Just purchased a new AMG and was reading the extensive manual on the S-class and learned that the head unit plays MP3's. I burned a MP3 disc and it played. Only thing that troubles me is that when it loads (which can take some time), its making a loud ticking noise (i'm guessing coming from the speakers). Do you guys have this same issue as well when attempting to play a burned MP3 disc? Is this normal? What kind of software are you guys using to burn these MP3 discs? Thanks in advance

update: just went to see if it plays dvd, and you can only hear the movie, no images. once i turn down the volume, i continue to hear this ticking noise from the speakers. Apparently its doing this whenever i turn down the volume to mute. I decided to remove the dvd/mp3 disc and continue to have the comand unit on with the volume on zero, and i stil hear this ticking nose from the speakers intermitently.

- Mike

 

Mike,

I have a 2004 S55 and from your description, it sounds like the sound system you have has the same functionality as mine. I can't comment on the ticking issue as I haven't heard anything like that coming from my speakers, but I'll try to listen for it when I drive around later today. As for the MP3 functionality, I played around with burning discs after I first got the car and actually am going to burn a new disc sometime soon.

Some of the general things I found were that the system doesn't "like" every disc you feed it. For some reason that I haven't been able to identify yet, it will load certain discs and display the song titles, but not allow you to play those titles. Almost as if it can read the filenames but not recognize the files as actual songs. What's weird is that I have reconfigured some of those discs (added/removed songs or changed the file structure - I've used folders with album names to organize the music since the system doesn't recognize mp3 playlist files) and had those same songs that weren't playable on one disc suddenly playable on another.

It wasn't clear from your post if you were using a burned DVD or CD, so if you weren't already aware, the system will read and play a burned DVD with MP3s. So, you can obviuosly store quite a few more songs on a burned DVD vs a CD. As you increase the number of songs on a disc, however, the load time for that disc increases. What's annoying is that the system has to re-read the disc every time you turn the car off and then back on. So, if you're running errands and are in and out of the car, you have to wait on the system to load (it's reading the song titles and copying th names into memory so you can easily page through them) the disc every time you get back in and start the car up again. Also, the resume function is erratic. Sometimes it will resume from where you left off and exited the car and other times it will just go back to the start of the disc. Overall, it has the feel of a function (speaking of MP3 playback here) that was added as an afterthought.

For more insights on my MP3 playback observations, see my old posts on the topic here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...2&page=3&pp=10

I've been meaning to make a new disc and revisit some of the limitations the system has to really figure out what it will accept and what it won't. Maybe I'll have some time for that this week. If I do, I'll let you know.

By the way, as for DVD video playback, that's something that MBUSA screwed us on. In Europe, the fhead unit's disc slot can be used to play back video DVDs on the optional rear screen. Unfortunately, MBUSA doesn't make that option available so the only thing the system will do is play back the DVD's audio through the speakers. It's a tease and a waste of functionality in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

 

Well, I "figured out" the problem I was having with the songs that wouldn't play. I have that in quotes because while I found a workaround, I'm not sure why it happened. Basically, I have a set of songs that would not play or, even odder, would play but would "skip". Basically, the first 3-4 seconds of the song would play and then it would start over. The time count would continue through to 4 seconds and five seconds, etc. So, it's not like the file was starting over from the beginning. Also, after that first "skip", the song plays the rest of the way through. It would do this every time on specific songs and occur even if I tried reburning those same files.

I isolated the problem to those specific files and not some file structure problem by reburning only those problematic songs to CD. The ones that wouldn't play acted the same as did those that "skipped". These songs played just fine on my Mac and my PC, whether from the hard drive or right off the burned CD or DVD. Again, very odd.

I would say it was some issue with the original import compression settings that the COMAND system couldn't read, but I don't think so. I have been using iTunes for some time to rip MP3s and while I have updated the iTunes version along the way, my import settings have stayed the same. You could argue that iTunes could be slightly changing its conversion codec with new versions. However, I had an example where an album I ripped last week included some songs that would play and others that would not. All in all, extremely odd.

Anyways, I re-ripped those songs using Musicmatch on my PC. After burning them to disk, presto, they play just fine. That fixes my issue.

One thing of note is that unlike other MB models I have seen discussed, MP3 playback on the newer S-Class systems seems to have some benefits and drawbacks in comparison. I have seen other users (E-Class I think) talk about the MB option CD changer being able to read MP3 CDs. I have tried a few different types of burns and I can't get one to work in mine so that may be a differentiating factor for the S-Class systems.

I've also seen those other users mention that their COMAND units will NOT recognize nested folders (a folder within a folder). I've been doing this for a while without any problems, including this most recent test disc. For better organization, I have used some top level folders with artist name and then nested folders with album names. I think that there is some limit to the number of folders the system will "see", but I'm not sure what that is. Perhaps further testing will reveal that.

I had been a little discouraged about the song problems I was having and while it's not the easiest way to workaround it, at least now I know how to avoid the problem in the future.

Jeff

 

By the way, I did come across a very useful utility that some of you may find helpful. As you may or may not know, iTunes is limited in how it will let you organize and sort music you will burn to disc. Even if you use another program like Roxio, you may find the need to relabel track names to force them in order (like using a number in front of the name, etc).

In my case, while I have folders for sorting, a few of the ones I have are various compilations that included at most a few songs from assorted albums. So, while I have the song names, I thought it would be nice to have the artist name in the filename as well (since COMAND ignores MP3 tags and just displays the filename - without the .mp3 of course). I also needed to number the songs. In one folder, I have over a hundred of these.

The problem is that renaming songs one by one is a PITA. Instead, I found a program that would do it for me. It's designed mostly for use with altering MP3 tags for lots of songs at once. However, it will also rename files using information in the MP3 tag. It has a ton of flexibility, so you can put the naming order (track name first then artist, etc) in any configuration that you wish. You can also choose a custom separator (say a hyphen or just a space) in between each item. It can also automatically number the songs for you to force the sort order you want. It's called ID3-TagIT and can be found here:

http://www.id3-tagit.de/english/index.htm

I know there are lots of these tools out there, but this one has lots of options and is shareware (donations requested but not required for use). It's PC only, but I'm sure there are Mac tools out there that do the same.

Jeff