From Cristian at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Sat Mar 6 06:31:00 2004 From: Cristian at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (Cristian@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Sat Mar 6 23:00:22 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: It looks like it's going to be a much bigger job than I thought to get a Double DIN configuration into the Smart Car, the ash tray under the DIN slot will fit the empeg in but I'm going to have to make a custom facia adaptor to make it look pretty. Any ideas on where I should start??? What materials I should be using or if there is someone in the UK who can make me one??? Cheers Cris. From mtempsch at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Sat Mar 6 09:18:00 2004 From: mtempsch at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (mtempsch@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Sat Mar 6 23:00:28 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: Never had to build one yet, but here are some things I'd consider: How would it attach to the rest of the dash? Is there a piece there already with things like clips? Then I'd consider using that piece and do any cutting and buildup neccessary with it as the base. For building up I'd consider fibreglass and resin (larger fairly smooth areas) or putty with glass fibres in it (backside reinforcements, packing an existing mold, smaller areas). If you need buildup with no real strength I'd look at the stuff the guy that built the Y2K Bug computer "case" used, some form of 2 part putty [Milliput seems to be the name] that hardens after being kneaded together. It might also be possible to do it all in wood, solid or something like MDF. Stack and glue for the required thickness, cut/route out the outer shape and the DIN size opening, then cut, grind, rasp, file and sandpaper to the wanted shape. Whatever way you go, you'll want an easy to sand putty to finish off the surface with (before painting or covering). /Michael From boxer at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Tue Mar 9 09:18:00 2004 From: boxer at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (boxer@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Tue Mar 9 23:00:22 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: I've been out in the car park, studying a Smart, as a suggestion, presuming the whole width under the HU to be the ashtray, I'd order a spare ashtray (so you can put it back to normal, when it comes to sell it) and keep the two side sections, dremelling (Is that a word!) them off, glue two sheets of plastic, top and bottom, to link the two side pieces you're left with to Empeg sled size, cutting holes for the tongues on the sled*, preferably secure the sled at the back to bulkhead or similar. You should have seen the one in my Range Rover, it looked as though the Empeg was a factory fit. I'll have a look at it, if you're around my home or office, to come up with a more definitive suggestion. *and to ensure sufficient ventilation Plan B, ask Jerry at Unicar if they've done a similar fitting, mention my name, I've dealt with him for years - if you hold up your Empeg, he'll sus that you're a friend of mine! Of course, they'll want to charge a commercial rate. From Cristian at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Tue Mar 9 09:26:00 2004 From: Cristian at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (Cristian@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Tue Mar 9 23:00:27 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: I will have to do a small amount of dremmeling to get the empeg to fit in the bottom slot, my headunit fits fine, but the empeg is very tight (could of course just put the empeg on top!) I've already got the part number for the ash tray (only £12!) I'm going to put an order in for that next time I'm down there. There is only one other problem, the facia adaptors for the top slot are in black, but the ash tray would be grey, so would require loads more work to get the whole lot to match. Just starting to wonder if it's worth putting the empeg in the car at all, I could just stick the Karma in the ash tray and hit random and play it into the Aux in on the headunit. I was thinking of nipping down to your office tommorrow, I have to go to town anyway, will this be cool??? Cheers Cris. From boxer at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Tue Mar 9 16:14:00 2004 From: boxer at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (boxer@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Tue Mar 9 23:00:34 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: Yep! Try and give me a time, I'm doing hard nosed high finance most of the day! - well, trying to do a batter deal on the leases! From thinfourth2 at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Thu Mar 11 03:32:00 2004 From: thinfourth2 at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (thinfourth2@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Thu Mar 11 23:00:21 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Custom Dash Board Facia, where to start??? Message-ID: i have seen smarts with amps in why not bin the head unit and stick them empeg in by it's self From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Tue Mar 30 21:54:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Tue Mar 30 23:00:37 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player market Message-ID: Check out the AVX-2494 http://www.eclipse-web.com/ 20 Gigs and Nice stats plus Color screen. and built in CddDB From msaeger at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 03:50:00 2004 From: msaeger at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (msaeger@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:06 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player market Message-ID: This sounds cool. Also records from broadcasts. Another plus is that Music Juke even allows you to record AM/FM radio broadcast clips. Just hit the record button when you hear something you like being broadcast and Music Juke will make sure it’s recorded from the song’s beginning, even if you hit the record button after it started! This sucks. *uses ATRAC3 encoding For the most efficient recording, the AVX2494 uses ATRAC3 encoding which is a feature on many portable music devices. It’s an advanced encoding/decoding process that compresses music files to just 1/10 the size without harming the music content. The screen looks great but it has the same problem as the sony and pioneer units. Do they expect me to sit in the car for hours and rip cds. I can understand that they don' t want to make a pull out but they could have a removable hard drive. From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 11:23:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:16 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player market Message-ID: Still can't hold a candle to the Empeg but as more and more players enter the market more and more people will start using them which will in turn drive up the features and quality It ripps cd's as you play them, not the best idea in my book but you never know. BTW I have heard of "ATRAC3" encoding before how does it compair to MP3, From tfabris at jps.net Wed Mar 31 13:46:00 2004 From: tfabris at jps.net (Tony Fabris) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:26 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: It ripps cd's as you play them, not the best idea in my book but you never know. Yeah, such a terrible idea that the Empeg guys implemented it flawlessly in the Rio Central and in their prototypes for Visteon. BTW I have heard of "ATRAC3" encoding before how does it compair to MP3, If I recall correctly, it is the same format used for Minidisc. It compares favorably to MP3. Edit: Clarification... It compares favorably in terms of audio quality. In terms of utility, nothing beats MP3 because it's so universal, cross-platform, and has the largest library of tools to work with. From wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 14:02:00 2004 From: wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (wfaulk@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:38 