I just imported some music into my F56, and I know some were wondering about the internal hard drive capacity. I have nav, and I don't know if that matters, but mine has 20GB available to add music. Just though you guys might like to know!

 

Awesome! i'm glad i got the wired package...just waiting for mine from the VDC in Cali to get shipped to Hawaii...

 

You mean the ship doesn't just continue on to Hawaii after dropping a bunch of stuff in CA? That sounds dumb on Mini's part to unload one then reload another vessel for the final leg. Lots more opportunities to damage something!

 

Not too many Minis going to Hawaii, but many other necessities are shipped. So they board a ship bound for the Islands with those other commodities.

 

So you just thumb drive the music into the USB port and add it to the HD? That's cool! Hopefully you can delete it as you add more. That way there's no battery to charge like with my iPod. I don't use my phone in the car anymore, never for music.

 

Sadly... that's one of the downsides to being on this island... not to mention being able to drive to a different state. But oh well... pay to play

 

That's a good chunk of storage. Can you set up playlists in it?

 

I wouldn't have a care in the world if I lived there.

 

Yes, indeed you can! You can also set 'favorites' and tell it which songs are related, and the system will make playlists out of those as well.

 

Yes, very cool. There is a 'manage your collection' screen to delete as needed, or you can choose to replace all the music at once with whatever's on the current thumb drive in one fell swoop.

 

I like what I'm hearing here. I'm set to do a deal on one this weekend.

 

I ripped some CDs last night with Windows media player, copied the files from the music library to my MINI usb stick (which used to have manuals on it), popped the USB into my F56, went to external media and chose an option to copy it. It copied everything on the USB stick. Very cool. Even got the album art.

 

if you search google for BMW idrive playlist you will find out how to create playlists...you basically create a txt file with the songs and their paths on it.

 

does anyone know if it recognizes itunes format .mp4 files?

 

mp4s are movies...I don't think it plays movie files

 

sorry, i meant .m4a

 

I'd like to know as well. Do I have to convert my songs in itune into MP3 first?

 

.m4a works just fine!

 

Actually it will. So far I've tested .AVI and .MP4 files and it played them both. I need to test a .MKV next. You only get video if the vehicle is parked, otherwise its audio with a warning/nag screen.

 

They should have "hack" to make it work while driving. I know in my wife's Chrysler there is one and seen one online for 370z to make it work. I know that's probably not the safest thing but it's pretty to have it work.

 

Really wow. So it will play my video podcast?

 

I'm guessing the picture isn't too much like my Samsung ES8000 TV set lol.

 

Are you kidding? Its just like going to the theater