CarPC and Centrafuse Install

[guruerror]

Originally Posted by adamw89_2000

...where do u put your dvds and things in like that at? is that on the mini computer itself or fo you have to get a seperate drive for that as well? an if you had a tablet, could u even use dvds?

I'm glad you asked...as I forgot to mention this. I don't use ANY optical media. Given that I was installing this in an off-road vehicle I eliminated as many moving and/or mechanical parts as I could.

The Mini originally came with and optical DVD (built-in) and a mechanical hard drive. I removed the optical drive and replaced the mechanical hard disk with a solid state unit.

All of my music is stored as MP3s on the internal hard drive. To add new tracks I simply put them on a flash drive, insert the flash drive into the USB port which I placed on my dashboard, and touch the Import button in CF's Library.

For movies I typically use a Patriot Magnum 128GB flash drive which plugs in to a USB port that I placed in the console box. This drive holds about 25 DVDs, so I can always have a selection of my son's favorite movies available for him to watch. For 'road trips' I use a 1TB LaCie Rugged external, mechanical hard drive in lieu of the smaller flash drive...the LaCie holds about 200 DVDs. At one point one of the CF programmers had developed a Hulu app for a previous version of CF...I'm hoping that he updates it for the latest version. Having Hulu available in the truck almost made my portables unnecessary.

Others on the CF forum have DVD/Bluray drives installed. Some in the dash, some in the glove box...search around on the CF and mp3car forum and you'll find more info. To use a optical disc with a tablet you'd probably have to use an external drive.

How do you envision mounting the tablet? The smallest Windows tablets I've seen is the HP Slate at 8.9"...I think that'll be a tad too big for the headunit opening; and maybe too wide overall to fit in the internal framework of the dash.