GM's Segment-Exclusive Phatnoise System

[Ming]

Segment-Exclusive Phatnoise System, Standard Dvd Highlight Entertainment Choices In GM's New Crossover Sport Vans
theautochannel.com



DETROIT - Whether it's a quick commute to soccer practice or a cross-country vacation, GM's new 2005 crossover sport vans (CSVs), including Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6 and Saturn Relay, are outfitted with segment-leading, thoughtful entertainment and convenience features to make trips more enjoyable for all passengers.

GM was the first manufacturer to offer an integrated, factory-installed video entertainment system in vans and one of the first to offer a DVD system. With the new CSVs, leadership in in-vehicle entertainment - a very important area of customer consideration in vans - increases with a standard DVD player with flip-down, 7-inch (178-mm) screen and integrated controls on all models. The system accommodates CD, MP3 and DVD formats, has a parental mute override function and is equipped with inputs to allow items such as video games and video recorders to be played on the screen.

The new CSVs also offer the segment-exclusive Mobile Digital Media Powered by PhatNoise system. PhatNoise is a wallet-sized, 40-gigabyte hard-drive cartridge that installs in the vehicles' integrated overhead rail system. The system's capabilities include:



Storing and playing back up to 10,000 songs in MP3, WMA or WAV formats (10,000 songs capacity is based on 128 kbps MP3 encoding with average song length of 4 minutes; using 64 kbps WMA encoding with average song length of 4 minutes gives 20,000 songs capacity) Storing and playing up to 40 typical movies in MPEG format (standard format for movies) Storing and playing a combination of songs and movies Playing classic video games with a wireless game controller A voice-browsing interface - if the driver wants to listen to music, the system reads aloud over the radio speakers the song's name, allowing the driver to quickly navigate through a list of stored music using steering wheel buttons The ability to create custom playlists of music and play the songs back in order or at random, creating your own personal "radio" station; multiple playlists can be created for each family member or for different moods Listening to books, magazine or newspaper articles downloaded from audible.com Allowing simultaneous listening to two entertainment sources The PhatNoise system's hard-drive cartridge is easily removable, so it can be connected to a home PC or laptop to download content for playback in the vehicle, giving passengers an unprecedented level of entertainment customization. There is simply nothing comparable to PhatNoise available in any other vehicle. Audio options In addition to the standard DVD and optional PhatNoise entertainment systems, the new CSVs offer a host of other audio choices, including:

Article Here

Phatnoise Home Page

Phatnoise News

[atomicshark]

For the money it is a big waste compared to an ipod and an aux-in adapter. The iPod with 20GB HD and a much smaller size is only $299 plus any assortment of auto adapters from $15 to $100.
Plus the iPod does not need to live in you trunk like a bulky CD Changer.

Phat Noise for $900 is too much, but it is better than a CD Changer I guess.

[BigAls87Z28]

I-Pod is overrated

This is grood news! Something that is very clever, and Im glad GM put it in there CSV's. This is gunna be a HUGE selling point of the CSV's.

[giagastormer]

The Ipod is very overrated, my CD/MP3 player can hold 493 songs on a disc, and thats plenty.

[thatoneguy]

the iPod is awesome! Don't be hatin'!

I'm a GM fan and a Closet Mac fan so
cut apple a break.

[Ming]

I'm the type of person who buys for value and features. My experience with Ipod buyers I know is they are buying to be trendy. A no-name or lesser known brand is good enough for me (I'm sure there are better values than the iPod, even if Phatnoise isn't it) -- and I don't much care for Sony and Apple, too many bad experiences with proprietary tech that gets outdated and lacks support.

Trendy brands actually cause an averse, negative reaction in me. :P Must be why I dislike Honda so much. :lol:

[atomicshark]

Originally posted by Ming@Aug 14 2004, 12:09 PM
I'm the type of person who buys for value and features. My experience with Ipod buyers I know is they are buying to be trendy. A no-name or lesser known brand is good enough for me (I'm sure there are better values than the iPod, even if Phatnoise isn't it) -- and I don't much care for Sony and Apple, too many bad experiences with proprietary tech that gets outdated and lacks support.

