Some people don't like the idea of another player other than the empeg (don't worry, I'm one of those after using it for a while) but for some reason I've always had the desire to build my own car stereo system based on mp3s.
Once I got the empeg, I completely stopped working on my senior project (which was a tablet hooked up to an external mp3 decoder that was supposed to run in a car) because I realized how bad it was when compared to the empeg.
I have found some problems with the empeg. Since I bought it from during the closeout I can't find a tuner within a reasonable price. Also, the ability to play cds isn't there anymore. I wanted more.
Here's my idea for a homemade car player. It will only fit into a double din dash. Everything goes into the dash just like the empeg. The motherboard is a Mini ITX from VIA with a C3 processor in it. I just got mine today and it was $180 shipped for the motherboard, processor, and case (which conveniently includes a DC-DC power supply).
The hard drive will of course be a 2.5" drive. It will also have a notebook dvd-rom drive. I have measured everything out and I know it will all fit.
The DVD-ROM drive can be used to play dvds, divx files, mp3 (or other audio files) off a CD.
Also it will have full graphical GPS support (by loading an external program).
The best thing about this system isn't even the mp3 playing. It's my favorite feature, the NES emulation. It will play NES games through Nesticle 0.42 for Win9x.
The whole system will run Win2k because I don't like XP. Win2k supports hibernation without bios intervention. With my notebook I got Win2k to boot in 26 seconds from pressing the power button to full music playing. The VIA motherboard's bios posts a lot faster than my notebooks so it will most likely be under 20 seconds.
I willl also have FM/TV support. 802.11b is also an easy option. I have no need for it since I can used CD-RWs to update the music.
You may think, hmm, this sounds great and all but it's impossible. Actually I have most of the software done already. It will be easy to read on a 5" LCD. It displays about 7 lines of browsing information with the clock in the lower right, scrolling title in the lower middle, and track elapsed time in the lower right. When a DVD starts playing, it loads up fullscreen. When the DVD is done, it returns to the browse window. Full playlist support is already done. The only thing I haven't done yet is the FM and NES stuff.
I am no expert programmer. It's just a frontend for winamp. Winamp can do just about everything. FM support will require nothing else to program.
I just need a GPS receiver but until then the only thing I have left to program is the NES emulation.
I have a website up:
http://www.geocities.com/tbdombrosky/diesel.html
It's almost done and it looks very promising. I also forgot to include that it has SPDIF support so I will use that to send a digital signal to a D/A like the Nakamichi (don't remember the model number) and then to my amp so it won't be able to pick up engine noise until after it hits the D/A which will be in the trunk. I also plan to have buttons from a hacked SNES controller controlling everything. It will all be in the dash.
Tom