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I bought a car with an aftermarket radio that has a DVD player in it, which I've never used. When you turn it on, it displays a message warning you not to watch

I bought a car with an aftermarket radio that has a DVD player in it, which I've never used. When you turn it on, it displays a message warning you not to watch a DVD while driving. Sure, whatever. While the warning message is up, you cannot adjust the volume. I have to make sure to turn down the stereo before parking otherwise there's a solid five seconds on startup when it can't be turned down. Insane.

betwixthewires 5y ago
I just have to get in on this one. I have this old aftermarket $30 brand new at the time crappy little stereo. No optical drive, the thing doesn't even have an AM receiver. But it does take SD cards, USB drives and AUX. Perfect. That's exactly all an aftermarket system should do, maybe Bluetooth, but I don't use Bluetooth so I don't care. I can fit ~60 albums on one 8gb SD card. Goodbye buffering in the boonies, goodbye book of CDs. There's no way to navigate directories besides just skipping to the next one. Fine. I've seen some that let you open a menu and navigate using the volume knob, but no SD cards. I tried very hard to find one that has an SD slot and more advanced directory navigation. The two are apparently mutually exclusive. So instead of getting to decide what to listen to, my unit mostly functions as a commercial free music only radio station with a wide, diverse selection of exactly things I like. I can deal with that. It doesn't load the directories or files in any particular order, like it builds an index by randomly loading directories as they're read and then the files inside. At least it doesn't mix up files between directories. I can deal with albums being out of order I guess. But why it doesn't just load them in alphabetical order is beyond me. Nothing but MP3 support. I even wrote a bash script to turn FLAC files into MP3 files just for the car, and it can even split FLAC by CUE file. Works just fine for me. The thing has a predetermined EQ animation. It does not actually correspond to the output, its just an animation. Why? Who knows. But it does. All in all I've been using the same unit for 5 years across 2 different vehicles. I like it I guess. The window smashers seem to know it isn't worth anything, which is great. If I could navigate better, it loaded directories and files alphabetically, and had an AM receiver, it would be the last aftermarket system I buy for the rest of my life.
- climb_stealth 5y ago
  My suggestion for getting SD card support is using a USB adapter. I'm using a Sandisk one [0]. It's quite small and hardly sticking out at all, and I just have it plugged in to the radio permanently. Otherwise, my Pioneer DEH-X6650BT let's you switch between directories with a button press. Basically you have previous and next track, as well as previous and next directory. The toplevel is simply another directory. It also remembers where it left off after you start it, and it is super snappy with 19GB of MP3s that I have in various directories. Also, the manual is very explicit on what file system is supported, how many files and directories and in which order files are being played. See this page and the next one [1]. The only downside is that I can't seem to turn it off. As in it the radio is always illuminated, even when you are not playing anything. [0] SanDisk MobileMate USB 3.0 Reader https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-au/products/accessories/sandisk-mobilemate-uhs-i-usb-3-0-microsd-reader-writer#SDDR-B531-GN6NN https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-au/products/accessories/s... [1] https://www.manualslib.com/manual/730613/Pioneer-Deh-X6650bt.html?page=20#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/730613/Pioneer-Deh-X6650bt...

betwixthewires 5y ago

I just have to get in on this one. I have this old aftermarket $30 brand new at the time crappy little stereo. No optical drive, the thing doesn't even have an AM receiver. But it does take SD cards, USB drives and AUX. Perfect. That's exactly all an aftermarket system should do, maybe Bluetooth, but I don't use Bluetooth so I don't care. I can fit ~60 albums on one 8gb SD card. Goodbye buffering in the boonies, goodbye book of CDs. There's no way to navigate directories besides just skipping to the next one. Fine. I've seen some that let you open a menu and navigate using the volume knob, but no SD cards. I tried very hard to find one that has an SD slot and more advanced directory navigation. The two are apparently mutually exclusive. So instead of getting to decide what to listen to, my unit mostly functions as a commercial free music only radio station with a wide, diverse selection of exactly things I like. I can deal with that. It doesn't load the directories or files in any particular order, like it builds an index by randomly loading directories as they're read and then the files inside. At least it doesn't mix up files between directories. I can deal with albums being out of order I guess. But why it doesn't just load them in alphabetical order is beyond me. Nothing but MP3 support. I even wrote a bash script to turn FLAC files into MP3 files just for the car, and it can even split FLAC by CUE file. Works just fine for me. The thing has a predetermined EQ animation. It does not actually correspond to the output, its just an animation. Why? Who knows. But it does. All in all I've been using the same unit for 5 years across 2 different vehicles. I like it I guess. The window smashers seem to know it isn't worth anything, which is great. If I could navigate better, it loaded directories and files alphabetically, and had an AM receiver, it would be the last aftermarket system I buy for the rest of my life.

climb_stealth 5y ago
My suggestion for getting SD card support is using a USB adapter. I'm using a Sandisk one [0]. It's quite small and hardly sticking out at all, and I just have it plugged in to the radio permanently. Otherwise, my Pioneer DEH-X6650BT let's you switch between directories with a button press. Basically you have previous and next track, as well as previous and next directory. The toplevel is simply another directory. It also remembers where it left off after you start it, and it is super snappy with 19GB of MP3s that I have in various directories. Also, the manual is very explicit on what file system is supported, how many files and directories and in which order files are being played. See this page and the next one [1]. The only downside is that I can't seem to turn it off. As in it the radio is always illuminated, even when you are not playing anything. [0] SanDisk MobileMate USB 3.0 Reader https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-au/products/accessories/sandisk-mobilemate-uhs-i-usb-3-0-microsd-reader-writer#SDDR-B531-GN6NN https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-au/products/accessories/s... [1] https://www.manualslib.com/manual/730613/Pioneer-Deh-X6650bt.html?page=20#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/730613/Pioneer-Deh-X6650bt...