Vehicle music Q?

monkey44 wrote:
We have the opportunity to play CD or Digital music in our SUV, and have always just listened to radio or CD ...

If we decide to switch to MP3 or USB input (we have both) does it matter which USB flash drive we buy? Is there a music USB flash drive or are all simply digital and it only copies the files and plays directly??

Try USB just once and you will never want to go back to shuffling CDs!

Couple of things to consider.

While folks are saying that ANY USB drive can work, there is some possible exceptions to that rule.

Number one, must be "FAT 32" partition (IE DOS), not NTFS (NT/XP up), USB drives typically are preformated with a FAT32 partition. Don't be tempted to reformat as NTFS, most likely will not be readable in your car stereo.

Number two, not ALL USB drive sizes may be compatible, especially drive sizes larger than 64 GB, when in doubt read the stereo manual!

Number three, most car stereos will not play DRM copy protected music files, if you are buying digital downloads they typically are protected with DRM.. With those files you will have to convert them to MP3 files which doesn't support DRM protection (you will lose some sound quality however with MP3 format).

Number four, create different folders on the USB drive for each CD album, this allows you to group music and find what you want easier, especially if you are dealing with several thousand songs or more.

Number five, not all car stereos can access thousands of songs on one USB drive, READ the stereo manual, it should give you the max folders/songs it can access (hint, many have a limit of 99 folders)..

When in doubt, READ THE MANUAL!

Number six, load it up and enjoy!