TubeNet

Since my 'cheapo' truck radio allows me to simply plug a 'jump drive' into a usb port on it to play .mp3 files.... I figured there would be a simply way to interface with my home stereo system without replacing my receiver/amp ... which has a series of RCA plugs on the back including one that runs to my CD disk changer. I was rather hoping to find a new inexpensive CD player that has a usb port to imput .mp3 files.

I found a very inexpensive Philips unit but the usb interface only works with a video system.

All I wanna do is plug in the 'jump drive' and read .mp3 files to play through my amp. Is there such a gadget out there?

To make sure I understand your question, I'll rephrase it.

You have a new truck radio, which can play music from "jump drives" (a.k.a. USB sticks, thumb drives, ...) via its USB port.
At home you have a stack of CDs.
At home you have a receiver/amp and a CD changer.
You want to copy some of the music from the CDs to the jump drive, to play it in the truck (presumably all the tuba music).
You're looking for a CD player that has a USB port, and hope that it can read CDs and write them to jump drives in the USB port.

I've never heard of such a device. What you're trying to do is to "rip" the music. The easiest way to do that is using a computer. And one of the best programs for doing that is iTunes. If you have a Mac, iTunes should be pre-installed. If not, or if you have a Windows machine, install iTunes on it, from the Apple web site. The program itself is free, and you don't need an "iTunes store account", and you don't need to buy any music from the iTunes store. Once you have iTunes installed, configure it to store music in MP3 format (because nearly all devices can play MP3 format, and not all can play the Apple format, even though the Apple lossless format might be theoretically a little better). Then just insert a music CD into the computer, and iTunes will ask whether you want to import it into the iTunes library. Say yes, and it will read the CD, look on the internet for play list information (album name, track titles), and store it on the disk of your computer. Do that for a few of your favorite CDs.

The part that is a little hard is to get the music out of the iTunes library and onto the jump drive. iTunes itself won't do that, because it's part of the Apple "walled garden" ecosystem, and it will only export music to Apple devices (and an iPod is much more expensive than a jump drive). There are two ways to do it. The hard one is manually: Look for the .mp3 files (on a mac they are stored in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Media/Music/...), and drop and drag them onto your jump drive (which you connected to the computer first, duh). The easier one is to install some free software that makes copying the music to the jump drive automatic; on the Mac I have downloaded a free app for that, but it's on my home Mac, and I'm in the office now, so if you need it, I'll update this post tonight.

If you don't like to use iTunes, there are many other programs that can do that; I'm sure Microsoft has a program (probably part of Windows Media Player), and certainly there must be other freeware around. But iTunes is very nicely integrated and pretty easy to use.

One word of warning: Even with mp3 compression, every CD will use about 100 MB of disk space (give or take a factor of 2, depending on desired sound quality, length of the music, and such). You do that to 200 CDs, and your disk might be full or overflowing, with 200 GB of ripped music. Fortunately, external disk drives are inexpensive, and you can get a 1 TB drive for less than $100; that will hold about 1000 CDs.

ralphbsz wrote:To make sure I understand your question, I'll rephrase it.

Ha! You didn't rephrase it, you substituted a different question! In his version, he has the jump drives all ready to go, and he's using them in his truck. Can he use them at home, too?

Donn wrote:

ralphbsz wrote:To make sure I understand your question, I'll rephrase it.

Ha! You didn't rephrase it, you substituted a different question! In his version, he has the jump drives all ready to go, and he's using them in his truck. Can he use them at home, too?

BINGO!

(Note to ralphbsz)... I did find a very inexpensive device to read CD's and put them on a thumb drive but that's not what I'm looking too do. That same device will also allow a thumb drive with mp3 files on it to be played through the amp that the device is hooked to but it requires a video interface.

I want purchase a home CD player that also has a simple thumb drive input.

Here's a not-quite-ideal solution. A USB stick/mp3 player. This is the cheapest one I've seen at $20. You would need a cord that goes from a 1/4" jack to what ever you have available on your amp but those are cheap too.

http://www.amazon.com/Electrohome-EAMP1 ... m_sbs_e_10

Edit:Yikes! there are even cheaper ones, but they would probably fall apart out of the box!

Dan, without a video interface, how can you pick and choose what songs you want to play? Do you just want it to start at the beginning and just work its way through them?

Typical CD player display is LCD or LED, but not video. I'm guessing the truck's is LED.

It's funny this isn't more commonly supported, given that it seems to be common in car audio. Casual web search turns up some possibilities, but they seem to be specially designed for "DJs".

Donn wrote:Typical CD player display is LCD or LED, but not video. I'm guessing the truck's is LED.

It's funny this isn't more commonly supported, given that it seems to be common in car audio. Casual web search turns up some possibilities, but they seem to be specially designed for "DJs".

I went into Best Buy and asked for a cd player that also had a USB port for .mp3 file input. Here is the gadget I bought for just under $40. http://www.usa.philips.com/c/blu-ray-dv ... f7/prd/en/ It would have been just the ticket but it has to be hooked up to video because access to the .mp3 player is on-screen. You can't simply hook the output to the RCA input plugs on a receiver/amplifier and listen to the .mp3 files off of your thumb-drive.

You are so right, though. A USB port is very common on car systems these days.

Dam, it might be time for an iPod. You could probably get an older one pretty cheap these days.

bort wrote:Dam, it might be time for an iPod. You could probably get an older one pretty cheap these days.

I've given that some thought to an iPod. However... that's just adding another gadget to the fray. This experience takes me back to about twenty years ago when I spent a lot of time doing sales work 'on the road'.... attempting to synchronize Windows, Symantec '1st Act' (contact manager), a PDA, and a lame-brained secretary back at the office!