Will UConnect Still Have HD Storage for my music

[lasvegascolonel]

I have had great success with my almost six year old Wrangler. One of the best features has been the 40GB hard drive in which I can put all my iTunes songs on. I heard a rumor FCA was not going to allow personal music anymore. That would be a dealbreaker for me if i couldn't store my music in my vehicle. Does anyone know if the new systems will still allow music to be played from our libraries?

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[Spank]

It'll still play your music, but there's no need for a hard drive when you can buy a 128GB USB flash drive for roughly $30.

 

[Dackel]

Using a flash drive or bluetooth from your smartphone is the best of both worlds. You have all your music with you no matter where you go. Hard drives crash and are a pain to transfer, add or remove music. If you don't have a smartphone (which is ideal since you can search/select songs/playlists) then go with the flash drive.

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

I have had great success with my almost six year old Wrangler. One of the best features has been the 40GB hard drive in which I can put all my iTunes songs on. I heard a rumor FCA was not going to allow personal music anymore. That would be a dealbreaker for me if i couldn't store my music in my vehicle. Does anyone know if the new systems will still allow music to be played from our libraries?

You can still, play your current library that you would have on your Wrangler, it would just need your own personal storage location (like people do with the current 130 Radio).

I've used flush mount USB keys for years to supplement the 130 & 430 units, and as Spank mentions, the cost of memory keys now is so cheap that you can get 3 times the storage of the 430 and 4 times that of the 730 for about the price of a fill-up.

A quick reference guide, to compare current Wrangler to Cherokee & GC (site doesn't have updated Compass options). There is also supposed to be a 7" option for the Wrangler, which isn't listed there, but 'might' be similar tot he Renegade 6.5.

http://www.driveuconnect.com/system/jeep/

All have updated Codec support so you should be able to play more options from your storage library, you just lose the DVD's support for DVD-A content.
Unfortunately no support for FLAC or Ogg Vorbis right out of the box, and unfortunately lossless M4A is not supported, just M4B.
Rumour was FLAC is supposed to arrive soon once FCA/Uconnect go full Google, but I haven't heard more on that since January.

 

[wanderer]

What? does all that mean?

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

What? does all that mean?

No big hard drive included, you either plug in your phone / media player / USB Stick / External HardDrive via USB to take a library with you.

This to me is an advantage as solid state in the UConnect is less likely to fail due to shock, moisture, heat, whatever. USB storage on the other hand depends on the quality you buy.

As Spank mentions USB keys are cheap, so you could get 3 time the storage of the 430 / 5 times the 730 with a 128GB thumb drive for less than $25 nowadays. So you could buy 2 usb sticks and constantly keep updating one drive while the other is in the Jeep.

However, I would recommed not cheaping out too much, the cheapest ones are usually much slower, which matter when you're moving thousands of songs (slower than a bunch of much bigger movies) and can be painful to load.

This is what I have (waited for $40 CDN sale), because it's small and mounts flush making it less likely to catch on things damaging the stick or USB port, and it's fast writing which matters more than reading.

http://www.lexar.com/products/usb-f...S45-USB-3-flash-drive.html#SKU=LJDS45-128ABNL

But there are 100s of options out there.

The MP4 info is because he mentions iTunes which is AAC which is MP4 based. MP3 is a given.

The UConnect still has Bluetooth as well for pairing to a phone or tablet, but the OP asked about Hard Drive storage.

 

[UN4GTBL]

You should also be able to use SD cards as well.

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

You should also be able to use SD cards as well.

Yeah, possibly, it has in the past, but it depends on if they add the slot for one. I'm not sure they will keep it for this one.
We have a full sized one in the GC and Cherokee , but are they including the slot space in the Wrangler? I couldn't make one out in the interior shots, what I thought was one was the auxilliary switches.

But if they stay consistent and add that litle input cluster, then it should have USB + SD + Audio jack.

 

[lasvegascolonel]

No big hard drive included, you either plug in your phone / media player / USB Stick / External HardDrive via USB to take a library with you.

This to me is an advantage as solid state in the UConnect is less likely to fail due to shock, moisture, heat, whatever. USB storage on the other hand depends on the quality you buy.

As Spank mentions USB keys are cheap, so you could get 3 time the storage of the 430 / 5 times the 730 with a 128GB thumb drive for less than $25 nowadays. So you could buy 2 usb sticks and constantly keep updating one drive while the other is in the Jeep.

However, I would recommed not cheaping out too much, the cheapest ones are usually much slower, which matter when you're moving thousands of songs (slower than a bunch of much bigger movies) and can be painful to load.

This is what I have (waited for $40 CDN sale), because it's small and mounts flush making it less likely to catch on things damaging the stick or USB port, and it's fast writing which matters more than reading.

http://www.lexar.com/products/usb-f...S45-USB-3-flash-drive.html#SKU=LJDS45-128ABNL

But there are 100s of options out there.

The MP4 info is because he mentions iTunes which is AAC which is MP4 based. MP3 is a given.

The UConnect still has Bluetooth as well for pairing to a phone or tablet, but the OP asked about Hard Drive storage.

