MDI niggles

[Corey_R]

Cheers mate. That's the way things should work, as I expected. Thanks for confirming

[MFK_MK6]

I created a subdirectory on the USB-drive that I named MP3s and dragged all of the MP3s from the root directory into that sub-directory. You may also know sub-directories as Folders.

I opened Windows Media Player (WMP) and dragged a handful of MP3s at random from the MP3s directory into WMP. I then created a Playlist by clicking on Save Now Playing List As… and pointed to the root directory of the USB-drive and saved it as Golf Music Vol1.M3U

Having created the Playlist, I opened it in a text editor, and found that it’s a simple text file:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,Life No 9.mp3
MP3s\Life No 9.mp3

#EXTINF:0,Into The Night.mp3
MP3s\Into The Night.mp3

#EXTINF:0,Tough Kitty.mp3
MP3s\Tough Kitty.mp3

#EXTINF:0,Hit It.mp3
MP3s\Hit It.mp3

#EXTINF:0,Something In The Engine.mp3
MP3s\Something In The Engine.mp3

#EXTINF:0,When I Am Out With You.mp3
MP3s\When I Am Out With You.mp3

#EXTINF:0,Bad Sickness.mp3
MP3s\Bad Sickness.mp3

So it would be easy to create one using a text editor, there’s no need to do using an MP3 player, but you must remember to save it as a text file then rename it Filename.M3U

A couple of points worth noting, in the line #EXTINF:0,Title.mp3 there is no gap between the comma and the first letter of the MP3 title. The second line points to the location of the MP3, in the example shown above they’re located in the subdirectory MP3s\

When I plugged in the USB-drive and selected Media it found the MP3s in the subdirectory and started playing them in alphabetical order. To get the Playlist to fire up I did the following:

Press the [MEDIA] button, which finds the MP3s
On the MDI screen under the word BROWSE press the [-] button
Under the word UP press the [-] button
Press the <FOLDER> button at the RH end, which should display the Playlist name
Under the word OPEN press the [-] button

The MP3s will then play in sequential order as listed in the Playlist.

What if you moved the playlist file into the same dir as the mp3s (modifying the playlist entry and removing the "mp3s" song directory structure) and renaming the playlist file to something like "_name_of_playlist.m3u". If you were to then select media, the mp3 folder would appear and the playlist file would be the first item and you could select it straight away?

[G-rig]

That all looks pretty complicated. My Foobar playlists (still M3U) just have each file name and that's it. That's with them in the same directory, in the case of an album playlist.

Anyway as much as i hate itunes, it woud be easier using it with an ipod to create your playlists. The way i see it is USB is good for dumping a few albums on but not so much for playlist management.

[Corey_R]

Very true G-rig!
M3U was introduced many years back by Winamp. The ONLY requirement is the list of files (path\song.mp3), one per line.
However, they expanded it afterward to include the "#EXTM3U" information, which is usually in the format of: #EXTINF - extra info - length (seconds), artist '-' title

But it REAAAAAALLY isn't needed. Especially if your files are tagged correctly, as any good collection should be
In any case - you'd have to be pretty desperate to be creating your playlists manually in a text editor, just use one of the many audio programs (not iTunes though... that's a resource hungry pig which leaves several programs permanently running in memory even after you've stopped using it!!)

[G-rig]

I agree Coreying, itunes hogs a lot of resources and would prefer not to have it installed, but putting up with it while I have an iphone and for the car kit.
Will love the day that FLAC becomes properly adopted in head units..

It's definitely worth cleaing up your library and tagging properly. As i mentioned before there are various tag & rename programs that help a lot, and the one i use generates a m3u playlist, md5 checksum, nfo file and renames the files in the same format with one album in each folder, ie Artist-Album-Year. It may take a while but good to put a lot of thought into it before deciding on a format and ripping your cd collection. Did it once as MP3 then again properly using FLAC. That way i can convert albums to any format i want using dBpowerAMP music converter.

I used to use winamp but seemed to freeze up on this pc (not the latest hardware) and find Foobar much less hungry and very responsive. Both can create and save playlists easily, I'm running a very minimalistic skin shown below .

[MFK_MK6]

For those who want to use the SD card option to load music (was having a look and thought id share it to people)

I wonder if you get the gap issue using this approach.

YouTube - AskaVWsalesguy's Channel

Thanks

[clubbie]

Tried the iPod 80GB that I had spare lying around and had all sorts of problems with the iTunes and the MDI.

Spent $48 for a 16GB SD and USB adapter copied/converted MP3 into albums. Takes a few seconds to initialise but works a treat.

[Frankenstrat]

What if you moved the playlist file into the same dir as the mp3s (modifying the playlist entry and removing the "mp3s" song directory structure) and renaming the playlist file to something like "_name_of_playlist.m3u". If you were to then select media, the mp3 folder would appear and the playlist file would be the first item and you could select it straight away?

I'm already ahead of you there MFK, on Monday evening I made another playlist in the MP3 directory using WMP and was rather hoping it would automatically fire up in the car, but it didn't. What happens is that the MP3s start to play in alpha order and ignore the playlist. I had to search for the playlist in the root directory to get the songs playing in my preferred sequence. This morning I was playing a CD in the car so I didn't bother searching for the playlist in the MP3s directory. I'll try that this evening on my way home from work.

[G-rig]

You stil have to select the playlist before it will play it if you catch my drift..

Otherwise the default is to play songs in alphabetic order or where it was playing from when you last left the car.

[Frankenstrat]

Our IT guy at work thought that the playlist would kick in automatically, I can now state categorically that it doesn't.

Incidentally, the CD I was playing this morning was one comprising my own tunes and performances. I burned it with Nero for a work colleague but I needed to check that it would play all right. I went into the properties of each tune in Nero and filled in the title and artist fields. I'm pleased to say that the title of each track displays on the MDI. The track number flashes on the screen briefly to be replaced by the title.