Missing your in-car CD player?

[Rolfe]

I've merged this in with an earlier thread which goes into the issue in rather obsessive detail, mainly concentrating on the SE without folders (infotainment versions before R33), but it also has useful comments from Trophy owners.

The Trophy has always had the facility to use folders (if you can find it!) and that might be all you need. Some people have had trouble accessing that feature though. Have a look at the Trophy-related posts above.

 

[siteguru]

In the SE with 1100R33, using folders is added which allows you to play an album, but not in track order - it plays them in alphabetical order based on the Title field. My previous post and question was whether prepending the Title with the track number works, or whether the player only takes account of the first alpha character it encounters.

 

[Rolfe]

My experience suggests that the numbers work, but I can't be sure, not having had the update yet.

Yes, the comment about numbering is very useful and it would be my initial approach when I remove the leading character strings I put there to allow the player to work without folders.

See here. If I just remove the name of the composer and the name of the work I'm left with these numbers. Put the files in a couple of nested folders, the first with the name of the composer and the second with the name of the work, and my feeling is it will work.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

A quick look on Amazon and you can get a portable shockproof CD player rechargeable battery via USB and bluetooth enabled, sorted.

 

[siteguru]

I've created test folders on my pendrive ... Test1 prepends the Title with the track number (01 - Track Name) and Test2 prepends with Ann as the track number (A01 - Track Name). When I remember I'll test this in my car.

 

[Rolfe]

A quick look on Amazon and you can get a portable shockproof CD player rechargeable battery via USB and bluetooth enabled, sorted.

Fine. I want MG to ensure that the facility they provided in the car they sold me actually works, without me having to perform major work-rounds and/or buy additional equipment. Which fortunately they have done, although I don't yet have the update.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

One of the first lines in your OP was about having a stack of CDs you and everyone else can't play. Yes, there is a financial outlay but it does answer the original question.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes. That was last April. I'm sure we had this conversation before.

I prefer NOT to play the actual CDs in the car. I was doing that latterly with my Golf because the iPod I was using got corrupted and I didn't have the sense to repair it. It wasn't great. I was changing CDs while driving, and one expensive CD got a slight scratch on it.

MG provide a USB player with the car. It's advertised as having a USB player. It would be nice if the supplied player actually worked. Which it now does for everyone who has had the R33 update, so it's a solved problem. We're now just chatting about how best to handle the files and track names.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

I admire your tenacity after 10 months (apparently short by MG standards) of getting this to work. As it was my first reply to this thread it did seem the obvious solution. I don't understand USB players, file formats and the time and effort creating them, I like the simple approach.

The CD player in my van has just gone kaputt so I'm looking to replace it. My easiest solution is to get a half decent bluetooth speaker and use the music on the playlists on my phone. Both can run off a usb power supply and the van's system is just for the radio. I seem to recall the sage Bowfer in one of his calmer moments had something to say about USB players, as you can guess it wasn't very complementary, I cannot remember the exact wording.

 

[Rolfe]

It must have been someone else I had the exact same conversation with. The early part of the thread contains several well-meaning but irrelevant attempts to propose alternative solutions to MG's negligence in failing to provide a reasonably working facility as advertised. My point was, if one wants to use the USB player to play one's CDs in the car, it is possible to do it with a bit of effort.

I like not having to mess around with physical CDs in the car, but I like playing the music I paid for. My old Peugeot had a cassette in the boot that held six CDs, and if this was pre-loaded in the right order (I never quite managed to figure how to do that the first time of trying) then you were sorted for a long journey. My Golf was able to play iPod playlists (through a very unintuitive interface, but it got there in the end), so again by transferring the CDs to an iPod, it would work.

The MG4 doesn't read iPod files at all, but it will read mp3 files. This is OK except for the absence of folders. Now that has been rectified it's not so hard to do the transfers, and the whole thing is obviously going to work much more satisfactorily - when I get the update!

 

[Loveclose]

Thank you so much for your reply.
I have worked out that the USB music is being played in alphabetical order - thanks for your input on that.
I tried exactly what you said - A01, A02 etc - sorry, but that didn't work I'm afraid.
I then tried A01, B02, C03 etc.....that didn't work either. Something is making the system focus on the title alone and nothing preceding it??

Appreciate any further suggestions to see if I can get this working!!
Worked perfectly in my previous wagon!!!!!

