I have switched over to a USB stick over the ipod as the sound quality appears to be much better. I am going to try to see if I can make shortcuts to the songs I have in directories and fool the Mini into treating them as playlists. This way I can have playlists as shortcuts in a 'playlist' directory and avoid redundant songs. Worth a shot.

 

The Mini Cable is the only one that will work to show play lists. There is some electronics in the cable that are required to fully integrate the iPod to the car.

I have not seen it anywhere other than the dealer. If you could get it somewhere else it would probably cost more that the dealer would charge anyway.

 

Hopefully it won't be rude to ask a related question. Once you select a playlist and have the checkmark next to it, how do you unselect it so the iPod will play all songs?

I've pushed all different button combinations and even disconnected the USB port and plugged it back in (while driving, not easy) without success. I'm sure it's simple, but I haven't stumbled across the secret sauce.

 

Once you select that playlist, it should expand. Once it expands, you then scroll to the first song in that list and click it. It then should start playing that song and contnue through tha playlist.

DOes that help?

 

Thanks for the explanation, but getting the playlist started isn't the problem. I'm trying to figure out how to turn it off.

 

Okay, here's what's up:

The standard Apple cable (white) will work, if your iPod is Mass Storage Compliant--that is, it has the capability to appear to a computer as an external storage drive. All iPods except the touch and iPhone can do this (if you go to enable Disk Mode for the iPod touch or iPhone, you'll see that iTunes doesn't give you the option for these models).

When you connect the iPod via the Apple cable, it's basically acting as a USB flash/external hard drive, and the MINI is reading the MP3 files off the disk--just like it does if you plug in a USB key.

I suspect with the MINI adapter, it is able to conform with Apple's standard on accessing the iPod's interface. The half of the Y-connector that goes into the USB socket is so that the car can interface with the iPod (send it commands, read playlists from it, etc.) like any other iPod dock or clock radio, and the audio is probably being sent from the iPod's line-out into the car's 3.5mm AUX input. Probably because the USB port on the MINI doesn't have the throughput for streaming audio.

The jist of it:

1.) USB to iPod connection: allows car to control/read playlists from iPod
2.) AUX to iPod connection: iPod streams audio from line-out in dock connector to AUX jack on MINI

It can't do it with just the Apple USB cable because the either the iPod or the MINI isn't capable of streaming audio over USB.

EDIT: Wow, way for me to dredge up an old thread...

 

Yes very true BUT most people do not have all the requried MP3 tags set up properly on a majority of their songs so this will not help them.

same comment as above

It has a serial to USB converter so that it can do as you say.

Correct. It is the interface control

Yes that is exactly what is happening

USB doe snot actually have a Streaming Function to stream audio. It allows the digital signal to be used by computers and then the computer changes it from Digital to Analog in the D/A Converter of the audio card or on board audio.

Only if you use the iPod cable or set up your iPod to only be a USB Drive, and then the Play lists must be in a certain format to work. But then there are limits and restriction on the amount of music that will be seen by the Mini Audio system. You can only get approximately 20,000 data points or about 1500-2000 songs if you have all the MP3 tags set properly for each track, as each MP3 tags is considered a data point.

Correct, Except that it does not really stream, as stream is a term for data transfer not audio transfer.

True as the USB does not and can not stream Audio. When USB Sticks are used for playing music the ULF module in the Mini has a D/A converter in it to transfer the digital track to analog audio. But if you set up your iPod to act as a disk drive (Mass Storage Device) it will work, BUT if there are more songs than the limit of data points the Mini will not like it an may take hours to figure out what it is supposed to be doing.

There is much much much more on this exact subject in the 2nd Gen audio section. There are also much more detailed explanations of what i stated above there as well.

 

Originally Posted by carsncars
Probably because the USB port on the MINI doesn't have the throughput for streaming audio.


As someone said it doesn't stream audio (but digital) through the USB. The USB jack is plenty fast enough to play music off a memory stick.

 

USB is fast enough to stream audio. (Its fast enough to do 6 streams at once.) However, that won't work with anything before the iPod nano. Also you can't play protected files if the iPod is attached as mass storage.

 

Actually the USB CAN NOT stream audio it can only stream the digital signals that create the audio. There must be a D/A converter to change the digital signal to an audio signal.

So under these conditions and the fact that the iPod does not put out a Digital Signal means the USB can not be used to play music from an iPod as it is normally configured.

Now the USB can be used by a USB Stick or a Small USB Hard Drive (the iPod can be configured for use this way but then does not function well as a normal iPod), but there ar many limitations on the music. The ULF Module does in the car does have a D/A converter in it so that it can play the digital signal for a USB Stick or USB Hard Drive. But it CAN NOT play the audio ouput of an iPod thru the USB because the USB CAN NOT accept an audio signal.

 

Are you just being silly? Of course "Stream" in this context refers to digital signals, like my dictionary says:

"Computing [ trans. ] transmit (audio or video data) continuously, so that the parts arriving first can be viewed or listened to while the remainder is downloading."

I'm not sure you can actually "stream" non digital signals, I've never heard the word used for analog signals. If you're using it for analog signals, then those are only "analog signals that create the audio", the analog is not audio. In your sense you can't send audio down a wire at all.

USB can stream Digital audio, its part of the basic design of USB from the very beginning. (its why Northern Telecom was one of the sponsors of the original USB spec.)

All head units these days do have D/A converters. All designs that I'm aware of process audio digitally internally and it only emerges as analog in the output stage. Given the sort of design, its easier for a head unit to digest a digital signal than for them to digest an analog signal. The analog signal requires an A/D converter.
An iPod as it is normally configured can put out a Digital Audio signal. Unless you're using "configured" in the USB technical sense, when you'd need to send it a Set_Configuration command to expose the digital audio interface. Even then, as normally configured attached to a car head unit, the digital audio interface is the default.Like I said, you're just being silly. USB can perfectly happily accept a Digital Audio signal. If you say that's not audio, I'll just point out your analog signal is not audio either (just an analog of it), so no wire can transmit an audio signal, but that's just silly to go there.

If you're not being silly, can you explain your point in a more coherent manner.