Head unit with HD support

[maxmodder 10+ year member]

While my old school pioneer 6900UB works great with my 32GB ipod, (over 7000 songs organized by artist/album/songs and displaying perfectly on the 6900UB display) I would like for it to work with a much bigger HD. I have about 90 Gigs of music and was told that a Simpletech Sp-U25/80W only takes 500mA, and that the head unit will power it. I hooked the USB dongle directly to the HD using a usb A to mini B adapter and it powers on fine. (very short wire so less power consumption) Unfortunately this head unit can't seem to sort though the file structure which is artist/album/songs on a HD like it can an ipod. When there's only a few folders on it, the HD reads and plays fine so you know it's formatted correctly to FAT32. I loaded up 21,000 files on 1900 folders in an artist/album/song structure and it won't read it. I let it run for 10 minutes. I even tried hooking up an external cig lighter adapter for additional power, but still no luck. The blue light flashes and the red light stays constant, but that's about it.

What type of head unit is PROVEN to be able to handle that much data on an external hard drive and quickly?

From these posts, people were so excited about using the Simpletech HD with this unit, but whats the point of having 20,000+ songs all in the same folder and not being able to navigate quickly to the song you want like you can on the ipod?

Saab 92 Forum : Saab92x.com / Installed my new radio Pioneer 6900UB - Now I have questions - claims 50 GB works...I have the same exact setup.

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-units/242666-what-hd-power-adapter-you-using-your-pioneer-6900ub.html

Pioneer DEHP6900UB User Reviews at DealTime

What head unit do I need to get that will enable me to do what I want?

Click to read more...

 

[MetalHead888 10+ year member]

if you really like your head unit otherwise, id suggest buying a bigger ipod actually. ive heard of tons of people with the same issue as you with all sorts of different head units. ive also heard a lot of complaints that the head units playing some songs over and over again and random just simply doesnt work.

for the 250 bucks or so that you'd spend on a new head unit... u might as well buy the 120 gig ipod. unless you really want the new head unit. i might be wrong.... but i havent heard of any unit that actually plays correctly from a usb storage device.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

it is a challenge for the HU to sort the device. we ran into this with the Pioneer 980BT with the USB adapter. it reads 32GB and 64GB thumbdrives just fine. but no dice on a HDD - just takes too long to read it before you can use it. even smaller 2.5" drives.

a 160GB iPod seems to be the best solution for having portable music in the car with track info and intelligent searches. or have a collection of 64GB thumbdrives, sorted by genre or similar. still easier than a CD changer. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

the industry is in no hurry to allow you to access tens of thousands of songs - since it is highly likely you did not acquire them legally. RIAA and MPAA is always fighting any type of access to HDD devices.