Considering buying a pilot

[jmlpa]

I am considering buying a pilot for myself and my wife.
She wants to be able to watch recorded tv programs on her pilot, can this be done? I want to use it in the car and I do not have an input , how can I do it?

[CrowdAds]

[digitalq]

It depends on a LOT of things jmlpa.

As for your wife, it depends on how she is recording the programs and what sort of files or output she has available after they are recorded. If you are using a tv tuner card or tivo to go setup, (even a DVD recorder) then it is pretty simple to convert files to a format the pilot can use. If they are recorded on a cable or sat. company DVR then it might be difficult to get the video out of the box and converted.

As for you, using a player in the car comes down to a few choices if you don't have an aux jack on your head unit. 1. buy a head unit with a jack (they are not very expensive), 2. get an FM modulator and install. 3 get a cassette adapter if you have a cassette player in your car and 4. (worst option) get an FM transmitter.

That's my 2*.01

[vferrari]

Originally Posted by digitalq

It depends on a LOT of things jmlpa.

As for your wife, it depends on how she is recording the programs and what sort of files or output she has available after they are recorded. If you are using a tv tuner card or tivo to go setup, (even a DVD recorder) then it is pretty simple to convert files to a format the pilot can use. If they are recorded on a cable or sat. company DVR then it might be difficult to get the video out of the box and converted.

As for you, using a player in the car comes down to a few choices if you don't have an aux jack on your head unit. 1. buy a head unit with a jack (they are not very expensive), 2. get an FM modulator and install. 3 get a cassette adapter if you have a cassette player in your car and 4. (worst option) get an FM transmitter.

That's my 2*.01

Or get a head unit that has bluetooth capability. I would put that up at no. two or three.

[digitalq]

vferrari: You are so right! I would put it at #2, especially since it would provide connectivity for a phone with A2DP streaming as well. Do they put mics in the head units too? That would give a third advantage of a hands free phone option.

Thanks for the reminder.

[MakerDad]

Best Buy has the Pilot on sale this week. $30 off the 8GB and $20 off the 4GB.

[mattschuette]

In my aging 1999 Olds Intrigue with at least one blown rear speaker (so a sub-par audio system and noticeable road noise) I found both the cassette adapter and FM transmitter to be acceptable. I'm listening to mainly rock and metal pretty loud (hmm... cause of the blown speaker??), so subtle nuances aren't really a factor. What I like about the FM transmitter is that I can use it in my wife's car (or any other). The only thing I've noticed is an unacceptable amount of crosstalk (?) when you are using the FM transmitter AND a car charger at the same time. I only have one transmitter, one charger and one Pilot, though, so I can't really eliminate any factors there.

If you have a newer car or an after-market head unit, you can most likely tap into a rear Aux input (certainly if the head unit has an Aux button). Any car audio shop could get the appropriate wiring harness and mount either an 1/8" jack or stereo RCA jacks somewhere accessible which would give you about the best possible input. As digitalq pointed out, though, head units with front aux inputs are not very much these days... might end up being cheaper than a custom aux jack, but might not match the existing interior perfectly if that is a concern.

[lejm]

Originally Posted by jmlpa

She wants to be able to watch recorded tv programs on her pilot, can this be done?

Yes, it can be done. I watch my shows on the subway, for example. It's pretty labor and time intensive though. I'm fairly sure it's MUCH easier with TiVo (TiVoToGo), but I looked into TiVo and it was too much of a hassle to switch over.

Here's what I do. I have a TV capture card on my computer. I hook the DVR up to the computer and use the video capturing software that came with the TV card to record the stream. It has to record in real-time, so I basically can't watch TV or use the computer during that time (I could try using the computer, but it might affect the recording quality and cause sound/picture skips). Then I use the Media Converter that comes with the Pilot to convert the new file (about 2G for an hour of television) to a Pilot-compatible file (ends up around 250Mb I think), which takes another 20 minutes or so.

All in all, it's definitely worth it to me, but everyone is different.