DSport Plus USB Audio Capabilities...?

[cyclone]

All this thread has taught me is that I do not know shit about digital music

[Bigfeet]

All this thread has taught me is that I do not know shit about digital music

I still shocked that Citroen failed to have an 8-Track option for the DS3....

[WAD62]

I still shocked that Citroen failed to have an 8-Track option for the DS3....

...next you'll be telling me there's no cassette player!

[WAD62]

All this thread has taught me is that I do not know shit about digital music

...and I know F'all about DS3's, hence me joining here

Music, hi-fi, and digital file audio is my big hobby, there's plenty of useful digital audio information, and a lot of OCD nerdiness over on this forum...

http://theartofsound.net/forum/forum...al-Expressions

...particularly the 'Ripping' sticky

[WAD62]

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

...I've now had the car a couple of days, and can answer my own question, yes it does do 'Gapless' which is a pleasant surprise

I'm using the 'Folder' list, as list by 'Artist' isn't really much use (if like me you want to play albums in their entirety), there should be a list by 'Album Artist' instead...just a thought for future development

[RichardL]

I spend all day at work looking at music metadata, I've come home opened up the forum and guess what everyone's talking about! There's no escaping it for me!

Anyway to help you out a little you could perhaps try adding a M3U file to the MP3 CD. An M3U file is an MP3 Playlist so that should in theory allow you to play the CD in order, however in reality the standards for MP3 CD's a mess so Citroën's player might not be able to understand them.

The easiest thing to do is to as mentioned previously add track numbers to the files but that quickly becomes a problem when you try to add more than one MP3 album to a single CD. I'd personally avoid MP3 CD's, they're just not worth all the hassle.

In terms of gapless playback my car's CD player can't handle it. I have a gap of about 0.5 seconds between each track, it's really noticeable and really annoying. I bought Anne Mac's new CD the other day which has continuous mixes on it and listening to it through the CD player drives me up the wall!
It might be different for playback via USB but I don't have the option fitted so I can't tell you.

[WAD62]

I spend all day at work looking at music metadata, I've come home opened up the forum and guess what everyone's talking about! There's no escaping it for me!

Anyway to help you out a little you could perhaps try adding a M3U file to the MP3 CD. An M3U file is an MP3 Playlist so that should in theory allow you to play the CD in order, however in reality the standards for MP3 CD's a mess so Citroën's player might not be able to understand them.

The easiest thing to do is to as mentioned previously add track numbers to the files but that quickly becomes a problem when you try to add more than one MP3 album to a single CD. I'd personally avoid MP3 CD's, they're just not worth all the hassle.

In terms of gapless playback my car's CD player can't handle it. I have a gap of about 0.5 seconds between each track, it's really noticeable and really annoying. I bought Anne Mac's new CD the other day which has continuous mixes on it and listening to it through the CD player drives me up the wall!
It might be different for playback via USB but I don't have the option fitted so I can't tell you.

Hi Richard...

I can't be bothered to faff around with playlists I just want be able to access my library of tagged albums in a useful way (USB stick)...it would now appear that the File list view is in bloody date sequence, not alphabetical!!! So any new additions are right at the end of the list.

I had the same CD/MP3 player in my 2007 C4 VTS, it most certainly doesn't do gapless...the fact that Citroen haven't updated the playback software in 7 years is a little shoddy.

I'll probably just use FLAC on my phone with Bluetooth, which is a shame, the USB port could have been really useful with a better implementation...

[RichardL]

Hi Richard...

I can't be bothered to faff around with playlists I just want be able to access my library of tagged albums in a useful way (USB stick)...it would now appear that the File list view is in bloody date sequence, not alphabetical!!! So any new additions are right at the end of the list.

I had the same CD/MP3 player in my 2007 C4 VTS, it most certainly doesn't do gapless...the fact that Citroen haven't updated the playback software in 7 years is a little shoddy.

I'll probably just use FLAC on my phone with Bluetooth, which is a shame, the USB port could have been really useful with a better implementation...

You should in theory be able to get better quality audio playback by using the aux socket rather than Bluetooth.

[WAD62]

You should in theory be able to get better quality audio playback by using the aux socket rather than Bluetooth.

Indeed, bluetooth is inherently poor, but I like the hands free capabilities...I'm going to experiment with the USB drive, re-write everything at the same time, which may give me Band folder/Album folder in alphabetic sequence...we'll see

One wonders what the Citroen infotainment people have been up to for the last 7 years...err fitting a USB port, and that's about it!

[Bigfeet]

...I've now had the car a couple of days, and can answer my own question, yes it does do 'Gapless' which is a pleasant surprise

I'm using the 'Folder' list, as list by 'Artist' isn't really much use (if like me you want to play albums in their entirety), there should be a list by 'Album Artist' instead...just a thought for future development

Use a tier system for the folders - Artist>Artist Album>tracks - and then set the system to display 'folders'.

This is the way I have been doing for years and I never have any problems playing the albums or finding the tracks I want to listen too.

[WAD62]

Use a tier system for the folders - Artist>Artist Album>tracks - and then set the system to display 'folders'.

This is the way I have been doing for years and I never have any problems playing the albums or finding the tracks I want to listen too.

Only if they were added to the USB stick at the same time, either that or my catalogue is corrupt...I'm re-writing to my USB as we speak, we'll see if that helps, but if I have to completely re-write the USB stick as and when I add additional albums, it will be a little annoying

[FLP]

Hi Richard...

I can't be bothered to faff around with playlists I just want be able to access my library of tagged albums in a useful way (USB stick)...it would now appear that the File list view is in bloody date sequence, not alphabetical!!! So any new additions are right at the end of the list.

I had the same CD/MP3 player in my 2007 C4 VTS, it most certainly doesn't do gapless...the fact that Citroen haven't updated the playback software in 7 years is a little shoddy.

I'll probably just use FLAC on my phone with Bluetooth, which is a shame, the USB port could have been really useful with a better implementation...

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that! Soooo annoying!! :mad:

[WAD62]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that! Soooo annoying!! :mad:

There may be a workaround, in Unix there's a command called 'Touch' which allows you to synchronise file meta data, such as date created etc., I've found a windows version, I shall report back...

[FLP]

Oo, that would be nice!

[WAD62]

There may be a workaround, in Unix there's a command called 'Touch' which allows you to synchronise file meta data, such as date created etc., I've found a windows version, I shall report back...

Mmmm the little windows app works OK...

FYI one can download it here http://date.bghot.com/

However the issue is more fundamental to how the USB directory catalogue works, it's FIFO (first in first out), so as and when directories containing music are discovered they are added to the file catalogue...at the end. So without initialising the catalogue somehow, synchronising the dates on the USB stick will have no effect...short of pulling the fuse out, does anyone know if this can be done? There may be a way of tricking it by switching USB sticks...

This is becoming a right faff...:mad:

If one doesn't use a directory structure, and just lumps everything into one directory, things appear in the correct sequence...but when one has more than 30k tracks that is one hell of a scroll!!!