I have an extensive library of music on my computer, over 10GByte. They are all .mp4 files. I transfer them to an SD card or a thumb drive and plug them in to COMMAND but COMMAND says something like "No readable music files". My manual says the files must be mp3 or FAT files so is my problem that they are all mp4? I've tried transferring them as individual artist folders, album folders, and individual songs. Strange thing is that I can see all the song titles on COMMAND but they won't play. I've tried connecting my MP3 player that has the .mp4 files via the USB port but get the same "no music" message. Re-ripping my CDs or converting the file formats for this large a data base would be a big PIA and I'll just use CDs in the car instead.
P.S. I can play the same SD card on my 2017 Audi TT with no issues.

 

Yup. Your Mercedes player can't recognize mp4 (video) files. Your manual can't be more clear.

The SD card in mine has 40 (plus) GBytes in songs, all mp3 as required. Plays them great.

It's good your Audi plays mp4 files. Your Audi is 5-years newer (tech) than your 8-year old E-Class. Not that it matters, as my 2016 doesn't recognize mp4, either.

I guess you should re-rip your music to mp3 format, or drive your Audi, instead.

 

My understanding of the protocols is that while .mp4 supports video, it also works for plain audio and was supposedly backward compatible. As I posted elsewhere, I am resigned to playing my MP3 player via the AUX microjack but I can't seem to find it on my car that has a COMMAND layout different than the manual that came with the car which showed an AUX IN next to the CD slot.

 

Playing a VIDEO file is useless without audio in most cases. So, yes, mp4 supports audio, as ancillary to the Video, but not primary to Video. In technical terms, mp3 is an “audio coding” format while mp4 is a “digital multimedia container” format. mp4 used for audio only should be saved as an m4a extension. Regardless, MB has coded Comand to recognize audio file extensions only.

If you have a DVD player in the car, it is programmed to play multimedia files. So, on my 2016, the DVD player can play both DVD video/audio, and Audio CDs ( .cda files)..

While you have 10GB in your music library, my bet is that your favorites that you would listen to most often is substantially less than 10GB. (Of the 40GB I have in the car, I habitually listen to just 3-4 artists. The rest is there to impress passengers on request, to be honest.) Might be worthwhile to reburn only your favorites to mp3 at 320bps, then copy to USB or SD media. You can always add more files later as convenient.

 

Unfortunately, I do listen to my entire library of CDs which I converted to my Sony MP3 player circa 2013. I did not know until recently that it stored all the files as .mp4 via their MEDIAGO program. The library exists on my computer and the player. I've identified 20 favorite CDs over the years and what I have been doing is making a weekly playlist that cycles through 3 CDs in my favorites stack and 3 CDs from the rest of my library. The car prior to my TT had no digital media other than a single CD player so I played music via my MP3 player through the car's AUX audio jack. My wife was happy with the CD changer in her E350 until she heard my new TT sound system that I feed an SD card with my weekly playlist copied from my MEDIOGO files and she asked if I could do the same for her. With all the various digital inputs I thought it would be a snap but apparently not, nor can I find an audio input jack to give her my MP3 player. Looks like she will have to be content with the CD changer which is better fidelity than my .mp4 files

 

Why the need to post twice about the same question? Keep it in one thread.

If you are missing the iPod cable that came in you car that has the Aux input with it you need a replacement. Do some research, say what you done to try to find it around your car and the replacement online and then get back to us please.

 

VegasE, I don't know if this will help, but here is a video on how to locate a connector plug that may hide in the right side of the glove box...

 

If you bothered to read my initial posts on both threads you will see that they are 2 separate questions. This thread is about music data formats that will play on my 2012 E350. I read the manual, did some research on the .mp3 and .mp4 formats, and thought that .mp4 should work since it was backward compatible. Based on responses here, I have learned that .mp4 is not compatible on the W212 (at least up to the 2016MY) irrespective of what I read about the protocol's compatibility elsewhere so I will either have to find another method of playing my music, or spend a week converting all of my existing .mp4 files to .mp3, or just play CDs.

Anticipating that this would be the answer, I started a second thread about the location of the analog AUX input on COMAND that would enable me to use the analog audio jack (instead of a digital connector) from my Sony MP3 player to play music in my car. I've done this on other vehicles. My COMMAND manual that came with the car describes a center console that is different than is in my car. Perhaps COMAND was changed during the model year because my manual also does not show a slot for an SD card that my car has. Also, my manual shows an AUX analog audio jack adjacent to the CD slot which does not exist on my version of the E350. The second thread asks if anyone knows the location of that analog audio jack on my version of COMAND since my COMAND menu still has AUX as a music input option. As the responses to that thread show, MB has been very clever in putting the analog AUX input in strange places. Based on the responses from that thread, it seems that an analog AUX does not exist on my E350 version, only a digital AUX. My car has 2 USB ports in the center console which I now assume are the digital AUX connections (I make this assumption since my COMAND manual does not mention them), one of which has a cable that perhaps is a connector to a player but it does not fit my Sony. When I connect my Sony via its cable to one of the USB ports, it acts the same as using the SD card, that is, all of the song titles are displayed but I get a message saying there are no music files, i.e. it does not recognize the .mp4 format music files in my Sony. So it appears that there is no way for me to play my Sony in my car digitally, nor listen via an analog AUX microjack that apparently existed in the 2011 E350.

I hope this satisfies your request.

 

I've now learned that the analog AUX jack does not exist for my 2012 E350 configuration.

 

I fond this information in the 2013 E350 COMAND manual although mine is a 2012 but the 2013 manual matches my configuration whereas the 2012 does not.
"Permissible formats
COMAND supports the following formats:
RMPEG1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3)
RMicrosoft Windows Media Audio V8 and V9
(WMA) without copy protection
Microsoft Windows Media Audio V2, V7, V8
and V9 (WMA)
Additional music files in AAC format with
the file extensions .aac, .mp4, .m4a
and .m4b..."
The above description supposedly applies to the SD card or a thumb drive but I have tried both media and they do not work with .mp4

 

Mp4 will work but only on a DVD.

Also can you take a camera shot of your center console?

I did not mean to come as offensive, I just want to make sure we can help you if you leave all your questions pertaining to your audio issues on one thread it would be appreciated.