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Gdetrailer
PA
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Joined: 01/05/2007
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agesilaus wrote:We listen to Audible books as we travel cross country. So we had a CD player in our F350. However that spontaneously combusted and the truck we are looking at a 2018 RAM 2500 does not have a CD player.
It does have a very nice backup camera display tho, one that I'd rather not replace.
So has anyone used:
1) A USB CDROM player?
2) Or listened to books/music on a USB memory stick?
Seems like we tried the memory stick idea in the F350 but it would not advance thru the chapters, stopped after playing one file
Any other suggestions welcome
You can't just use any old external USB CDROM for computers, the radio will not recognize those..
There was a outfit that did make a external USB CD drive specifically for Ford trucks but it was insanely expensive and required very specific vehicle model yrs and radio trim levels.
USB memory stick works great for audio files but you do need to pay close attention to some details to get everything to work as you want it.
Your USB flash drive needs to be "FAT32" (IE DOS compatible), NTFS (MS Windows File System) typically will not work, never tried ExFAT (Extended FAT32) which allows for larger partition. Most USB flash drives 32GB in size or smaller will come formated as FAT32, USB flash drives larger than 32GB typically will be preformated with ExFAT and may or may not work.
As long as you buy 32GB or smaller flash drives it will work and they will give you about 300 hrs of MP3 files at 128kb.
To get your files to play in order, you must organize the files in folders. If your audio books are split into a file for each chapter than you must put all of that books chapter files into the same folder for that book.
Playback order can be a bit tricky to get right as most players will play numeric (files starting 01, 02, 02) files first and alpha (a, b, c) files after that.
So, to get a CD album ripped to MP3 to play in album order, the first letter(s) must stay the same for the entire album.. To get play order you need to number the files in order, but you must make sure that track 1 is 01 and sequence like 01, 02, 03 otherwise player gets confused thinking 1 is after track 10..
Example:
T01
T02
T03
T04
T10
T11
T12
Something to be very aware of, most vehicle radios will play MP3 and WMA files ONLY.
WMA files while of better sound quality, if you buy downloads will typically have DRM (Digital Rights Management) flag set. Car stereos are not able to play any file with DRM flag set, those files must be converted to MP3 which does not support DRM.
For that reason, I would highly recommend making sure you are only trying to play MP3 files..
For purchased and downloaded WMA files you will need to find a WMA to MP3 file converter. Converting WMA files to MP3 removes the DRM flag since MP3 specifications do not recognize DRM.
For Audible books that will require you to find a file format converter to convert Audible file format to MP3..
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Almot
out there
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Latner wrote:larry cad wrote:You may be better off using a public library, and downloading audio books to a computer, laptop, ipad or phone. No CDs, no player. I use an app on my ipad called "overdrive". All you need is a membership to the library and you have free access to hundreds of audio books. And you can join other libraries where you travel to. You do it all on line and don't have to go to the library. Been doing it for years.
x2 I use Libby on my phone (android) free downloads from my local library.
I agree - use laptop or even a smartphone with 3.5mm line out. For music and movies/shows you may install free Kodi interface on laptop, it takes a little to learn how to scan files into Kodi, especially music, but when you're done, it's a beauty. It will probably play audio books too. In the past I used to organize books, albums and shows into my own catalogue, ex. folder Aduio books -> subfolder Author (or Genre) -> subfolder Book -> Chapters. Or TV shows -> Name -> Epdisodes. Kodi is better.
Yutube has plenty of audiobooks as well.
I threw my Jensen Radio-CD out, it has gone crazy, was skipping the songs, switching between the modes and turn on by itself in the middle of the night. Put an average car radio instead. Why they put the lowest quality electronics and appliances in RVs, is beyond me.
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agesilaus
North Florida
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Quote:I would get an mp3 player. You can hold a lot of books on the one device, and you can connect it to the car system, external speakers, or headphones easily. And, you don't have to deal with annoying skips.
I forgot all about MP3 players. That's a good idea.
Also the FAT32 vs NTFS format was probably the problem when I tried the flash drive. I'm fairly sure NTFS is the default format now on windows.
Thanks for all the advice, we are antiApple so those suggestions are not applicable, but thanks for the suggestions. I'll try a FAT32 flash drive and if that does not work a MP3 player.
I convert all our audio books to MP3. Last time I tried our public library they had a thin selection and most of what They had was checked out. But that was years ago.
Arctic Fox 25Y Travel Trailer
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toedtoes
California
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The benefit of the mp3 player is that the controls are on the device itself, so you don't have to worry if you can't control it from the stereo. With a flash drive, you are limited to controlling it by the stereo, and not all stereos manage that well.
