So I finally installed my new car stereo and wrote a review of it. The review is a bit long, but I tried to cover everything a geek like me would want to know before purchasing. Leave some feedback for me by commenting on this blog post. Here is the review.
Geek Tags: geek, USB, MP3, MP3s, stereo, car+stereo, reviews
If you look at the BB short synopsis in the list of CD decks, it does mention OGG as a supported format, but I see nothing anywhere else to confirm that. If you have anything in OGG format, it might be worthwhile to try it, just to find out.
Where do you see OGG support mentioned? I don’t see it mentioned anywhere. I checked the stereo’s manual (twice) and I see no mention of OGG.
Brian
I had heard it said OGG as well. But without ogg based on your review I certainly wont be purchasing this, the lack of support for mono MP3 is anoying enough.
Cool review.. I’ll prolly wait until I find a unit that supports OGG :)
Here’s a screen capture, but it’s only on the list of CD racks that I see any mention of OGG support:
Here’s the link to the picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_e/28495473/
hi Brian,
Cool review, I’m thinking about getting one myself. Since it has two pairs of output jacks, shortcomings in amplification can be caught by power amps anyway.
How is mp3 support for VBR encoded files? Any problems??
Cheers,
Berry
RESPONSE: I haven’t done any extensive testing of VBR Mp3s, but I have VBRs and it hasn’t had problems playing any of them. –Brian
I’ve had my eye on this stereo (and similar ones) for a while, and today I finally took some tests with me to Best Buy (Insignia is a Best Buy brand, btw). This one did fine with my MMC card via a USB card reader, but my MP3 CDs were unreadable, and my USB-connected MP3 player showed up as “no songs”.
So now I’m back to looking at the MP3/CD players without USB (or flash) capability.
Were the MP3 CDs burned with the specs I mentioned in the review? Were they scratched? The manual says the Flash drive has to be a Windows flash drive (or something like that – I don’t have the manual in front of me).
Brian
If a MP3 is running, and you turn off your car, where does it start playing when you restart the car?
Beginning of that Track?
Where it stopped
Beginning of CD
Thanks for the review
ANSWER:It picks up where it left off, just as it should
Brian,
Thanks for the review. I’ve been looking at this head unit (in various permutations) for quite a while… don’t have much recorded in MP3 on CD, but a lot converted for my Creative Zen player. The concept of plugging in a flash drive just makes such perfect sense I’m surprised it’s taken so long. Anyway, I am somewhat of an audiophile, so I’d be really interested in your and other’s thoughts of how this unit sounds in comparison to others. I’m also really interested in how well the aux input works, as I’ve been using Rhapsody to Go quite a lot recently (via a cassette adapter into the stock head unit in my 190E, Alpine amp, MB Quart speakers) using an iRiver H10 5GB player. They allow you to download everything in WMA 160kps and the sound quality in the car is stunning (even in the home system, quite surprising). I love the concept of “leased” music, where for $15/month, I can basically listen to whatever I want (with the unfortunate exception of the Beatles… copyright crap, haven’t given Sony enough money yet).
But I digress. I’m leaning strongly towards this unit, so any more info anyone can provide on a) sound quality, and b) how well the aux input works would be much appreciated. I know it’s only $100, but I want to make sure before I replace the head unit in my baby Benz.
Thanks,
Wipster
“Keep on rockin’ in the free world”
RESPONSE:I haven’t used the AUX input much. I’ll test it out tomorrow (if I can remember to grab my iRiver) and let you know. –Brian
Excellent review. Thank you.
Just saw this unit in the BB ad today and decided to do some research. You mentioned you’re experienced installing car stereos–even when websites say they won’t fit. After browsing the car-specific installation kits BB carries (surprisingly few), I wonder if these are what the online “installation guide” is based on. If BB doesn’t carry a kit for your car, it turns up the “doesn’t fit” logo when you enter your car info? If that’s the case, seems one could pick up a standard kit elsewhere (e.g. Schosche.com) for use with BB head units. Just speculating since my car, or even all years of my car, doesn’t appear to fit *any* of the BB units. Now how can the omnipresent Honda Civic be so incompatible? ‘Nuff rambling. Thanks again for the review!
RESPONSE: I don’t have any experience with a Honda Civic, but here is what I would do if I were you: Find out the form factor of the stereo you are interested in – DIN is one form factor, for example. Once you have that knowledge, do some googling to see if anyone has posted anything on the net about fitting that form factor stereo into a Honda Civic (or your year). Make sure you search Usenet too with http://groups.google.com. I bet you can find someone that has tried it. For this install , what I had to do was just swap the stereo and the “change area” pieces. Once I did that, it fit just fine for me. I couldn’t get the “frame” to fit around it, but ti looks fine without it (IMHO). if you have more questons about this, let me know – I can take pics if you want. –Brian
Like so many others, I thank you for the review. I’m about a week away from delivery of a slightly cheaper head unit, but that is adequate for my needs. However, just after I made that order I also noticed that when this unit shows in a product list on bestbuy.com, it lists “OGG playback”. I’m extremely tantalized by this possibility. If it turns out to be true (which I do doubt), I’d opt for this unit instead of the one I have on order (Dual XDM6820).
I’ve attempted to contact Best Buy corporate about this and they tell me to go to the store. The store in my area doesn’t have the MP101 on their rack and they seem unable or unwilling to install one somewhere to allow testing.
Is there any way you could burn a few MP3s and a few OGGs to a CD and try it in the player to determine if it will play the OGGs? I, and it seems at least a few others here, would greatly appreciate the effort and information it brings.
Thanks in advance for the help.
