I have seen posts that say they are playing FLAC files, Apple Lossless and more. Mine will not play FLAC (I can live with that), but it chokes on M4A Apple Lossless.

My music is in iTunes as Apple Lossless, but I do not have, nor do not want a huge Apple iPod. I want to plug in a 64 or 128 GB flash drive in FAT32 or EXFAT format (both seem to work) and play music copied from my iTunes library. This is not Rocket Science! So far, I can only get it to play MP3 files. What a monumental waste of time to convert thousands of tracks from M4A Apple Lossless and I haven't even figured out convenient way to do that on a routine basis.

Anyone out there have the facts? People who have *really* played M4a files and know they are really M4A files, not downsampled M4As into an iPod.

 

It depends on which packages you have. You may be able to do some coding to enable some codecs.

I have the HK and the basic (happy face) unit. My experiments are here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...periments.html

 

1. I have the HK with Premium Package, no navigation.

2. M4As can be selected, but have a line through the icon for the track and will not play.

3. Apple Lossless tracks play from iPod, iPhone, etc., which means the radio CAN play Apple Lossless not from a flash drive. I know they are lossless on the iThings because they show up at 44Khz, 16Bit on my stereo's DAC. This is just plain dumb!

4. Flash drives work fine if formatted FAT32 and EXFAT, but not NTFS, but no one would really expect that.

5. FLACs will not play and I would not expect that.

6. MP3s sound fine at 320, okay at 192 and terribly distorted at 128. I would be just fine with 320, but managing thousands of tracks in two formats, Apple Lossless and MP3 is not what anyone wants to do.

So, my question remains, has *anyone* played M4As from a flash drive (not an iThing) and if so, is there a software update or some other magic that allows this to happen? Should I complain that I have an outdated radio in a car made in early February 2015?

Or, am I just screwed?

hammerhands, I do not understand what you means by "some programming". Can you clarify?

 

I just spoke with a "genius" at Mini USA. I was told the *only* files that will play from a flash drive are MP3, AAC and WMA on *any* 2015 radio. No explanation why M4As will play just fine if they are coming from an Apple device. Flash drives must be formatted in FAT32 or EXFAT, but I know that.

I welcome contradictory proof.

 

See coding thread.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ogramming.html

 

It's because the iPod decodes the Apple lossless and the HK just plays it, the thing won't decode it. I hate to mention it but you could get a cheap iPod Mini, or whatever they call those sticklike iPods, and just use that in with an iPod dock/USB connection instead of a thumb drive (it's about the same thing, but you need a little wire). That's more or less what I do, use an old iPod just for the car. I have some Apple lossless files they play fine. That way you won't have to change anything in your iTunes library, which must be huge because AL albums are over a gigabyte. They're like movies!

 

hammerhands, I read the coding thread you have pointed me to -- again. In it, some have claimed to have played M4A files, but I believe they mean from iDevices, not flash drives. If you are claiming one can change the programming to enable codecs, I don't see it in the list of things that can be changed, and I am not into that level of messing with the car.

TheBigNewt, I have older iPods. None larger than 16GB and that holds very little Apple Lossless. Lossless is not really needed in the car, 320 is plenty okay. In fact, right now I have a 4th Gen 16GB iPod with a playlist of 320bps stuff downloaded to it, but I really don't want to pick and choose all the time. I could buy a 64GB iPod Touch for $299, but that's a bit of overkill for simply wanting a storage device that is accepted by the Mini to play the music on it. I can get 128GB SanDisk drives cheaper than a McDonald's meal. The Mini should play the music on them.

I just now started experimenting with dBpoweramp to make a wholesale conversion to 240 on a 64GB SanDisk Cruzer FitUSB flash drive about the size of a penny. No dangly bits in the car. So far, it converts everything in my iTunes library and even FLAC files outside of it and does so very easily. I will follow up with what I find out using the trial version. Full version costs $39.

 

I am pretty sure I have a very acceptable solution.

The dBpoweramp batch converter is converting all of my iTunes music library to 254 bps MP3 as I am writing this. I made a test with 6 albums and it did what I have been looking for. My Apple Lossless, a few MP3 files from Amazon and some others are being converted using all 8 CPUs (4 real and 4 hyperthreaded) on my PC. I am converting directly to a 64GB SanDisk Cruiser Fit so I don't have to copy to it later. I do not need an MP3 copy on my PC.

The program creates folders for the artist and subfolders for the album, just like iTunes. You do have to check the "dynamic" folder option in the converter, but this and selecting the bit rate is all you have to do. The program checks for existing MP3 in the target folder or drive and asks if you want to overwrite them. Selecting the "no to all" option will make it easy to sync.

