It’s been a year since I bought my fancy car stereo. I wanted to mention that I’ve ended up not using most of the fancy features.
- The built-in MP3 player had issues with my 1000-song / 100 album / 4 GB music collection:
- It took a long time to scan the USB storage each time the radio turned on.
- It was difficult to navigate the album and song lists.
- Chinese characters were not supported.
- It took a long time to “continue” a paused item, especially a long item like a podcast.
- The bluetooth pairing only worked with one phone at a time, which was awkward in a two-driver family.
Here’s how I use it now:
- I connect my phone using both the radio’s USB (so the phone is being charged) and mini stereo plugs.
- I use the phone’s built-in music player.
- I have the radio set to AUX to play the music from the stereo input plug.
It’s a little bit cluttered, because of the two cables, but it gets the job done. The phone’s music player UI is so much better than the radio’s UI.
In effect I have reduced the car stereo to serving as a volume control, an amplifier, and a USB charger.