Jason B

Does anyone use the Music Register to store music internally in the car?

I copied a few burnt cd's to the music register the other day. It doesn't name the folders and all the songs just say, track 1, track 2, etc. These aren't mp3's, they were burnt cd's a friend made. Why aren't the names of the tracks listed, and is this normal for burnt cd's that aren't mp3's?? w221.

Mike5215

Yeah, the Register will only rip .wav files directly from a CD. It won't accept anything in MP3 format on a disc or any media. It will update song and title from a commercial disc via Gracenote. If you make your own CD from MP3 files though you need to run the songs through a 3rd party tagging program (several free ones out there) first before burning the disc, and that will embed the title and artist info. Then the info will show up in the Register when the CD is ripped into it.

wilassasin

You're going to have to do it manually unless u save the cd to iTunes and have iTunes use gracenote to locate song names, that may work. Otherwise just add the names manually.

Mike5215

You can also use Windows Media Player as your burning engine and run MP3Tag (free software) to scan the songs before burning to imbed the metadata tags. Not sure but I believe Gracenote depends on a unique album indentifying code imbedded on a commercially produced CD. So when you create a compilation and mix tracks and artists it can't help. MP3Tag actually "listens" to the first few seconds of the track for its unique audio fingerprint and then identifys it that way.

wilassasin

Mike, you are right about Gracenote.

Jason B

Thank you.

Now, last question, and my friend had a very good question. "Why can't you copy what's in the Music register to a memory card? or have the car burn it?" Can you?

He loaded in a few cd's yesterday and I copied them to the drive, but is there a way to get those songs off and save them to a memory card if need be?

Mike5215

Mercedes is *****ly about digital rights management. The reason you need a CD to access the Register (and if MB had their way it would only be a commercially produced CD) is that the presumption is if you own the CD you've paid for the music. They don't want the responsibility of owners being able to copy illegally downloaded material onto the hard drive, because they would be facilitating pirating. Same with a lot of manufacturers.

Jason B

Oh, I just realized what you also said in your other reply. I didn't know you couldn't even rip a mp3 cd to the harddrive. Only files from a "CD" in that format. Interesting. I wonder how other makes do it, like Infiniti, etc. THanks.

wilassasin

BMW you can rip MP3's no issues, done it many times on my wifes 335.

Mike5215

The entire class concept of HD music storage was already outdated by the time MB added it to the 221. It's really only useful to people with large CD collections who don't want to carry a bunch of discs around. From that standpoint the 6 disc changer is also a dinosaur.

Most people have their library in digital format now. The Register is made redundant by the USB input and the SD card input.

DaveW68

Apparently, MP3's can be ripped to Music Register.

Mike5215

Ya know, Dave may be on to something. I just checked the manual and it states:

"You can copy audio files from storage media
in the DVD changer, a memory card, or from
external USB storage devices that contain
MP3 or WMA audio files. External USB
storage devices must be connected to the
built-in USB socket for that purpose. The
optional media interface is not intended for
this purpose."

It's possible the issues I was having (Audio Format Not Recognized) when trying to copy digital audio files from a CD directly to the Register was caused by the format of the files (AAC) where the manual says only MP3 and WMA files can be copied. Maybe someone with MP3 files can give this a try. Instructions are on P. 198 of the 2010 manual. (Download any year from the MBUSA website under "Owners")

DaveW68

Unfortunately this didn't exist with MB in 2007. Although Lexus had it.

Mike5215

Yeah, so I was totally talking out of my *** on this one. You can absolutely copy MP3 files with tags (Title/Artist/Album etc) to the Register. I had to copy/convert my library from M4A to MP3 which I did with a batch audio converter, directly to USB thumb drive (32GB max partition size, format to FAT32). With the drive in the car's USB port, select the Music Register, then follow the prompts to Copy Music Files To Register.

From a quality standpoint, CD tracks sound marginally better on the HD then the 320kbs MP3 files, and the answer isn't the obvious...that CD tracks naturally sound better...because COMAND is definitely compressing the rips. I can't find any info on the compression system or bitrate COMAND uses, but the resulting files sound amazingly close to the originals.

I could discern no difference in quality between an MP3 being played directly from the USB versus copied to and played back from the Register. I think ideally, given the relatively small storage capacity of the Register, it would be best to store your favorite CD tracks there, and put your MP3s on a USB, SD or both. COMAND can only recognize MP3 and WMA formats, so if you have an Itunes library it needs to be copied/converted to MP3 to play it back.

I used MediaMonkey's format conversion tool. The program is free and will do unlimited conversions for the first 30 days.

Bamzilla

I bought a 128GB SSD for it's speed and low power consumption, and external slim aluminum case (for cooling). I partitioned it into three 32GB partitions and one 17GB partition (overhead). All formatted FAT32. All MP3s are 320k. All files fully tagged and properly folder arranged so COMAND sorts it out correctly. It's glorious.

Bummed I can't play movie files, though. My **** collection deserves to ride in style, too.

Jason B

I still haven't gotten mp3 files from a burnt CD to copy? Only official CD's. Maybe I'm going something wrong?

poptopclk

I was looking at this because I have 3000+ M4A audio files and wanted to have them for listening on the road, so I copied the folders and tracks in M4A to an Fat 32 formatted USB of 32 gigs.
I put it in the USB slot in the glove box & What do ya know, it found them all and happily plays them with ease.

I was NOT looking forward to converting 3,000 plus audio files.
MB got this one system just great plus, with the MMI in the glove-box on Bluetooth audio streaming is a a breeze too.
It is almost like they went way overboard with inputs and storage medium(s)
You have so many options:

• CD
• DVD
• USB
• Hard Drive
• SD card
• MMI (Bluetooth)
• SATELLITE
• AM/FM
• Weather

If you can't find something to groove to while driving around it's not MB's fault