1975 American Clipper RV with Dodge 360 (photo in profile)
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Both born in Morgan Hill, CA to Irv Perch (Daddy of the Aristocrat trailers)
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agesilaus
North Florida
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toedtoes wrote:The benefit of the mp3 player is that the controls are on the device itself, so you don't have to worry if you can't control it from the stereo. With a flash drive, you are limited to controlling it by the stereo, and not all stereos manage that well.
I looked at MP3 players on Amazon, you can get one for $40 with 32 GB and Bluetooth. 32 GB is 150-400 normal sized books. Wish someone had reminded me of this years ago, no more fooling around with CDROMs.
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JimBollman
Lost State of Franklin
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I have been putting books on thumb drives for awhile now by coping the book CDs in to the computer then out to the thumb drive. Pretty much every vehicle or radio that has a USB port can play books from a thumb drive. I put a bunch of books on one thumb drive and keep each one in a small zip lock bag with a list of what's on it. I have a few I keep in a pouch along with a few with some of my favorite music. I also play books and podcasts from my phone over bluetooth to my radio or plugged into the USB. Most libraries have audio books you can borrow for 2-3 weeks and play with the appropriate app, there are a couple of different systems.
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vermilye
Oswego, NY, USA
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It the new truck radio has an aux input, you might look at using Bluetooth receiver/transmitter to listen to media on your phone (assuming that it has Bluetooth). I usually listen to audio files from a couple of different libraries downloaded to my phone using Overdrive.
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Gdetrailer
PA
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Joined: 01/05/2007
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agesilaus wrote:toedtoes wrote:The benefit of the mp3 player is that the controls are on the device itself, so you don't have to worry if you can't control it from the stereo. With a flash drive, you are limited to controlling it by the stereo, and not all stereos manage that well.
I looked at MP3 players on Amazon, you can get one for $40 with 32 GB and Bluetooth. 32 GB is 150-400 normal sized books. Wish someone had reminded me of this years ago, no more fooling around with CDROMs.
The caveat with the plan using a BT MP3 player is if you also use your Cellphone connected via BT to the vehicle radio.. Only can have ONE active BT connection at the same time.. Play the MP3 player and your cell phone loses.. Want to make a handsfree phone call, well then the MP3 must be disconnected and the phone must be connected..
You can of course, connect your smart phone via BT and the radio will play your music files that you store on the cellphone..
As far as separate MP3 players being "superior" to the vehicles built in radio playing MP3s from a USB goes, that may have been true 10 yrs ago, not so much now days..
I find having the radio screen having control is far nicer than chasing a small portable MP3 player and then trying to find what you want on a tiny portable screen and controls..
In fact, it is very nice to have full control of the radio right on my steering wheel.. Can't get that from a portable MP3 player..
Additionally with a portable MP3 player, you now have to account for the battery, they do need charged so now you have another device to plug in for charging.
I have done this both ways, while I am not a big fan of OEM stereo systems due to poor sound quality, the controls they offer, helps to make up for less sound quality than I like..
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Gdetrailer
PA
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agesilaus wrote:Quote:I would get an mp3 player. You can hold a lot of books on the one device, and you can connect it to the car system, external speakers, or headphones easily. And, you don't have to deal with annoying skips.
I forgot all about MP3 players. That's a good idea.
Also the FAT32 vs NTFS format was probably the problem when I tried the flash drive. I'm fairly sure NTFS is the default format now on windows.
Thanks for all the advice, we are antiApple so those suggestions are not applicable, but thanks for the suggestions. I'll try a FAT32 flash drive and if that does not work a MP3 player.
I convert all our audio books to MP3. Last time I tried our public library they had a thin selection and most of what They had was checked out. But that was years ago.
USB flash drives as long as they are 32GB or smaller are preformated by default as FAT32. Windows up to and including Win10 by default will offer to format external USB flash drives of 32GB or less with FAT32. NTFS on those drives are optional and Windows does give you the option to format NTFS if you want..
Technically 32GB is the max internal limit that Windows is supposed to format FAT32.. There are workarounds and I have formated external HDs up to 1TB as FAT32, but that must be done via other utilities.
Technically speaking drives larger than 32GB should be NTFS or ExFAT, ExFAT was developed to get past the MS 32GB limit of FAT32 but may present compatibility issues for some devices..
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toedtoes
California
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You can hook the mp3 player into the car stereo using the 3.5mm aux input or the usb port, leaving the bluetooth for your phone.
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