Marine Stereos' & iPods

[CaptKermie]

A while back there was a thread running about marine stereos and I asked about the neccessity of an iPod vs a thumb drive or some other media strorage to use with the stereo. SD had some sage advice for the pros of an iPod for storage and playback.
Well, I managed to get a deal so to speak for an iPod so I cashed in my shopping points (99,000) for an Apple Ipod 2nd Gen model A1288 with the built in speaker & WiFi. So I load a bunch of CD's on it, then take it out to the boat and see how it works.
Well I plugged in the USB and changed mode on stereo to USB and sure enough it sees the device and displays "Reading". OK I am supposed to wait a few seconds but after 10 minutes and some reading of the manual for trouble shooting I see that all has been done but nothing happens, it just sits at "Reading" I know that both units work because I have already been using the iPod stand-alone and it is an awsome toy, ditto for the stereo, I have played CD's and FM radio and the sound (4 X 50 watts = 200) is enough to chase me out of the boat when I crank it up, actuall I am quite happy with it (brand = Dual).
For some reason I cannot get the stereo to play the iPod, I do have the iPod turned on and unlocked, I even started a playback but the sound came out the micro speaker on the iPod instead of the 200 watt stereo. Can anyone explain how I get the stereo to play the iPod stored music? I bought the iPod for use on the boat and now I can't use it.
I am not that enthused about using the earbuds because I am hearing impaired, I only hear through my right ear, the left ear has been out of order for as long as I can remember so I do not get full right and left channel music unless it comes from room speakers not earphones. Still sounds good on the one earbud though even if I can't make a comparison with two. Makes a nice game platform too and PDA with the wireless if I hit a WiFi hot spot.

[sailingdog]

Capt Kermie—

First, no 2nd Gen iPods have a built in speaker or WiFi... If you've got one, it is one that was never released commercially.

Can you post a photo of your iPod... a 2nd Gen iPod looks like this:



A second Gen iPod Touch, which has a built-in speaker and WiFi looks like this:






Which Dual stereo unit did you get. IIRC, they need a special, optional, iPod interface cable, as shown in this user manual on page 3.

[huguley3]

I guess I am all old school and just planed to plug in my ipod via a headphone to RCA jack adapter cable. My stereo is pretty old though and I suppose the newer ones don't even have RCA type inputs.

I would bet that your stereo is treating the Ipod as a usb device but you don't have the music on the ipod as storage. It is probably hidden away in apples aac format and not as an mp3 like your stereo would be expecting. You could save your music as mp3s and put it onto the ipod as data but then you would not be able to control the music with the ipod. And you may as well just get a $20 usb stick as it would accomplish the same thing.

I am probably not helping much...

[negrini]

Capt, I'm assuming your stereo has an USB input to play music. OK, if that's the case, then you should look on how you put your music on your iPod. If you do use the regular Apple way (iTunes), then you have completely incompatible medias and it will not work at all. iPod uses a different digital file format and content, so it plays on iPod only. One way to play it on your stereo is to get analog out (the earphone jack or the botton plug of your iPod) then put it onto your stereo AUX input, but this require your stereo to have an aux in. On the other side, your stereo USB reads PC/MAC file format directory and plays mp3 files, totaly different than your iPod. One possible try, is to plug your iPod on a laptop and uses it as a jumpdrive (pen drive) and load your mp3 music into it. This way, there is a chance your stereo recognize your iPod as a pen-drive and play it. But, you'll not be able to hear the music on your iPod (neither on your external speaker). So, this is a compatibility issue you're experiencing. I'd try to find an analogic aux input on your stereo, then plug a simple 3.5mm jack (both ends) and play it wherever you want.

[CaptKermie]

That is the one SD!! the Apple ipod Touch in the lower pic, it has the speaker and WiFi and I did copy my CD's to the iTunes library and then synced them back to the iPod Touch so they would be in Apple format and the Genius feature really works cool to sort them around with. But I found an old (my wifes) sony mp3 player with music on it (USB) and tried it on the stereo too, same thing "Reading" but no music played. The stereo is supposed to be USB compatible, says so in the instructions and also explains how to use the ipod/USB with MP3. It also has an AUX jack but I am trying to use the iPod with USB.

[sailingdog]

CaptKermie—

which model stereo is it? The iPod capable ones use a special iPod cable that connects to the dock connector, as shown in the manual I linked to above.

[CaptKermie]

SD it is the DUAL MXDM66 and the manual cover does not have the little made for ipod or iPlug icons on it that your MXDMA65 page 3 does, but the USB is MP3/WMA compatible and it plays Windows Media and CD Audio, but is not compatible with with files that are DRM protected; WMA lossless format; MP3 PRO; MP3 playlists; WAV format or packet writing. Sounds like my Dual model is the wrong one, no wonder WestMarine had it on internet special for $99.00, At least I got the right iPod Touch!

[sailingdog]

CaptKermie—

It probably isn't compatible with iPods but would play MP3s that were stored on a USB thumb drive. They're relatively inexpensive. You can get a 16 GB one for about $26 or so...

[nk235]

Using the USB cable to connect your Ipod to the stereo will prob not work just like the others have said because your music is in Apple Ipod format. I would recommend to get either one of these cables: I have the one with the red and white Aux inputs as my stereo is older but I would bet your stereo prob has one of the white Aux recepticals that looks just like a double sided head phone cord (but with no head phones) You would then just select the "AUX" setting on the stereo and control the musci through the IPOD. Good luck!

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[nk235]

Sorry I have no idea why that white cable picture came out so big!