Now that I've discovered the benefits of "--alt-preset standard" I'm in the process of reencoding my entire CD collection. I realized, though, that it will push the number of my MP3 CDs from ~60 to ~100 in all likelihood. I love my iRiver 550 (which I just upgraded to from my RioVolt 100), but I'm wondering if anyone thinks a DVD-based MP3 player is even a remote possibility in the near future? It sure would reduce the amount media needed.

Alternatively I'd go for a hard drive based player, but I've never found one with a large enough capacity (I'd need roughly 100 GB of storage to allow enough room for my 75 GB to grow). Has anyone heard of or come across a player with a capacity that large?

Howdy,
Yes there is such thing as a DVD Player that plays DVD's with MP3'S on them....

I own the Pioneer DV-646 and it plays everything fine and plays alt-preset standard mp3's from a DVD-R perfectly

But have a look at the site and at other reviews/features for other players. I'm sure you'll find something you like...

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVD...earch&#comments

Cheers

Thanks, I was looking around there a bit already ... what I'd really like, though, is to be able to keep the portability (size) of the current mp3 cd player instead of having a larger unit with a screen (which I don't need). Essentially I'd like a stripped-down DVD-ROM drive that can play MP3s. I haven't been able to find any display-less units, and it's questionable whether they'd ever make them.

What I am looking for, is a DVD-car-radio-player, which could handle near WAV and MP3-playback, to play the most-popular lossless formats like APE and FLAC. And of course finally a support of all the lossy HQ-formats like Vorbis and MPC would be a must. - With a single DVD+R a complete CD-changer-unit with 10 CD´s would become obsolete. Also this would mean no complicate wiring of the changer-unit in the car trunk anymore. Only changing the radio-unit - and that´s it! - But as always: Industry & their product-designers are still sleeping.

With an MP3 in-dash player, CD-changer boxes are already obsolete.
I seriously doubt anyone (not even the Golden Ears) can hear a difference* between the original and an -aps file in a car, with any setup whatsoever (unless wearing headphones, which you shouldn't do in a car anyway).


*Speaking only of sound quality. We all could tell the difference on track transitions, so, unless all you listen to is DJ Mix CDs, I would highly recommend getting one of these stereos.

Maybe this Sony one ?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetai...=18&WLBS=fsweb7

Wow, yeah, that's almost exactly what I'm looking for. If they removed the writing capability, computer interface and lowered the price by $300 I'd buy it! Seriously though, if I had that much money to throw around I'd pick this up in a heartbeat. I don't, though, so I'm hoping iRiver does something similar soon. Thanks for the link.

Actually

#1: This is a Canada site, so remember to divide by 1.3--> the price is at around 380 USD
#2: Canada is always more expensive than the US , so you may get it @ 300$ pricetag in the US. Try amazon or pricematch.com
#3: It's on sale in Compusmart.com (another Canada site) for 150CAD. See here
http://www.redflagdeals.net/forums/index.p...=ST&f=1&t=58493

So it's pretty much chance that you can get this baby for around 100 bucks in the US.

Happy finding /edit I mean Hunting

I found and downloaded the manual for the MPDAP20U and boy, I'm this close to picking one up (~$230 at mwave.com - $50 rebate). It can play MP3s from DVD+RW (and DVD+R) which is exactly what I wanted. The display (on the remote only) looks good enough for my purposes, as the remote shows song title / artist (a less-impressive version of the iRiver one, it looks like). It also has folder play and shuffle all play, which is key for me.

My only question is whether it can play VBR encoded files, as that's a requirement now that I'm using -aps. The manual 'recommends' CBR at 128, but says it can play up to 320 kbps. I'd guess it can play VBR, but I'll try to verify before buying.

The Neuros comes stock with a 20 GB drive, but you can replace it with a larger one. There is one place that will do it without screwing your warrantee.

I think they go up to 80GB.. basically the limit is what is available in a 2.5 inch HD..

Sort of on that note, though... most player file systems are FAT. My XP system seems to limit how large a partition you can make with FAT.. I don't know if it is a format limitation though.