Hi guys,

I have few questions about 2010-2013 W221 entertainment system.

In the brochure I read it has the following features:

1) 7.2GB Music Register for storing your digital music files.
2) A memory card reader.
3) 40Gb hard drive.
4) iPod interface.

So here are my questions:

1) What type of files can you store in that 7.2Gb music register? Mp3 only or something else like lossless music files?
2) What is the maximum size of the SD card that is supported by that card reader? And what type of files you can store there?
3) Can you use some of that 40Gb storage for storing music files?
4) What can be done with iPod interface if you don't have an iPod? Can you use an adaptor to convert iPod into regular 3.5mm and then just connect your audio device with 3.5mm interface?

Thank you.

 

Buy a Tune2Air and then you can use any bluetooth device.

 

Thank you for this tip! 👍🏻

 

I have played a lot with the interfaces and have found this....

I have a 32GB SD Card in it and a 32GB USB Stick in the USB port in the glove box. That works great for me but it took a little fiddling to get it to work well.

First you HAVE to format the card and stick SLOW.... i believe i did mine in fat32

Second...after having all kinds of issues with the names and sorting and the stereo hanging up and even rebooting on me i removed ALL meta data from my MP3's (Tags, Art etc) After that i have never had another issue

I use CBR encoded MP3's at 256kbit encoding which is good enough for the quality this system can proivide.

I have also copied music to the music register but have never used it.

Good luck.

 

Thank you!! I think 32Gb is more than enough for me.

 

It is also possible to use USB memory drives that are bigger than 32GB. But they must be partitioned in to their equivalents that are no more than 32GB each. You then use the "Select Active Partition" menu selection to choose the required partition.

 

Thank you!!

 

surprised if that's successful - Ford and BMW lose the indexing of what's on the drive randomly... when this happens it locks up and fails to work many times. It can take more than an hour to rebuild. One day works OK stop for petrol and its lost the plot and never recovers. next drive it might behave all day long

 

The music register will read Compact Discs and use the CD-TEXT from the Compact Disc, and if there is no CD-TEXT encoded in the subchannels between tracks, it will query the Gracenote Database stored on the hard disk and the UPC equivalent code on the CD and attempt to find a match, and retrieve the artist, track title, and album name from there to appropriately label the files, and "rip" them to the internal HDD at an unknown bitrate and codec. I presume it is mp3 but have no proof. The quality is good enough to where you will not miss the CD if you want to hear a song and do not have the disc with you, it will certainly suffice.
The important thing about this audio system that many have not been able to experience, is that it also will play DVD-Audio discs. You can search for the media on ebay and Amazon, as unfortunately it was in a format war with guess who? (Sony) and SACD for the replacement of the Compact Disc. It offered lossless 5.1 DTS or Dolby Digital surround sound, and up to 96khz/24bit, or stereo at 192khs/24-bit. If you can locate an artist you like, look for one of your preferred albums on DVD-Audio and play it in your car, and disable Logic 7.

Since I am unsure what genre of music you listen to, I will give you a starting point - Hotel California by The Eagles was released on DVD-A, and has excellent sound. Some DVD-A discs have no video as that room is dedicated to audio. If you enjoy live classic rock, Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day on DVD is a great visual concert and recording as well. When you are presented with the title menu (on most systems when in Park, select Audio, and select DTS 5.1. Then resume to the main menu and start the track or entire concert and drive away. You will think you are listening to a different audio system!

The DVD Changer holds 6 DVDs, so you can use a PC/Macintosh/*nix computer to create an 8.4GB DVD-DL disc full of MP3 files at 320 VBR or CBR) and have up to six of them loaded at the same time.

The same goes for duplicated concerts - since most are over one layer, an 8.4GB DVD-DL will take care of you.

HDTracks.com offers high-resolution tracks greater than the 44.1/16-bit, and the only way to reproduce that accurately is authoring your own DVD-A disc, in which there is open-source applications or commercial applications available, and it will surpass store-bought CDs in quality! PM me if you have any questions!

 

Thank you for this info!

BTW while I'm still looking for a 2010-2013 S-Class I just ordered this bluetooth receiver for my CLS55. Hopefully it works!


Idk if I'll be able to use my steering wheel or other controls. Also it needs to be charged every X hours. It's much cheaper than INVERY products. I hope I won't have to return it.

PS: Hotel California is indeed an amazing song!!

 

The Bluetooth to AUX in adapter work OK - but the overall state of affairs in terms of audio quality isn't great. I mostly use it to listen to TuneIn radio from my phone (mostly talk radio like BBC Radio 4 and such).

Your device (phone, tablet etc) plays back an already compressed MP3 or audio stream
- sends it out via Bluetooth which compresses it again
- The Bluetooth receiver plugged in to aux in then converts it back in to analog line-in levels
- The car's audio system takes this analog line in and converts it to digital again so that it can be transmitted via MOST bus to the amplifier
- Then you get to hear it on the speakers when it gets turned back in to analog speaker level

Playing back MP3s via USB or CD or DVD saves two levels of this.
- MP3 is decompressed in to what we assume is digital PCM - and this is then fed directly over MOST bus to the amplifier
- Amplifier reproduces this as analog speaker level output

As mentioned above, playing back DVD-A formatted content - particularly if it uses a losless compression scheme that is supported by COMAND - especially Meridian Lossless (MLP) takes it one step further as there is no decompression of a compressed MP3. In theory, COMAND feeds the digital data from the audio file directly to the amplifier.

 

Thank you! The only thing burning DVDs takes time. USB with lossless music is much better. I.e. currenlty my 2006 CLS55 doesn't have a USB or MicroSD option. All I have is line-in. Yes, W221 is a different story. I think 7.2Gb is more than enough for me even if I upload lossless tracks into that storage.