COMAND AAC file size limitation
Thread Starter
Super Member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 702
Likes: 3
From: Illinois
'08 C300 4Matic Sport, '02 530i
COMAND AAC file size limitation
When trying to play AAC files stored on an SD card (through PCMCIA card), I noticed that larger files will not play. For example, a 10 MB AAC file will play, but a 25 MB file will not. Has anyone else noticed this or am I the only geek with large AAC files that ran into this? 
Such limitation does not exist for MP3 files.
I've got 1-2 hour long mixes that I often convert to AAC for portable players since even down at about 128 kbps AAC files sound very good but take up significantly less space. Alas, Comand will not read these.
Such limitation does not exist for MP3 files.
I've got 1-2 hour long mixes that I often convert to AAC for portable players since even down at about 128 kbps AAC files sound very good but take up significantly less space. Alas, Comand will not read these.
Thread Starter
Super Member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 702
Likes: 3
From: Illinois
'08 C300 4Matic Sport, '02 530i
UPDATE: After many months, I finally got a response from MB on this. They said that "our engineering group in Germany who determined that the reason why the file will not play is because of a small internal cache. Unfortunately there is no remedy for this in this particular model COMAND unit however it is being addressed for later models."
While this does sound like a believable explanation, I wonder why this "small internal cache" is still big enough to play very large MP3 files, but not big enough to play large AAC files. I'm guessing it has to do with the way the COMAND reads AAC files... maybe it tries to load the entire file into cache before playing it as opposed to loading it a few frames at a time like may be the case with MP3 files? I guess we'll never know.
It'd be interesting to know if the current C cars (2012/2013) still have this limitation.
While this does sound like a believable explanation, I wonder why this "small internal cache" is still big enough to play very large MP3 files, but not big enough to play large AAC files. I'm guessing it has to do with the way the COMAND reads AAC files... maybe it tries to load the entire file into cache before playing it as opposed to loading it a few frames at a time like may be the case with MP3 files? I guess we'll never know.
It'd be interesting to know if the current C cars (2012/2013) still have this limitation.
Last edited by Pete7874; Sep 17, 2012 at 11:16 AM.