RESPONSE: Sure – I’ll have to find/make some OGGs. I seriously doubt it does though – the manual says MP3 and WMA – it doesn’t say OGG. But – I can put a few on my flashdrive and see what happens…..off to find some OGGs. –Brian
UPDATE: OK, I found some OGGs here and here and burned an MP3 CD with 3 MP3s and 3 OGGs. It played the MP3s, but not the OGGs. I think we can safely say, once and for all, it does NOT play OGG. –Brian
Thanks for your effort. It’s good to know for certain that it was just a typo at the BB website.
Great review Brian…I only have a small question, does this unit has radio too? It says you could program you fav radio station but when I look at pic I can’t see any button to switch it to radio! Would you please confirm that.
Thanks,
Michael
RESPONSE: Of course it has radio! To switch modes between radio, Aux, CD, and USB, you press the button in the bottom left (labelled 7 in this picture) — Brian
Speaking of Radio, I was wondering how AM reception is on the unit. I listen to a lot of sports on AM and would be disappointed if I could tune them in that well anymore.
I have my stock stereo in my car right now and when I talked to the sales guys they said that a lot of after market units do not do AM that well. Something about the manufacturers not caring to much to put filters, etc on the AM tuner. I don’t know if that is true or not. Can anyone confirm?
Thanks,
-N8
RESPONSE: I don’t think I have EVER tried AM in the 7 years that I have lived at my current place. If I did, I wouldn’t even be able to say if it was good or not. I could try it but allI could say was “it worked” or “it didn’t work” since I have nothing to compare it to. –Brian
Hi, I have purchased a store brand mp3 player from Sears before and it turned out to be the same as a walmart mp3 player under a different store brand name. Both units had electronic noise problems during cd playback. Noises were pops and clicks as the cd started to play, and while it played. Have you noticed any such “electronic” noises in this model? Do you have any information on who is actually making this unit for best buy? Thanks for your help.
I listen to a lot of books on tape and I have found many units will not FF inside a track (only next/previous track). Does this unit have this ability? Also you said it picked up right where it left off when the car is turned off, does that mean the beginning of the current track or exactly where it cut off.
Thanks for the review.
Jim
RESPONSE: It does FF and REW inside a track and it resumes exactly where it left off. –Brian
Great review.
one question, how well does it handle playing tracks back to back without a pause?
I listen to a lot of live concerts and dj mixes where I don’t want a pause when it goes from track to track.
On my PC, Winamp plays these kind of albums without a glitch but my last mp3 player put a 2 second gap between the tracks.
Thanks.
Phil
RESPONSE: I haven’t paid attention to gaps since I have no albums that it matters. I’ll check tomorow on my way to work and let you know. –Brian
Brian, great review – thanks for posting this.
One question…if I have a USB mini-drive and I plug it into the Insignia, I assume I leave the drive attached or does the unit scan and download the mp3’s onto some internal hard drive? If so, I could then remove the mini-drive and still play mp3’s. I am worried about breaking the mini-drive off if I have to leave it sticking out like that.
RESPONSE: Yes, you leave it plugged in. If you are worried about it sticking out you could use a USB extension cable and plug that into the stereo and plug the drive into the cable – then it wouldn’t be sticking out of the stereo. –Brian
Hi Brian
I got this unit from best buy but it would only shuffle the first ten mp3’s on a disc of over 200.Is this the way the unit works normally or do I have a bad one. I don’t have any directories on the disc just the 250 mp3’s. Another problem is with one of my USB drives. When you first turn it on it plays at a very fast speed until you go foward to the next track. When you turn it on after listening to mp3’s it does the dsame thing (very fast ..sound like the chip monks.
RESPONSE: I have all my MP3 CDs in directories on disk and haven’t seen the shuffle problem you mention. I’m not sure if it is the layout you have or if the unit is bad. Can you try burning a disk with the MP3s in folders and see what happens? As for the chipmunks – I had one MP3 do that to me – turns out it was at 22 Khz and the unit only supports 44khz. Could it be that the first MP3 on the USB drive is 22khz? –Brian
Hi Brian
To fill you in. I put the mp3’s into a directory and now the shuffle works as it should. The “chipmunk” sound was because I was using a “non Windows” USB drive. My lexar jump drive is a complient drive and works well.
Thanks for the feedback
Steve
RESPONSE: Cool. Glad it works now. There are some MP3s that can throw it for loops though, just so you know. –Brian
As for shuffling, if you have multiple folders, will it shuffle all the songs in all the folders, or just the songs in the current folder?
RESPONSE: It shuffles over the entire drive/disc. –Brian
Brian-
Thanks for the review. i was going to buy an SD card based car stereo, but after your review, I’m going to try this out. Anyone try a 2GB USB drive yet? Thanks.
-Vinh
RESPONSE: The manual says it only works with up to 1GB (though it may work anyway – Idunno) –Brian
Brian great review and good resource for this unit – which is needed.
I’ve had one since early summer and agree with most comments seen here. I have a 1 gig Sandisk flash that is ‘compatible’ in that it plays fine and records music in 64kb .WMA file compression. I read where this M$ .WMA proprietary compression is somewhat comparable to standard MP3 sample rates at 128kb. I would agree that the quality is similar.
With just car accessory on and volume down or off (nice feature) I have recorded live music re-broadcasted over FM for long periods of time with varying results. While the quality of the sound is usually consistant, I’ve had problems with the resulting files including occasional noise. The unit seems to be recording (a filename blinks as this happens), but when the flash is read in a pc files are either there or not there or exist with corrupted filenames. Files that do exist can be incomplete musically (audio data is truncated or faded when played back). Not sure if this is due to unit temperature or battery voltage or even an abrupt bounce from closing the car door, tho’ I’ve been careful to mind this.
