TerraTec C.A.R.4000 User Manual
MP3 & HiFi
Compressed Audio Recording System
English Manual
Version 09.07.02
CE Declaration
We:
TerraTec Electronic GmbH, Herrenpfad 38, D-41334 Nettetal, Germany
hereby declare that the product:
C.A.R. 4000
to which this declaration refers is in compliance with the following standards or standardizing docu-
ments:
1. EN 55020
2. EN 50013 /+A12
3. EN 60065
The following are the stipulated operating and environmental conditions for said compliance:
Residential, business and commercial environments and small-company environments.
This declaration is based on:
Test report(s) of the EMC testing laboratory
TerraTec® ProMedia, SoundSystem Gold, SoundSystem Maestro, SoundSystem Base 1, SoundSystem
DMX, SoundSystemDMX XFire 1024, AudioSystem EWS
EWX 24/96, XLerate, XLerate Pro, Base2PCI, TerraTec 128iPCI, TerraTec 512i digital, TerraTV+, TerraTV
Radio+, TerraTValue, VideoSystem Cameo 600 DV, WaveSystem, TerraCAM USB, TerraCAM USB Pro,
TerraCAM iLook, m3po, P hono PreAmp, MIDI Smart and MIDI Master Pr o are trademarks registered by
TerraTec
®
Electronic GmbH Nettetal, Germany.
In most cases, the designations used in this manual for software and hardware are also registered
trademarks and are thus subject to the relevant regulations.
©TerraTec
®
Electronic GmbH, 1994-2002. All rights reserved (09.07.02).
®
64, AudioSystem EWS88, AudioSystem
Meticulous care has been exercised in the preparation of all text passages and illustrations in this User
Guide. TerraTec Electronic GmbH and its authors, however, accept no liability, legal or otherwise, for any
errors or the consequences of such errors. We reserve the right to technical modifications.
All text passages in this documentation are copyrighted. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, by photography, microfilming or other process or rendered into a language/form usable by computers without the prior written consent of the authors. All
rights for use and propagation by presentation, radio and television are also reserved.
2 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Contents
Contents Package Contents..................................................................................................3
Package Contents.................................................................................................................5
Setup, safety and care information.......................................................................................5
The battery.......................................................................................................................... 6
The power supply unit. ........................................................................................................ 6
Introduction.............................................................................................................................7
The device. ............................................................................................................................. 8
Analog in and out................................................................................................................ 9
The line inputs....................................................................................................................10
The microphone input. .......................................................................................................10
Digital in and out................................................................................................................ 11
The function...........................................................................................................................13
An introduction. .................................................................................................................13
Switch on. ..........................................................................................................................14
Getting started. ..................................................................................................................15
Automatic recognition of an audio-CD................................................................................16
The playback modes...........................................................................................................17
The first recording. .............................................................................................................18
The browser: your navigation system..................................................................................19
A personal collection of titles. ............................................................................................21
The details.............................................................................................................................23
The User Level....................................................................................................................23
The List Info........................................................................................................................23
The Track Info.....................................................................................................................27
The remote control. ............................................................................................................31
Character input...................................................................................................................33
Volume control...................................................................................................................34
More Input.............................................................................................................................35
Another foreword. ..............................................................................................................35
The Audio CD......................................................................................................................35
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 3
Recording from an external source..................................................................................... 38
The menu for external recording. .......................................................................................40
The CD-ROM menu............................................................................................................. 42
The MMC menu.................................................................................................................. 44
The special functions............................................................................................................ 45
Influence on the speed...................................................................................................... 45
The display........................................................................................................................ 45
The Introscan mode........................................................................................................... 45
The automatic playback (Autoplay)....................................................................................46
The DJ Mode. .....................................................................................................................46
The Timer........................................................................................................................... 47
The Filters..........................................................................................................................49
The C.A.R. 4000 Various Artists.......................................................................................... 52
The connection to the computer............................................................................................ 53
Installing the software........................................................................................................53
The C.A.R. 4000 Media Manager........................................................................................ 54
System maintenance (the System menu). ............................................................................. 59
The System Info.................................................................................................................59
Updating the CDDB® database......................................................................................... 59
Load Default Settings. .......................................................................................................60
Defragmenting the database ..............................................................................................61
Updating the operating system..........................................................................................62
Help! The C.A.R. 4000 shows a foreign language................................................................64
Service at TerraTec................................................................................................................ 65
4 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Package Contents.
