32g usb flash drive -> playlists? folder structure?

[freshd]

Hi everyone,
I've tried to figure this out with searches, calls to bmw customer service and through trial and error and haven't been able to figure this out.

I'm using a 32g usb flash drive in my 135 with ipod access by plugging it straight into the usb port, which seems to work fine. The drive holds several thousand songs and if all files are flat, the seek time is unbearably slow. Putting the files into a folder structure hasn't worked for what I'm trying to do because I can never get the "playlist, album, artist, song" function to come up - only the directory list. I prefer to have all my songs play in random order across albums and artists, so digging down to a particular directory and playing from there doesn't randomize outside of that folder. I've made a variety of .m3u files that I've placed at root and elsewhere without success, and have tried arranging the folders in a variety of ways too.

Has anyone made this work? Is the drive I'm using too big? What are the exact steps you took, how is your folder structure set up and how did you generate a playlist file? Where did you place it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Oh, and bmw customer service was not only not helpful - they told me the flash drive wouldn't work - but the customer service rep actually laughed at my request and refused to transfer me to someone who could help!!!
Maybe I need a real problem....
Thanks for reading,
dave

[vanbmw]

Mine works fine. I have a 8gb Kingston flash drive and I have loaded probably 50 cd's onto it. I just used Windows Media player and ripped it to my flash drive. I can push the albums menu and then I can scroll thru the albums alphabetically. If I hit the artists it scrolls thru them fine. I find it quite quick at scrolling thru.

[john970]

I doubt the database they are using to store the playlist index was ever tested with a drive over 8gb, their software is generally pretty crappy. I'd say you're SOL. I'd get an ipod and let it manage your files for the bimmer.

And I would record the call and put it up on youtube and send the link to autoblog... you'll get a response lightening quick then.

[freshd]

Thanks for the replies. As a quick update, I've tried putting a smaller number of songs on the same drive using only one level of folder structure (artist album) with full functionality and very little delay, so I will expand my efforts next to fill the drive.

As an aside, due to the large number of files involved I've had to use SyncTunes (http://www.nesfield.co.uk/synctunes) to get them on the drive as dragging and dropping from a playlist straight out of iTunes craps out without copying (I'm on a mac). Although synctunes is a nice little program, I wish it would simply take the playlist files and copy them straight over to the drive - it seems to require parsing the filenames and folder structures, but beggars can't be choosers.

I'm a little incredulous that I'd have to record a customer service call to bmw since they seem soooo customer driven, but rest assured I got the supervisor on the phone and made it crystal clear that his employee might not be on the right career path.

Anyway, I'll update my progress for posterity.
dave

[onastov]

I've used my 8GB iPhone so far to access a portion of my music library (about 50 CDs), and I've been very happy with it. My entire music library is however about 40GB and I have still another 100+ CDs to rip. I was looking into buying a USB portable hard drive but when I realized gapless playback is not available (zero seconds between successive songs, important for mixed dance CDs, operas, classical and some others), I decided to get an 80GB iPod classic, which should be arriving soon. The iPod will stay in the car permanently.

[vanbmw]

Originally Posted by john970

I doubt the database they are using to store the playlist index was ever tested with a drive over 8gb, their software is generally pretty crappy. I'd say you're SOL. I'd get an ipod and let it manage your files for the bimmer.

And I would record the call and put it up on youtube and send the link to autoblog... you'll get a response lightening quick then.

There have been posts on here where poeple have used the USB port and hooked up a big portable hard drive (maybe 150GB) and they say it works fine. That would lead me to believe the software can handle a bigger flash drive fine...but that is just a guess!

[CDR_UK]

I have 16GB USB flash drive, with 300 albums on it - it's working fine. The access times depend on the read speed of the device - my flash drive has a read speed of 32MB per second.

To see the albums/artists/songs etc - you need to have the MP3 tag information all set correctly. I found that winamp pro is the best no nonsense software out there for ripping the cds and properly populating or updating the MP3 tags.

[aus_buster]

I experienced the same issue with my 32GB USB thumb drive(Corsair). I have loaded it with approx 22GB of songs and it takes around 5 minutes upon startup for the USB to be completely read and the options of Artist, Song, Genre etc to be displayed.

So all in all it works, but you just need to wait around 5 minutes....

[128ian]

I have never had a prolem with my 8G stick... perhaps it's the way you load the songs. My sticks all read with a one second delay when starting and can be searched by genre, song, artist, album etc.
this is what I do to load the stick:
-with itunes I make a play list
-I load the playlist with the songs to fill the stick
-click on one song and ctrl plus a to choose all
-left click on the bunch and choose copy
-paste the bunch into the stick and the beemer reads all files flawlessly
ps
I even went into the stick later and put songs into album files.

...the key to the whole thing is chosing album, genre, song etc and not going past the "album+" prompt then press play and engage the "random" sit back and enjoy days of music!

[CDR_UK]

Like I said before, the time you wait (if any) is fully dependent on the read-speed/capacity of the USB device. I purposely bought a very fast 16GB USB stick (32MB/s) to avoid potential delays. If you have a 32GB stick, with typical, low read speeds (~6-10MB/s) you will surely need to wait...

[CHRIS-135i]

What is the maker of the usb flash drive, and did you buy it on ebay? I am always cautious when the top name brand thumb drives are averaging right now around 8GB (in popularity and availability), and the no-name brands are around 32GB. Make sure you are not sacrificing the speed of the drive. I may be wrong on this, as I have not been following the thumb drives,as much as the compact flash, but i believe the technology is similar if not the same. I Shoot with the top of the line Cameras using only the best flash cards, and the speed of the cards/thumb drive in my opinion is very important.

Now it also makes a difference whether BMW uses usb 2.0 ( maximum data transfer rate of 60MB/s (480 Mbps)), as it is the standard. God help us if they are using 1.0 (bandwidth is a mere 1.5 MB/s (12 Mbps)). Does anyone know what version it may be? I get my car in a week or so, and this is an area I am defenetly going to check out.

[esses]

I used a 1g drive from SanDisk that I happened to have on hand when I first got my 1, it was S-L-O-W. I also noticed some songs would abruptly end after 1:45 of play, even though the files were fine and would play on my desktop.

Then the 16g OCZ came in from newegg and everything changed. I have directories sorted by artist->album->song and a folder called Playlists. Zero load time and she reads my playlists just fine.

OCZ makes better memory than SanDisk, I guess the 1 is picky. Talk about a high maintenance bitch. :wink:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227273

[Kris]

I'm having about 40 to 80seconds wait on my Ipod, 80G classic. It's loaded up with about 15GB of music...

[BJDrew]

So, what exactly is the POWER requirement for a USB hard drive, without needing external power