Still not worked out this USB media player yet ...

[TheDufster]

I feel your pain but I gave up on the USB route years ago following the trouble with trying to navigate through the music in an effective manner.

Up until about a year ago, I had a 6th Generation iPod Classic (120gb) on which I could get all of my music so had everything to hand to suit whatever mood I was in when in the car. I had it on a brodit mount and the solution worked very well for many years. I'm not into Apple so it was the only Apple product I owned - didn't want to use iTunes so used MediaMonkey (OCD!) to sync everything from my music collection onto the iPod. But the key was I had ALL of my music in one place for the car. I connected it to the car via mini-jack.

However, I now use the free version of Google Play to access my own entire music collection and do it all with my phone. It connects via Bluetooth (no cable) and is really easy to navigate, choose tracks, playlists etc.). The downside is that it could hit your pocket depending on what phone provider plan you are on (I am fortunate as mine is covered through work and the data useage isn't actually that high). I can also use the phone to listen to the 3 or 4 regular weekly podcast/shows that I like on BBC iPlayer Radio (downloaded on wifi before I leave the house) and also to occasionally stream any songs that I don't have using Deezer.

Might be worth looking at the way you do things to see if there is a better way.

[Walter Eagle]

Aargh! This has got to be the most cack-handed mp3 player ever! (And no, I really don't think it's just me.)

Even after ensuring I was well within the Volvo limits I mentioned in a previous thread, I found there were still items missing from the library lists. I'd first noticed entire albums missing, but it was only when I noticed certain tracks missing from individual albums that I suspected something else was involved.

And yes, after more experimenting, it appears there is a maximum length issue for the track names. I haven't quite got it narrowed down to an exact figure yet, and I'm not sure if it's the file name, the entire path name to that file, or the track name as contained in the mp3 tags. Honestly, Volvo! Did you get this software from some 14-year-old lad hanging around the back of Gothenburg railway station in exchange for a packet of cigarettes and a couple of cans of lager? It's dreadful.

(And as part of a more general rant, did I ever mention how much I dislike touch screens? I really don't like them in any application. They're filthy, imprecise, etc. I can't help thinking that in 50 years' time people will look back at this time and say, "Can you believe it? Back at the turn of the century, they actually used to use things called touch screens? Amazing. What made them think that was a good idea?" And using a touch screen in a right-hand drive car when the majority of drivers are also right-handed - would you really say that was good ergonomics or human-machine interface design? In a left-hand drive car I might accept the argument, even if I don't agree with it. But right-hand drive, no.)

And despite all these whinges, I do like my XC90 in so many other ways. I think it's because of all the other ways in which I find it excellent that when I come across issues like this I feel they're just letting the car down. It's like a well-decorated and well-furnished room where someone hasn't painted one of the walls and left the plaster showing. Why? Well, it just looks as though they couldn't be bothered.

If I thought there were any means of communicating directly with Volvo I'd do it. I'm sorry that it's you guys who get the rough edge of my moans and gripes here. I would love an official manufacturer channel for user feedback on issues like software, ease-of-use, suggested improvements, and for Volvo to likewise offer explanations or clarifications. We could learn so much from each other.

Oh well, onwards with the mp3 experiments. Nipping in and out to the car of an evening, in between the rain showers. Make a change on my PC, test it out on the Volvo, make another change, do another test etc. I suppose it's better than just staring at the TV all night.

Walter

[Lexman8]

I hope you post the results of your investigations. Could be very helpful to others.

I had touch-screen on my Lexus and it was infinitely better than the knobs and buttons system I have on the Merc.

[Walter Eagle]

So, the continuing saga ...

As far as I can determine there is a limit on both file name length and the full path name length. If you exceed these limits the corresponding mp3 file will just be ignored, it's as if it doesn't exist and it won't appear in the Library lists.

So, what are these limits, I hear you ask? Well, this is all empirical and I've no actual model or theory that would explain what I've seen. I've analysed over 100 of the tracks on my USB stick, some of which were displayed and some which weren't. (Over 100?! - is the man mad?)

I can't get any file to display if the filename is longer than 60 characters or the full pathname is longer than about 125 characters. I'm much more certain about the filename limit. I haven't been able to tie down an exact pathname length where, for example,124 works but 125 doesn't. I just need to create a whole range of artificial pathnames incrementing up through the numbers. I haven't gone that mad. Yet. There are also a couple of anomalies I've found that appear to fit both requirements, and still won't play. There may be other factors at work.

For filename, I'm talking about the length of the mp3 filename, as you'd see it in Windows Explorer, not counting the .mp3 extension itself.
For full pathname, I'm referring to the folder names, plus separators, plus the filename as above.

Example: I store my music files as \ArtistName\AlbumTitle\01-TrackTitle.mp3
In this case the filename is 01-TrackTitle and is 13 characters and the pathname is \ArtistName\AlbumTitle\01-TrackTitle and is 36 characters.