 

[Rolfe]

Are you altering the TRACK names or the FILE names?

Altering the file names does nothing, you have to change the track names. I can't describe how long I fiddled with this before I managed to get it right. Actually, that's why the OP is so long and detailed - I kept dropping stitches and making mistakes and it would be wrong, so I wanted a record of exactly what I was doing so I could reproduce it.

I'll show another screen capture from my folder of music. Note that the first column, "Name", is completely irrelevant as far as the car is concerned. I only have that column as it is so that I can find the damn tracks on the computer if I want them.

The field, the column, the car is reading is the one labelled "Title". That is the TRACK name. That's the order in which the tracks will be played and it is the text that will scroll on the infotainment screen while the track is playing. (Hence one of the reasons I want to get rid of the composer and work names, but you already have that ability.)

I suspect you're changing the file names rather than the track names and that's why it isn't working for you.

 

[siteguru]

I've just tested it ... prepending the Title (not the File name) with the track number resolves the playing order ... so 01 - Track Name etc. is all that's needed. No need to use an Alpha character.

I use MP3TAG for editing meta data in music files.

 

[Loveclose]

The MP3TAG bit answered what my next question was going to be!!
I only see the file name in my current listing on my PC.....

Thanks for your help! I'll get on it....

 

[Loveclose]

I've just tested it ... prepending the Title (not the File name) with the track number resolves the playing order ... so 01 - Track Name etc. is all that's needed. No need to use an Alpha character.

I use MP3TAG for editing meta data in music files.

One word - YES!!!!!!!!!!!????

Ok, so not one word, but a few.
siteguru's fix with MP3TAG works. It's free to use.
Within 10 minutes of installation, I'd edited an album with 10 songs, changed the Title by adding the suggested numeric system, then out to the car.

Tracks play in proper sequence on that album now.
Thank you siteguru for your time in posting what is, for me, a definitive solution and easy fix for what could have been an enormously frustrating experience audio wise.

BTW - do folk here use the 3D sound module found in the Volume settings - for me, it completely transforms the in-car stereo sound.

 

[Ian Key]

I've just tested it ... prepending the Title (not the File name) with the track number resolves the playing order ... so 01 - Track Name etc. is all that's needed. No need to use an Alpha character.

I use MP3TAG for editing meta data in music files.

Good work. Just need to find a version that works on a Chromebook or a Linux version ?

 

[siteguru]

ChromeOS option? MP3 ID3 Tag Editor

Linux options? https://alternativeto.net/software/mp3tag/?platform=linux

 

[Rolfe]

Glad you're sorted, @Loveclose. As you described your problem I was taken back to when I did the bulk of my DVD transfers last April, and it kept on going wrong and I kept realising I was changing the track name not the file name...

I can't really use the tag editors though. See that "Contributing artists" column? I have edited that by hand, track by track, to name the actual singers who appear on the track in question. Otherwise I get (for example) Ramón Vinay and Gré Brouwenstijn singing, while the screen is telling me this is Hans Hotter and Astrid Varnay! Doing this also loses the album covers, due to the brain-dead way iTunes handles album art, and I haven't found a way to fix this. But it's worth it.

 

[ECourts]

Just getting used to my new Xpower (R46 software, which I think it the latest?) - this thread has been an interesting read as I've always used USB playback in previous cars, listening to PodCasts that I download and transfer to my USB stick. Using MP3tag to rename the Title tag to get the tracks in a usable order (by podcast title and date) has been a valuable tip to get things moving.
Two questions have arisen:

1. Is there anyway to restart a track where I left off after car powers down and restarts? - Most of my tracks are 30 minutes long and my drive to work is 25 minutes, so by the time I arrive the track is almost finished. When I come to go home the darned thing starts the same track again from the beginning rather than picking up where it left off, continuing to the end and moving to the next one as my previous car did.
2. Is there any way to fast forward or fast reverse through a track? The navigation controls only seem to leap back to the beginning of the current track or forward to the next track

Thanks!

 

[Rolfe]

My car always starts the track from where I stopped it. I think this is true even when I didn't pause the playback before I got out of the car, but usually I do pause the playback just to make sure. So I don't understand what yours is doing.

I don't know of any way to fast forward or reverse through a track though. Fortunately my music tracks don't often exceed 10 minutes.