davidegai

Dear S class friends,
I have just received a brand new CL class, and would like to pass along the following issues regarding music and Bluetooth:

1) Audio:
a) I was able to burn a bunch of DVD’s with my favorite MP3 classical music tracks, since I do not plan to get tired by them. All Pop / Rock music went in a 8 Gigabytes memory card, which can be erased and rewritten. One word of caution: DVDs have to be burned using the UDF format, which is not supported by Windows Vista (yes I am an early adopter, hence the car!). For this purpose I used a German software called Nero, that can be downloaded from the Net at www.nero.com.
b) Memory cards are easier to handle, by simply copying files and folders.
c) The most striking feature, however, is the quality of sound of DVDs both audio and video.

2) Bluetooth: what a disappointment: it simply does not work using my Windows mobile HTC 620 smartphone. I elected to use the standard MB fix phone using the twin SIM concept which is rather widespread in Europe.
Kind regards,

Davide

yoyop

Can you clarify the part about the MP3 on DVD-Rs a little bit?

So I can can burn MP3s on a DVD and play it through the audio system? It will recognize all the ID3 tags? Doesn't that beat the iPod integration kit hands down?

eddietr

I was sort of thinking the same thing at one point, that I wouldn't need to ipod kit because I could burn so many thousands of mp3s on DVD. Or use a memory card. But I changed my mind because:

1.) my iPods are always up to date as a normal part of my routine with my latest music anyway. Plus each day's podcasts.

2.) I have a lot of music bought on iTunes which, I understand, is more work to burn as mp3. (I haven't actually tried yet.)

3.) I have playlists and smart playlists with overlapping content.

4.) The early W221 manual I have says it doesn't support id3.

Diesel Benz

If you had a real phone and not an HTC, it would have worked. Anyway there is now a BT HF puck in Europe which should work with this HTC too.

davidegai

All you have to do is copy folders and subfolders containing MP3 tracks into a DVD and Command will read them, and display track information (title and author) correctly.

The only caveat is that DVDs must be burned using the UDT format (whatever that means), hence the necessity to bypass Windows and use Nero software, downloadable at www.nero.com, or a similar one.

It beats the I-Pod connection kit (which can only be visible in the main screen and operated by stering wheel commands) by a long shot!

davidegai

given your wishes, you are best served with an IPOD connection kit, even though you will not be able to see it in the Comand screen

davidegai

I need a Windows mobile device with push capabilities (noit only E-mail, but also contacts and appointments).

Can you suggest me anything else with a thin form factor and with a battery that lasts for two days?

zzoorrkk

I used Nero to burn a DVD-R with 389 mp3 songs all in the root directory (ie. no folders). It plays in my S550, but the display does not scroll the file name, so it displays the Artist and part of the Song Title. See attached photo.

Also only first 256 songs can be accessed. I cannot get pass Pet Shop Boys - Always on my mind. There are 133 more songs after that on the disc, but the DVD player does not lists or plays them.

Anyone else with the same problems?

MB Fanatic

Yeah a Blackberry.

But try the new Hybrid Bluetooth puck that is out.

Diesel Benz

The battery of any device can be killed in two days, just place a call and it dies within 2 to 6 hours.

A Blackberry would offer push-email but would not work with a BT SAP puck which I understood you had. But also all E-series Nokias support Blackberry email, they support also Microsoft Exchange (see Mail for Exchange from their web site). E90 in a traditional "communicator form factor", E61i as a "Blackberry copy".

Be aware of 3G and push-email killing the battery. Since Blackberry does not support 3G, it has no problem, on a Nokia I would switch the phone to GSM only if I were using push email. E90 should be fine even with the GPS on for two days.

Diesel Benz

Not sue if this was a note or a question, anyway, I guess there is this limit for the number of titles per folder but I've used folders for each artist, subfolders for the case of several albums from one artist and Comand plays all of those OK. Makes it also a lot easier to browse through albums.

I believe someone posted the limits for the number of folders etc. but with my music library, I don't have to be concerned (too small to reach problems).

mmereos

Looks like there are 3 questions that have split off from this thread. I will try and hit them all.

1. Is the IPOD integration Kit worth it? Well maybe. My complaint is that it's very slow to get from song "A" to song "Z" I like having the kit install but it could definitely better. So on to question 2

2. Burning DVD and folder limits. I found that out too. I don't know that the limit is, but I burned all my songs, 544 songs, and it seems to stop in the I's so I'm assuming that is song number 255 or something, so if I had 2 or 3 different folders can I then have all my songs on one DVD? This by far beats having the IPOD kit because I can get from the first song to the last song very very quickly. Drawback is I cannot play my Itunes purchased songs without removing the copy protection. On to Question 3

3. I'm not a fan of Blackberry, but I can tell you that I've used Treo 650, 650, and 750 and iPhone on the S550. All work, the one that transfered the whole 1500 name address book was the iPhone, but unfortunately there are no applications for the iPhone, which leaves me with my favorite windows mobile device to date which is the Treo 750; very very strong bluetooth, and by far the strongest of any Treo I've owned. It will not transfer the address book but I don't care because I can use the treo for dialing numbers.

So if anyone can answer whether I can have multiple folders on my DVD and be able to play 544 songs that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

eddietr

Yep, the interface on the iPod kit needs to eventually be integrated with COMAND so it can be easier to use.

For example, finding a particular song is time consuming. So if you're someone who tends to manually choose songs a lot, that really doesn't work very well with the kit.

However, if you're like me and you use smart playlists a lot, then the kit is very useful for a reason that may not be so obvious. Because your listening statistics in the car go back into iTunes.

So for example, one of my most listened to playlists is basically "50 songs I've rated 4 or higher that I haven't listened to in more than a month." I tend to listen to that list a lot in random mode. And if I'm in the car for a while one day and I end up listening to 10 of those songs, I want to have them automatically removed from that playlist and replaced with 10 fresh songs next time I sync. Whether or not I even listened to those songs via that particular playlist.

And I have other smart playlists that take advantage of usage stats, so for me the iPod kit is useful. Otherwise all the listening I do in the car would be "off the books" and screw up the intentions of my smart playlists.

Diesel Benz

I did burn a DVD containing the 18 Mercedes Mixed Tape albums. Each one on a separate folder of course. Very quick to browse from one album to another from the folder browser. And of course alls songs of the 18 albums appear OK.

I did put more songs on a Compact Flash memory card, all artists on a different folder, some artists having several albums, those appearing on separate sub-folders on the artists' folder. And again, all songs appear OK and you can quickly browse to your favourite artist/album.

I'm not a music enthusiast, I play mostly FM radio and I have not even tried playlists, I assume Comand would not recognise those and would not do the auto updates the iPod would do.

Probably quite a personal issue if one needs the iPod interface at all or if it actually is a must.