My C43 will hopefully be delivered next month. Trying to figure out the best way to get my music library into the burmester audio system. I have everything encoded in FLAC format. My 2014 BMW 5 series plays the files directly off a usb flash drive, but I understand that mb does not support much of anything when it comes to audio codecs.

The goal is to get a large volume of high-quality files into the car, more or less permanently connected. Using my phone is not a viable option. I've used ALAC (apple lossless) through an iPod in the past, but my iPod died quite a few years ago. I'm open to getting another one, but doing something with just a flash drive (or SD card) is preferable.

Am I basically limited to 320 kbps mp3 files? I have a good batch converter, so it's not a big deal to convert my library overnight. The car should be able to read those directly off the usb or SD card, right? I think I'll be OK with that, just wondering if anybody has a better solution, or if there's anything else I should know?

BMW has MB beat on this issue, I'm afraid.

 

I use FLAC at home exclusively, so I understand.

What I do is convert the FLAC to ALAC and then place the ALAC files on a portable SSD.

I use the Samsung T3 Portable SSD drives and they work great in the car. The infotainment system loads over 12000 songs and 1500 playlists in seconds.

Place all the files in a directory called 'MUSIC' (even playlists) and it all works like a charm.

 

So comand does support ALAC? That's awesome. I hadn't been able to find that information elsewhere.

Thank you!

 

Some extended info:

FAT16, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS for SD memory card and USB storage media

The multimedia system supports up to 50,000 files from one data medium. For data media with more than 64 GB, only files in the following folders are supported: Music, Pictures, Video.

The multimedia system supports the following audio formats:

* MP3
* WMA
* CD-A
* AAC formats: .aac, .mp4, .m4a and .m4b

Copy-protected music files with the .m4p file extension are not supported.

The multimedia system supports the following video formats:

* DVD-V
* MPEG
* WMV
* M4V
* AVI up to 720p

 

When you refer to the infotainment system "loading" files, do you have to load files to some drive that's part of the infotainment system, or can you just play them directly off of, say, a USB thumbdrive?

 

You can either play them directly from the source i.e. a USB or you can save the files to the cars HDD and play the songs directly from that.

 

It's playing them from the USB drive. In my case a USB solid state drive - the Samsung T3 that's about the size of business card.

By loading them, I mean that it loads the directory/file information and playlists, so you can then browse and select the song/playlist that you want.

 

So, I've followed Dasani's lead, and purchased a 250GB Samsung T3 SSD for use in my C63s, and couldn't be happier. The new audio management functions are so much better than the Apple iPod interface that I had in my past E400.


I'm having an issue with the addition of new files, though. Nothing new is getting picked up by the infotainment system. I haven't found a way to reset the device, or force the system to re-catalog the contents of the drive. I'm wondering if the 250GB exceeds the storage amount that the infotainment system can handle, and I just never noticed what was missing, because I have so much music stored on the drive. I haven't tried to delete any files to see if they disappear from the catalog, yet.


Everything is encoded as Apple Lossless. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

 

I have the 500 GB model (355 GB in use) with 17000+ files and 3600+ folders. I've not run across anything missing.

I have the directory structure as:

MUSIC/ALBUMS
MUSIC/PLAYLISTS
MUSIC/SINGLES

Inside the ALBUMS and SINGLES directories I have:

A-C/ArtistName/AlbumName
D-E/ArtistName/AlbumName
etc..

I think I remember reading somewhere that after a certain number of files, you had to use the MUSIC folder at the root of the drive. If you didn't set it up that way, that is where I would start.

Hope that helps...

 

Thanks Dasani!

I have everything within a single "MUSIC" directory at the root of my drive. I'll try splitting the files into subdirectories as you have.

 

Try disconnecting the drive and reconnecting the drive while COMAND is turned on. This way it senses a disconnect and reconnect status. Sometimes, with certain types of drive formats, the system may not sense a overall drive level change, versus a file level change which would trigger a reindex.

That being said, why are you all not using a SD Card?????? When you can get SD cards in the 200GB categories these days, super fast and tiny, is there a reason you are going with SSD drives using more power? TO me, it seems counterintuitive when the SD card slot is readily available.

 

Thanks everyone! I was able to get the Command system to recognize all of the files on my SSD. Here's what I experienced...

Disconnecting/reconnecting the SSD while the Command system was on did not cause the system to pick up the new files or any other changes made to the contents of the SSD.

My directory structure was Music\Artist\Album\Track. (I had all of my Artist directories within a "Music" directory at the root of my SSD.) I mimicked Dasani's directory structure, and created sub-directories in "Music" of "A-D," "E-H" etc., and placed the Artist folders into their respective sub-directories. I then powered the Command system by putting the ignition into the accessory 2 position. Connected the SSD, and the first song on the drive began to play with an indication that it was 1 of 115 files found. After a few moments the total count of files updated to 8,000. NOW, I was presented with a prompt that stated that not all track information had been imported, and I was given the option to "Import All" or "None." I selected "Import All" and watched a progress bar fill as all 8,000 files were processed. During this time, I could definitely hear the internal HDD working. This import took only a few seconds, so this was not a transfer of files from the SSD to the HDD, and the source of my music always indicates that it's USB.

So, in my case, there seems to be a catalog of files stored on the HDD, and I'm thinking that the new directory structure shook things up enough to cause it to re-read the contents of the SSD.

I live in Western NY where we see temperatures from -20 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. SD cards don't seem to tolerate the temperatures that my cabin experiences, and often puke.

Thanks, again, for everyone's input. BTW, I'm using Apple Lossless (m4a) and having no issues with playback.

 

SSDs and SD cards should really have similar operating temps. I live in Nevada and haven't had a problem with my SD card in my Audi, except the one in my dashcam, which is in the windshield....

 

*Double Post*

 

I *think* I selected 'None' at the import prompt. The system does a scan whenever I remove/replace the drive with updates.

Anyhow, glad to see you have it working!

 

I've been trying this same strategy - using an SD card - and COMMAND will not play the ALAC .m4a files. It recognizes those files and I can see all the info about the file - artist/album/track - on the screen, but it won't play. I also loaded 320kbs .mp3 files on the same SD card as a test, and they are playing just fine.

Could the USB SSD really be the difference - whether ALAC files play or not?
Appreciate any and all help...

 

I use an SD card to check out new music in ALAC/m4a format, so the files work fine there also.

 

I'll probably get flamed for this, but lossless audio formatting seems silly for a vehicle with so much cabin noise and such a limited audio system.

I mean if I was driving a E class or better with the the acoustic dampening then sure, why not. My c450,OTOH has quite a bit of cabin noise and the Burmester system is merely adequate.

 

I was wandering how big is your Samsung drive that you plug into your USB?