Guys,

I'm in the middle of upgrading (or so I thought) from my CVA-1005 alpine to the new IVAC-800.

As I was looking at other head units, the thought started to occur to me about what a huge butt-pain the whole car PC has been. So many glitches, so many problems.

TO be honest, I'm now considering abandoning it entirely. Just ripping it out and going with a decent head unit, perhaps adding navigation, etc.

Here is what I want:

1. Navigation (or add it later)
2. MP3's
3. Power
4. Wow factor

I currently have a nice MTX amp sitting here waiting to be installed with whatever head unit I decide.

Things I like about the old setup with PC: the funky visualizations with Winamp, ability to watch MPEGs, tons of room for MP3's, ZIP drive compatibility, etc.

Things I don't like about it is that it's flaky as hell, the display sux (showing a 640x480 screen on a little 6.5" Alpine screen is a joke,) the trunk project will be a hassle.

But I'm not sure it's been worth the hassle. We are about to build a trunk-rack for the AMPs and woofer, and I'm going to have to figure a way to build the PC into that. I'm not looking forward to the project.

I was thinking maybe of getting an AutoPC by Clarion, but then there's no way I'm connecting a computer to that down the road.. and it takes MP3's but only on flash cards, which only hold like 5 songs. I DO NOT want to have to burn CD's from MP3's. It sux. Maybe I should just stick to the IVAC-800 and leave the computer installed? Ugh.

I dunno, just looking for thoughts and input. Maybe today's just a bad day and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the project.

 

Leave it in, freakazoid!

 

Take it out.

 

I always thought it was really cool...
BTW: When the hell you gonan come down to central maine and lemme see your damn car??
=)

 

I don't think coolnes is the issue. It's having to deal with it not working all the time.

 

Well, personally I'd keep it, but I'm kind of biased. I have a car computer in my trunk (it's a slim bookpc). I haven't had any glitches at all yet. Of course, I'm running Linux with reiserfs partitions and keeping my data in an SQL database. Also displaying to a character LCD, not a graphical 6", so I guess it's a bit more streamlined.

Perhaps you could get an Empeg? (Called RioCar now I think). It doesn't have navigation, but it runs linux and it's supposed to be pretty polished for an mp3 player. It has a hard disk in it so it can take as many mp3s as you need.

 

Get the new screen, keep the computer and get a laptop, it might be less flaky???

 

What were the problems you've had? I work with PC's all day long.

 

Yeh exactly. I just can't make it work consistently. Power issues, video signal issues, and to boot, the freakin Windows desktop on a screen that small is just impossible to read. I DO NOT want to try to put in a larger LCD in a custom dash piece. I want a regular head unit.

It's gonna break my heart to take it out tho.. .60 gigs of MP3's, wireless connectivity, is pretty cool (WHEN IT WORKS)

 

Yeh.. i may just put in a nice head unit (with screen) that has an AUX video and audio in, so I have the option later.

Although I'm so effing sick of it all, I may just rip it all out and put in a decent head unit without a screen. Any recommendations?

Damn, though, getting used to not having your MP3 collection in your car is rough...

Those RioCar things look tempting, but they're hideously overpriced...

hmmm everything is I guess

 

i've posted them several times in the differnet forums.. the video only syncs with the alpine half the time... although the newer ivac might fix that.. the keyboard just died again so I need to install another one, ugh. the screen is basically unreadable... 640x480 on a 6" screen??

I have to figure out a way to build the computer into my new trunk box we're making, and it kinda got me thinking whether i wanna bother

 

Just looked at one of these this afternoon:

http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/sho...=True&active=1


looked sweet. what do you guys think?

the display looked great, it's 7" instead of the 6" one on the Alpine...

hmm

 

Order it, i'm all for keeping the PC!!!!!!!

 

Maine,

I suggest using a character LCD. You won't have any video syncing issues, you can get a parallel one for $15 if you're willing to do some soldering, or a serial one premade for $50-$200 (depending on what LCD it is).

Reading text is easy on it. Controlling it is simple via the IRman.

The only pain is physically mounting the LCD, since it doesn't come with any kind of bracket to mount it in a DIN slot, but I suck when it comes to physical design, so others may not have such a hard time with that part. =)

The only thing I'm not completely happy with on my setup is that I'm not totally satisfied with the shelf I built for the computer in the trunk. It works pretty good, but it has minor issues.

 

PC's are crazy from the start. I would say scrap the project until the hardware is better made. You don't want to spend anymore money on something you can't use more times than not.

 

take all the pc components off then go buy a laptop...