28 replies to this topic

[GingerTom]

Quote

Ford has announced that it will drop CD players from its cars altogether because of slumping CD sales and the rise of digital media.

CD sales fell 35 percent in the UK between 2006 and 2010, while the number of album sales increased 700 percent in the same period. CD singles have almost vanished entirely, as 98 percent of singles are now downloaded.

Ford, therefore, sees the CD going the same way as the cassette, and has said it will hasten a move to a digital systems in all its cars: both hard drives and iPod connectivity.

The Ford Focus is no longer available with a CD changer - once an extremely popular and sought after option - and all models come with a USB port, Bluetooth and a DAB digital radio. Ford was the first manufacturer to offer a DAB radio in a car as an accessory, it claims...........In 2012 Ford will release Ford SYNC in the Focus, which will allow drivers to play music stored in an online 'Cloud' in their cars.

http://uk.cars.yahoo...-players-0.html

[YORKSHIRENEO]

What about those who chose to burn their digital media as opposed to using a usb or other similar device??? What next?? Sony to stop making BluRay players??

[focus_jay]

Its a good idea but a bit premature I think.

[GingerTom]

Apple are dropping DVD drives from their laptops too. They see optical media as being outdated and all the cool with it people only use solid state.

With regard to CD I think it will come to be honest. I have not played a CD in my car for around 2 years. I only listen to radio or nothing. If the unit had an easy port on the front for plugging my Nokia phone into I would use the music stored on there instead.

But I still use the optical drive on my pc a lot so can't do without that.

[rickmanchester]

Is this serious? They cant even fix the simplest of issues wothout fucking things up. How the hell do they propose to have a "cloud" in the car where the music will be stored??? I can see the boffins at Ford right now wioth images of actual clouds inside cars!!!

Here is their first attempt!!!

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[ST220Paul]

Great news! When you can get a 32gig usb stick of a few quid that will hold enough music to let you drive from here to the far side of Russia why would you want a CD player?! I've installed MP3 player connections for 4 or 5 friends when they have bought new cars cause everyone these days just uses their phone or mp3 player for music anyway. I'm sure there will be those who will get upset but it takes 2 mins to rip a CD and put it on an usb pen and the people who complain are probably the people who still have betamax players in their lofts...

[dickyst3]

Everone uses an MP3 player or their phone to play music.......... well not everyone cos I don't

[bandit]

I use a usb stick in my car and have about 70 albums on it and use that all the time.

I have only used the CD player twice.

[rocky]

dickyst3, on 26 July 2011 - 06:49 PM, said:

Everone uses an MP3 player or their phone to play music.......... well not everyone cos I don't

Hi m8 i'm with you on this issue,i love my CD player and the radio.

[hawkeye]

Not surprised - much as I like CD's and use my multi-changer most of the time, digital is the way things will go. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Ford are looking to make wireless internet connectivity an option on the new Focus, not sure how true that is, but if so how long before the radio goes as well and we use the internet for getting radio channels.

Whilst I have my iPhone and yes, it does give me way more tunes available than if I used my CD, the downside is the lead stretching across the car, and lack of control - by that meaning I can't use the finger controls on the steering column to control it. Until systems are installed that can provide control similar to what I have for my radio/CD player then I'll continue to use radio/cd. But the time will come, whilst I doubt the removal of the faithful radio will take years, no doubt cars will come soon with USB and iPOD docking ports.

And to answer Yorkshirrneo about Sony stopping making Blu-Ray players - I personally think that there is a high possibility of that, the take-up of Blu-Ray has not been that great, people buy the players but not the DVD's (at least not in the volume anticipated), also now with digital download to PC's and TV's etc getting more internet savvy, people are downloading videos (again) to iPODs to playthat way as can take with them (mobile), or running internet through TV screens, so can access movies digitally.

The digital revolution is here, like it or not. Whilst we oldies may prefer CD's the youth of today wants digital. The discussion here, but in a different context really is not dissimilar to the 'death' of vinyl and cassettes......

[YORKSHIRENEO]

Well Vinyl is still going strong in the music scene (DJ's use these almost exclusively) so it hasn't died out completely just yet. And until we have a TRUE across the board format (so many different types of video file, avi, quicktime etc) I dont see how they can properly implement it unless its a case of one manufacturer sides with Apple and the other with Microsoft and we know that will cause some problems!!! Im not against it at all, quite the opposite in fact but I think its further off in the future than some ppl think

[NEIL]

[quote name='hawkeye' timestamp=

Whilst I have my iPhone and yes, it does give me way more tunes available than if I used my CD, the downside is the lead stretching across the car, and lack of control - by that meaning I can't use the finger controls on the steering column to control it. Until systems are installed that can provide control similar to what I have for my radio/CD player then I'll continue to use radio/
[/quote]

This technology is already here ... My friend has a merc c320 with iPod connectivity ..... The iPod has it's own shelf in the glove box and is controlled via the steering wheel controls ... The song playing is displayed on the dash right in front of u ... Great system ...

[NEIL]

[quote name='hawkeye' timestamp=

Whilst I have my iPhone and yes, it does give me way more tunes available than if I used my CD, the downside is the lead stretching across the car, and lack of control - by that meaning I can't use the finger controls on the steering column to control it. Until systems are installed that can provide control similar to what I have for my radio/CD player then I'll continue to use radio/
[/quote]

This technology is already here ... My friend has a merc c320 with iPod connectivity ..... The iPod has it's own shelf in the glove box and is controlled via the steering wheel controls ... The song playing is displayed on the dash right in front of u ... Great system ...

[YORKSHIRENEO]

You really wanted to make your point there Neil but did you HAVE to post it twice???

[BigSig]

It's not that surprising really. Many new cars can control iPods etc via bluetooth and streaming music through it too. It's one thing I want as that aux socket is rubbish.

[GEORDIE]

What about the quality of the music audiophiles will be screaming at the prospect , Compressed digital downloads or rips loose something in the way of quality I believe or so I have read.

[GingerTom]

Depends on the compression and format you use.

Ripping in Windows Media Player for instance has the option to rip in MP3, WMA or WAV and then you can choose the bit rate from lossless to highly compressed.

As long as you don't compress too much it will sound fine especially in the car where you loose certain frequencies anyway.

Personally I rip in WMA and use 160kbps.

[listie]

I still buy loads of CD's I like having something physical, all well and good having downloaded thousands of tracks, then your computer goes pop!

[STboy]

Anybody wanna buy Debbie Does Dallas for the Betamax?

[YORKSHIRENEO]

STboy, on 20 August 2011 - 11:05 AM, said:

Anybody wanna buy Debbie Does Dallas for the Betamax?

20p.....my final offer