Here’s some more questions about recording;
Do file sizes make a difference in stability?
Will it overwrite the beginning of the file when the flash is filled? Have’nt had time to try this. 1 gig can take days to fill. I have made files near 400 meg with it with errors. Files under 50 meg seem to usually work.
Would be nice if the deck’s firmware could be flashed via USB to allow recording sample rate change selection, tho’ the hardware may prevent that being clock dependant among other things.
bill
I too would like to know about the possiblity of using 2 gb flash drives. I have a brand new 2 gb keychain one, and it would be PERFECT if I could use it. I’ll try to go to Best Buy this weekend and see if they have one I can test, but has anyone tried this yet?
What if I had a flash drive full of about half mp3’s and half other stuff (documents, pictures, etc). Will the player know what to play and what to skip without hanging? Brian, have you had any bad luck with this?
RESPONSE: yes, that works. I have about 200MB of MP3s and about 500 MB of other stuff and it does just fine.
Thanks! You single handedly have probably propelled the popularity of this stereo at Best Buy.
RESPONSE: Yeah – and I get no kickbacks! –Brian
Thanks for the review. After reading it, I can honestly say that this deck IS NOT for me. I have a 60GB USB pocket drive (Full of legit MP3z) and now I know that I want be able to play them all (59GB of them). To me the whole point of having a USB port is not be faced with the limitation of space. Obviously the engineers didn’t have this in mind. The usability is also a big turn off to me.
Thank you so much for saving me the anguish of cognitive dissonance with this buy!
RESPONSE: Yep – sounds like it’s not for you…you’re welcome! –Brian
Brian,
You say that it takes about 30 seconds to load 90 songs on the flash drive. That’s assuming you inserted the flash drive for the first time. If you kept the flash drive in there, does it still take 30 seconds to load every time you start the car or is it cached?
-Vinh
Brian and all-
I just bought this unit last weekend. It CAN take a 2gig USB stick. I used a Memorex brand, and the music loaded pretty fast. Maybe those “high speed” USB sticks really are “high speed.”
-Vinh
RESPONSE: No way! Awesome! –Brian
hey i have an iriver 512mb mp3 player can this be hooked to this radio and it play the mp3s i have stored on it???
-thanks
nite
RESPONSE: Yes. You just need an RCA cable and a Y splitter and run the output of the MP3 player into the AUX input. If the MP3 player can be seen as a USB drive, you could plug it into the USB port too. –Brian
Great info…just bought one. Had a couple questions that hopefully you may have run into. I think I saw that someone successfully used a USB MMC reader. I tried a CF reader and it didn’t work; do you have any idea what the requirements are?
RESPONSE: Nope. I have one but haven’t tried it yet. It should work though. I should give mine a try. –Brian
If you could also save me some time trying to re-interpret that manual; what buttons should I use to change directory and then go to the next track on an album.
RESPONSE: In this picture – http://www.flickr.com/photos/myvogonpoetry/24996637/ (point at the buttons), you press the 6 button to go to the first song in the next directory. To go to the next song on the disc, you press the 9 button. –Brian
Thanks again…and Best Buy should start paying you their “Geek Squad” rates.
RESPONSE: I doubt they pay what I am worth :) –Brian
Hi Brian, I was glad to come upon your review as I jusy bought mine and had it installed yesterday. I hooked my ILO mp3 player up to it via USB. It would play all my MP3’s and WMA’s EXCEPT the WMA’s that I puchased on-line (walmart.com). I called customer support and had to spend ten minutes talking to a guy who couldn’t grasp the concept of what I was talking about. Do you know if the Insignia will play liscensed WMA’s?
RESPONSE: I don’t know. I don’t think I have a single WMA anywhere on any of my computers/drives/CDs. I would suspect it DOESN’T support any WMA files with any kind of DRM. –Brian
I’ve had mine for about a month. Have noticed that, if you click forward to the next song (or back), it doesn’t play the first half-second (give or take) of the song. This seems to happen even on the CD player, playing normal CDS, as well as playing MP3 CDs and MP3s on a 1GB stick. Ever notice this? Is there some setting that will resolve this? (Manual mentions nothing that I can find). Thanks! Great review and info!
RESPONSE: Yes, I have noticed that it happens every now and then. –Brian
Thanks a lot Brian, great review. I installed the Dual XDM6820 for podcasting (w/cd-rw’s) on the cheap, never thinking to look for a usb equiped head unit. I don’t have an IPod, but my 18 year old does, so the Iplug seemed like a good idea. A thumbdrive would be much better for me and I can get the connections somewhere I’m sure to duplicate the iplug.
I like the looks of the dual more, but the buttons on the right hand side are blinding after dark and the brightness is not adjustable.
On the oog front, the Dual plays wave, mp3 and wma and you can mix them on the same disk, BUT if you mix wave,mp3 and wma it will ignore the wave file according to the manual. Could it be that your test with mixed media could have the same result w/oog? There are lots of capabilities that aren’t advertized today, some “standard” cd players can play mp3, my cyberhome pvr1600 can use dvd-r’s and some pvr1600’s can play divx which the manual denies, so if you are an oog fan, try an oog only disk!
Hey,
Just got this deck today and tried to play a CD in it, but it scanned the disk then… nada! When the disk is already in it and I switch modes it goes to aux mode and won’t even show me CD mode. NOTE TO ALL… I did not install it myself, it was done by a “pro” at BB. Any hints, suggestions or fixes? (Yes I’ve tried different CD’s, they were all clean, and my MP3 disks won’t work either.) HELP!
