kj217

hello,,

i have been struggling with playing MP3 files in COMAND.
i believe that COMAND will not play an SD card larger than 2GB, right?

please, advise with SD card specs supported in these cars?

xabo

https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...pcmcia-cf.html

sixfour

I have a 32 gig sd card in mine

sixfour

i have a 2011 s 550 and I have a 32 gig sd card in it

Mike5215

Yeah, 32GB is the largest allowable partition size and it needs to be formatted FAT32.

Polar Bear

32GB SD Card, or a DVD-DL 8.5GB DVDx6. Either or all work great.

You can also download high resolution audio from hdtracks.com and make a DVD-A or DVD-V disc with the right software and exceed the resolution of the 16/44.1 Audio CD.

Mike5215

What's the software? I'll give it a try, but the DAC in the car isn't capable of sample rate/bit depth in excess of 44,100/16 bit, so if it plays back on the car, whatever the original source resolution, it's been down-sampled to CD quality. I'd love to be proven wrong though, because I have a ton of 256/24 and 192/24 stuff.

Polar Bear

There are a few applications for Windows that will allow you to author DVD-A discs, and of course you could play a slideshow and use a DVD-V disc and get the extra resolution that the medium offers with very low space allocated to video and the majority devoted to audio.

Look for HD Audio Solo for Windows, which is very versatile (has a slight learning curve) and HD Audio Remaster for Windows as well.

DVD Audio Extractor is available for OS X, and Burn (open source) will author and write a DVD-Audio disc. DVDFab9 will allow you to duplicate many DVD-Audio discs protected with CPPM, but check your local copyright laws before using, and many DVD-As are of course are out of print and if the player does not observe the 30-second watermark on the disc, the disc will play just fine. As expensive as these high resolution discs are getting, it is a good idea to make a backup. VOX from the Mac App Store will play high resolution audio files, and tell you the bitrate and sampling rate directly in the app, so you have several options available to you.

I encourage you to give HD Audio Solo a try. You may make a few coasters to start, but I would recommend unselecting the DVD-Video encoding feature if you want the highest bitrate/sampling rate without requiring a DVD-DL disc. It will also automatically create attractive menus from the .flac metadata as well as group numbers. It gives very granular control over the authoring of the disc, particularly for a consumer product.

Regarding the DAC converter, I am unsure a way to prove to you the DAC in the W221 will decode 256/24 or 192/24, but I have no reason to think that it should not. I think the only way to determine this would be disassemble the DAC and see what chip is inside and find a data sheet on it.

I have many concerts on DVD which is pretty much what remains in my changer (I rarely use MP3 for anything - 16/44.1 lossless minimum. I am very impressed with Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day on DVD. Jimmy Page did an excellent job at producing this DVD and accompanying CDs. That is the first one that comes to mind, but I have a CD wallet of high resolution audio files that play in the W221.

I would have a difficult time understanding why they would support DVD-A and Meridian Lossless Packing if they did not include the adequate DAC converter in the car to support such medium. DTS 5.1 certainly sounds good, although lossy, but better than Dolby Digital 5.1 from the titles I own.

Mike5215

Thanks!

So "HD Audio Remaster" I'm afraid is misleading at least as far as upsampling is concerned. It is impossible to "up convert" or "upsample" CD or MP3 files to "Hi Res", because you cannot take a format that has had data removed from it, and convert it a higher resolution. The data simply is not there and there's no way to put it back.

Per their website:

Audio Remaster is a high-definition media remastering studio. With it, you can enhance your music (upsample to HD, upmix to surround 5.1, process with VST plug-ins) from standard CD/HD/iTunes playlists/mp3 and export to files. Get the best from your audio system and media.

Remastering to high-definition and surround 5.1 - import music tracks from computer files, WMP and iTunes playlists, CD or DVD-Audio discs (non protected, non MLP). If they are in stereo, convert them to surround 5.1 for an immersive experience. And/or upsample them to high-definition up to 24bit/192kHz for enhanced clarity and details. Export to files in wav/wma/flac/a52/aac/mp4/mkv formats.

1-Click conversion - the 1-Click function will let you remaster an entire CD directly to high-definition surround files in a few clicks : set input drive, set remastering parameters, go. Or you can remaster/convert from folfer to folder just as simply.

