Car radio supporting Ogg?
Reply #12 – 2005-09-24 22:50:52
In my old car I had an 80GB Kenwood Music Keg, and it would play WMA, MP3, WAV, Vorbis, AAC and my format of choice: FLAC. At the time, it couldn't play Vorbis over about 192kbps because of buffer underrun issues, but they've since upgraded the decoder and firmware (with some of my help testing prototype code), and now it can decode up to 320 (is that -q 9?), according to my experience. But the PhatNoise forum (the company that produces both the PhatBox and Music Keg) is defunct now. I think the company is still around, though. It's the only option I know of that offers Vorbis playback in a car audio system. I agree that it'd be great to have one that's CD or DVD based, or even a HD in the head unit (as some companies do, like Sony, but with Vorbis decoding). The PhatBox/Keg was a Linux-based system with a removable cartridge that was usually installed in the trunk. Consider, though, that there are three ways you can have a portable player work with your car's head unit, and therefore be limited only by what the portable player can decode. (1) Mini-jack to head unit, if the head has such a port. (2) Some setups allow wiring the portable's output into the AUX input of the head, but it involves pulling the head and doing some wiring by hand. Same result as (1), but with more installation work. (3) Use of an FM modulator. There are some available for the iPod, as well as for some other portables (and possibly one that is Vorbis-friendly).