So, why are these generous limits a problem to me?
Well, one of the albums that doesn't show at all in my Library lists is by a classical group where the ArtistName is "European Brandenburg Ensemble" (bang goes 29 characters straightaway!). The album has the magnificent title "BACH - Six Concertos for the Margrave of Magdeburg" (another 50 characters!) and then a typical track is "01-J.S. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major - (i) ohne satzbezeichnung". This one bursts through the limits on every count! At the other extreme I also have "\Adele\25\01-Hello" which clocks in at a space-saving 18 characters including VAT.

So, could I go back to all my music files and re-edit them to fit within Volvo's arbitrary limits? Yes, obviously. But I have spent literally years carefully cataloguing a large music collection, on a variety of media, with a consistent and, to me, logically correct, naming convention for both internal tags and filenames. I hate to throw it in again, but my old Audi's four-year-old player software never once rejected a file. Some extra long names went beyond the width of its display, and the names got chopped off, but it d@mn well played 'em!

Regards

Walter

[Lexman8]

I guess you've seen this in the manual:

Storage on USB device
In order for the system to read the USB device correctly, the following specifications must be followed. No folder structure will be shown in the
centre display during playback.

Max number of:

Files - 15000
Folders - 1000
Folder levels - 8
Playlists - 100
Items in a playlist - 1000
Subfolders - No limit

[Walter Eagle]

Hi Lexman8

I mentioned in post #12 here "Even after ensuring I was well within the Volvo limits I mentioned in a previous thread ..."
The previous thread was this one, so yes I had eventually spotted these limits in the manual. Thanks for searching these out anyway.

But as you can see, there are these other limits I've discovered that Volvo make no reference to at all which do seriously affect the car's ability to play music. Incidentally, I hacked down the names of everything associated with that Brandenburg Concertos recording I mentioned, and it all plays perfectly. So nothing wrong with the files themselves obviously.

No doubt, there will be a V17.3.1c software release at some point in the distant future that will provide all the basic functionality that's missing. Fingers crossed ...

Walter

[Walter Eagle]

... oh, and incidentally, I've no idea what Volvo mean by a "playlist". They've given no idea what format the playlist file should be, where it should be located, or how the contents should be organised. I tried creating an .m3u file, as I was suing mp3s, and I tried various alternatives for the paths I used inside the file -
\<artist>\<album>\<filename>.mp3
..\<artist>\<album>\<filename>.mp3
I even tried with a single mp3 file in the same root folder as the m3u file and just using the <filename>.mp3 in the m3u.
Nothing worked.

Apologies to everyone - I really have become much too over-focused on this one little bit of the car! It's like complaining about the grade of plastic the tyre valve caps have been made from. But the difference is, I could replace these if I wanted!

Walter

[Lexman8]

If you want to create an alternate set of files with names that are compatible with the Volvo but without having to do each one individually I can highly recommend this utility: http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

It's an extremely powerful editor that allows you to make complex changes to multiple files with little effort. Here's some of what it can do:

· Change the file name, or use a fixed filename
· Convert the extension to lower case, upper case, title case or replace it or add a secondary extension - or remove it - or leave it alone!
· Replace text with other text
· Add a fixed prefix or suffix
· Add text to the middle of a name
· Remove the first n characters
· Remove the last n characters
· Remove from the nth character to the nth character
· Remove a list of characters
· Remove all digits, characters or symbols
· Remove double-spaces
· Crop text before or after a fixed character or text (or from anywhere in a name using a wildcard)
· Change to upper case, lower case, title case, sentence case - all with user-defined exceptions
· Auto-number files, with a prefix or suffix, and with a predefined minimum-length if required.
· Prefix or suffix the filename with various dates (date-modified, accessed, created, or today's date), in many different formats with variable separators
· Append the folder name to the file (with multiple levels)
· Store your frequently-used criteria as Favourites
· Copy or move the renamed files to a new location
· Set or clear attributes on the files (not folders)
· Rename files according to a delimited list.
· Access the Shell Context Menu for all files/folders
· Process folders and sub-folders very quickly.
· Change a file or folder's Created, Modified and Accessed timestamps (not folders in Windows 98)
· Convert Roman Numerals to upper or lower case
· Log all activity to a text-file
· Create an UNDO batch file.
· Extract certain EXIF tags from JPEG, TIFF, .NEF, .CR2 and and .CRW files
· Extract certain ID3 tags (V1 and V1.1) from MP3 files
· Drag files directly from within Windows Explorer

[TheDufster]

Drop the USB stick and put the music on your phone. You can then play via Bluetooth and navigate much easier using the music player interface on the phone.

[Walter Eagle]

Hi Dufster

There are a lot of threads on a variety of topics currently that all seem to end up with "... forget it. It's just another software/firmware/electronic bug in the XC90." You're suggesting that this is just another thing to be filed in the same category.

I'm really despondent that this expensive vehicle has been launched with quite such a barrel-load of beta-grade software.

Oh well ... more fool me. Let's hope a little more care has been taken over testing and verifying cruise control, lane warnings, steering control, braking and all these other modules of code littered around the car.

Walter