{"id":312,"date":"2005-10-24T20:11:27","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T04:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2005-10-24T20:11:42","modified_gmt":"2005-10-25T04:11:42","slug":"pimpin-my-ride-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/24\/pimpin-my-ride-part-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimpin’ my Ride Part IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Blaupunkt Seattle MP74<\/a> has been in for a week now and I can finally report on how well it works. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Radio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the first things I noticed was that the radio was top-notch. It sounds very clear and you can pick one of six labelled presets from dedicated buttons. No more remembering which station is “4” or “6”. The labels are named automatically from the RDS feature<\/a> of the tuner. RDS is supported by a large number of radio stations and transmits the station id, song title, artist and whatever else they want. It’s really cool and I don’t understand why more receivers don’t support it. In fact, only one from the Crutchfield catalog had it. <\/p>\n

The Display:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess this is where the pimpin’ part comes in. The stereo shows all kinds of silly animations when it starts up and shuts down. It has this vector-based road graphic that loks like it should move or something or at least react to the music, but it doesn’t. I’d turn all these off if there was an option to do so.<\/p>\n

The amount of data they choose to display is a little odd. There’s a small area on the top and center that scrolls RDS and CD data, but it doesn’t need to. there’s a lot more space on either side. <\/p>\n

The size of the display will probably make this even more of a target for theives. I’m almost surprised that it hasn’t been stolen yet. The detachable face comes witih a case, but it’s too big to fit in a pocket. They recommend you don’t detach it and put it in your glove box or under the seat, so where do you put it? I don’t want to have to carry it everwhere. Worse is I have the iPod to carry out as well. <\/p>\n

Playing CDs:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It works! It can read CD Text (not that I have many that include it) and plays MP3 CDs just fine. It does the right thing and starts up where it left off when I turn on the car. <\/p>\n

I was initially confused by the fact that hitting the door button opens the motorized door, but does not eject the disc. I wasn’t sure how to eject it at all really and the manual doesn’t say anything about this. Apparently you have to hold down the door buttom for a few seconds and when you release it it will open the door and eject it. I really don’t understand these Germans.<\/p>\n

Using the iPod:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I didn’t know before I started this process is that all these iPod adapters are simply devices that make an iPod look like a CD changer to a stereo. I guess they’re kinda the same thing, except one can hold a a couple hundred CDs instead of 6. With some experimentation, I discovered that the it wasn’t always reliable about waking up the iPod and connecting to it. It seemed to only check for a CD changer-type thing when it turned on. If it didn’t find it, I could turn it off and on again and it would find it. <\/p>\n

This is not quite the seamless integration I was hoping for. There doesn’t seem to be a way to navigate playlists on the iPod. This isn’t a problem for me since I always just listen on shuffle. What is a problem is that the shuffle option (they call it MIX) doesn’t stay on when you turn the unit off and back on. Apparently the Alpine adapater for iPods is superior in that it can navigate all the playlists.<\/p>\n

Some lessons learned:<\/strong><\/p>\n