RESPONSE: if NO CD works (MP3 or regualr audio CD), then I would say you have a defective unit. –Brian
Heads up folks. After 25 days, the FF button on the face started sticking. So instead of jumping to the next song, it would fast forward w/in the song. Best Buy replaced it with a new one w/o a problem. Hopefully this new face plate won’t have the same problem.
RESPONSE: Good to know – thanks. I haven’t had that problem with mine (yet). –Brian
Is the USB port a powered port? If I plug my ipod into the USB port will it be able to recharge it?
RESPONSE I’m out of town right now so I can’t check – email me after Friday and I’ll check for you.
–Brian
Regarding #33, it doesn’t happen “every now and then,” it happens every single time. It’s a flaw in the design, probably of the software. It makes you wonder if they overlooked such an obvious and important feature, on what else did they cut corners? (I develop software for embedded devices, such as this one.)
I would like to know if my 40gb 2.5 external hard drive (usb powered) will work on this device. It has about 20gb of mp3’s and the rest is programs and other stuff.
There is LIDL store that is going to have one for sale this thursday.
Thanks for the help
RESPONSE: Doubtful. The manual says it does up to 1GB devices and even if it could do it, it would take FOREVER for it to scan the drive. –Brian
I bought a INSIGNIA IN-CS102 off of ebaym but it did not come with a manual. Does anyone know how to set the clock?
I’ve bought a similar model at a LIDL store and tried to hook up my 40gb 2.5 external hard drive. It only works with less than 500 musics and it only starts playing after a few tries. It is a very, very erratic playback….
This for this review…this answers a lot of questions that the Best Buy staff were predictably ill-prepared to answer.
A few of you mentioned that it picks up where it left off in an MP3(mid-track) when you start the car. Does this apply to MP3s on the USB Flash as well, or only to MP3 CDs?
I’d like to use my thumbdrive for listening to podcasts, but it’d be useless if I had to seek through a 90-minute MP3 every time I stopped.
RESPONSE: It does it for both – that’ s what I use mine for –Brian
After having this unit for a couple months, I can concur with some of the bugs mentioned.
Not owning an iPod, I figured the usb key would be a great way throw stuff into the car. Especially podcasts.
Most podcasts are encoded mono, and often are 22khz instead of 44khz (after all many are just voice).
I am suffering from the “chipmunk” fast speed playback following a “resume” operation. I have not confirmed for sure whether this is limited to
This stereo has only brought me bad luck. First the FF button gets stuck and so I had to replace the face. Then, last week, someone broke into my car at work and stole the stereo (with my 2GB USB stuck inside of it.) Dough! The worst part was having to replace the window. The insurance is going to replace the stereo as well. I guess I could have chosen any stereo, but because I love this thing so much and a sucker for punishment, I opted to get another one of these.
RESPONSE: Ouch! That sux. I NEVER leave my USB drive plugged into it when I leave the car – too much other important stuff on it. Sorry for your bad luck :(
–Brian
I bought this car radio recently (because of the USB port) and installed it myself in my Honda Civic (hint: don’t do it, not worth the time, I had to take off 4 screwed-down plastic panels, remove the stock Honda radio, install the Insignia radio and mount the 4 plastic panels again)
The good:
– plays .mp3 files and .wma files without a hitch, from various USB Flash sticks (Lexar, Sandisk)
– it **does** accept 2 GByte Flash sticks (but there’s a caveat, see below)
The bad:
– FM reception is much worse than with the stock Honda radio
– the remote control had a “stuck button” but I didn’t try to get a replacement remote (who needs a remote control in a car anyway?)
– the “number of song I’m playing” counter is only an 8 bit counter, i.e. after 255 it goes to 0 and then to 1 and 2 and so on.
This is NOT a problem on a long cross-country trip when you want to keep on playing music from the USB stick – it will faithfully churn through all of the USB stick.
However, this IS a problem on short trips, because once you turn the radio off and then on again the radio remembers only the DISPLAYED song number (for instance, 2) and NOT the actual song number (258).
In other words, if you turn off the radio while it is playing song number 258 (Motorhead: One Track Mind), once you turn it on again it will start playing song number 2 (AC/AC: Highway to Hell) and I haven’t found a way yet how to get back to the Motorhead song.
RESPONSE: here is a trick I discovered the other day – maybe it will help you: when you are entering a track number, instead of typing in a track number, use the volume knob to scroll through numbers rapidly – I accidentally did this the other day and was shocked to see Iwas flipping though tracks.
–brian
To all of you with problems with your usb stick/drive whatever make sure the filesystem is FAT and not FAT32 or anything else because it seems to only really like FAT.
I have Insignia IN-MP101 and It produces lot
of noise while playing MP3 CDs. I copied the
songs on new CD, same problem. Then I copied
one song to USB drive and there was no noise,
so there is no problem with the file as such.
I am thinking of getting replacement or
return it. Anybody had similar issue?
Thanks,
Sameer
Thanks for the great review Brian. I’ve heard that sometimes when a unit goes on sale, it may be because an updated version of it has come out. For example, a model IN-P102 may be out to replace the IN-P101. Does anyone know of an updated version of the IN-P101 is out…yet? Also, do any stores other than BB carry a unit with a USB port?
Thanks,
Zac
Brian and all,
Does anyone know the website for Insignia?
I’ve had this stereo for about 6 mos. it’s great for a Jeep wrangler. Since CD’s Skip constantly, having the MP3 works really nice. Occasionally, in the extreme warm and extreme cold temps, the MP3 Stick will not play. To remedy this, I’ve been taking the face off and bringing it inside with me. Once it’s thawed or cooled it works nicely.
I just hooked up a sub to it. Having the sub out works nice but I’m not sure if there is a crossover for the high end. That’s a slight drawback but I can deal with it.
