Playing CD's in New 4Runners

You got it wrong. Lime wire for the win. Let me just connect this dial up connection and I’ll have korns latest single in 17 hours 32 min 47 sec

 

soooo, you tried connecting it to your 4Runner and it didn't work? And you know you'd selected USB as the music Source for the stereo (i.e., USB instead of AM, FM or Satellite)? If so, my guess is that the truck's USB port isn't putting out enough electrical power to run the player. Cause in principle, if the stereo detects a source of music at the USB port then it's going to play that source of music. To this point, the Amazon link you sent shows a power cord for that CD player. A cord you'd need to plug into a wall socket.

In any case, yes, if you connect that player to your home computer you should be able to convert CDs to digital files that can be played through the USB port on your truck. One option would be to import the CDs into iTunes / Apple's music app -- if you have that. Then you could copy those files onto a phone or ipod. Honestly I think an iPod would be the best option, as it would give you a lot of control, make searching and choosing music easy, show you album artwork etc. etc.

The other route would be to convert the CDs to MP3s. Search online for apps that do that. Dunno what kind of computer you have or what exactly is out there (I use Macs and iphones). Then yes you could copy those MP3s to a flash drive. But you're not going to have the same ability to search and view and select tracks.

 

OR........maybe I was not waiting long enough for the USB tab on the screen to light up ?

Rick

 

LOL, I think you've pretty much exhausted all possible suggestions and speculations here. Pls let us know how you end up resolving the issue. But again, if it was me, I'd invest in an iPod and copy my CD collection to it using iTunes. This will give you a much, much better experience. If you have a Windows computer you can download iTunes here:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210384

If you have a Mac, you would do it through its built-in Music app.

 

Reading Amazon comments/question section it requires 2 USB plugs. One for power and one for play/transfer. I think?

Cranking is so much easier.

 

That's not for use with a car. No amount of two cable trickery is going to get this working with your 4Runner. That's an external USB-based optical drive for personal computers. The super expensive thing that I thought you got actually would look a lot like this, but it would work internally very differently. At least you didn't spend a whole lot of money on this. Yes, you could connect it to your personal computer, rip your CDs, and put the MP3 files from the rips onto a USB drive like the one someone linked to in this topic, but that's probably not what you're looking to do.

Give me a little while. I'm going to write up my post about my solution soon. A complete guide. It's been real world tested and ready for deployment here. It's not as cheap as that thing you bought, but it works very well.

 

@rickystl Here's my guide. This should do it for you. Good luck! https://www.4runners.com/threads/do...res-how-mostly-applies-to-all-cars-too.20189/

 

Nailed it. And as a tech, I really appreciated all the work Limewire brought me.

 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!

Rick

 

You're welcome. I hope you get everything working if you try my guide. If you need help, just ask. I'm on here often enough. It's not too difficult. We can get through it. The most annoying part is the cabling.

 

Go with the USB Thumb Drive. The mini thumb drives are so small you can't even see them when they are plugged in, and they can hold 1000's of CDs. You can also play .mp3 or .acc, so just drag and drop from iTunes, no conversion needed. Plus the name of the song and album cover appears on the radio. I got the older USB 2 32G chip for about $8. I had problems getting the USB 3 chip to be recognized.

$29 SanDisk 32GB Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ33-032G-G35

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MPCJDXS/ref=twister_B07NGFQYNC

 

I have an Apple CD/DVD Player that is very small and USB powered. When I get my Venture, I'll give it a try and get back to you.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-superdrive

 

That sounds cool! If it has a headphone jack, the FM transmitter should work. You may still need the extension, but good luck with it!

I actually originally tested the FM transmitter with a Nintendo 3DS because the Discman knockoff hadn't arrived yet. I played Outrun

EDIT: Actually, I doubt that Apple thing will work. I thought you were talking about an Apple-made made a portable DVD player with screen device. I know other companies made such things. I googled it, and it looks like Apple only made external optical drives for Macs. The 4Runner almost certainly won't interface with that.

 

return that thing and type in "portable cd player for car". That should give you what you want if you wish to stay old school.

 

Rick, I dont kno if you got dat CD player situation figured out, ..BUT I was looking for a cd player too for quite some time , for my 2020 4runner. My frickin mechanic in my town tried charging me $1,246 bucks. said screw dat. I looked on google and found dis Intelligent Cd Player that interfaces thru the factory radio with USB. AND its CARPLAY compatible....simple and ez install too, for us nontek guys... Just simply put your cd in.. and GO,..... dis code might still work for discownt, its been a cupple of weeks since i bought it..." CD10" ...this thing is frickin awesum, https://cdforcars.com/collections/intelligent-carplay-cd-player

 

Wow, I'm old guy too. I just (hopefully) transfered a few CD's to a USB drive, going to go see if it worked.

