back files through a USB flash drive after a power cycle (I got a 1GB cheapie at Microcenter recently) ONLY if you don't physically disconnect it (thereby being a possible thief magnet) between said power cycles.  The JVC seems to create a placeholder (either in its own memory or on the drive itself) that vanishes once the device is physically disconnected from the head unit.  For anyone on the fence, this plays back q1 and q2-encoded Vorbis files (the only quality levels I've tested thus far) back flawlessly (just no gapless).
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: pepoluan on 2006-09-08 18:38:04
As another followup, I should mention that the JVC unit *does* resume when playing back files through a USB flash drive after a power cycle (I got a 1GB cheapie at Microcenter recently) ONLY if you don't physically disconnect it (thereby being a possible thief magnet) between said power cycles.  The JVC seems to create a placeholder (either in its own memory or on the drive itself) that vanishes once the device is physically disconnected from the head unit.
Which makes sense. Flash drives are mounted exactly as the name implies: as drives. When you unplug a drive, all handles immediately becomes invalid, and purged from memory.

Try it with your PC: Play a file from your flashdrive, pause, unmount the flash drive, plug it in again, and resume.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Aikidoka on 2006-09-12 17:28:51
However, the NS-C5111 (which also has an SD card slot, which I did not test)


I stopped in at a BestBuy recently to test the NS-C5111's SD card slot and ogg support.  The person there told me it did not support it, although he admitted not knowing what ogg/vorbis was also.  I popped in a 4GB SD card and was able to play an ogg file without issue.  I'll most likely get this model as I want ogg support more than bluetooth on a radio.  Bluetooth and an SD card slot is a hard combo to find also.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: pepoluan on 2006-09-13 15:08:02
I'd rather not have bluetooth head unit. It interferes with the wireless networks in my city. I.e., whenever bluetooth is turned on, my laptop's wi-fi reception goes haywire.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Aikidoka on 2006-09-13 17:19:42
I'd rather not have bluetooth head unit. It interferes with the wireless networks in my city. I.e., whenever bluetooth is turned on, my laptop's wi-fi reception goes haywire.


Wierd.  I haven't used my laptop's wireless the same time I've been using bluetooth yet.  You referring to 802.11x WiFi or Cellular WiFi?
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: pepoluan on 2006-09-13 17:33:10
I'd rather not have bluetooth head unit. It interferes with the wireless networks in my city. I.e., whenever bluetooth is turned on, my laptop's wi-fi reception goes haywire.


Wierd.  I haven't used my laptop's wireless the same time I've been using bluetooth yet.  You referring to 802.11x WiFi or Cellular WiFi?
802.11 WiFi of course. Basically, the way Bluetooth works (frequency-hopping spread spectrum) bollixes WiFi. At least, it does here in my city. Which is why I cringe everytime I'm on a wireless network and I see someone coming closer with a Bluetooth handsfree kit.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Aikidoka on 2006-09-21 17:37:50
Xiph updated their hardware page (http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/PortablePlayers).  The NS-C5111 is no longer listed.  They do list a new one by Roadstar.  http://www.roadstar.com/newsite/index.php?...&id_fam=113 (http://www.roadstar.com/newsite/index.php?left=family&id=1300&center=productdetail&id_prd=365&right=productdownload&id_fam=113)

Ah phoey!  It is an RDS model!  Damn American car radio manufacturers!
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: batty on 2006-11-25 14:42:15
I'm desperately looking for a new car stereo, and have read this thread with great interest.

I would like to get one that will play back OGG Vorbis either through USB or SD card.
I have noticed 3 models that have been mentioned a few times.
JVC KDG820
JVC KDG720
Insignia NS-C5111

These are all sold on http://www.bestbuy.com (http://www.bestbuy.com)

I haven't been able to find a UK based vendor for these products. 
Does anyone know of one? Or know of any suitable car stereos that are available in the UK?

Batty:}
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: batty on 2006-11-25 19:10:15
I've found on http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/advanced_s...amp;x=0&y=0 (http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=KD-G&x=0&y=0) a number of JVC stereos, but not one of the ones previously mentioned.

What I can't tell from the blurb is which ones will take SD or USB, never mind play OGG Vorbis.
It looks like only JVC KD-G721 and higher will accept a USB connection.

Has anyone got any experience of any of these models.

Batty:}
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Mitch 1 2 on 2006-11-26 14:28:31
I'd rather not have bluetooth head unit. It interferes with the wireless networks in my city. I.e., whenever bluetooth is turned on, my laptop's wi-fi reception goes haywire.

If you're using Windows XP, turn on "Bluetooth Collaboration" in your WiFi card's advanced properties.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: batty on 2006-11-27 17:38:45
I went into Halfords today as they have Car Stereos plugged in so you can test them. I tested a OGG song stored on a USB key fob.
As I suspected it worked fine on the 2 JVC's that I tried, these were KD-G721 (£129.99) & KD-SH1000 (£299.99).
It did not work on one by the name of Ripsound (never heard of it before). Unfortunately, there were no others with a USB port accessible on the front.

Hope this helps someone else. I think I'll go for the KD-G721.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: blandoon on 2006-11-27 19:59:27
Judging by the Web search results I've gotten, the KD-G721 and/or the KD-G722 are the UK versions, and the 720 is the USA version. Other than that I don't know what the differences are (it would be tough to get your hands on both).
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: dandragonrage on 2007-02-11 00:39:10
Hi guys, any updates on this? JVC has announced the KD-G730/830, but I'm not sure if they're in stores yet.

