Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 23:21:22 -0500
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject: FS: Indash MP3, holds 200 hrs of music indash, $325 (was $1200)
In-Reply-To: <157.77f2c54.297ae56a@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Since there's been some talk on the list about MP3's in your car, I thought
I'd mention one I have for sale.
This is a Rio Car Player. I picked up three on closeout, but ended up
deciding to use one unit plus a couple of separate docking sleeves (so I can
move the same unit from car to car) rather than putting a separate unit in
each car. I'm going to put the remaining two on Ebay (still new), but since
this subject has came up here, I figured I'd mention it here first.
This is an indash pullout car stereo that plays MP3's - not on CD's but on
its own built-in 12 gig hard drive. This allows it to store about 200 CD's
worth of music internally, in the size of a regular car stereo. Think of it
like having a 200-disc CD changer built into your dash. It's expandable to
60 gig (not that you'd really need that much music in your car), as it uses
a regular notebook hard drive. It's open-source and hackable. To copy
files from a CD (or the internet) using your PC, you just pull it out and
plug it into your PC (via a USB, serial, or ethernet port) and copy the
music from your CD onto the Rio. (It's a 2 step process; first you copy the
CD, or tracks from it, as MP3 files, then you dump them onto the Rio. Very
easy.) You can also plug it in to a home stereo and use it as a home music
jukebox. Or you can plug it into a laptop while it's mounted in the van.
This thing's really trick. It's _way_ ahead of its time; the major car
stereo companies are just beginning to show units like this (for over
$1000), and they're not as user-friendly. Just a few controls do
everything. You can design playlists based on artist, album, musical genre,
etc. It displays artist, title, etc. as it plays. It has a wireless
remote. It has a built-in 20 band fully-parametric equalizer and 2 sets of
preamp outputs (it requires a separate amp). It's only shortcoming is that
it does not have a built-in tuner; instead it has an input for your existing
radio (or perhaps a walkman). There is an optional tuner module that plugs
into the wiring harness (thus avoiding the need for a separate radio) but
it's sold out; there's been talk about making another run of them but it's
up in the air.
This was a $1200 unit before the manufacturer (who also makes GoVideo,
Diamond Multimedia, Replay TV, and Rio portable MP3) discontinued it.
Apparantly they made the corperate decision that it would be easier to sell
the technology on an OEM basis to other companies; interestingly, though,
they will continue to sell a home version of the unit under their own name.
(They are also continuing to support it, plus there are several user groups,
since it's hackable.)
I'm asking $325 each plus $18 shipping (within the US), still factory
sealed, for the two I don't need.
More details at http://199.217.241.240/riocar.htm
- Ron Salmon
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