Hi all,

I've had my 08 MCS with bluetooth/usb for about a week now. I've got an 8gb memory stick in the usb port for music. My problem is that the "random" play mode is...not. It seems to go back to the same few songs way more frequently then it should. The problem does not seem change no matter how long the car is on and playing music. Any one else having similar problems?

Low

 

I don't have a USB port, but when playing back MP3 CDs and DVDs, I've suspected that Tachi tends to prefer playing some directories/tracks more than others. It's not really that noticeable in my case- it just seems to be more of a loose shuffle than an absolute random.

Once or twice it's been my fault, as I'd burned non-compatible formats, and the car was skipping Windows Media files.

 

I've checked a few things so far....none of the files are restricted in terms of DRM. The files are also in a single directory, and still I have the same 5 or so songs coming up every 20 or so songs. I even deleted on of the more common songs, and the system just replaced the deleted one with another, by the same artist.

The only other things I can think of is that the the software doesn't like mp3s encoded in VBR, or I am being completely paranoid and it is all in my head.

 

Nearly all of my ~60GB of music is ~190 VBR, so I don't think there's any problems there.

Playing a CD MP3 disk in random mode yesterday on my two hour drive home, I heard the same song twice, but no other repeats. This disk is a single directory in <Artist> - <Title>.mp3 format.

It seems to happen more often on larger media (my DVD/RW holds over 1200 tracks), so maybe it can only keep played statistics for a certain number of tracks and 'forgets' when there's more songs to keep track of?

 

Also- the WMA files I had weren't DRM'd and still wouldn't play, just in case. Even though you mentioned they were MP3's in your second post....

 

One thing I noticed is that the system repeats songs more frequently if I use the **** or arrows to skip through songs.

 

Also, the memory stick I am using had the U3 software on it, which I removed.

 

Not sure if you have Nav like I do, but if I use the selection **** it disables random play. Using the steering wheel controls or arrows on the CD controls just skips to the next track, but continues with random selections afterward.

 

I don't have Nav, nor the MFSW. For me the selection **** is still random. Although I think I have solved the problem...

Previously, my memory stick did not have a playlist. I created an m3u list with all the songs. Now, instead of the system playing random songs from the directory, it plays random songs from the list. In the past hour or so, I have not once had a repeated song.

 

Hmmm- I never even though of trying out a playlist. Thanks for the hint!