No CD player

[1dave]

I know I'm showing my age here but I have no idea about streaming music/spotify etc.

My old car has a CD player but the corolla I'm picking up tomorrow doesn't as far as I know.  I have lots of CD's, can I assume that if I transfer some music from a CD onto a flash drive I can plug that into a USB socket on the corolla and play music?

I know I'm straying off topic a bit here but I use a chromebook which doesn't have a disc drive. Is there a way to copy my CD's onto a flash drive without a disc drive (I assume not).

Alternatively Is there a cheap streaming service which a technophobe can use?

Thanks again folks.

[AndrueC]

There are many ways to copy music from CD to flash drive - it's called 'ripping'. You will of course need some form of optical disk drive although portable ones that connect to a computer using USB exist. Most (probably all) modern operating systems include some form of ripping software so you probably won't need to download or install anything.

Edit:Oh dear. I've just done a search and it appears that Chrome OS can't access music or video. That's going to be a stumbling block for you.

Assuming you can find a way to rip CDs there are a couple of ways to play the music in your car.

You can plug the flash drive in but a better alternative might be to copy the music to your phone then using a music player on that and stream via bluetooth (using the car like a pair of headphones basically).

The reason it might be better is because the infotainment unit isn't very good at handling large numbers of music files. A flash drive can hold hundreds of CD's worth of music and most people copy all of their music collection onto a single flash drive so that they can leave it connected all the time.

Your phone probably won't have that much capacity but can still usually store several dozen albums and a dedicated music player on the phone will do a far better job of managing large numbers of tracks.

There are a few streaming services around but you will need a reasonably reliable internet connection. You'd again use bluetooth to play the music through your car.

[Cyker]

It's a bit tricky these days as the majority of computers don't come with any sort of optical drive any more.

As AndrueC discovered a Chromebook won't hack it as you need a 'proper' computer. 

All you really need is a machine with a CD/DVD drive, USB ports and at least Windows XP and you have everything you need to rip CDs to a USB flash drive.

USB CD drives are generally pretty cheap so if you have or know someone with a Windows laptop that'd be an good place to start too.

Before I'd just say find a teenager and get them to do it, but most modern teenagers probably don't even know what a CD, so nowadays the advice would be to find someone in their mid-late 20s and get them to do it  

 

[hdkagawa]

I'm wondering if you could try something like this, I don't know if it will work but maybe rather than trying to digitise your music which would be difficult using your pc, you could look the other way and get a cd player (that could connect via AUX or Bluetooth) - maybe USB (I would check compatibility but Amazon do returns quite well?) 

Alternatively a streaming service might be the way to go, such as Spotify, or you can often get Apple music free for a few months to try 

[Stopeter44]

56 minutes ago, Cyker said:

All you really need is a machine with a CD/DVD drive, USB ports and at least Windows XP and you have everything you need to rip CDs to a USB flash drive.

2010-2012 MacBook Pros can be had for 100/150 GBP, better 2012, but they are robust, and come with a CD/DVD drive. Then you can use iTunes/Apple music to rip to .mp3/.aac whatever.

Do you have a mate that is just slightly un-technophobe ?

[bigblock]

Or if you can find a friend or even a neighbour with a Windows PC and a CD drive they could do it I'm sure. I mention this as I ripped my neighbours cd's onto a USB flash drive as he was in the same boat as you having bought a more modern car without a cd player.

[Cyker]

4 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

2010-2012 MacBook Pros can be had for 100/150 GBP, better 2012, but they are robust, and come with a CD/DVD drive. Then you can use iTunes/Apple Music to rip to .mp3/.aac whatever.

Do you have a mate that is just slightly un-technophobe ?

I wouldn't recommend using a Mac - They always stick loads of hidden files all over the USB stick which eat up the already limited file allocations of FAT32; Not a concern until the stick starts filling up then suddenly you find it says it's full when there's still a good chunk of space!

[Stopeter44]

15 hours ago, Cyker said:

They always stick loads of hidden files all over the USB stick

Yes that's true, but mostly they are tiny files.

[Tommy X]

This may work for you, USB 3.0 External DVD RW Drive CD DVD Rewriter Burner Reader For Mac Laptop PC | eBay plenty on eBay

[1dave]

Thanks folks, I do appreciate your time.

It's a shame chromebooks can't handle music but that seems to be the situation.

I'll hunt around for someone with a laptop with an optical disc drive.

Dave 

[beeblebrox]

Anyone tried connecting a portable cd/DVD drive in the car multimedia USB port.

Has multimedia unit a software driver program dedicated to cd/DVD drives as for nearly all pc’s.

Just wondered.

[Paul john]

Apple music via bluetooth to your cars head unit. 
no need to understand how it works 

just choose your track

[Cyker]

8 hours ago, beeblebrox said:

Anyone tried connecting a portable cd/DVD drive in the car multimedia USB port.

Has multimedia unit a software driver program dedicated to cd/DVD drives as for nearly all pc’s.

Just wondered.

A normal USB CD/DVD drive won't work AFAIK, but flash22's made me aware there are specialist ones that 'fake' a USB drive and present all the audio tracks as 44.1kHz 16-bit WAV files. They are more expensive than a normal drive, typically 2x-3x more from what I've seen, so £90-£120ish vs £20-50 for a normal drive..

 

[Dylanfan]

Another option is to buy a cheap second hand Windows PC with a CD drive. Most independent computer shops have them; it doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

[Roker]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:51 AM, 1dave said:

I know I'm showing my age here but I have no idea about streaming music/spotify etc.

My old car has a CD player but the corolla I'm picking up tomorrow doesn't as far as I know.  I have lots of CD's, can I assume that if I transfer some music from a CD onto a flash drive I can plug that into a USB socket on the corolla and play music?

I know I'm straying off topic a bit here but I use a chromebook which doesn't have a disc drive. Is there a way to copy my CD's onto a flash drive without a disc drive (I assume not).

Alternatively Is there a cheap streaming service which a technophobe can use?

Thanks again folks.

I purchase a CD player from Amazon which fits in to the slot in front of the gear lever and plugs in to the USB socket, unfortunately this is the only data socket, if you use this or a flash drive you cannot use Android on your phone for maps etc . It also would take countless hours to transfer your CDs to flash drive and have the same problem