I remember in the music shop I worked in during the mid 80's that we sold converters so you could play cassette's in your 8 track.

 

Hey if you kno about selling converters to play tapes, you definitely know about the old skool bean bags. The bean bags/shakers we used to install at Al & Eds to create the rattle and bass in the cars back in the day. hahaha I could go on and on..They need to bring Vinyls back, nothing like that crakle snap pop noize haha. Goin back to your usb drive cdthingamijigger, I honestly have gone back as far as ADam lookin for a reliable CD playa, everyone is corrupted in some which way form... I wouldnt steer you the wrong way. Dis CD Player is American Made, Marine owns da compuny. Rick you literally pop the cd in the slot and it plays in a couple sconds... no loadin software.. no headackes... and, you can control it thru your factory radio.

 

https://cdforcars.com/collections/intelligent-carplay-cd-player

 

Well 1st attempt didn't work then I used below video to explain how and IT WORKS! I'll be transfering CD for hours.

Note: Once I inserted USB into plug in 4Runner it did not just show up on the screen. I had to go to audio then source then USB.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUIScAYWkoU

 

My first vehicle that had a radio, was AM only, next was AM and FM, this was great (AM really sucked) My brother had a 45 vinyl player that was bolted under the dash of his '55 Chevy, that was really cool. my 1970s Catalina had Vibrasonic (reverb), next was my Eldorado, it had 8 track and AM and FM, getting more cool all the time. Things started looking up in my world when I bought a 2000 Town and Country Limited , it had cassette, CD and AM, FM. Then I bought a 2018 Tundra Limited, can't get any better than that, but it only had a CD player, wife said it was too big for her so I traded it in on a 2021 4Runner Limited, has a ton of good stuff that I'm still learning about, but not even a CD. Pass me the bottle, I need a drink. (not really, I quit that when I took off the uniform in the early '60s)

 

That reminds me of the first Toyota in our family 1987 Toyota Corolla from Japan which had AM/FM radio with FM frequency range for 87-95mhz or something like that, a narrow range. Thank got it had a cassette player rather a fancy one at that time with ability to play both sides, meaning we don't have to take the cassette out and insert back to play next side.

After that in early 90s there was a trend people change headunit to Pioneer headunits with CD player. My dad changed all 4 speakers to poineer as well. As a little kid I was amazed by the feature where we were able to remove the front face of the headunit. It came with hardcase to carry so no one can steal the headunit.

I know its out of the topic but shared those fun things in my childhood.

 

lol no. so expensive .

 

We have a live one here, folks! While this might be a good option, it's expensive and restrictive.

Try this. I use this semi-often. It's a completely workable setup, and it's relatively cheap. https://www.4runners.com/threads/do...res-how-mostly-applies-to-all-cars-too.20189/

 

If you're still having a problem with this I'd be willing to help you by straight trading my CD player equipped '19 for your '21. As an added benefit I've already put 58,000 miles on mine so it's fully broken in. It's a sacrifice but anything for a fellow forum member.

 

A while back I ripped every CD I owned (took a long time) and burned everything onto a Blu-Ray, one disc. It's in a safe place and all the bulky CD's are gone.

 

While these all seem like fantastik optiuns, I think everyone is getting their head in a loop. I have a 96 year old grandma who only knos nothing about tecKnology. She get in her old skool Acura, puts her cd in the cd player i bought er and drives off in the wind... No offenze , I just cant' teach a old dog how to do new tricks... its too late... plus I wouldn't want to be sitting there for hours at a time, waiting for a usb drive that mite get too hot or too kold in my car and not work, kno nothing about uploading data, and I work 7 days a week 2 jobs wit 14 hour days in so cali, no time. If there is a betta option than simply putting the cd in the slot, you tell me?

 

My Dodge Omni only had a radio and cassette option, so as a broke high schooler, I bought the adapter to play my CDs through my discman through my cassette player. My next car did not have a CD player so I upgraded the head unit to one with a detachable face (big timer!) After that, I got a set up that had a six disc changer in the back of the trunk. Six options at once! Then came the cigarette lighter to stream my iPod through a FM transistor. I really thought that was the best of times. Then Bluetooth arrived.

Seems we have come full circle to another need for an adapter.

 

Dis man knows wassup, He upgraded, and upgradeid till he hit the highest aftermarket plateau achievable. Simplicity is keye ( weerk smarter not hardr) But Hey... some ppl enjoy connecting wires and running test on wires and modules. Using their brain, but me... I like caculaters becuz their Fast and Neva LLie to ya. hahaha, tell you what you caugt on to sumtin, I belive the little blak box dat came wit my cd playa from that compny, must be the adapter to factory usb to kontrol the cd player. Learn some thin new every day.