Regardless of the sampling rates and bit depth they claim in the new output file, the actual quality is no different than the original input file. You can always down convert hi res or lossless to a smaller, lossy format but you can never up convert a lossy source to a lossless or hi res file.

The true test is to put an original Hi Res 256/24 track downloaded from HDTracks.com in either FLAC, ALAC, AIFF or WAV format onto an audio DVD, pop it in the car and see if it plays, or if you get a "file format not supported" error. If the car won't play that, but will play the "hi res" files created by the up conversion software, the upconverted files are actually just 44.1/16.

I did look at the other HD Audio Ultra software, and I'm trying to burn a few of my 192/24 FLAC files onto a DVD and see if they play in their original lossless format in my 2016 C, which has the latest COMAND system MB makes.

Couldn't fit a ton of tracks on there given the large individual file sizes, like maybe two albums worth. Interested to see how it sounds in the car. It's slow going so I'll have to wait till morning to hear it. Like Christmas!

I'm not sure how to prove one way or the other that the car's DAC can't decode higher than CD quality. If it could decode 192/24, you should be able to copy a FLAC file encoded at 192/24 or 256/24, put it on an SD card and have it play. That's a direct connection to the DAC. If it chokes, or will only play CD or MP3, I'd say it's incapable of hi res. (I don't know of a car today with a hi res DAC.)

Mike5215

Well, one coaster down. "Disc Unreadable". Could you post the settings/process you're using to burn Hi Res (24 bit) files to an audio DVD?

Edit;

Looking into MLP and Audio DVD (DVD-A) it looks like a requirement for a DVD-A disc is downward compatibility, so it can be played on any DVD player, even those incapable of reproducing the higher bitrate/bit depth material.

To accomplish this most DVD-A discs have both standard and hi res versions in separate directories. Standard resolution players by default look for a Video.ts file where the relatively low quality regular DVD audio can be found on a DVD-A disc, and disregard the hi res directory. Dedicated hi res DVD players access the higher quality version and ignore the standard version.

As a result, your DVD-A discs will play on the W221 COMAND system, but there's no indication that system has anything other than a standard 16 bit DAC. (Given that the system was designed in 2005, and the fact that MB still wasn't including a relatively common technology like Bluetooth Audio as recently as 2013, it's just too much to hope for that they put a 24 bit DAC in the 221.)

That's not to say DVD-A discs, even in standard res, don't sound great in the 221. Just having the 2 channel stereo rematrixed (or remastered) into DD 5.1 is a huge improvement over the other sources in the car.

Polar Bear

So far, I have observed that the COMAND will system will assume the DVD-A did is present if an AUDIO_TS is present. If a VIDEO_TS is present with content, it will consider it a video DVD. As you know, DVD-A is designed to be backward compatible with DVD players, so they have the VIDEO_TS folder and higher resolution audio, although possible compressed, to play in a DVD player.

I created some Led Zeppelin DVD-A discs from flac files from hdtracks.com, and it does indeed seem to work fine.

One must remember the mid to late 2000's is when the SACD and DVD-A war was in its prime. I see no reason the DAC in the W221 could not play at the proper resolution. flac was barely heard of at the time, particularly multi-channel. Monkey's Audio was the leading lossless compressor.

I agree that upsampling seems like a complete waste of disc space - like buying iTunes tracks and writing them to an audio CD. Hence the reason I never buy iTunes tracks.

You can also delete the VIDEO_TS and test DVD-A playback as well.

BenzV12

What an informative thread , thanks everyone for a moment one would have thought that he / she was visiting HI Fi Forums

ftlaud1

Call me crazy but can someone tell me where the SD card is located on the 2015 S class ? I know it has one and can't remember where it is

Mike5215

No idea on the 222. On my 16 205 it's in the center console

Flowmacks

Don't think there is one.

ftlaud1

I know it has one and it blends in. I remember placing the card in the reader and now I have no idea where it is as it blended in to the felt.
Where is it related to the two USB ports in there ?

Mike5215

In my W205 its to the right of the two USB ports, front wall of the center console.

RichM

It is in the stowage space under the armrest.

Flowmacks

I just have 2 USB ports in there.

Flowmacks

Beats me. All I see are the USB ports.

Flowmacks

Found it! It's right underneath the slot where you insert CDs. Hard to spot.

Now if I could just find the AUX port.

ftlaud1

You're the best. I found it. I've been using the USB plug in the glove with a stick.
The card reader totally blends . Thank you !