Trendy brands actually cause an averse, negative reaction in me. :P Must be why I dislike Honda so much. :lol:

Ummmm how os the iPod overated? I have owned mine for almost 3 years with out a single problem. I use it in my car all the time, bye, bye CD changing!!!! I also use it as a hard drive for my work. The interface is sweet and the firewire connection (and usb 2.0 on the newer models is amazingly fast. I love how people say it is overrated and they never used one. I can see it being trendy now, but when it was new there was nothing like it, and sorry a CD is OK but iPod is better only because it has so much more storage and it has so many uses. You can use it a a walkman, hard drive for storing all kinds of files, you can download photos from your digital camera to it, you can use it in the car, etc. Nothing comes close. Not even Dell's iPod copy. For $300 the iPod is a much better bargain than the $900 Phatnoise period. Plus there is nothing cooler than the iPod mini for $250 (if you want smaller) and iTunes has a 1,000,000 song catalog, twice as many as the nearest competitor.

[impala02]

I like the idea of GM integrating these units into the car, well, CSV. Hopefully, we'll see more of this in the future. But the 900 dollar price tag is a way too steep.

iPods are nice. I have used them and they work as advertised, but they are a bit trendy. Alot of people buy them because they are the hip thing to own right now. Not that that is a bad thing for Apple.

One question I have about iPods - can you download video (i.e. MPEG or MOV files)and play them on a video screen? As far as I know, you can't. That seems to be one of the nice features of this Phatnoise unit. Throw some movies on there, plug it in to the "overhead rail system" and watch the movie. Then when you are sick of the movies, play some of the music you downloaded to the device. Seems like a great feature for long trips. This way you don't have to bring a bunch of DVDs, and CDs along with you.

[atomicshark]

Originally posted by impala02@Aug 14 2004, 12:52 PM
I like the idea of GM integrating these units into the car, well, CSV. Hopefully, we'll see more of this in the future. But the 900 dollar price tag is a way too steep.

iPods are nice. I have used them and they work as advertised, but they are a bit trendy. Alot of people buy them because they are the hip thing to own right now. Not that that is a bad thing for Apple.

One question I have about iPods - can you download video (i.e. MPEG or MOV files)and play them on a video screen? As far as I know, you can't. That seems to be one of the nice features of this Phatnoise unit. Throw some movies on there, plug it in to the "overhead rail system" and watch the movie. Then when you are sick of the movies, play some of the music you downloaded to the device. Seems like a great feature for long trips. This way you don't have to bring a bunch of DVDs, and CDs along with you.

You can't play video straight to a video screen from an iPod (yet). You can play video only to a computer Mac or PC. The Phatnoise is definitely a good idea for GM to differentiate itself, but only if it were cheaper. It also seems that Phatnoise is available for nearly all manufacturers.

[MCGARRETT]

$900 sounds like alot if you are going to pay for it out of your pocket, but when you roll the $900 in to the $30,000 price of the van and then finance it over 5 years, it does not really make a difference.

[Ming]

Originally posted by MCGARRETT@Aug 14 2004, 02:08 PM
$900 sounds like alot if you are going to pay for it out of your pocket, but when you roll the $900 in to the $30,000 price of the van and then finance it over 5 years, it does not really make a difference.

Not to mention that 1500 bucks on your GM card just itching to be used, and the inevitable rebates on the CSVs...

[atomicshark]

Originally posted by Ming+Aug 14 2004, 02:20 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ming @ Aug 14 2004, 02:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-MCGARRETT@Aug 14 2004, 02:08 PM
$900 sounds like alot if you are going to pay for it out of your pocket, but when you roll the $900 in to the $30,000 price of the van and then finance it over 5 years, it does not really make a difference.

Not to mention that 1500 bucks on your GM card just itching to be used, and the inevitable rebates on the CSVs... [/b][/quote]
That is true Ming! In my case a hair over $2,000

[jro4566]

FYI: While one could go and buy something cheaper than an iPod, the price for an iPod justifies itself because of its award-winning support, beautiful design, Apple name, and award-winning reliability.

[richb65]

Originally posted by bigals87z28@Aug 14 2004, 10:15 AM
I-Pod is overrated

This is grood news! Something that is very clever, and Im glad GM put it in there CSV's. This is gunna be a HUGE selling point of the CSV's.

I've seen the future, and it's NOT permanently mounted hard disk drives in vehicles! The future is the iPod, or devices like it, that allow portability with your digital media. All you need is a connection capability to your audio/video system... which more car audio systems are providing. You don't need a $900 Phat system to do this.

[jphil]

Originally posted by giagastormer@Aug 14 2004, 04:17 PM
The Ipod is very overrated, my CD/MP3 player can hold 493 songs on a disc, and thats plenty.

Dont knock it till you've OWNED one. My iPod holds my ENTIRE audio collection(9,786 songs/35.2 GB) yet is the size of a pack of cards and ways about the same. On a drive across this great nation of ours I had enough music for 28 DAYS of continous music(and it played for about that much thanks to a 12v power plug). Way to go Apple Computers!!!!!!!