[TopMeTom]

S title really?

What's the biggest hard drive player out there? 160gb iPod/cowon x7????

I want to connect it and leave it in me motor connected to my alpine head unit?

[Steven]

You got it. Unless you sacrifice a bit of portability and buy a larger capacity portable video player. Then again it is going in your car, so...

[TopMeTom]

Originally Posted by Steven

You got it. Unless you sacrifice a bit of portability and buy a larger capacity portable video player. Then again it is going in your car, so...

Something like an archos?

[larkone]

I use an Archos 70 250Gb in my car that has my complete flac collection on it and Spotify for offline files - though that is problematic because Spotify cannot get their Android version working properly.

You need to get a good player like Poweramp or GoneMAD Music.

[TopMeTom]

Originally Posted by larkone

I use an Archos 70 250Gb in my car that has my complete flac collection on it and Spotify for offline files - though that is problematic because Spotify cannot get their Android version working properly.

You need to get a good player like Poweramp or GoneMAD Music.

Poweramp or gonemad are they off the android app store? Edit: I searched the classifieds and found a archos with a upgraded 1tb hard drive? Is this easy to do? I will google it now!


Also could you use a portable external hard drive? Like this: buffalo 320gb drive

[larkone]

Apparently upgrading the Archos is not that easy because there are several fine connectors that are very easily damaged. But is possible if you are comfortable with this sort of work. The next issue is that a bigger drive is likely to get hotter and consume more battery - don't think there are any low power drives you can use because of the size required 2.5" SATA and the thickness needed to fit limits the choices. You should read this first Forum.ArchosFans.com • View topic - Any possiblility to change Archos 70 250GB to 40or 80GB SSD?

An external drive works with the right USB Host Connector - it is just seen as external storage. You must have a lot of music to want more than 250GB in your car - even using flac. If space is an issue can you not use MP3 because at the end of the day you can only use the headphone out socket so quality is limited by that. Apparently there have been a lot of requests on the android forums to enable USB audio out which would be a great improvement but it is not there yet.

Poweramp and Gonemad are android apps - you just need to go in and set them up properly as I found I had issues with dropouts until I set the buffers large enough and how it managed its sleep settings.

[TopMeTom]

I think 250gb would be plenty really!just saw that archos and brain turned over!

Before i buy one, any issues I should know about? With the archos in a car?

[larkone]

No issues other than getting the player set up right with the correct buffering and how the archos behaves - auto power off/standby etc.

Poweramp is quite good in that you can set and save different equaliser profiles so you can build one to suit your car. Don't forget to get a charger cable! Just remember it has a real hard drive in it so avoid bouncing it around - I leave mine in the glove box. Otherwise it is great having nearly 400 CDs in flac format available in the car.

[TopMeTom]

Purely soi dont feel ripped off, how much did you pay?

[larkone]

Got my s/hand on ebay for a very good price and you should get a good s/h one for £70 - 100 max depending on condition. Amazon have them new for £160 - that is a bargain for a media player of that size and it does a bit more. http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCHOS-70-25.../dp/B00422XOEG

[TopMeTom]

Ok got one off ebay, any tips etc before it arrives?

[larkone]

Not really as you cannot do anything until you have it in your hands. If you just want it as a music player for the car then it is always a good idea to run the system monitor and kill all apps.

If you use poweramp go to settings->audio engine->advanced tweaks.
Set Keep Service On
Audio buffer size Huge
Audio Thread Priority Highest

Try not to run any other apps when you are listening to music and I find it works really well - love having 400 CDs available in the car. Just a shame we have to use the headphone out as Android hasn't enabled USB Audio out yet though there are a lot of requests for this so could well happen in the near future.

By the way you can load the android market (Play) on to an archos - just google 'android market on archos 70'. It works fine and have had no trouble using it.

[TopMeTom]

Charger in car? What do you use? I will have to get a ickle headphone cable....

[larkone]

One of these

Car Adapter for Archos 101 and Archos 70 - Archos Accessories

[TopMeTom]

Ah thanks! They also have a usb-dc charger so i would not need the lighter charger? Found one on the bay for 3.50 so will give it a go!

[TopMeTom]

Ah it does not appear to work with my head unit......oh well

[larkone]

How is not working - are you connecting via the headphone out to an aux in on your head unit? You cannot connect it using usb as android (the version in the archos) does not support audio out. If you can get headphones working then it is an issue with your head unit.

[TopMeTom]

My head unit aux in is already being used, i didnt realise the usb thing till you said. My own fault for not researching enough!

Ill have to get a ipod classic as all the wires are in place for that

[larkone]

It is a major failing of android that it doesn't support USB audio out, though it is high on the list of requests to added.

[TopMeTom]

If it would charge through usb that'd be great!