Does the Honda Nav. play audio dvd's? Does using a PCMCAI Card adapter offer better searchability, over say an ipod/hard drive?

I am trying to figure out the best way to organize all my music, be it getting a 500gb HD, another ipod, or PCMCAI adapter..

The one advantage with the IPOD is the ability to play lossless music.

Thanks for any input-

 

The nav doesn't play audio DVDs sadly.

The PCMCIA adapter does offer better searching, since you can actually DO a search! But it's rather slow and would be somewhat difficult to do while driving . You can also use voice commands, though it's not really that useful compared to say, voice control on the iphone/ipod touch.

Given your three options, here's my opinion:
1. The navigation system is too slow to deal with navigating a 500gb usb hard drive. Try it with a USB flash drive with 100 folders or so, you'll see what I mean... of course, if you're just going to listen to it straight through, then it's not really an issue.
2. If you don't mind shelling out for the PCMCIA adapter + flash memory, it's a better option than a USB drive. It keeps your upper glove box empty and you can actually search through files.
3. I think an iPod is only worth it if 1) you make good use of playlists and 2) you really want to use itunes. Again, navigating the iPod through the navigation system is frustratingly slow, enough so that I'd actually suggest finding the song you want BEFORE plugging it into the system.

I use both an iPod (an old ipod with a bad battery) and a PCMCIA adapter with compact flash. ipod is really just used for long trips where I make use of smart playlists so I don't have to do much jumping around, and I keep a small amount of music on the compact flash card for when driving around town where getting the ipod setup is too much of a pain.

 

Thanks for the input.

Usually with the ipod i just throw it on random/

I guess the PCMCIA adapter is really my best bet then, it just sucks because good CF cards are kind of pricey. It would be so much nicer to just be able to burn a 4gb DVD, and play it.

 

If you're just going to play songs on random, then any of the devices would work fine . In fact, if you don't need to search, a USB flash drive would probably be the best value out of the 3.

I think there are some PCMCIA to SD adapters as well. Now that I think about it... I actually had some trouble finding CF cards that would work, so maaaaybe that's not such a good idea -- I'm currently using a 2gb Sandisk CF card, though I tried a 4gb Kingston and it didn't work .

 

Keep in mind that there are more restrictive size limitations using the PCMCIA input. 255 folders and 999 tracks, other than that, not sure if there is a specific GB limit.

 

According to the FAQ near the end of the Navi user manual...

It doesn't say there's a limit... earlier in the book, it only says

 

Sounds like you have your limit right there son.

 

Not necessarily.

Just because they only test up to a certain point, doesn't mean anything after won't work. It only means that if it does or doesn't work, you can't ask them for help, or rather, you can't legally force them to help.

In the world of electronics, and more specifically, computers, that's a "loop hole" companies use a lot. They will "overbuild" a product so that it gets approval from enthusiast computer builders... while LEGALLY protecting them from liability of the overclockers.