First of all, please check the contents of your package to make sure that you have received the
complete C.A.R. 4000 package.
You should have the following items:
· the C.A.R. 4000 (the big black device J ),
· a remote control including batteries,
· an AC power cable,
· a cinch cable,
· a USB cable,
· an installation CD with the PC software and some extras,
· this manual,
· and a registration card.
Please contact us if anything is missing. See “Service at TerraTec.” on page 65 for contact
information.
You need to be aware of some basic information before you start ...
Setup, safety and care information.
· Please place the player on an even, dry surface to prevent fire and electrical shock haz-
ards as well as possible damage to the player itself.
· Keep it away from radiators and ensure that the player is at a safe distanc e from other HiFi
devices to prevent overheating.
· Do not stack (HiFi) devices without feet on top of the player and be especially careful not
to place objects filled with liquids such as vases or bottles on your C.A.R. 4000.
· Be sure that the voltage is correct before connecting the power supply. (110 – 230V)
· If you are not going to use the device for an extended period, disconnect it from the power
supply. To avoid short circuits, never pull on the cable itself.
· In addition, be sure to unplug the device from the AC outlet in the event of a thunder-
storm.
· If the device has been exposed to extreme differences in temperature, allow it to adjust to
the room temperature for one hour before plugging it in. Condensation may have formed
inside the device which could impair the functionality of the C.A.R. 4000.
· Note: The C.A.R. 4000 uses a CD drive, which operates with invisible class 1 laser beams.
· Use a dry or slightly moistened, lint-free cloth to clean the C.A.R. 4000. Do not use clean-
ing products as they may damage the finish of the unit.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 5
The battery.
A button cell of the following type is used on the motherboard inside the C.A.R. 4000:
Designation: CR2032
Type: Lithium
Primary: Yes
Number: 1
Weight: 3g
Please replace the battery only after consultation with one of our technicians (see page 65)
and always make sure that you insert it correctly ('+' upwards). Never throw a battery into an
open fire or expose it to excessive heat. It may leak or explode. If you need to dispose of it,
use only approved dispos al methods.
The power supply unit.
The used switching power adapter has a power consumption of 40 W at an input voltage of
110 to 230 volts at 50 to 60 hertz. The power adapter is internally protected and uses a 250
V/2A fuse. Never change the fuse yourself without consulting one of our technicians (see page
65).
In brief: just use the device sensibly. The warranty does not cover deliberate damage to the
device. Thank you.
6 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Introduction.
We congratulate on your purchase of a TerraTec device. We are proud to present the C.A.R.
4000, a HiFi component that combines t he functions of an audio recorder, a CD pla yer, a filling station for memory cards, and a digital music box in an attractive 19" case. We have
placed great emphasis on ease of operation, even with the many different functions. You
should be familiar with many o f the basic functions and contro ls with their similarity to other
stereo components.
We hope this manual will make it easy for you to familiarize yourself with your 'Compressed
Audio Recorder' (C.A.R.).
Enough chat—now it's t ime to set up, connect, record , and most of all to listen ... enjo y yourself
...your TerraTec Team
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 7
The device.
Setup and connection Carefully remove the device from its packaging and place in a dry spot
on a level surface—preferably on a HiFi rack. Connect one end of the cinch cable to the LINE
OUT sockets of the C.A.R. 4000 and the other end to a free input on your HiFi amplifier. Use
the CD or the AUX input. Never use the phono input (if you have one), because this has a different input voltage! Pay attent ion to the color codes o n the plugs and sockets: red generally
indicates the right side, white (or black) indicates the left side.