Rec’d the same stereo unit for xmas and was installed tonight. The player will accept store bought and burned cds. Although it doesn’t eject the burned ones. Any ideas?
Hey I got both the Insignia IN-MP101 (Best Buy) and the VR3 VRCD-USB630S (Walmart) and did a one on one comparison. I tried the unpopular and inexpensive $88 now $66 on clearance VR3. I was worried that it was going to be a piece o’ crap since it was on clearance already, but I bought it anyway. When I powered it on, to my amazement it was picking up stations before I even hooked the antenna up. So I figured that that would be the best way to compare these radios, FM wise at least.
To keep it brief, I found that the VR3 picked up stations way better than the Insignia, which means a lot to me. I tried the MP3 cd and the usb thing, cd is fine, but usb took a typical 12-15 seconds to acknowledge on a VERY SLOW usb 1.1 stick, but once the stick was acknowledged, song skipping was a breeze, and the song decoding was very responsive; barely even a second delay between songs! Also the thing I really like is the simplicity of the panel. Every button displays all the functions of the radio. I.e. there is a clock button, a stereo button, local/distant station button, etc. There are no hidden buttons i.e. (An extreme example)-> “press this twice, then press this button once, then twiddle your fingers for 4 seconds and then press power to adjust the bass/tremble settings.” Also I really like the Stereo headphone Aux input jack on the FRONT panel of the radio. The Insignia has an RCA input one on the back.
The things I don’t like about it. Volume seems to be decibel attenuation, not linear, or maybe they skipped some bits in the digital volume controller, because low range volume isn’t very smooth in when adjusted, but no biggie, I like it loud anyway. Also the seek button is a bit of a bummer, I like being able to scale from one end of the spectrum to the other quite quickly, but if you live in a noisy FM area like me and your auto-seek picks up static as valid stations, then you have to keep pressing as fast as you can to get there, you can’t just hold the seek. Oh and it doesn’t come with a corny remote control…
Now the popular and pricy $100+ Insignia… Well, I tried the “no antenna” scheme to test the sensitivity and found that it wasn’t as sensitive as the VR3. I also got really irritated at the seek/manual station adjust. You have to hold the seek to enter manual mode, but by the time it enters the mode, you have already scanned half the spectrum and if you only wanted to change the station two notches, you have to come half way back through the spectrum to get where you were in the first place. Also, I needed the manual to learn almost everything about this radio and it is a pretty lengthy manual, but what seemed not to be that many more advantageous features… in my opinion!!!
NOW MOST IMPORTANTLY… I was getting ready to test the mp3 function, but before I could do that, the radio went haywire…. It started scanning through all the stations without end, by itself, so I figured it was buggy. I unplugged it and reset it, still to no avail. It almost acted like a button was broke or stuck, but all the buttons seemed fine… Whelp that answered my question pretty quick…. Enough negatives I’m keeping the VR3.
To set the clock–click the DISP button to see the clock, then hold it down to enter setting mode; use the > to set the time
I tried an OGG file but it didn’t seem to recognize it.
My last unit was stolen so with this one I looped the mounting bracket around the rear mounting bolt and attached lock a chain–probably enough to deter a casual criminal. Maybe I should lock my doors.
When I bought this I was also looking at the Boss mp3-4100r. It’s got a USB port and a SD card slot. Don’t know how well it performs.
I can’t play .wma files in my unit. Not even the ones that it records itself. I called their toll free service line and they said to bring it back to the store. Just wondering if anyone else has seen this or tried this? Otherwise, the unit seems to work OK.
About recharging your iPod–it says to remove any non-rechargeable battery from a portable mp3 device, so maybe it will. If it does, I would imagine it will charge really slowly.
Final comment–exchanged my unit for a new one and can now play .wma files. FYI: it comes with only a 90 day warranty. Seems like a decent unit for the $ anyway.
I just purchased this unit from BB yesterday and I have one problem. When the volume is low (Between 2 and about 20) I can hear a “fuzzy” noise in the background. I was just wondering if this is normal or if its my speakers or the player. I have also noticed a weird “buzz” sound only on certain tracks. I think I might just take it back and switch it with the Alpine CDE-9845.
RESPONSE: Sounds like electrical feedback. Do a google search on eliminating electrical interference in car stereos.
–Brian
Wow, fantastic info here. I just discovered that Car Recievers were finally, FINALLY coming with the long-desired USB port. I’ve been doing research ever since, and almost settled on the BB model..until I read this blog. My plan was to hook up an external 60 or 80 gb drive, which I could remove and sync with my MP3 folder on my file server. But it looks like this deck has some issues with bigger drives, which IMO, is a serious oversight.
I am headed to wal-mart today to test out their model with a 8gb flash drive I have- I figure if it can see all of the songs on the 8gb, it should see 40gb or so worth.
I do have a question about the BB model which I didn’t see answered here. If you leave the USB drive in the deck, does it ‘remember’ the song list? I could live with it only scanning the drive once a month or so when I updated with new songs. If it has to scan every time you start the car…no dice.
And for those of you who are looking for a nicer, higher end deck with USB, USA today has a little article that notes companies that are coming out with decks with USB. They don’t list it, but I discovered that Crutchfield has two models, too.
Thanks again for the great review and comments!
RESPONSE. See this comment. It does remember.
–Brian
I also encountered a terrible noise at low to mid levels with this unit. More of a hissing than a buzzing, and it was a consistent level so it was not “engine noise” or other electrical interferance. I actually think it stems from a conflict with my factory JBL amps. Going to try a bypass on them and then may try the unit again. The crew from Best Buy told me not to bother as the Enigma units were “crap”. Great salesmanship on their parts, eh?
