Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMP1 20GB Jukebox Car Digital Media Player Kit

by Rockford Fosgate

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 2 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000931HZA
• Item model number: DMP1 KIT
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,592 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Is your car cluttered with loads of CDs? Then get it together with the Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMP1 Mobile Digital Media Car Player and you'll no longer have to mess with cracked jewel boxes and misplaced discs.

The DMP1 is a quick, easy companion to your existing car audio system and holds enough music for even the longest, most grueling road trip. At the heart of the DMP1 is a rugged, removable 20 GB hard drive cartridge that slips into the housing installed in your car. This enormous drive can hold up to 4,000 songs in MP3 format, so you'll have more music than you can shake a stick at for any automobile adventure. The DMP1 comes equipped with a dash-mounted, removable controller that features an easy-to-read screen and handy, push-button controls for quick navigation.

Included with the media player is Omnifi's SimpleCenter software that makes transferring new audio files to the DMP1 easy as pie. Simply connect the cartridge to your computer via the included USB cable, plug in the power adapter and -- voila! -- you're on your way to downloading loads of more music. Plus, this software will help you organize your music on your computer for quick, easy access to your favorite tunes.

If you just can't be bothered to remove your hard drive cartridge from your car, then simply park within the range of your wireless router and download music via your Wi-Fi. Select the "Sync" option on the controller and wait for the tracks to download directly to the DMP1. You can change the music library in your car without unlocking the door!

What's in the Box
DMP1 media player, USB cable, AC adapter, software, and mounting hardware.

Product Description

The DMP1 consists of a controller and a removable hard drive with housing. Mount the hard drive housing anywhere you would install a CD changer and receive wireless (WiFi) customized updates from your home computer and SimpleCenter™. The rugged 20GB hard drive stores an equivalent of 4,000 songs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product because of opensource support, August 30, 2005

By 

James Corcoran - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMP1 20GB Jukebox Car Digital Media Player Kit (Electronics)

Before going into my review. I must say that my rating for this product is a 5 only because of the open source software (openfi) that is available to replace the stock software.

[...]As far as I know, there's no other device in this price range that has the capabilities or user-based support that the DMP1 does.

The Stock Software
The DMP1 comes with some pretty poorly written software. It gets the job done. I can easily say it lacks something to be desired.
It also requires proprietary synching software (called simple center) to be installed on a PC. There are modified versions of the software which will run on Macs and user-developed software for Linux. As far as I know omnifi has no official support for any platform other than Windows. Music can be added to the drive either by connecting it to your computer through the provided USB cable, or through an optional wifi (802.11b) adapter.
Simple Center converts your mp3s and wmas into a proprietary format, and then puts these new files onto the hard disk. If that weren�t enough it also has trouble keeping track of duplicate files and deleting files from the HDD if you've removed them from your computer. If you modify your ID3 tags after synching... the software leave the old song on the hdd and copies over the new song with the modified ID3 tags.
Managing your music through SimpleCenter is rough to say the least.

The Alternative!
Up until recently this was the only option for owners of the device. There were efforts to make simple center a bit more robust and less buggy (by users, no the makers of the software), but it was still SimpleCenter :-/
Then the magical day of freedom came. An alternative software which didn't require reflashing the firmware (or anything damaging) was released.

openfi has become a great replacement to the stock software. It is more stable and even has features that the stock software doesn't (like ff and rw).

It doesn't modify the stock software either, so it's risk-free to try it out. It is compatible with SimpleCenter synced files, but it will also play mp3 files that are loaded directly onto the HDD (so you can copy your music collection directly to the DMP1's HDD from any OS without any extra software).

The best part about it all is that openfi is constantly being developed and new features are always being added. Openfi has only been around for a month or two and it has already surpassed what the stock software can do.

Conclusion
If you're looking to buy an media player/hdd for your car the DMP1 is a great choice when openfi is coupled with it.

visit the openfi webpage: <a href="http://openfi.sf.net">http://openfi.sf.net</A>

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, I like it., July 25, 2005

By 

K. Snow "Kenny" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMP1 20GB Jukebox Car Digital Media Player Kit (Electronics)

I have had this installed in my car for about a month now, and I am thrilled with it. You have your complete mp3 collection with you all the time, and it is accessable within about 30 seconds of starting your car. The interface is decent at least, and if you set up playlists it works even better. Your mp3's get syncronized every night with your computer, although I would recommend having a secondary computer for your mp3 server, as SimpleCenter (the sync software) is pretty memory intensive, even when it isn't doing anything. (bloated javaware)

You will need your MP3 tags to be accurate and organized, SimpleCenter can help you do this (although there are much better ways to do that, MusicMatch software for one).

I love it. No more FM modulation, no more using my Zen in the car. It's built into the dash (any car-sound system place can install it for you, it really isn't a bad install as long as you have a place for the face plate).

If you are looking into getting this, the only active forum group I know if is http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/omnifi/
If you go there, you can see photos of installs from different people who actually own the device. Mine isn't up there yet, but it will be!

The only real downsides are:
1. SimpleCenter. It is bloated and your computer will run slower because of it. However, it does the job and if you have a second computer that you don't use for gaming and such you'll be fine. Also, you don't technically have to use it, unless you need to sync up your files.
2. Navigation. It isn't perfect, but it does work well enough.
3. Boot up time. But come on, 30 seconds is longer than it took me to hook up my zen and get it started anyway.

Very recommended for car audio people.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another great product idea that was implemented poorly, September 4, 2005

By 

Sugar Britches "Jack Ruby built the Pyramids" (North Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMP1 20GB Jukebox Car Digital Media Player Kit (Electronics)

This is a great product idea. However, the functionality is pretty poor. The menu system is weak, crashes fairly often (requires the harddrive to be ejected and put back in,) there's no fast forward or rewind capability while an mp3 file is playing, the server software is not very good, the unit only does .11b wireless and the firmware/OS update support is almost zero. I think the last firmware update available for this product is from 5/2004.

When you have a 20GB disk full of music to sync up and you want to use the wireless adapter at ~11mbps (802.11b) that is going to take quite a while. I believe there was going to be a DMP2 that was to improve on several things. However, I don't think the 2nd gen model ever made it to production.

Don't get me wrong - this product could be great - but it has too many 'if only it did this' items (and I'm just talking simple intuitive things like fast forward and rewind.)

I found more use for the 20GB disk that came with the DMP1 as a portable storage device.

Save your money and buy a decent Alpine unit.