If you want to connect the C.A.R. 4000 to the digital input of an amplifier, you will need an
optical cable. Use the output on the device labeled DIGITAL OUT OPTICAL.
If necessary, see the manual for your amplifier for alternative connection options.
Finally, connect the C.A.R. 4000 to a sta ndard power socket with the power cord included in
the package.
Your Compressed Audio Recorder 4000 looks like this.
On/Off switch
CD drawer
Memory card slot
Headphone output and microphone input
Standard control panel
Display
Rotary selector
Up button
The following pages have more information on the audio inputs and outputs and how they
can be connected.
8 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Soft key
Down button
Analog in and out.
The line output.
Line Out (Cinch)
The line output is on the back of the device. As previously noted, this output is generally connected to a line input on a HiFi amplifier. If you don't use a cassette tape deck and you have a
tape deck connector on your amplifier (generally labeled TAPE IN), it makes sense to use this
input. A matching connection to the line output of your amplifier will allow you to use the
C.A.R. 4000 to record all devices (radio, etc.) connected to the amplifier with a line input to
the C.A.R. 4000. We will tell you more about this later …
Your C.A.R. 4000 can also be directly connected to activ e speakers (with integrat ed preamplifier). It could also be connected t o the line-in input of a computer sound card, even though
this is not really advisable (we have designed our device for a relaxed living room environment rather than a computer workstation).
The output is designed for a voltage level of 1 VRMS.
The headphone output.
phones (6.3 mm jack)
You can connect headphones to this 6.3 mm jack. You will need an adapter to use headphones with the smaller jack (3.5 mm), such as those from a walkman or diskman. Any good
electrical components supplier will have adapters. Please ensure that you use a stereo
adapter.
The headphone amplifier has an output of 60 milliwatts.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 9
The line inputs.
Line In 1 / Line In 2 (cinch)
There are two separate line inputs that can be used on the back of the C.A.R. 4000. Analog
devices with a line output, such as the aud io output of a radio or a video recorder, can be
connected here. If you do not use a t ape deck, the best connection fo r such devi ces would be
the TAPE OUT connector of your amplifier. The advantage of this arrangement is that it makes
it easy to use the amplifier to determine which o f the connected dev ices will send a signal to
this output. The rotary selector on the amplifier generally has a selection for TAPE RECORD
SELECT or similar.
See page 38 for information on recording from one of these inputs.
The input is designed for a voltage level of 2 VRMS.
The microphone input.
mic-L / mic-R (6.3 mm jack)
You can connect one stereo microphone with a stereo > 2 x mono adapter o r two mono microphones to these two 6.3 mm jacks. Of course, you can also connect a mono microphone to
only one of the two inputs. The mono signal is automatically sent in equal parts to the left and
the right channel—see page 38 for more information. You should be able to obtain the
adapter from an electronic components supplier. Take this manual with y ou and show it to the
salesperson to ensure you get the correct part.
The inputs have an input sensitivity of 125 mV.
10 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Digital in and out.
The optical digital output.
Optical Out (TOS Link)
The digital output is on the back of the C.A .R. 4000. You can connect an optical cable (also
known as a fiber opti c cab le) fo r a d evice such as a digita l amplifier. One of the advantages of
digital transmission of the audio signa l from the C.A.R. 4000 to an amplifier is that interference cannot affect the signal and reduce the qua lity as can occur with analog transmission.
You can also co nnect the opt ical input of a minid isk recorder to t his output to sa ve the C.A.R.
4000 playback on MD.
This output uses the S/PDIF (Sony / Philips Digital Interface) protocol. If this term does not
mean anything to you, don't worry; it is THE standard protocol for digital transmission of audio signals and almost all devices with digital interfaces support it.
