Drop-a-Daimler

Sorry for the rant but I have to vent somewhere. Call me an ****-retentive idiot or flame me for being a pseudo-techie and going about it "all wrong" but I spent about 3 hours tonight just trying to play my digital music in my car and it was a pain in the ****.

Where to begin. Well for one all my music is paid for. I have a good bit that I either legally ripped from CDs that I bought or legally bought and downloaded from iTunes and MSN Music. So I'm not trying to circumvent any digital right here -- I just want to play my digital freakin' music in my car! You think that wouldn't be too difficult. Maybe I'm just over complicating things.

Anyway, my first attempt was to just plug my iPod in as an AUX device. My 2006 W203 was all ready to go on that front; the jack in the glove box was there from the factory and the Command NAV stereo unit was AUX capable. So I ran a male/male headphone jack I had laying around from my glove box under the edge of the console to inside the arm rest, switched the COMAND to AUX, kicked on the iPod and tried it out. No prob right? I have a couple of iPods but I opted for the Shuffle just because it had less distractions and a long recharge life. It's all good you say? But without any pre-amp the iPod does not really pump out the tunes. I had the stereo on MAX for every song and it still was not very rockin'. And no steering wheel controls (which I could live with) and no music title feedback on the COMAND screen (which is also not the end of the world). But overall the iPod experience was lack luster.

So then I get this wild hair -- why not just burn a bunch of MP3s onto a CD and play them in the CD player? Seemed cool. I can usually do around 9 or 10 hours of music in decent quality (192Kbps), maybe 120 songs, on one data CD. And the Benz is MP3 capable right? So I go to the old laptop to burn a good cruising mix and I slam into DRM. Digital Right Muthafukkas. All the music I ripped was good to go, MP3 and ready to copy to a CD. But Oh yeah, all my iTunes downloaded music is in M4P format. Stupid **** -- standards are there for a reason -- find a better way to make money besides making my life difficult. Schit doesn't stop people from copying protected music, it just makes the legal audiophiles' life miserable.

I tried several utilities to convert them to MP3 but no dice. They all suck. Spyware at best. So I ended up having to burn all my M4P copy protected iTunes crap as music CDs and then rip them back as MP3. Ok, finally I am getting close. So I burn a data CD with 110 of my favorite road tunes (9 hours of Metallica's Whiskey In the Jar, Nazareth's Hair of the Dog, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls, Foghat's Slow Ride, ZZ Top's La Grange ... you get the picture) and tear back out to try my wizardry. But the CD behind the COMAND does not play MP3s, you have to use the disc changer in the glove box. WTF?!? H3ll even my phone can play MP3s!

Oh well, I got my digital music and I got it loud so I am happy. But what a pain! Does it really have to be this hard to play digital music you purchased legally in your car? You all lucky ones with the built-in iPod integration, bluetooth and satellite radios don't take it for granted. The guerrilla way is a royal pain.

End of rant.

my06clk

Frustration Noted!!

YOu could have eased yourself some agony by using a any IPOD but the shuffle so that you can turn the volume to Max. the Aux input sounds good in most cars just without the control.

OR

The IPOD kit form MB for your car is only $295 and very easy to install. it gives you steering controls etc...

OR

Take your car back to the dealer and have then put the update in your comand so that it plays MP3's like the changer. On other MB's this is possible so it should be possible on yours.

Just remember the mp3 limits you to 99 songs... so the IPOD solution is the best.

Drop-a-Daimler

Ah, good to know. Thanks! I guess I'll try my 30GB and see how that sounds.

Barry45RPM

The Boosteroo Headphone amplifier is a small AA bettery powered headphone amplifier. This will kick up the output from your iPod. Put it in between your iPod output & your Aux In.

http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...FSkjhgodjz4Olg

Other Use: It makes even JetBlue Headphones sound great when plugged into a Laptop's Headphone jack. Plus you can plug up to 3 headphones into it to share 1 music source. Great on a plane. Cheap too. I bought an in line volume control from Radio Shack too.

yates

this is kinda off topic but i have an 05 w203 and i tried to play an mp3 disc in my changer and it wouldnt recognize it. did they not have mp3 compatibility till later years or is this something i need to have the dealer turn on. oh yeah i dont have command.

my06clk

Some changers will play MP3's you can swap yours out. FInd a changer with the Clear BLuE eject button on it. Remember song titles to not show up on your MFD from the changer.

ToonArmy

Yeah, companies really do make things a p-in-the-a even if you try to do things legally.

I have all my music in MP3 ripped from my personal CDs. I have stayed away from purchasing anything that is DRMed (like the iTunes store) for this reason - if I've paid for it, I'd like to listen to it whenever and wherever I want, thank you very much. I know the meida conglomerates try to say you're only "licensing" the "content", not buying the music, but then my question is why doesn't the "license" from my old LP vinyl transfer over?

Anyhow, since I have a 2003 R230 with a non-MP3 capable CD changer (which millennium was 2003 in, remind me?), how feasible is it to swap that to an MP3-capable changer (this is D2B, not MOST fiber)?

By contrast, I gave my girlfriend a Garmin Nuvi for her Prius - it has a built-in MP3 player (works off a plug-in SD flash card, currently 2G, will expand with time), plugs into the AUX input with decent volume, and has a decent touchscreen interface that is usable in the car (bigger screen than an iPod). I like, and am considering doing the same for my car. It even has Bluetooth phone capability, which I haven't tried yet (would lose steering-wheel answer keys, but retain hands-free and automatic audio muting, I'd think).

Makes me wish the auto manufacturers would just give us audio in, video in (to the built-in display), and a programmable universal remote control for the steering wheel buttons... Consumer electronics moves too fast to be baked in to a car design.

yates

I checked my changer and it has a clear blueish/greenish eject button on it but i still never got it to play mp3's. any ideas on what im doing wrong and also what color is the eject button on the none mp3 changers?

Htowncls

I have an 06' Cls and i've burned music from everything.. itunes, my own cds, burned cds, msn, limewire and mine plays all of them..

as for the ipod i would just get the kit installed.

my06clk

Maybe I have the colors wrong one has a green button and the other has a clear blueish green button either way, do a search on this forum and you will find the part number