I have an Alpine and the interface for my iPod photo... WHile I love the stereo system I've got, the Alpine's interface is not the slickest even though it was the first. Try using your scroll wheel to scroll quickly to another song or alphabetically from A to M... It takes a super long time as you can only scroll one title at a time versus a quick spin to get several dozen songs out of the way in one shot. No biggie though, just not how I would have designed it. Also the song number limit is true. You have to break up your artists/playlists to avoid the 255 limit. Lastly on RARE occasions the iPod charge function doesn't work as well as it should and I'll come out to a dead iPod even though the charge is supposed to be a gimme from this product.

My favorite was a Pac interface with my 00 Vette which allowed me to simply add aux input to the factory stereo using a line in type method vs. fm modulated. To get the charge, wired a switched source to a car charger (Vette has in glovebox charger so tapped into that) and then ran a wired remote to the little cubby in the Vette and just used that to hit play when it was time to hit the road. Not the most beautiful integration (whereas the Alpine is close) but I NEVER had charging issues and never had to worry about playlist/artist number on my Pod and on top of that since the list would start and stop where I started/stopped it, I truly had an almost unlimited playlist for months on end.

Rey

P.S. Where I've disagreed with Randman in the past (on one occasion, sorry Rand), I HIGHLY agree in regards to us needing to know more about the system in order to give you some type of realistic solution.