At this point please note that you must switch on the digital output separately. For quality
reasons you must switch the audio output between analog and digital modes with the device
menu. Check this setting if you cannot hear anything. To make this setting, press “MENU” to
open the main menu, then select “Set tings” with the selection wheel and press the wheel to
open the submenu. Here sel ect “Playback”, then “Output menu”. You can select the desired
output here. The factory setting is “Line (analog)”—select “S/PDIF (digital)” to activate the
digital output. Please ensure that playback is not active during this process. If you accidentally change the language settings, see page 64 for instructions on resetting the language to
the desired setting.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 11
The optical digital input.
Optical In (TOS Link)
The digital input is also on the b ack of your C.A .R. 4000. You can co nnect the o utput of a digital amplifier to this input with an optical cable (also known as a fiber optic cable) to record
the playback of devices connect ed to the amplifier with the C.A.R. 4000. You can of course
also connect the optical output of a minidisk recorder to this input to save material from old
minidisk treasures on disk.
Like the digital output this input also uses the S/PDIF (Sony / Philips Digital Interface) prot ocol. If this term does not mean anything to you, don't worry; it is THE standard protocol for
digital transmission of audio signals and almost all devices with digital interfaces support it.
Now a bit in advance: for technical reasons this input cannot be automatically synchronized
with an external signal. Therefore you will need to make this setting manually in the menu. All
standard sample rates (32, 44.1 and 48 kHz) are supported. See page 40 for more information. If you accidentall y change the language settings, see page 64 for instructions on resetting the language to the desired setting.
12 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
The function.
An introduction.
Less is more. As the name 'Compressed Audio Recorder' indicates, one of the advantages of
the C.A.R. 4000 is that it can process compressed aud io da ta. As we all kno w now, co mpressing audio data can be very adva ntageous. A 40 GB hard di sk can hold as much as 680 hours
of music of virtually CD quality. This means a compression ratio of 1 to 10, thus 1 minute of
music compressed requires around 1 MB of memory, while the same piece uncompressed will
take up 10 MB.
You can't have everything—but almost. “Near-CD quality” indicates that the compression
process does not operate entirely without loss. Although complex mathematical methods
make it virtually impossible for the “average ear” to distinguish “near-CD quality” from genuine CD quality, there are ways to adapt the compression to the material at hand. The quality
levels are referred to as the bit rate (kbps). Thus MP3s with a bit rate of 128 kbps offer this
“near-CD quality” with a small file size, while at 192 kbps the quality is significantly higher but
the files are much larger. The trick is to change the bit rate as required when creating a compressed audio file. For example, voice recordings and radio plays can be enjoyed at a bit rate
of 56 kbps—but classics and other demanding types of music only sound good at 192 kbps or
better.
Fact: the higher the bit rate, the higher the quality but also the higher the memory requirement.
As a beginner, you really don't have to deal with these numbers; you only need to remember
three words instead of lots of numbers: low is 64 kbps, standard is 128 kbps and high is 192
kbps.
As you like it. In any case you are in t he right place with the C.A.R. 4000, because it support s
any bit rate during playback, including variable rates, and fixed bit rates from 48 to 320 kbps
during recording. If you don't need to sa ve space, you can record and playback without compression and thus without loss of quality. See “More Input.” on page 35 for more exciting details.
Tree. Forest. Jungle. As you can well imagine from the impressive figure of 680 hours of
sound, depending on your tastes this can be a wide variety of different musicians, albums
and titles. We have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to manage such a huge
amount of data by basing the entire user interface on a powerful database. This means that
when you view your sound collectio n, you don't see directories, folders or file names—only
database entries. In addition to the unified and easily understandable treatment of the data,
this allows more complex database actions. We deal with them in more detail in “The Filters.”
on page 49. But be careful, this is not easy for beginners. It is intended more for advanced
users and pros.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 13
Switch on. Playback. Record CD—this summarizes our instructions for the next few pages.
However, please note that we dea l with playback, record ing, and import and export functions
in detail in later chapters.
