Hey guys...

I'm pretty new here. I just installed the F90BT as well as the Noob Mod package that CMH put together... and I'm so greatful for the work that he and the rest of you have done.

I also just put on the Black Knurled knob, and it works great.

What I'm trying to figure out is a way to utilize my Rhapsody to go subscription with the Avic.

I'm anti I-Pod, as I don't want to have to pay for every song that I want to listen to at will, when I can subscribe for $15/month - and have an "all you can eat" situation.

Of course, I could bring a few gig worth with me on a portable player, like the Sansa View or one of the other supported units, however, what I'd really like is to be able to bring my whole collection at once.

Rhapsody allows you to authorize 5 devices total... 3 portables and 2 computers or vice versa. They select which portables, and those portables have a pretty severe limit on size... (plus quality isn't great either... my sansa view just sh*t the bed, and is a nice looking black brick right now).

I would love to be able to authorize an external hard drive with 500gb or 1T, then use it as an external source for the AVIC to play music from. Has anyone done this?

The songs play as WMA's and are DRM protected, so I'm sure there has to be some processing done before they hit the Pioneer.... am I right on that?

Anyway, I hope that you guys can help or have already worked out some sort of solution! That be great!!!!

Thanks... and I appreciate all of your work on this stuff (and all that you've done so far).

Several other quick other points...

1) I also have it on my Verizon Wireless phone - the Voyager - (LG VX10000) and I can carry a 16gb Transflash (MicroSD) card in it loaded with music.

2) The phone has bluetooth capability - A2DP as well... It connects to bluetooth as a phone, but apparently the F90BT can not utilize A2DP so it can't double up as a speaker connection - like my moto headset can (phone and headphones at the same time, music gets interrupted when a call comes in)... is there any aftermarket mod for adding A2DP?

3) I have been as of yet unable to connect any player with success to the F90BT... I tried via the USB and the rca aux1 as well... with no success...

thanks again.

The bluetooth is a separate Parrot unit inside the Avic and does not support A2DP. DRM files are not supported via any media. If your phone has a headphone jack, you could use it via a cable into AV1 or the front panel. The USB port will read any HDD attached so long as it is formatted in FAT or FAT32 and has a separate power source or draws very little power. As much as you hate iPods, I recommend you get one and rip your music to it using Sharepod. I have both a 5.5G Video iPod and a newer Nano and both work great on the Avic.

Thanks... I've thought about doing the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, then plugging in into the front of the unit... not the slickest application - but hey... what can you do.

re: sharepod... that would only work for songs that I own, not subscription tracks like I have through Rhapsody. There are a lot of songs that I have downloaded that I enjoy - but not enough to buy. I don't want to invest the 8 or 9 grand that it'd take to duplicate the rhapsody library that I have... (figuring on $0.88/ song) so that's really not feasible.

What would an external hard drive need to act like a computer? Are there any ways to build something basic, maybe even controllable by the HU? I've been looking at MP3car.com as well to try to get some ideas... but most of what they have is way too robust for what I'm looking to do.

When Rhapsody says you can authorize up to 5 devices, that's under the assumption that the devices support the DRM Rhapsody uses. unless you can get the Rhapsody software client running inside the AVIC, you'll never be able to play any of it's music, just having a drive full of the music files won't help without something blessing the license.

this may or may not help you...

this is what I do, I run Pandora or AOL radio thru my iphone(internet radio) into the usb/iphone pugged into the back of my 900bt. It doesn't display the song names n stuff(it gets stuck on showing what the ipod part is playing)

but it sounds great and once it syncs up it is pretty smooth.I also have like 7 gigs of music on my iphone/pod.

I can go for days and not hear the same music and most of it is free.

anyways, thats is about the best I have found without doing any mods to my stereo.

good luck

oh and get an ipod like everyone else in the world lol j/k