Results from a newbie of my experiments with the COMAND MP3 capability
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Joined: Jun 2006
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From: Dallas
2014 E350 Cab
Results from a newbie of my experiments with the COMAND MP3 capability
I just bought an 05 E500. While I was negotiating the price and waiting for the deal to be finalized, I read in these forums that the COMAND single disc player will play DVD-R discs of mp3s. Once I got the car, I tried it with mixed results, so I decided to play with it a little. Here are the results of the different things I tried. As always, YMMV, and for the record, my COMAND unit was manufactured in March 2005.
1. I listen to a lot of books on tape which are coded at lower bitrates. It's not uncommon to see them encoded in mono and at 48K bit rate, 22KHz sample rate or below. My COMAND unit will not play any mp3 encoded below a 64K bit rate from the DVD. If the disc is mono, it won't pay mp3 files with sample rates below 44KHz. If the mp3 file is stereo or joint-stereo (i.e., mono channel coded to both sides), then you can drop to 22KHz (which is really the same as 44KHz for mono). Anything encoded at lower rates results in a noise that can be best described as a record player at the end of the record - silence interspersed with sort of a regularly-timed static "pop." ICYC, the results were the same for files encoded with LAME and Xing.
2. I've tried several different brands of DVD+R and DVD-R, and, in general, DVD+R works much better. Slower burns are clearly better. My drive will not burn below 4X, and that was fine for Maxell, Fuji and Sony DVD+R, but caused problems (skipping, long read delays, etc.) for other discs. A neighbor has a drive that burns at 2X, and at that speed, the Sony and Maxell DVD-R work, albeit with long load times between folders. I could not get the TDK DVD-R to work at all, and the Fuji DVD-R skips too much to be listenable. They sometimes play fine, but sometimes they just "load" perpetually.
3. CD-R mp3 in either the COMAND unit or the CD changer work for me at any speed (up to 48X) with every brand I've tried. As noted by others, the changer has the limitation of 99 files and doesn't understand folders (it just compiles all the tracks as if it's one long CD), but it reads the ID3 tags just fine. The HUD on the cluster only says "Track X" rather than the ID3 tag when you use the changer.
4. I have yet to determine the minimum bitrate for the CD changer, but it seems to read 48K/22KHz joint stereo just fine. I'll keep working on it.
I hope this info is of some help to people, because I plan on posting questions incessantly from now on.
1. I listen to a lot of books on tape which are coded at lower bitrates. It's not uncommon to see them encoded in mono and at 48K bit rate, 22KHz sample rate or below. My COMAND unit will not play any mp3 encoded below a 64K bit rate from the DVD. If the disc is mono, it won't pay mp3 files with sample rates below 44KHz. If the mp3 file is stereo or joint-stereo (i.e., mono channel coded to both sides), then you can drop to 22KHz (which is really the same as 44KHz for mono). Anything encoded at lower rates results in a noise that can be best described as a record player at the end of the record - silence interspersed with sort of a regularly-timed static "pop." ICYC, the results were the same for files encoded with LAME and Xing.
2. I've tried several different brands of DVD+R and DVD-R, and, in general, DVD+R works much better. Slower burns are clearly better. My drive will not burn below 4X, and that was fine for Maxell, Fuji and Sony DVD+R, but caused problems (skipping, long read delays, etc.) for other discs. A neighbor has a drive that burns at 2X, and at that speed, the Sony and Maxell DVD-R work, albeit with long load times between folders. I could not get the TDK DVD-R to work at all, and the Fuji DVD-R skips too much to be listenable. They sometimes play fine, but sometimes they just "load" perpetually.
3. CD-R mp3 in either the COMAND unit or the CD changer work for me at any speed (up to 48X) with every brand I've tried. As noted by others, the changer has the limitation of 99 files and doesn't understand folders (it just compiles all the tracks as if it's one long CD), but it reads the ID3 tags just fine. The HUD on the cluster only says "Track X" rather than the ID3 tag when you use the changer.
4. I have yet to determine the minimum bitrate for the CD changer, but it seems to read 48K/22KHz joint stereo just fine. I'll keep working on it.
I hope this info is of some help to people, because I plan on posting questions incessantly from now on.
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Joined: May 2005
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E500 4matic, 2014 GL320, 2013 C300, 2015 Stingray
Dvd...
So are you saying you can play a DVD with MP3 data files within folders via the single slot? I have a 11/04 build 05' E500 and havent been able to do this.
Aceman
Aceman
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From: Michigan, USA
'05 E320 CDI, '07 VW Touareg V10 TDI, 2007 Porsche GT3
Thanks for your informative post. Our 8/04 build car will play MP3 DVDs, but I've had occasional problems with long load times and misreads. I'll try burning a DVD +R very slowly and see if things improve any.
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Joined: Jun 2006
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From: Dallas
2014 E350 Cab
Sorry, was out of town unexpectedly
Replies in order:
acemanYes, I can play mp3s burned to a DVD in the COMAND single slot. I used Nero 6.1, burned them just as ISO data files. Best results were with DVD+R (not DVD-R) burned at 2X. The higher the speed, the worse the results. At 16X speed, nothing was consistently readable. I also had trouble with DVD+Rs that had other stuff on them (jpegs of album art, .txt files, etc.). The discs work better if they have nothing but mp3 files on them.
khaug It's really hard to find a DVD burner these days that goes any slower than 4X. I also had a lot of variation from brand to brand on the DVD+Rs, so you might try that.
WEBSRFR Car was a STEAL. Black/black with the appearance pkg (love the black birdseye maple trim), COMAND with Nav, bi-xenons, phone cradle for bluetooth, rear and back door sunshades, pretty much everything I wanted but heated/vent seats and dynamic drive seats- and only 5300(!) miles. I bought it from a leasing company. The former owner leased it for a year, but decided his lifestyle warranted a Porsche 911, so he rolled the lease up. Car was on the lot for 6 hours when I made the first offer. We agreed to something just north of 45K.
acemanYes, I can play mp3s burned to a DVD in the COMAND single slot. I used Nero 6.1, burned them just as ISO data files. Best results were with DVD+R (not DVD-R) burned at 2X. The higher the speed, the worse the results. At 16X speed, nothing was consistently readable. I also had trouble with DVD+Rs that had other stuff on them (jpegs of album art, .txt files, etc.). The discs work better if they have nothing but mp3 files on them.
khaug It's really hard to find a DVD burner these days that goes any slower than 4X. I also had a lot of variation from brand to brand on the DVD+Rs, so you might try that.
WEBSRFR Car was a STEAL. Black/black with the appearance pkg (love the black birdseye maple trim), COMAND with Nav, bi-xenons, phone cradle for bluetooth, rear and back door sunshades, pretty much everything I wanted but heated/vent seats and dynamic drive seats- and only 5300(!) miles. I bought it from a leasing company. The former owner leased it for a year, but decided his lifestyle warranted a Porsche 911, so he rolled the lease up. Car was on the lot for 6 hours when I made the first offer. We agreed to something just north of 45K.