Thanks, Brian, for your detailed account.
A little off-topic but still may interest some. Here it goes – Whatever you do do not be tempted to earn yourself a headache with VR3 units. Their design (verified by calling the company’s tech support) DOES NOT include caring about such an important feature as memorizing the position or even the truck of the USB memory. MAJOR DISSAPPOINTMENT!!! Trying now to get rid of the thing for a fraction of a cost. It sometimes would memorize the mp3 cd’s track but still not the position within that track.
My model is VRCD400USB, but the tech said it goes true for all of their models and there are no plans for firmware updates.
I have a question for the IN-MP101 owners. Does it have an EASY way to jump from folder to folder?
My 4-year old mp3 CD deck from JVC can do that and I’m surpised to see so many other brands with no understanding of navigation needs.
Please reply. Thanks!
RESPONSE:Depends on your definition of easy. I think it’s easy….you press one button to get into “folder navigation mode” then you can hit the 5 and 6 buttons (see this picture) to navigate UP or DOWN a directory. Easy enough for me.
–Brian
The manual for IN-MP101 is available here.
I ma leaning towards getting this unit based on what I have learned here. Also looking at one from Pyle – Pyle PLCD63WMU. Anyone have any experience with it.
Update after a trip to Florida: in-mp101 entire unit (including volume knob) gets VERY HOT after about 40 min of cd play – so hot, in fact, that i’m afraid the cds get doomed to an extemely shortened lifespan as a result of such a rigorous “cd hell”. Will use it more as a USB device since now, rather than a cd player. Otherwise – pretty plesed with the sound and intuitiveness.
To answer the previous question – this Pyle unit is said to be virtually the same as Insignia.
RESPONSE: Yeah – it does get hot – but no hotter than any other in-dash CD player I have had. If you are worried, just use backups CDRs (which you should be using anyway if they are MP3 CDs).
–Brian
I purchased this head unit from BB early this year and had it installed there. If fit well, looked ok for the price and I had no problem playing mp3s from by USB flash drive.
I then began experiencing problems. Intermittently, and lasting 5min to hours, the unit would not play CDs or files from the USB port, although the unit functioned normally otherwise. This seemed to happen mostly in the mornings after cool nights.
I lived with this behavior for a couple of months then another problem appeared. After inserting a CD and replacing the cover, the CD played normally but the display was not operating. I then found that the unit would not do anything but play that CD. The unit would not respond to any input that did not involve the CD player, ie, I could files on the CD and adjust the volume but I could not switch to radio or any other mode. It was also impossible to eject the CD.
I want to play music from my USB drive but I will shop for something else. Based on my experience I would recommend not buying the IN-MP101. It may be the worst piece of electronic equipment I have ever owned.
RESPONSE: I have had and used mine for almost a year now and mine still works great. Maybe you got a dud?
–Brian
Thank’ s for all reviews, especialy the one of Brian. Great job. That’s why I purchased a unit an I installed it today. Sounds good. Works fine on mp3. If you have a good quality mp3 file you’l get a good sound. Mine is running without external antenna(no antenna adapter in my box, so I’ ll have to buy one).It catches 2 station from 8. Enough for the moment. Anyway, I like the unit, but my question is if it has RDS radio system. Since I don’t have the antenna plugged in I can say for sure. Let it long last and sound well!
Can anyone tell me if the stereo has a RDS System? At least on the display it is shown, in shadow, the initials for RDS such as EON, PTY.
Thank’s!
Just saw today that BB has a new Insignia car stereo, model number NS-C5111, that accepts USB sticks as well as SD cards.
Has anyone bought it yet?
Does it officially accept 2GByte and 4GByte media now?
As I posted above, the IN-MP101 has problems once you go beyond 256 tracks, making it unusable for 4 GByte sticks and only barely usable for filled-to-the-brim 2 GByte sticks.
Guys, i have a problem with my Insignia MP101. I can’t store the even radio station. It stores only the odd station frequencies like 99,9 Mhz.
Did anyone has this problem? Any help would be good, :).
I bought this from consumerdepot.com for $100, it came with no reciept or manual, and I had it installed yesterday.
The problem is the buttons behave erratically. It seems either its defective, or the car is sending the wrong voltage or something, or the installation went wrong. I’m trying to figure out what to do. The old stereo’s volume knob changed the volume in a direction unrelated to the direction you turned it. Now the buttons on the Insignia change the BEEP settings, fade, balance, and volume randomly.
The remote works fine. And it plays CD’s, radio, and USB flash stick fine. Its only the buttons on the faceplate that dont work. Its a 98 Jetta. So I wonder whats going on.
Has anyone seen anything like this with any car or stereo?
Just picked one up myself… the USB port puts out quite a bit of power… powered up my 40gb external hdd, and detected a few songs on there… gonna try filling the drive and running it. However, it must be in FAT32 for it to function properly.
Tested it at BB tonight w/ mono files (mp3, 44.100khz enc. w/ iTunes v6.0.4) on my Sandisk Micro stick and it WORKED fine. It probably has problems w/ 22khz mono, but mono itself is not the problem.
I also tested the same mono files on the JVC units and they FAILED. They were skipping and it was continuously reading my drive (no buffering). Could have just hated the flash stick I guess, not necessarily the files but I was only packin mono.
I think I’ll give this thing a whirl.. keep my flash stick on my keychain and use a USB extender. Thanks a lot for the review Brian.
Anyone check out the VRCD400-SDU? It looks like a generation newer than the infamous VR3 VRCD400USB, and has SD, USB, & Aux on the front for like $80… Maybe they fixed all the operational problems when they gave it that face-lift?
