[Bigscout79]

I am seriously considering purchasing an i-river pmp-120 or 140. I was curious if anyone had one installed in their touareg. I don't have nav, so the video hookup is not as important to me, but if it is possible to control the tracks and volume through the headunit I'm interested in hearing about it.
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/pmp-120.aspx

I am contrary to ipods simply because they don't show up as removable storage and don't have an easy solution for pluggin my digital camera into them - the i-river has a usb cable that I can just plug from my digital camer and have up to 40 GB of space. If anyone has any thoughts on this or a comparable harddisk based media player and hookups to the touareg please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Tahoe]

I am contrary to ipods simply because they don't show up as removable storage and don't have an easy solution for pluggin my digital camera into them -
Thanks.

Not to try to change your mind or anything, but they do show up as a HD. My IPOD shows up as a portable firewire drive on the desktop whenever I plug it in and there are quite a few attachments to download photo files to the IPOD on the fly. Good luck with your I-River purchase. Post some pics if you install it.

 

[Bigscout79]

That a mac or pc? I was under the impression you had to have itunes or whatever it is to move files between the ipod and computer. I do quite a bit of work on people's computers and having my tools available without having to install software intrigued me.

Thanks.

 

[Tahoe]

On a Mac. But I don't see why a PC would be any different. They are not set by default to operate this way. In ITunes you must select the ipod and "enable firewire disk use". Then the IPod appears on my desktop along with my other drives. Good for backup or transfering large files from computer to computer.

 

[spockcat]

Probably the early iPods didn't show up as portable media but the newer ones do even on a PC. BUT, I think you do need to use the iPod software to load music that you can listen to.

 

[Tahoe]

That could be the case. There are however quite a few third party programs that allow you to access the hidden audio files on the IPOD. They allow you to drag and drop new music files onto the IPOD. Never the less ITunes is one the easiest and well designed audio players I have used.

 

[Bigscout79]

Hey thanks for the info. Do you use the Ipods for storage from digital camera's? I like the fact that I can just plug my usb cable from the digital camera into the iriver and dump my xd cards worth of pics. XD is a great format, but not catching on as soon as I'd hoped - most things convert/adapt back to compact flash.

FWIW, I recognize that ipod is the defacto king of hill in mp3 players - I love the interface, but don't like the fact that I've heard its not as "open" as in opensource/freedom of use as some others. But as you are saying I may be thinking of older versions etc...

Thanks again.

Edit- I'm bidding right now on an archos av400 that looks very interesting also - if anyone has any thoughts on that...
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/av400_series.html

 

[spockcat]

My son has one of these and loves it. it is about the size of an iPod. I haven't tried to display it on the Touareg nav screen yet but will when video in motion becomes available.
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_400.html?sid=j22kyj2obyoyfjyb2j3yo4

 

[hefman]

My son has one of these and loves it. it is about the size of an iPod. I haven't tried to display it on the Touareg nav screen yet but will when video in motion becomes available.
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_400.html?sid=j22kyj2obyoyfjyb2j3yo4

Both of those units look pretty cool. The operating system on the GMini looks nice, but I like the bigger screen on the iRiver. Would like to see more than 20GB though. Either way, the video and capability to view the menus on the screen could steer me in that direction -- especially with video-in-motion (hint, hint, spockcat ;-) )...

 

[eggyacid]

ipod will show up on both Mac/PC on their desktop.

Couple things about iPod
- Smaller footprint, easy to carry around
- battery life is better
- Being able to backup your files to them
- There are TONS accessories for them.... none for iRiver
- Easy of use
- It's an "iPod"

 

[Tahoe]

Regarding the better "battery life", the IPOD automatically recharges when plugged into the firewire port. I am not sure that that IRiver will do the same. It is nice to not have a seperate charger to worry about, just the firewire cable.

 

[hefman]

ipod will show up on both Mac/PC on their desktop.

Couple things about iPod
- Smaller footprint, easy to carry around
- battery life is better
- Being able to backup your files to them
- There are TONS accessories for them.... none for iRiver
- Easy of use
- It's an "iPod"

I'm partial to the iPod myself -- for all of those reasons, but the video and ability to possibly navigate the menus on my Nav screen "could" entice me to get one of the others. I actually purchased an iPod Photo a few weeks back, but took it back, because the menus were not visible on the video output (that, along with the fact it totally froze up on me).

I'm still milking my 10GB 3G iPod along (and will actually be getting an icelink>plus for it today). Eventually, I'm going to want more storage and better features. By then, maybe there will be an "iPod Video" available, that will allow me to navigate the menus on my Nav screen, watch movies on a rear screen (with audio to the radio, etc.)...