I want to get the Honda Music Link to hook up an ipod. Does the audio from the ipod take over the aux? how does it switch from aux to ipod or is it on the same line?

Not sure about the details on that. You might want to check out reviews of previous Music Link owners. Reading several caused me to decide against getting it. Here is one link to a review: http://www.nuxx.net/wiki/Honda_Music...Adapter_Review. You might have better experience, but it would pay to look around a bit before dropping the cash.

Disclaimer: Our HCH2 has the Nav system, so the non-Nav may be different.

On the screen, you'll have a bunch of tabs across the top: AM, FM, CD, Aux, and Card. Installing the Music Link adds another tab: "CDC". Literally, it thinks your iPod is a Compact Disc Changer. You don't lose the Aux port.

You'll have a cable inside the glove box that you plug into your iPod's dock connector. When it's docked, the iPod controls don't do anything, you have to control it all from the car stereo.

The head unit thinks there are 6 "discs" in the "changer". Selecting a different "disc" tells the iPod to do something else. Disc 1 lets you browse playlists; 2 is Artists; 3 is Albums; 4 is Genres. Disc 5 shuffles by Album; 6 shuffles by Song.

The head unit will not display track information (artist/album/song/etc.) It just shows you a track number which is really pretty meaningless.

So, if you want to actually search for something, you have to use a kludge called Honda Text-to-Speech. A CD-ROM comes with the package that will install software on your Mac or PC. Honda TTS will go through every song, artist, album, playlist, etc. in iTunes and generate an audio tag for it. It just uses the computer's speech synthesis to record an AIFF file with the artists' name, for example. It creates playlists to hold them all, and copies them onto your iPod. (Taking up a fair bit of space.) Once you've got the audio tags in place, you can use the <<, >> and >>| buttons on the car's head unit to work your way through the playlist/artist/album to find whatever you want. It takes a long time to generate the tags, and doesn't seem to be very bright in deciding what it needs to rebuild. You don't have to do the audio tags to use the iPod, only if you want to search. (So if you create playlists for the car, you should be okay.)

It's a kludge, and I'm keeping my eyes open in case someone comes up with a better solution.

There are 3 advantages to using it rather than the Aux port: it charges the iPod, the cables are hidden, and you can skip to the next song using the steering-wheel controls. The disadvantage is that it's embarrassingly stupid, and it's pricey, too. Installation is not very difficult, if you want to save some money. I would definitely NOT pay the $500 or so that dealers seem to be asking for the music link + installation.

You can read the user guide here.

Would-be hypermiler

According to honda.com, both the navi and non-navi version have auxillary input. With this, all you need is a $5 audio cable to hook up your ipod. If you need a charger, that will be separate. You also still have to use the controls on the ipod. This is what I do and it sounds great. I doubt there is any difference in sound quality.

I have a Creative Vision:M MP3 player, better than an IPOD, but thats a different story altogether. The MusicLink sounds good, but not displaying the track info on the screen made me shy away from it altogether. In any case, you can do what Mr. Kite said, its what I do. I bought a male to male 2.5 mm stereo connector, and run it to the auxilary port. Then you can control the song tracks from the unit, which I keep on my lap as I'm driving. Works out pretty nice for me....