Found their website.
http://www.insignia-products.com
RESPONSE: Nice! They even have the manual to download. Handy!
–Brian
About the head unit reviewed … the Insignia website lists the signal-to-noise ratio of the CD to be >55. This is *terrible*. Most CD players are >90 and above. I wonder if the new model (NS-C5111) is any better, but they don’t list that spec for that model. Without a MOSFET amp, satellite or HD radio, I wouldn’t call either unit a great buy.
RESPONSE: I don’t need satellite or HD and I don’t know what a MOSFET amp is. I think it sounds fine. To each his own.
–Brian
I understand not everyone wants satellite or HD, but a MOSFET amp and S-N ratio are a commonly displayed feature/spec. Best Buy, Circuit City, any of these websites generally have that information. Essentially, a MOSFET amp is the quietest, coolest running amp with the least distortion. And the S-N ratio of this CD deck is the same as a low-end cassette player from the 70s-80s. It’s cheap junk, but most people don’t really care that much, which is why they sell so well. The SD/USB port gives it some features to make it attractive to those who don’t care about having audiophile-quality sound. You’re right, to each his own. But from a discerning standpoint (for the picky audiophile ear) it would not be a good choice. This isn’t to bash your opinion, but to give another opinion for those who care about the specs and what they mean.
RESPONSE: Right – I’m not an audiophile and that’s exactly what I said in the review:
Everyone has their own opinions on sound quality. For me, this stereo sounds just fine. If someone has doubts, go to Best Buy and try it in the store – that’s what I did.
–Brian
Brian, does your model index songs properly? I can name files 001, 002,… 010, 011, and it doesn’t even start at 001. Almost like it’s always on random though I am positive it is not. Really kills me when playing audible mp3’s w/ many parts. Is it not ordering the songs based on file name?
And btw, I’ve got the Insignia model that has the SD slot & USB. I carry around the card and hold it up to show it off exclaiming, “my car stereo plays this!” In other words it should get jacked any day now. :)
RESPONSE: It may be ordering them by the way they were burned on the disk. I always burn in alphabetocal order. Try doing a test burn by creating a disk with two directories – in one dir, drag the files one by one in alphabetical order. In the other, drag them in non-alphabetical order and see how it plays them.
It has been my experience that players play them in the order they were burned. Check your burning software. I guess it could be stuck in random mode htough.
–Brian
does any1 know how to keep the clock display on after pressing dsp? or is it designed to switch back to track title after a couple of secs,, cuz its annoying to keep pressing dsp for the time
RESPONSE: I’m pretty sue there is no way to kep the clock on. I agree – it’s annoying.
–Brian
I just bough the C5111, I’m going to have it installed. One cool feature I want to try is the rip/record. Apparently you can rip discs onto a thumbdrive and record radio onto a thumbdrive. I probably won’t use the feature alot, but for 130 with free installation. That’s a good deal. Rather go with the C5111 than the Roadmaster Virtual Reality sold at Walmart and Target.
I have a couple things to say about this radio, but apparently somebody named Brian gets to append his comments on mine. Like for example, added to somebody’s comments is “I don’t need satellite or HD and I don’t know what a MOSFET amp is. I think it sounds fine. To each his own.-Brian” To each his own, as long as you agree with Brian. Have you ever seen a message board ANYWHERE that worked this way? Me neither.
RESPONSE: Brian is the owner of this website (me). This isn’t a message board, this is MY blog/website. I do that to respond to each person’s comments. The review I wrote was my opinion just like the comments I make are. The responses I write are my “responses” to what someone else has commented and they are also my opinion. MY blog = MY opinions.
–Brian
Have anyone seen the error #2 while playing a mp3 cd?
Just wanted to thank Brian and everyone else except that guy at the end there I wasnt sure about the c511 but now I know im going to get that one thanks again
Hi Brian, this question was posted before from phill, in regards with continuous play from track to track without a pause. I noticed that the cd player will give a two second skip between tracks when the cd is meant to play with continuous flow. Is there anyway to turn this function off?
-Karim
[quote]
Great review.
one question, how well does it handle playing tracks back to back without a pause?
I listen to a lot of live concerts and dj mixes where I don’t want a pause when it goes from track to track.
On my PC, Winamp plays these kind of albums without a glitch but my last mp3 player put a 2 second gap between the tracks.
Thanks.
Phil
RESPONSE: I haven’t paid attention to gaps since I have no albums that it matters. I’ll check tomorow on my way to work and let you know. –Brian
By Phil on 08.24.05 12:02 pm
[/quote]
Any ideas yet Brian? I still can’t figure it out
About the gaps, this deck WILL always play a 2-second gap between tracks, even when the CD has been burned so that the tracks should flow continuously. I’m wondering if there is a firmware upgrade that can fix this…
Me 2, please if there is let me know
something happened to my in mp101,,,in fm mode it will output sound to all my speakers(everything is fine), but in cdplayer/usb mode it only plays sound in my left side speakers??? any1 else have this prob,,i dunt think its the wires cuz then the fm mode would act the same
Below is what you wrote in your review of this car stereo. I’m trying to
figure out a way to connect my mp3 player (creative Zen V Plus) to my IN-MP101. Can I do this myself? Should I take my car to someone to install
this feature. What do I need and what is the cost? Please advise.
“The IN-MP101 also has RCA AUX inputs on the back and I’ve hooked up a headphone jack to that so I can easily hookup ANY other MP3 player or audio device (iPod) to the IN-MP101 and have it play through the car stereo.”
I just purchased a ’99 Civic EX and this deck came with it. I have been having a few problems with it and would like to know if anyone has experienced them as well:
1) Sometimes the deck won’t read my CDs. It’ll say CD (MP3) or something that to effect and look like it’s loading but it does not. When I try to eject the CD it won’t allow me. I have had to take off the face plate and put it back on to remedy this problem. Why does it do this?
