Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Car Audio- From your Computer to your Car



Music has never been as easy to access as it is right now, even for your car audio system. With songs readily available from sites such as Amazon and iTunes, you can download music quickly and easily and listen to it right there on your computer. How to get that music into your car can be a little more complicated, though. Previously, you would have had to burn a CD, but now you can play computer music files directly on your car stereo.

These music files come in many formats, though, and transferring them to your car cannot yet be done by email (although that is no doubt only a few years away). So it is not always easy to tell which way is best to get your favourite music from your PC to your car.

There are now three main audio file types on a computer that will transfer to your car audio system: mp3, wma and aac. The mp3 is probably the one most people have heard of and it is the file type that is most common online. However, there are also wma files, which have similar properties but were created especially to be compatible with Windows Media Player. AAC files, on the other hand, are the files which are now downloadable from iTunes, aac stands for advanced audio coding and these files do give higher music quality.

Although they are similar to the user, this difference in file format can affect you. The stereo you have in your vehicle might well not be able to play aac files, or even wma. If your car contains a Panasonic CX-DH801N, for example, you would need to convert any wma files to mp3 before it would be able to play them. On the other hand, stereo systems such as the JVC KD-R303 are compatible with both wma and mp3 file types but not aac. It is best to check carefully what files your audio system will play.

Most car stereos these days are mp3 compatible, but fewer can play wma files without conversion and aac compatible stereos are in the minority. Therefore, if you're not sure whether your car audio equipment is wma or aac compatible, it might be best just to convert all audio files to mp3 to avoid problems. Software to convert music files can be found online, but as with all downloads, be careful about what you're downloading.

Most sites and shops that sell car audio equipment give a run-down of the file types that every stereo supports. If you want to find out more about car stereos, with a clear description of what files they will and will not play, have a look at www.caraudiowarehouse.co.uk.

About the Author

Rachel Lawrence works for KeywordMarketing.com writing articles and press releases.

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