This one here looked cool to me, but I'm afraid of the quality of a brand I've never heard of: http://www.plu2.de/ (http://www.plu2.de/)

And has anyone tried that Roadstar?
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Junon on 2007-02-11 01:26:08
This one here looked cool to me, but I'm afraid of the quality of a brand I've never heard of: http://www.plu2.de/ (http://www.plu2.de/)


I can't recommend buying it. I owned one for a few months and I'm sorry to say that it had serious quality issues. MP3/WMA/Vorbis playback via CD often resulted in complete hang-ups, forcing me to reset and re-configure the whole thing again and again, no matter which blanks and settings I used for burning the data. Trying to patch the firmware wasn't a solution, since I was only able to contact the retailer I bought the radio from, who told me that plu2 didn't provide any software updates for its products. Reading some angry comments in certain forums I found using Google revealed that in fact there's no support from the manufacturer at all.

Needless to say that the radio didn't last for long, it completely kicked the bucket only 4 months after I had installed it. Too bad I wasn't able to try my luck exchanging the broke thing for a new one, since I lost the entire car in a motorway accident a few days later, making the whole drama a case for the insurance.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: dandragonrage on 2007-02-11 04:46:19
All right, I appreciate the warning!
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: goanookie on 2007-02-26 19:50:43
I got a JVC KD-G722, and can confirm that it does play ogg nice.

Regards

goa
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Mytheroo on 2007-03-05 23:24:00
hi, I have the jvc kd-g 721. When I first got it I emailed JVC about what sizes of drive the USB slot is compatible with, I got a reply stating it wasn't compatible with any type of FAT, wouldn't work with partitions bigger than 4gb and had 'no' compatability' with drives larger than 1gb. Also that the socked had unknown amps but 'considerably lower' than the 0.5A specified in the USB1.1 specs.

However, just plugged in my 120gb single partition FAT32 USB drive (with all my mp3's, software, movies....over a hundred folders) and after about 30 seconds 'checking' it proceeded to play the music on the drive. I was powering the drive from external mains at the time, but I just got a £25 inverter so it can run in the car, I presume it will all be fine 
Will update here when I know what formats it supports (some came up unsupported...but i didnt know what they were) via this method.... but its good to know this head unit will allow me to have my whole collection to hand
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Alexxander on 2009-06-16 14:32:40
I just surfed around for 2 hours and again I have to conclude there still aren't car stereos with ogg vorbis support (leaving aside strange brands) 

Why is this? Lack of documentation? This can't be the real cause, there are now several portable digital audio players supporting ogg vorbis.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: CoyoteSmith on 2009-06-17 00:36:51
buy Cowon iAudio, get a car player that has 1/8" input
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: Alexxander on 2009-06-17 09:56:57
buy Cowon iAudio, get a car player that has 1/8" input

I have a Rockboxed Sandisk but I don't like the cabling and powercharge solution. A USB stick and just plugging in is much easier.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: srf21c on 2009-11-22 23:17:35
buy Cowon iAudio, get a car player that has 1/8" input

I have a Rockboxed Sandisk but I don't like the cabling and powercharge solution. A USB stick and just plugging in is much easier.


I agree completely about not wanting to dick around with portable audio player and cables etc.

My girlfriend and I bought a Best Buy house brand Insignia NS-C5111 of Ebay a year ago for about $50.  It has an SD card slot and we love it because we can load up SD cards with oggs/mp3/whatever off the computer, put 'em in a pocket and away we go.  It also includes a USB port on the front too, if you find that more convenient.

The NS-C5111s still pop up on ebay once in a while, but be warned: Make sure it comes with the original wiring chassis otherwise you're going to be in for some serious headaches trying get the thing installed into a car properly.  I learned this the hard way after buying my first one without the chassis.  It also turned out to be a dead unit, but at least I have a spare faceplate now.
Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: OggY68 on 2009-11-23 09:28:11
buy Cowon iAudio, get a car player that has 1/8" input

I have a Rockboxed Sandisk but I don't like the cabling and powercharge solution. A USB stick and just plugging in is much easier.


I agree completely about not wanting to dick around with portable audio player and cables etc.

My girlfriend and I bought a Best Buy house brand Insignia NS-C5111 of Ebay a year ago for about $50.  It has an SD card slot and we love it because we can load up SD cards with oggs/mp3/whatever off the computer, put 'em in a pocket and away we go.  It also includes a USB port on the front too, if you find that more convenient.

The NS-C5111s still pop up on ebay once in a while, but be warned: Make sure it comes with the original wiring chassis otherwise you're going to be in for some serious headaches trying get the thing installed into a car properly.  I learned this the hard way after buying my first one without the chassis.  It also turned out to be a dead unit, but at least I have a spare faceplate now.



For what it's'worth, SilverCrest has some nice car radios supporting OGG:

http://www.mysilvercrest.de/en/artikel.php?a=176 (http://www.mysilvercrest.de/en/artikel.php?a=176)

Title: Car radio supporting Ogg?
Post by: andy o on 2009-11-23 10:51:18
Hmm maybe I'm missing something already said, but why is ogg worth all this trouble, over using something like AAC which is widely available (if you absolutely don't want to use MP3)? There are also car receivers like Pioneers and Alpines that will take your iPod via a single iPod USB cable and play anything on it, including ALAC.