Switch on.
The first time.Press the switch ( ) to switch on your C.A.R. 4000. After all the d evices have
been initialized, you will first be asked what language you want in the menus
Press the button above the wheel up and down until the desired language
has been highlighted.
Now confirm your selection by pressing the wheel.
Your C.A.R. 4000 comes from the factory with no music on the hard disk. You now have a huge
amount of space for your own personal sound material.
This message is shown on the display and shows that
there is no music on the hard disk.
14 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
Getting started.
Before you start recording, think of t he C.A.R. 4000 for a moment as a standard CD player,
because the standard control panel not only looks very similar but also has the same functions.
These are the buttons in detail ...
Icon Meaning
The PLAY button starts playback
/ Press to skip to the previous or next track
/ These buttons are for rewind and fast-forward
PAUSE stops playback
STOP interrupts recording and playback
THE button for starting recording
This button—a real sensation—opens and closes the CD drawer
To insert an audio-CD: press “EJECT”, insert the CD, press “EJECT” again to close the drawer—
you can also press the front of the drawer lightly on occasion.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 15
Automatic recognition of an audio-CD.
Do we know each other? Magic! You may have been surprised to see that the C.A.R. 4000
displays the musician, the album and the track names immediately after you have inserted
the CD. This does not mean that the information was read from the CD, as is done with detection via CD-Text
oped by gracenote
and sequence to generate a number. Then this number is used to check more than half a million CD entries in a CDDB
the names of the artists, the album and the tracks. CDDB
stands for Compact Disc Database. You will be pleased to learn that the internal hard disk of
the C.A.R. 4000 contains a copy of this d atabase. This method of recognition has the advantage that even older CDs, which did not include such information on the CD itself because of
the state of the art at the time, can be identified. Of course, CDs that are yet to be released are
not included in the database, so we have made it possible for you to update it. See page 59 in
“Updating the CDDB
®
or similar processes. In contrast, the C.A.R. 4000 uses a technology devel-
®
: a special process uses data such as the number of tracks, their length
®
database. The entries in this database include information such as
®
—as you have certainly guessed—
®
database.” for how to do this.
see also http://www.gracenote.com/
Sometimes a CD may not be recognized in spite of the comprehensive database, even after it
has been updated. In this case you can also enter the releva nt information into the database
manually (see “The Track Info.” on page 27).
16 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
The playback modes.
The C.A.R. 4000, like other stereo devices, o ffers various types of playback. In its factor y setting the C.A.R. 4000 operates exactly the same a s any other CD, record or tape player. This
means that you can insert your (virtual) CD, play it and that's it.
This icon, “Repeat”, shows whether another playback
mode is active—in “Normal” mode no icon is shown.
When you press the “MENU” button, then select “Playmode” with the wheel and then open
the submenu by pressing the wheel, you can select the following modes:
Repeat.
This selection repeats the current collection in a loop until you press STOP.
Repeat 1 / A B.
softkey
In this playmode you can repeat exactly one track, and you
can also use an “AB Repeat” function. This means t hat you
can select a range within an item and repeat this in a loop.
Now we see the “soft key” for the first time.
This button is referred to as the soft key because it can
have different functions depending on what the C.A.R.
4000 is doing. The bottom right corner of the display always shows the current function of t he butto n. You use the
soft key for instance to select the m arks for “AB Repeat”:
press once to set the starting point (A), press again to select the end point (B). If you press again, both ma rks will
be deleted. The current function can also be read by the
change of the soft key label.
Random.
If this mode is active, the compilation is randomly sorted, played back and then stopped.
Repeat Random.
In this setting the compilation is played back repeatedly and resorted after every playback
cycle.
If you accidentally change the language setti ngs, see page 64 for inst ructions o n resetting t he
language to the desi red setting.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 17
The first recording.