You can do this with the trial version, but not sure if there is a file limit. It says "fully functional".

The 254bps MP3 sound good -- well as good as they can sound on the HK radio, which does not impress. Unless this breaks down somewhere, I think it is the solution I have been looking for. It will convert most anything, including FLAC. Not sure what it will do with music purchased from iTunes Store, but I have so few I don't care.

 

Actually, it was slow converting direct to the SanDisk. Took only about 28 minutes to do 3,000 tracks to temp folder on SSD. Now copying to SanDisk and that is going to take awhile because it's USB 2.0 and all I need for music. For updates, I will go direct to SanDisk. This is what I am using:

 

Free Alert - http://www.mediahuman.com/audio-converter/ does the job and costs nothing.

 

It did *not* convert protected AAC iTunes Store purchased music.

 

I just tried MediaHuman. For the speed and convenience of converted a large library, maintaining the folder structure, I'm happy to fork over the $39. Your mileage may vary.

 

Yeah you have to play that stuff on an iPod. 90% of my music is 190-320 and sounds just fine. The 128 stuff not so much. The Apple Lossless is ripped from CDx, and it sounds excellent. But you're right, it can only sound so good on the HK. Mine sounded terrible until I had the dealer replace a bass speaker which was bad when I bought it. Sounds like a pretty slick little program. And at 64gb you'd be fumbling around a lot looking for different Sandiscs with Lossless.

 

TheBugNewt, I'll have to pay attention to those speakers!

I made the first post, then pretty much answered my own questions. I'm very satisfied with what I have now (not the radio, nor its ability to play more formats) and pretty certain it will work out. The ability to "sync" new music very quickly and uncomplicated is a big factor. I only had 10-15 protected AAC files, so not worried about that. By the way, I can convert AAC, just not protected ones, and I couldnt convert them with MediaHuman either.

 

Sort of glad I didn't read this thread some time ago. I just put a flash drive in my desk top computer, copied my iTunes music to the flash drive then put into the USB slot and down loaded onto the Mini hardrive & everything worked. Plays the music and shows the artwork.

 

MyOrangeOne,

If you didn't change your iTunes settings to rip to Apple Lossless, you wI'll have MP3 files at 128 bps, which it fine for most people using Apple ear buds with their iPods and iPhones. For the many who rip CDs for playing on their stereo using Airport Express or Sonos, Apple lossless will be used instead of MP3. Therein lies the problem.

We have an orange one and a green one!

 

Regular Connected with HK

My 320 MP3s have been skipping while playing off a Sandisk Ultrafit. So I have been downgrading them to see if they work better.

 

John-
Out of curiosity, which headunit do you have?

From USB flash drives, I know the the XL can play FLAC and unprotected M4A files, but I haven't seen the supported file list for the base radio or Visual Boost radios. None of the headunits will play Apple Lossless, as you've figured out.

 

siriuszero,

I have no idea what an XL is. I got the Harmon Kardon that comes with the premium package in the S. No navigation system. My wife has the basic radio in her 2014 Justa. Help us all understand the different radios and how to tell, please.

 

Now I know what it is. Would not want it, will be outdated long before the car. I'll live with what I have, sound in a car being what it is regardless of the player quality. Just wish it hadn't been so inconvenient -- and it needn't be.

 

I think you can download AAC plus non-protected copies of anything you have bought from ITunes that they still have available. You should back up your files first, you may be surprised at what they no longer carry. It says something about subscribing to Itunes Match, now, but I don't know, I would give it go once you've backed up your files.

An easy way to convert all your music in ITunes is to set the default format to your target format, then you can click "Create 256kb MP3 version." You should be able to do that on everything in your library. I'm not sure how that would work for DRM files.

 

Connected XL is the 8.8" screen. I have it. I can play FLAC but cannot play Apple Lossless from a USB or from the in car HDD.

 

Four radios on the F56/55:

- Base radio: orange 4 line display, no BT audio
- Connected or Visual Boost: 6.5" color display, option to add BT audio, adds owners manual, album art, favorite buttons that are touch sensitive
- Visual Boost with Nav: same as above with navigation added
- Connected XL or Radio Professional: 8.8" display, split screen support, better nav, built in hard drive for music storage, video support, more codecs supported (FLAC)

In addition to the radios, you can also add Harmon/Kardon sound system, which is really just more speakers with an amp. You can add this to any of the radios.

 

siriuszero,

Thanks for that info.

So, I have a basic radio with the HK speakers and amp.

Now it's clear why different formats play or don't play and posts saying "i have no problems" are confusing. BMW set us up for confusion!

 

Well, you're not wrong!