DSport Plus USB Audio Capabilities...?

[WAD62]

Hi there I'm Will, and new to the forum...so hello all!

I'm about to pick up a 2013 DSport Plus, with the USB interface, and I have a few questions...

N.B. I'm a bit of an audio nerd, and have about 2.5k CDs ripped to lossless FLAC, I also keep a VBR MP3 copy of this library to use in my current car (C4 VTS), which only recognises MP3.

Oh and by the way I use an Android phone, so I could use my phone and Bluetooth for FLAC replay, but Bluetooth reduces the bit depth so I'd prefer to use the USB route.

Firstly the external device ;

What formats does it recognise FAT32 I presume, what about NTFS?

Has anyone used an external USB HD successfully, and if so how large, and is there anywhere to conveniently place the drive?


Secondly the audio files and player;

What format audio files does the audio player support, MP3 I presume, has anyone tried FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), or ALAC perhaps(apple's proprietary version), or even WMA lossless?

Does the audio player support the standard ID meta data tags, or does one have to maintain a directory structure in order to find stuff?

Cheers for any assistance...

[WTF]

Welcome

The letters are way over my head re audio files! But I'm sure someone will be along to help you soon!

I play MP3 via USB or Bluetooth via my Xperia.

[Bigfeet]

...
Firstly the external device ;

What formats does it recognise FAT32 I presume, what about NTFS?
I believe the system only understands the FAT32 Or FAT.

Has anyone used an external USB HD successfully, and if so how large, and is there anywhere to conveniently place the drive?
You can do but the problem with using a large drive is that you will spend ages hunting down a track on the move!


Secondly the audio files and player;

What format audio files does the audio player support, MP3 I presume, has anyone tried FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), or ALAC perhaps(apple's proprietary version), or even WMA lossless?
MP3 or WMA only.

Does the audio player support the standard ID meta data tags, or does one have to maintain a directory structure in order to find stuff?
Yes and yes.




Cheers for any assistance...

On a side note don't waste your time making super quality files for the car, just use a lower bitrate such as 128kbps as you will never hear the difference whilst in the car.

[mk2k41]

Welcome to the club!

[WAD62]

On a side note don't waste your time making super quality files for the car, just use a lower bitrate such as 128kbps as you will never hear the difference whilst in the car.

Cheers for the reply...

I know where you're coming from, it is a tin box ultimately, however I already have my music in FLAC, and it would be handy for me if I didn't have to convert it...MP3s are more than acceptable for a car!

So with regard to the drive size & meta data, does the interface allow allow for search by artist/album/genre etc. or is it simply a list of albums?

[WAD62]

Welcome

Cheers all!

[Bigfeet]

Cheers for the reply...

I know where you're coming from, it is a tin box ultimately, however I already have my music in FLAC, and it would be handy for me if I didn't have to convert it...MP3s are more than acceptable for a car!

So with regard to the drive size & meta data, does the interface allow allow for search by artist/album/genre etc. or is it simply a list of albums?

You can change the search criteria from folder to artist or genre by using the 'List' options on the radio.

[WAD62]

You can change the search criteria from folder to artist or genre by using the 'List' options on the radio.

Excellent! Given all my files are fully tagged I should be in business, search by artist it is then...

To be honest as an IT guy with OCD my folder structure would work equally well.

[FLP]

Now that we're talking about mp3's: Why are songs from an album not played in the right order? I mean, the car plays the songs in an album folder alphabetically, and not by song number. Is this a setting? What did I miss...

[BeefMasta]

Now that we're talking about mp3's: Why are songs from an album not played in the right order? I mean, the car plays the songs in an album folder alphabetically, and not by song number. Is this a setting? What did I miss...

I'm pretty sure by default it plays them in file name order.

If it can be changed with a setting, that would be great, otherwise I have a few albums to rename. Biggy?

[Bigfeet]

I would guess that either your filenames don't have numbers on or the tags don't have track numbers.

[WAD62]

Now that we're talking about mp3's: Why are songs from an album not played in the right order? I mean, the car plays the songs in an album folder alphabetically, and not by song number. Is this a setting? What did I miss...

I feel a bit daft offering advice given I won't be picking up my car for a couple of days...however!

I use dBpoweramp to rip my CDs, not free but well worth it if you're doing a big batch, one can configure it to name the files as you wish, in my case " 'Album Artist' - 'Album' - 'Track Number' - 'Track Name' ", so even if the player only uses the track name and not the meta data track number the tracks will be played in the correct sequence...

Which prompts another question, does the player do 'Gapless' or are there annoying gaps in contiguous pieces?

[FLP]

I would guess that either your filenames don't have numbers on or the tags don't have track numbers.

The tags are all OK (I'm a bit obsessive about that), the filename is just the title. So I guess I'll have to change the filenames to "Number-Title" (My OCD doesn't approve... )

[Bigfeet]

Use MP3Tag to whip on some track number quickly for the car.

By the way if you were really OCD then you would know that it should be CDO!

[WAD62]

The tags are all OK (I'm a bit obsessive about that), the filename is just the title. So I guess I'll have to change the filenames to "Number-Title" (My OCD doesn't approve... )

A fair point, but the filename is therefore only unique within the album directory, which is in turn only unique within the artist directory...if the player doesn't respect the directory structures (or tag attributes), you'll eventually end up with duplicate file names in its catalogue...hence the concatenation of the three keys to provide uniqueness.

A good example is 'Time', I have 10 different tracks called 'Time', from 10 different albums (including remasters), from 8 different artists...