Now back to t he matter at hand ... we will now record an audio-CD as MP3 to save the first
data to the internal hard disk. This is done as follows—to summarize again:
· Open the drawer with EJECT ( )
· Insert the CD
· Close the drawer with EJECT (
· Wait until the contents of the CD are displayed
· Press Recording (
· Wait while the CD is recorded (it will also be
played back)
· Finish
We invite you to repeat th is process with other CDs in your collection.
During recording all buttons except STOP (
the recording process but to allow it to be stopped if absolutely necessary. The select ed recording format in the default settings is MP3 in near-CD qua lity (i.e. 128 kbps or N ormal quality for beginners). If you want to find out more about the numerous options for settings, see
page 35 in “More Input.”.
) are disabled to prevent any interference with
)
)
18 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
The browser: your navigation system.
Once you have completed your first recording, you are automatically returned to the functional center of the device: the database browser. This browser helps you find exactly what
you need quickly and easily.
The actual information on the stored data is shown here. Top line ARTIST (Moloko), then COMPILATION (I
am Not A Doctor), then TRACK (The Flipside). Artist means the singer or instrumentalists, Compilation
means any combination of tracks, such as albums , and also samplers and your own playlists, and finally
Track denotes the title of the current track.
This marker shows the current level.
Use the wheel or the up and down buttons to move through your data base. Rotating the selection wheel to the left and right changes selection to the next or previous ent ry on that level
(Artist or Compilation or Track). Use the up and down button to move through the three selection levels (Artist, Compilation, Track). On the Artist and Compilation levels the entries are
sorted alphabetically and by title numbers on the Track level.
Note: On the Artist level, if you press and hold the wheel while rotating it, you will skip to the
next or previous letter of the alphabet and on the Track level you will skip five titles forward or
back. This makes navigation through the data much faster.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 19
In this section of the display you can read what medium is currently active ... as follows:
HDD – the internal hard drive
CD-ROM – the inserted data-CD
CD-A – the inserted audio-CD
MMC – the inserted memory card. When you wish to switch to a different medium, you can do
this in the browser with the soft key labeled SOURCE.
Note: the initialization may sometimes take a moment; in this case a small arrow is displayed
for the medium instead of the abbreviatio n for the medium (HDD, CD-ROM etc.).
To start playback of the displayed title—'The Flipside' in our example—press the PLAY ( )
button on the control panel of the C.A.R. 4000.
After starting playb ack your display will look like this or similar. In the factory setting this compilation
will be played once and then playback will stop.
The time of the current playbac k or recording is shown here, left time played, ri ght remaining time. The
time refers to the current title.
20 C.A.R. 4000 (English)
The icon shown here represents the current status of your C.A.R. 4000.
Playback is being prepared
Playback is running or fast-forwarded, or being played back at
The device is recording No active recording or playback
The playback is in pause mode The EJECT button was pressed
In contrast to most other HiFi devices, other titles can be preselected during playback with the
C.A.R. 4000. If you hav e started playback and th en you want to return to sel ection mode, you
only need to press the wh eel or the up and down buttons. The PLAYBACK displayed in the
upper left corner disappears and the current selection level is shown again. If you want to
return to the playback window, press the button labeled ESC or wait for 10 seconds.
The title is being rewound or
a different speed
A personal collection of titles.
Proceed as above and the titles in the selected compilation will be played back. In our example this is the complete album 'I am Not A Doctor'. But you can also compile your own play
list. First, proceed as described above and select a title with the browser, switch to the title
level with the down button and now press the selection wheel. You have now selected this
title and appended it to a list.
You can of course append co mplete albums, samplers or other previously compiled lists to
this list. Press the selection wheel on the Compilation level. The illustration shows how your
selection is acknowledged—the corresponding line is rev ersed for a moment. You can repeat
this process for as many titles as you want and the list will be extended accordingly.
If you have selected several titles and want to start playing them, first press the “ESC” button
in the browser and then PLAY (
entry on the list.
C.A.R. 4000 (English) 21
), because pressing ESC takes you automatically to the first
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