75ZT Community

Have got used to being able to connect my iPod in my car. Currently have a Dice box in the Civ and I hate it. Radio regularly freezes out and only way to get it back is ignition off and back on, not fun when it occurs on the motorway

Looking around the various Fora it looks like the best system is an Intravee II together with an Alpine KCA 420i interface??

My question is why is the Intravee needed? The Alpine unit seems to me to have everything there? I am obviously missing something, but what exactly does the Intravee do?

Cheers

Chris

Thi intravee creates the display format for the head unit, and converts the signals from Kbus to alpine bus, which is what the Alpine box 'talks'. The alpine CD changers on 75s don't talk alpine bus, but use kbus.

They could have made the intravee talk directly to the ipod, but interfacing to an ipod is a mjor task in itself, believe me, so it was a sensible thing to do it that way.

I have one, and like it a lot, although not perfect it's the best I've seen short of a full integration. It may be better with the latest firmware but cars have been taking a back seat this year so I haven't yet upgraded to the latest.

Duncan wrote:Thi intravee creates the display format for the head unit, and converts the signals from Kbus to alpine bus, which is what the Alpine box 'talks'. The alpine CD changers on 75s don't talk alpine bus, but use kbus.

They could have made the intravee talk directly to the ipod, but interfacing to an ipod is a mjor task in itself, believe me, so it was a sensible thing to do it that way.

I have one, and like it a lot, although not perfect it's the best I've seen short of a full integration. It may be better with the latest firmware but cars have been taking a back seat this year so I haven't yet upgraded to the latest.

Duncan

Cheers. That clears that up for me.

Looks a lot of readies to do, approx £250, but I do intend keeping the car at least a couple of years, and they seem to hold their value well. Have seen complete set up on eBay go for around £200.

Chris

Been investigating this further.

Am loathe to spend £200 to connect my iPod.

My question is, will this combination work?

View eBay item 130405065958

View eBay item 110552859768

My thinking is this, get the sound via the AV channel on the TV??

Anybody tried this??

Am not fussed about having to control the ipod via itself and I know I'll have to charge it via a separate car charger but all in it would cost less than £50. Also a bonus would be being able to watch video off the ipod too.

Chris

First problem I can see with your idea is the AV channel is only Mono sound.

I think, but will have to check, the Video input on Hi Line will not match that of the iPod output.

JohnDotCom wrote:First problem I can see with your idea is the AV channel is only Mono sound.

Darn it.

Knew it couldn't be that easy. [insert back to drawing board smiley]

Buy a Grom unit use either memstick or I pod IIRC

You may have to cut the plug off your CD player and use that instead of the one provided

View eBay item 170504616862

takestock wrote:Buy a Grom unit use either memstick or I pod IIRC

Thanks Dave.

I'll have a look at them.

I have a Dension Gateway 300 for my car. These support ipods as well as USB devices and cost about £130.

I do not use an Ipod but have a number of USB sticks with various different biased music on them to match passenger loads moods etc.

Steve

scgfull wrote:I have a Dension Gateway 300 for my car. These support ipods as well as USB devices and cost about £130.

I do not use an Ipod but have a number of USB sticks with various different biased music on them to match passenger loads moods etc.

Steve

There is a Grom model that does that too.

View eBay item 180504252771

Have been speaking with them and I'll probably go with the Grom box, with just iPod connectivity, as I don't see the point in a memory stick when my iPod holds 80GB.

One thing. Before you part with any cash, have a think about the user interface.

Even what is supplied as OE on some cars is frankly rubbish. Unless the box is clever, you will get six playlists replacing 6 CDs, and that's your lot.

I don't know what the Grom box does, so make sure you find out and that you are happy. In particular, know what it does on the setup you have. Otherwise it's a lot of money down the pan!

From what I can gather it is very simialr to the Dice box I have in the Civic.

On Disc 1 you control the full list of tracks on your iPod. You can just use the ipod to select the artist, album etc and then the skip buttons on the wheel will move it forward and back a track etc. 2 - 6 will play playlists.

Chris

My grom is the mem stick type, I created 6 folders to mirror the six buttons on the unit, however i can put at least 99 tracks in each folder ( not tried any more) you use the controls exactly as before, it is a pain if yo want to listen to track 83 for instance and it only shows as track 83 for instance when playing.

But, it is affordable and interfaces just as the old multichanger would do, no more skipping discs and 10 fold improved minimum.apacity.

...it is a pain if yo want to listen to track 83 for instance and it only shows as track 83 for instance when playing...

So it doesn't pick up the ID tags of the MP3's??

I have an old 125Gb laptop hard drive in an enclosure that runs via USB.

I wonder if this would work via the USB port on the one you have Dave?

Imagine your entire music collection being with you in the car.

Could easily organise it by genre, or decade etc

If it can handle more than 99 in each folder that is

The ones I tried would drive an HDD, so long as it wasn't too power hungry.

Regarding the track numbers, kbus can only send 00 to 99, so don't know what would happen with more than 99.

Regarding taking your entire music collection: with the big ipod I do. That's why I need a decent interface to select what to listen to. I reckon trying to use the ipod itself while on the move is a bad idea, and someone might think you were using a mobile......