 

[lasvegascolonel]

Hey GGA: How are you? I guess for me (the Canadaphile from Las Vegas) I'd be good with my USB3 flash drive (128gb) that stores my iTunes library, right? I'm kind of low-tech (I'm over 70) so mastering iTunes, my MacBook, iMac, and iPod are kind of challenging for me. I was a little disappointed to hear no hard drive on the next Jeep, since the one on my JKU works really well. I guess with a USB3 I should be fine with the new one (or plug-in my iPod Touch). Thanks...enjoy the rest of the Summer! P.S. I like the maple leaf on your Wrangler.

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

I was a little disappointed to hear no hard drive on the next Jeep, since the one on my JKU works really well. I guess with a USB3 I should be fine with the new one (or plug-in my iPod Touch).

Yeah, both will work, and provide you a similar experience to the current hard drive or better, as the new unit can display Album art, so you can see the album cover or associated artist picture for the music you are playing which is handy for quick recognition, especially of different versions of the same track/song.

Personally though I would use a USB flash drive (get a second one if that's your only copy of the music library) because leaving your ipod plugged in is a potential theft risk, and without an internet connection I'm not sure an iPod will add much to the experience vs the USB drive other than a more Apple playlist interface (I would prefer Uconnect's).
Carplay's features are sorta limited to phones, and with your 'low-tech' vibe we can consider it as not worth hacking for the iPod. I loved my first few hacked iPods (had one since 1st Gen to 4) but now it's not worh the hassle for most part to hack them and everything they do is on most phones if you already have a smartphone.

However, something else to consider is a combo of both iPod + USB, which is also handy if you udpate your library or podcasts often, then leaving a USB drive in at all times with a large chunk of your collection (bigger than on the current Wrangler), and then the ipod acting as the 'latest selection' gives you more options for refreshing and adding content. I just wouldn't leave the ipod there in the open.

Enjoy the tunes, and have a good one, eh!

 

[lasvegascolonel]

Yeah, both will work, and provide you a similar experience to the current hard drive or better, as the new unit can display Album art, so you can see the album cover or associated artist picture for the music you are playing which is handy for quick recognition, especially of different versions of the same track/song.

Personally though I would use a USB flash drive (get a second one if that's your only copy of the music library) because leaving your ipod plugged in is a potential theft risk, and without an internet connection I'm not sure an iPod will add much to the experience vs the USB drive other than a more Apple playlist interface (I would prefer Uconnect's).
Carplay's features are sorta limited to phones, and with your 'low-tech' vibe we can consider it as not worth hacking for the iPod. I loved my first few hacked iPods (had one since 1st Gen to 4) but now it's not worh the hassle for most part to hack them and everything they do is on most phones if you already have a smartphone.

However, something else to consider is a combo of both iPod + USB, which is also handy if you udpate your library or podcasts often, then leaving a USB drive in at all times with a large chunk of your collection (bigger than on the current Wrangler), and then the ipod acting as the 'latest selection' gives you more options for refreshing and adding content. I just wouldn't leave the ipod there in the open.

Enjoy the tunes, and have a good one, eh!

Thanks so much! Every time I add music to my library, I save it on a USB3 drive plus another external Seagate HD..just in case one of them fails. Obviously, the USB3 would be the go-to device to use in my Jeep. The Motor Trend International Auto comes here in September. I'm hoping the Wrangler will be there. I'm thinking of getting a third vehicle (an EV) to commute to the gym and military base, and electricity is mostly free with retailers. Anyway, thanks again. Enjoy Calgary the rest of the summer. We would sometimes stop at Lethbridge for lunch on our way to Calgary from Montana. Cheers!

 

[Martinling]

Try DRmare M4V Converter and an USB flash drive, you can enjoy any iTunes digital files on any devices without any limitation.

 

[Dynomite1371]

No big hard drive included, you either plug in your phone / media player / USB Stick / External HardDrive via USB to take a library with you.

This to me is an advantage as solid state in the UConnect is less likely to fail due to shock, moisture, heat, whatever. USB storage on the other hand depends on the quality you buy.

As Spank mentions USB keys are cheap, so you could get 3 time the storage of the 430 / 5 times the 730 with a 128GB thumb drive for less than $25 nowadays. So you could buy 2 usb sticks and constantly keep updating one drive while the other is in the Jeep.

However, I would recommed not cheaping out too much, the cheapest ones are usually much slower, which matter when you're moving thousands of songs (slower than a bunch of much bigger movies) and can be painful to load.

This is what I have (waited for $40 CDN sale), because it's small and mounts flush making it less likely to catch on things damaging the stick or USB port, and it's fast writing which matters more than reading.

http://www.lexar.com/products/usb-f...S45-USB-3-flash-drive.html#SKU=LJDS45-128ABNL

But there are 100s of options out there.

The MP4 info is because he mentions iTunes which is AAC which is MP4 based. MP3 is a given.

The UConnect still has Bluetooth as well for pairing to a phone or tablet, but the OP asked about Hard Drive storage.

I like hooking my Ipod Classic 160gb via USB the UConnect interface is vastly improved. With over 500 full abllums in my classic, I can now browse freely, play an album or track and see the artwork with this system. Really cool!

 

[Matthew/E36]

It'll still play your music, but there's no need for a hard drive when you can buy a 128GB USB flash drive for roughly $30.

I hear you...

But they can't put $30 of storage in a $50k vehicle...cheeaapskates.

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