2) Let’s say my MP3 CD has the following 4 songs in order: Led Zepplin, Neil Young, Metallica, and Pink Floyd. I turn my car on and I fast forward through Led Zeplin, Neil Young, and listen to half the song of Metallica before turning off the car. The next time I turn the car on it’ll start at Led Zepplin all over again. How do I fix this?
Great review, Brian. A+++
RESPONSE:
#1 – I have had this happen too. Not sure why. Very aggravating.
#2 – Sounds like the hot lead is not hooked up. That will give it power even when the car is off. That way it can remember where it was.
–Brian
Has anyone installed Insignia NS-C5111? I am thinking about buying one, but would like to hear some feedback about this model before I buy it.
hey guys,
just stumbled across this post and i want to inform everyone here that the VR3(roadmaster) VRCD-400SDU is complete crap due to the fact that theres MAJOR problems with the MMC slot. i am on my 4th unit in 2 months and either the left channel goes out, it’ll turn on suddenly(scares the shit out of u) or it gives error 31 or no file. i had the 4th unit replaced directly from roadmaster and it seems stable but is glitching after the first few hours i had it in(not often but enough to raise concern) as i told the techs, they better check with china about dirty assembly lines or incompatible software,chipsets etc. this is a rediculous unit its a wonderful sounding,cd player is flawless only issue is that mmc slot and usb port(last unit got stuck in usb mode even after resetting it)
I just had the same prob occur to me GEOFF…..i bought VRCD400-SDU bout two months ago….everything worked fine……i have a cruzer 1.0GB flash drive for the MP3’s….had bout 100 songs on it….the slot worked fine one day….i stopped at the store went in, came out….left…..and the USB wouldnt read….it would get stuck….so i brought inside to my computer and all the files were still on it and they played…..so i returned back to the car, stuck it in…..finally got a code saying Error 13….i have gone through the files on the card which I never noticed the system folder before on the card…so that had me wondering if it should even be on there, but i guess its containing all the virus and U3 programs……So I am waiting for a reply from tech support…..dont know if its the unit or the car itself…but its buggin me, i miss my music!
Where can i get a cd player for my car that has a USB port so i can use my USB memory stick to play my mps??
Hello everybody,
I live in Greece, and just bought a used SONY FM/AM CD player for my car (model CDX-M850MP). Unfortunately, it seems that the device was originally purchased in USA, so it plays/adjusts only to odd FM frequencies (e.g. 98.3, 98.5,98.7 and so on). Does anybody know if there is a way to fix this problem, or there is nothing to be done?
I have the insignia ns-c5111. It works with ogg, and can play usb drives up to 20gig (havent tested it any higher), though it takes a while to scan all of the files.
every cd i put in has an error 2. what can i do.
I love this stereo except for the way it seems to order files. If I put an audio book broken in to many files on an SD card it will play the last file first and start working backwards. The files are numbered 1-01 01a.mp3, 1-02 01b.mp3, 1-03 01c…..8-19 08s.mp3. The very last file, starting with the number 8 plays first.
This is a huge annoyance because I pretty much bought this to listen to audio books. Can someone number a few mp3’s like the ones above and verify the behavior on their unit?
Rest in peace NS-C5111, Insignia seems to have discontinued you and now only makes some lame bare bones stereo (NS-C3112) with no sd, usb, or other compelling features.
Hi Brian,
I tried to use my USB drive to play music using my car stereo type VRCD400-USB but an error 13 appears all the times… i thing the harddrive does not detect the USB drive….Can you tell what the error 13 means????
THKS
I have this Insignia and I want you all to know that if you want to play songs from your Pod of I, or your other MP3 devices, you should use the audio-in cable (mine is mounted with a wire coming from the glove compartment, headphone jack ending).
I have a 120 GIGABYTE hard drive, LaCie brand, and this great little stereo reads and plays the songs and audio books on it perfectly when I plug its USB cable into the USB port. It takes about 2 minutes to catalog them all but then the names and browsing work great.
I love putting songs and audio books on my flash drives and SD cards too. I find that mp3 CDs work perfectly in it.
Hope you’ll all check it out.
John
Whoops, sorry.. I didn’t realize, this gentleman has reviewed the version without the SD slot, which mine has.
Also mine has the rear RCA (red and white) audio ports, which allowed the installer to mount that cable for me and lead it thru my glove compartment.
Well, i assume this one in the review also handles an external USB drive. Hope it works for everyone.
Hi, I have the same problem with my Vrcd400 model getting error-13 when trying to play my music. Anyone know how i can fix this? Thanks in advance.
I got one of these a couple of years ago and it has functioned pretty well for what I intended; i.e. playing lots of music on USB flash for long trips. The FM tuner section is crap, the S/N ratio is crap, but it was a pretty inexpensive piece to start with.
I have been using 4 Gb drives throughout, so no problem there. I encode everything at 320k MP3 and they all play fine. I always use an artist/album foldering arrangement so moving through material is relatively painless.
Just got a 16Gb drive and no surprise, it doesn’t recognize. I’ll try reformatting but I suspect the firmware will not have a clue what to do with it and since it’s now an obsolete product I don’t anticipate that changing.
When I purchased I tried pretty much all the models that offered front USB connect and tis was the only one that would handle multiple brands of flash drives and multiple formats.
Thanks for throwing the info out there Brian. God knows BB folks don’t have the slightest clue about their own store brand.
Hey i just got the insignia radio and for some reason the display does not come in very well the light is very dim , is their a button that controls the screen settings?