justinmorrison

Just curious if anyone knows the limitations (addressable storage, # of files/folders, etc) of the PCMCIA slot on the 07-09 W221.

I finally got around to buying a PCMCIA->SD adapter, and since I had a spare 32gb card laying around, I loaded it up with about 5GB of music just to test that everything worked.

I had two folders, one for each of two artists. One artist, with 13 or so albums had all of the album folders listed alphabetically when browsing in COMAND. The second had around 30 albums, and they seemed to display in random order. Not a huge deal, but seemed odd that it wouldn't be alphabetical.

So based on the (mostly) success I'd made I decided to fill up the card so I could have a bunch of music at my fingertips. Unfortunately, COMAND doesn't display all of the folders, so I suspected that there was either a maximum amount of memory the reader could address (despite clearly recognizing the 32gb card), or a maximum number of root level folders that could be seen. I moved some folders into sub-folders to test, and now all but one display everything. And one that only shows one of 10 artist folders.

So... just curious if anyone knows the actual limitations of the reader. I don't mind purchasing multiple 16gb or 8gb cards if that's what's necessary, but I'd prefer to stop guessing and troubleshooting.

Cheers,
Justin

justinmorrison

Well surely someone knows. Surely!

PoorPaulus

I'd be interested in this too because I've got similar problems. I created folders A-Z, but it only lists A-M. Another issue...within the M folder, there is approx 8 albums, but it only shows 4. What gives? Mine is also a 32Gb chip, but I've reduced the content down to below 16Gb and the problem remains.

JDowney

I use a 16 GIG SD Card (filled to 15.3) placed directly into the SD card slot (no adapter). I have about 130 folders of various artists listed, and the contents of the albums listed as sub folders, then the actual music listed within the sub folders - NO PROBLEMS. I can even select playing music in random order...


Therefore, I suspect that the issue might be that you are using an adapter. Try it with out an adapter...


Jeff

Mike5215

Try reformatting the 32gb SD into two 16Gb partitions. Or pick up a 16Gb card. It's possible the max partition size is capped at 16. Back in 2005 when the 221 was in development, the massive capacity SD cards we have access to now weren't common. 2,4,8 and 16 were pretty much it.

justinmorrison

Thanks Mike, I'll probably buy a 16 and an 8 and do some experimentation, but I suspect you're correct. The really strange part is the random order of the contents of the one folder. If it was a matter of capacity I would understand some content missing, instead it's just shuffled

Jeff, I'd love to go without an adapter, but I believe a native SD slot is only on 2010+, I'm in a 2009

PoorPaulus

I have reformatted the chip (unclicking the 'quick format' box) and all is well. Thanks for the advice.

p.

Jason B

What type of music?

JDowney

I listen to every kind of music - depending on the mood... Rock, Easy Listening, POP, Country, Classical, Foreign Music (non English), Cajun, OLDIES, etc I have lots, but only carry around a 16 gig SD card...


Jeff

Numair Aidroos

There were 2 versions. 1. Pcmcia, which this post is about. 2. SD card plus Bluetooth version, which the OP is not about.

Numair Aidroos

Fat32, exfat or NTFS? And how large is each partition?

BOTUS

there's a long thread about it somewhere on this forum

the late 2007 update that gave bird's eye view and traffic for USA - altered the functionality - gave WMA or something but doesn't do .WAV so its pretty much a waste of space

the user manual says its only low capacity but people get 16gig to work with later adaptors - not sure how - mine doesn't do 4gig from a SD HC card - so later adapters must behave differently to mine - compact flash adaptor might be better

Numair Aidroos

Thanks Botus. That's the thing, I never tried the pcmcia card storage or reader ever. Since the auxiliary audio 3.5mm jack was enough along with 6 dvd changer. I still use a rewrite able cd and apple music lossless via the aux on 3d logic Harmon amplified mode.

BOTUS

if it did .WAV you'd get 12cds worth with a menu structure that is way more sensible than the iPod on earlier cars.. but its only compressed MP3 rubbish and sounds pretty awful

all the talentless kids love it - they take all the transient spike out of real music - and thus can wind up fake noise and run amps out of some biniatone thing with 3 watts of nothing and speaker quality from a 1970s Lada as its doing nothing to put much stress on things

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...coding_formats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

Numair Aidroos

As usual, you are correct Sir Botus. God willing, it's great to have you here. I never bothered with the pcmcia since I don't like mp3 quality. I prefered CD quality, so still have them around. But these days I've gotten used to the Apple Music lossless audio streaming, and it's excellent. But the auxiliary 3.5mm jack has its bitrate limitation and sounds is pathetic. On our other cars with usb apple car play. It sounds amazing, and superior to our old CD quality.

tbilisi79

DOes the system read Flac or Wav files? I never tried.

BOTUS

I was reading the first link above - seems WMA is a lossless std - may be its better than mp3 - I didn't find yet but someone posted all about what the updates in late 2007 did - and pretty sure WMA then became available as play back option?

BOTUS

no that's the problem - tried .WAV years back - nothing happens