Thought there might be a secret way to scroll faster thru lists of artists/albums/songs?

To twirl the center **** to anything but the first 1/3rd or so of the alphabet takes FOREVER.

It amazes me that car manufacturers and Apple get together to disable the iPod interface (I assume to keep the car manufacturer or Apple from being sued if a person has an accident while fiddling with the iPod), and then put in an interface that takes MORE eyes-off-road time to fiddle with.

 

I don't think this has anything to do with "...car manufacturers and Apple get together to disable the iPod interface..." I had a MB SLK iPod interface and it was much faster. If you copy the files to a USB flash (must be MP3) you will probably see the same speed. I believe that it must reread the flash data and this is what is taking time and is a limitation in the MINI's system (will only read so many songs at a time).

 

Right...the MINI head unit is the same speed whether iPod or flash drive, and that speed is SLOW.

There's really no usable way I guess to just browse thru your iPod or flash drive.

BTW, the flash drive can have MP3 or AAC (.m4a), but not "protected" AAC (.m4p).

 

Divide your artists into folders named "A to D", "E to H", "I to L", "M to P", "Q to T", "U to Z" (or something similar). Then to listen to your favorite Zappa album, you only need to scroll to the "U to Z" folder, hit the button, then scroll down to "Zappa", hit the button, then scroll to "Joe's Garage", hit the button twice and you're there.

 

I use this method with my ipod. It works Great!!

"Easy workaround, just change the genre to reflect the artists first intial and search by genre not artist. (E.G. Grateful Dead and George Harrison would be grouped under "G" artists in the genre field) and of course you can combine low frequency intials such as U-Z. Works great for me using an 80gb ipod."

Heres the link:https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...on-2009-a.html

 

I tried several file types but couldn't get AAC files to play. It would read the song titles but though. They may have been 360kbps which may be a problem. Not a big deal to me since 99.9% of my music is Apple Lossless and would require a iPod anyway.

 

I think the MINI documentation mentions 256k as the top bitrate it will play.

 

One other thought...in the MINI, for whatever reason, most folks agree that a thumbdrive sounds noticeably better than an iPod...the thumb drive uses the digital-to-analog converter in the MINI head unit, where the iPod line-level, analog input (the aux-in) of course uses the DAC in the iPod.

I'd never think I'd hear such a significant improvement in sound using a thumb drive over an iPod, but I do (never have in other cars)...there must be something else going on that is degrading the line-level input thru the aux-in connector.

So my point is that in the MINI (2nd Gen), you might get higher fidelity using a thumbdrive at 256k than an iPod using Apple lossless.

Sad, but apparently true.

 

I believe it's non-DRM'd MP3 and WMA that's compatible, not AAC.

The retrofit USB kit specifically mentions WAV files too.

 

I had forgotten how disappointed I was in how poorly the iPod worked in my car. After reading the thread linked above, I can now happily say I'm glad I have the iPod thingy in my car. Thanks for the link, blinkboy.

 

Just tried a few file types on a thumb drive...these played:

320k MP3
256k "purchased" AAC (m4a...same file extension as any a person rips from a CD)
128k WMA
64k WAV

This did not:

128k "protected" AAC (m4p)

I'm looking for a cheap/easy way to remove the DRM from my 750+ purchased AAC (m4p) songs I bought thru iTunes so I can play them via a thumb drive instead of the iPod.

 

There are 3 methods to do this.

First you can burn the songs to a Redbook CD and then rip them back to iTunes (I would go 256kbps). However you compound the negative audio artifacts with 2 lossy rips. I did this but ripped back to Apple Lossless so not to add any more artifacts. I only had a few (I buy CD's for quality, price, and hard backup) and this will take you a considerable time investment since you will have to do over 50 CD's.

Second you can get a program like Melody Can that can strip DRM for $20. That's only about 2.7¢ a song. Probably your best bet.

Third you can upgrade to the 256kbps DRM free version for 30¢ a song. On the plus you get a higher quality rip but of course the negative is $225.

 

Thanks for the tips...I hadn't come across "Melody Can" ($20)...I've found a few others, but they were all $35 and up.