How to random tracks

[John S]

128 gb of audio files @ 128 kbits/sec roughly equals 2,100hrs of music...........either the bit rate is too high for the audio system to cope with of you have an huge audio library

[NAWY2J]

nah dont have that much only 16GB ipod

[John S]

That's around 4000 tracks then

[ZACK]

Hey thanx for replying but the thing is how do you choose a playlist because I have one but when it gets plugged in it automaticaly chooses a artist?

Click The 'List' Button Mate,

All Your Playlists Will Show In A List Then You Just Select The Correct One...

[Arlow]

128 gb of audio files @ 128 kbits/sec roughly equals 2,100hrs of music...........either the bit rate is too high for the audio system to cope with of you have an huge audio library

I said 128 GB because that's the next size up from 64 in usb stick sizes, at 128 kbits/sec my collection currently takes up 91.4 GB of hard drive space, so to get everything onto one device would mean a 128 GB usb stick. As I said they are a tad expensive at the moment, cheapest I've found so far is £230, compared to a large enough portable hard drive which would only be about £40.

[Arlow]

USB drives take a tad too much power from the car electrics for comfort, tried one on mine and it wasn't at all happy.

For info these are the specs for audio files.
The fi le formats recognised are .mp3
(mpeg1 layer 3 only), .wma (standard 9 only,
128 kbits/sec compression), .wav and .ogg.
The playlists types accepted are m3u, .pls, .wpl.

Agreed^

Best to stick with a USB flash stick rather than a hard drive unit.

Would it be possible to use an adaptor with a usb socket ( the kind you get for charging mobile phones etc. ) plugged into the cigarette lighter socket to provide extra power to the hard drive via one of those cables with 2 usb plugs on one end ?

[John S]

I would say that you can certainly use the car 12v supply to power a usb drive assuming that it has a seperate power input socket, then I see no problem with using a usb drive, because the current to power the drive would not be drawn from the usb socket

[Bigfeet]

For info these are the specs for audio files.
The fi le formats recognised are .mp3
(mpeg1 layer 3 only), .wma (standard 9 only,
128 kbits/sec compression), .wav and .ogg.
The playlists types accepted are m3u, .pls, .wpl.

Maybe I'm reading you wrong but I run higher compression rates on our DS3 through the USB and it works fine, have used 192kbps and 256kbps as well as 128kbps.

[John S]

I was only doing a cut & paste job from the Audio manual, I would think that the system is probably only able to properly deliver with 128Kbs rates and I suspect that anything about that will be run at the lower rate.
This to me would suggest that filling a usb stick for use in the car with anything above the recommended rate is just going to fill the space and reduced the overall number of tracks that can be stored.
I have no idea what the system specs are for the ICE system are, but I doubt that they are very high, so for general day to day use maybe a lower compression ratio could be used, thus increasing the number of tracks that can be stored on a reasonably priced usb stick.
Maybe this is something that can be experimented with, ie storing a couple of tracks on a usb stick using a variety of compression ratios and simply trying it in the car and see at what point the quality drops off to an unacceptable level.

This site provides useful info .. http://www.allmemorycards.com/glossa...io-storage.htm

[ZACK]

This to me would suggest that filling a usb stick for use in the car with anything above the recommended rate is just going to fill the space and reduced the overall number of tracks that can be stored.

Well I Have A 12,000 Song Playlist And Most Of Them Are 265kbps ?

[Bigfeet]

Ah I see what you mean John. I tried different bit rates in order to make sure that they work or don't work, just in case I get asked by a customer.

I do tend to re-format my MP3 to 128kbps for use in the car anyway because as you pointed out it would be the way to conserve space on a USB stick.

[John S]

Using WMA files reduces the size by 50% for the same quality

[NAWY2J]

Thanx for the comments really helped going to try it now but should work
p.s loving the DS3

[ZACK]

Anymore Queries Just Give Us A Shout Mate !

[NAWY2J]

Click The 'List' Button Mate, All Your Playlists Will Show In A List Then You Just Select The Correct One...

Unfortunatley it only shows Artist it says list of artist but wont give me an option to change to playlist ?