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Yeah, such a terrible idea that the Empeg guys implemented it flawlessly in the Rio Central and in their prototypes for Visteon.I do believe that you've missed the point. In your house, it's a great idea. You're in your house doing other things; you can easily multitask swapping CDs and doing other stuff. In your car, you're driving. Period. If you want to rip CDs, you've gotta take a bunch of CDs to the car, either wait there for them to rip or wander in and out, leaving your car on the whole time. As far as convenience, sure, it makes enough sense for it to be able to do that. (I'm surprised that there's not a legal battle over it, as it'd be pretty easy to copy your friends CDs that you want to listen to in the car.) But ripping all of your CDs in car would be an awful experience. If it also has another way to get music on the player, fine, but my impression is that it doesn't. From tfabris at jps.net Wed Mar 31 14:20:00 2004 From: tfabris at jps.net (Tony Fabris) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:49 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: No, I believe you missed the point. The idea is that people are already swapping a handful of CDs in and out of the car every day to listen to them on the drive to work. You put in a new system like this, and do the same thing. Only this time it just remembers the CDs you've put into it. I agree that it would be a PITA to rip your entire collection in one sitting, but it's not intended for that to be its main use anyway. From wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 14:44:00 2004 From: wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (wfaulk@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:01:58 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Agreed. It's a good feature, but it damn well better not be the only way to get music on there. Of course, it most likely is. I'm not aware of any free ATRAC3 encoders to use to create files to be transported there another way. From Half_Geek at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 14:56:00 2004 From: Half_Geek at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (Half_Geek@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:08 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: There is another aspect to this. A big chunk of the target market does not have an existing MP3 (or whatever) collection. To them, words like ATRAC or MP3 mean nothing - they just want to put a disc in, wait and put in another to "store" them. They don't want to use any PC they might have to rip, catalog and transfer them. For this audience, the Eclipse/Camelot approach is perfect. The car journey is often the chunk of their music listening time anyway. The issue that always comes up in conversations with OEMs about this is the problem of the "initial load" or what to do with your collection when you change cars (esp. if it is an OEM version). There are many ways to approach this from dealer services, to a home power supply for ripping a good chunk of your collection before installation. But, if the ripping speed is decent (and you can listen while you rip), it is surprising how quickly you can build up a decent collection on a normal commute. When I first tried the Pioneer one, the single speed ripping had me fed up in no time at all, especially after being spoilt by the empeg alternatives. For those that have a collection already, providing a way to transfer that collection easily (even before installation) is important, and then new additions can be added as and when. Of course, then we are into how to keep the CDDB up to date (the Eclipse one appears several months out-of-date already). This is what I think will be a bigger issue than the ripping itself, as it is one thing to wait a few minutes while the CD rips, and quite another to then have to enter the tags yourself on the unit so you can actually choose music usefully. Overall, the no-PC-needed solution will expand the appeal of HDD-players to a wider audience. Mind you, I have no answer to the US Manager who, on being shown a 400-disc capacity empeg prototype dismissed it with "Why don't I just keep those discs in the glovebox and I can just choose which to put in the player?". I know you guys make your cars big, but....!! Nick From Half_Geek at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:01:00 2004 From: Half_Geek at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (Half_Geek@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:19 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: ATRAC and the Memory Stick slot gives me a horrible feeling that it may end up with the checking files in and out debacle that the Sony version implemented!! Aaaaaaaaarrrrghh! From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:04:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:30 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Still not sure why I can't quote other peoples posts, I must be missing something. anyway I wasn't poopoo'ing anyones Ideas but I would personally rather usb it to my computer then sit in my car and encode 700 cd' X 74 Mins per cd / 60 /24 thats like 35 days. but I can convert all my cd's to mp3 or most other formats over a weeked while playing computer games. From wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:06:00 2004 From: wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (wfaulk@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:39 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Do we ever get to find out who you are, BTW? "No" is a potential answer, I suppose. From wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:08:00 2004 From: wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (wfaulk@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:48 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Copy and paste the appropriate text, then put [q] and [/q] tags around it. From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:08:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:02:58 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: "Quote" "Do we ever get to find out who you are, BTW? "No" is a potential answer, I suppose" Who I am ? I am just a dumb looking scrawnie little four eyed Geek, From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 15:24:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:03:07 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Maybe there is a way to update the CDDB and transfer music to the unit The increasing crossover use of digital media gets another boost because the AVX2494 and AVX2404 can be used with popular Magic Gate Memory Sticks for music or still image playback from data previously downloaded onto the Memory Stick from your PC. From tfabris at jps.net Wed Mar 31 16:07:00 2004 From: tfabris at jps.net (Tony Fabris) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:03:17 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: Do we ever get to find out who you are, BTW? I hope I'm not revealing too much by saying this, but I determined through deduction (reading his posts) that he works for Visteon in Europe. From belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 16:26:00 2004 From: belezeebub at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (belezeebub@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:03:26 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: I am confused who are you trying to figure out information on? Do we ever get to find out who you are, BTW? I hope I'm not revealing too much by saying this, but I determined through deduction (reading his posts) that he works for Visteon in Europe. From wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org Wed Mar 31 16:50:00 2004 From: wfaulk at empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org (wfaulk@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org) Date: Wed Mar 31 23:03:35 2004 Subject: [Empeg-ice] Re: Eclipse Jumps into the Hard Drive Player marke Message-ID: I don't know. Maybe the person I responded to. (Half_Geek)