Whinge: RNS-E Annoyances vs iPod brilliance

[brotherharry]

Annoyance #1 - Maybe I'm just spoiled by my iPod, but when I set the play mode with mp3 to 'shuffle' the thing will play random songs, but only within the same physical folder of music as oposed to literally picking any file. I suppose I could manually put all my songs into one folder, but when they're stored in folders on my PC and I want to pick an album it's bloody annoying.

Annoyance #2 - If you click next track whilst in shuffle mode, it will go to the next physical track in the list and switch off shuffle mode. bugger. I thought I was going crazy until I figured this out.

Annoyance #3 - Wouldn't it be nice if the system could read the tags of the mp3 files and actually play the files in their proper track order, rather than the alphabetical order of the file name. I really don't fancy renaming 15,000 mp3 files on my machine to start with track number.


Mitigation #1 - the Bose CD is brilliant and means I'm rediscovering the joys of uncompressed, album music

Mitigation #2 - it's an RS4

[klauster]

i personally dislike ipods, while i have one, its only because there isnt much else around that can compete with it, saying that, it comes to the gym, on planes and thats it. Gimme RNSE anyday, 8gb is fine for me capacity wise, and I dont have any issues with quality or the numbering

[PetrolDave]

Annoyance #1 - set repeat mode to Playlist/Dir, disable subdirectories and enable Mix (random).

Annoyance #2 - you don't have SW 0650 (0260 if you are in the US) do you? That fixes this bug.

Annoyance #3 - Audi goofed when they decided to keep the ancient CD changer interface. BTW the new 2010 models have an updated RNS-E that is supposed work with the Audi Music Interface (AMI) - which will give a PROPER iPod connection at last. But it still not proven, but the guys at www.audifoum.us are working on it (and how to retrofit a 2010 RNS-E to an older car).

[P_G]

Annoyance #3 - Wouldn't it be nice if the system could read the tags of the mp3 files and actually play the files in their proper track order, rather than the alphabetical order of the file name. I really don't fancy renaming 15,000 mp3 files on my machine to start with track number.

Do you mean that it plays the tracks in your album by alphabetical order of song name? Funny, mine plays them by track number listing. The only time the SD card runs alphabetically is through artists names and then album titles, but not actual track listings.

[PetrolDave]

Unless you use playlist files (.M3U) the RNS-E plays the MP3 files on an SD card in alphanumeric filename order.

Since most tracks are created as files including the track number and name e.g. "01 Track Name.mp3" it amounts to the same thing when you have a single album per folder, but if you have multiple albums per folder it will play all the Track 1 (in alphabetical order), followed by all the Track 2 (again in alphabetical order). etc. But, you might hear Track 1 from album A, B, C, ... but Track 2 from album C, A, B,... depending on the individual track names!

[brotherharry]

Annoyance #1 - set repeat mode to Playlist/Dir, disable subdirectories and enable Mix (random).

Okay I'll explore

Annoyance #2 - you don't have SW 0650 (0260 if you are in the US) do you? That fixes this bug.

I'm guessing not, vaguely remember an option somewhere to show software version so I'll check. presumably can get dealer to upgrade?

some stuff about order the tracks play in

Unfortunately I'd set up my ripping software to not have track numbers in the filename, hence they are ordered alphanumerically by the filename. I could roll up my sleeves and faff around with renaming en masse, but my media player (iTunes) would have to reindex everything and would probably lose play counts, ratings etc as they're not written into ID3 tags on the file. There's probably stuff out there that would help, but it would be painful.

[PetrolDave]

Annoyance #2 - you don't have SW 0650 (0260 if you are in the US) do you? That fixes this bug.

I'm guessing not, vaguely remember an option somewhere to show software version so I'll check. presumably can get dealer to upgrade?

Press Car and click on Version.

You don't need the dealer to do the upgrade, just get a newer map DVD and insert it - the SW upgrade happens automatically.

To get SW 0650 you need a 2009 or 2009_1 DVD.

[PetrolDave]

Unfortunately I'd set up my ripping software to not have track numbers in the filename, hence they are ordered alphanumerically by the filename. I could roll up my sleeves and faff around with renaming en masse, but my media player (iTunes) would have to reindex everything and would probably lose play counts, ratings etc as they're not written into ID3 tags on the file. There's probably stuff out there that would help, but it would be painful.

Sounds like yet another reason not to get "locked in" to iTunes and iPod

Personally I regard the iPod as the modern equivalent of "The Emperors New Clothes" - lots of people seem blind to the fact that it's just another MP3 player, but one that ties you in Apple's SW (iTunes). I'll stick to SD cards thank you, I can use all sorts of freeware to rip and download music and generate playlists - plus I don't have to put up with any of the stupidity of the (rubbish) Audi iPod interface (my car is more important to me than my music).

[brotherharry]

Press Car and click on Version.
You don't need the dealer to do the upgrade, just get a newer map DVD and insert it - the SW upgrade happens automatically.
To get SW 0650 you need a 2009 or 2009_1 DVD.

Checked at lunch and found I'm on SW 0500, which would make sense as the car was born in 2006 and still has the original SatNav DVD. Will get myself onto eBay for a 2009 version.

Sounds like yet another reason not to get "locked in" to iTunes and iPod

Agree and I'm not, I've been ripping CDs using Audiograbber with LAME even before I had iTunes as wanted portability of my music. I use iTunes to playback on my PC and to get the mp3s onto my iPods. May have to think about my Audiograbber settings in future.

Out of interest, you sound familiar with m3u playlist files. Presumably they just reference a path to the actual mp3 to play? How does that work when you're moving files onto the cards? Should the m3us be in the root of the card?

[PetrolDave]

Out of interest, you sound familiar with m3u playlist files. Presumably they just reference a path to the actual mp3 to play? How does that work when you're moving files onto the cards? Should the m3us be in the root of the card?

I use playlists on all my SD cards. Not only does it allow you to quickly select an album (and not play tracks that you really hate), it also allows you to choose what the 8 characters are that are shown in the DIS.

Yes the .M3U files are stored in the root of the card, and I tell the program I use to generate them (Playlist Creator 3 which is freeware) to use relative addresses so that the same playlists work on both my PC and on an SD card.

Here's a typical .M3U file:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:231,Dancing Queen
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\01 Dancing Queen.mp3
#EXTINF:242,Knowing Me, Knowing You
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\02 Knowing Me, Knowing You.mp3
#EXTINF:244,Take a Chance on Me
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\03 Take a Chance on Me.mp3
#EXTINF:213,Mamma Mia
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\04 Mamma Mia.mp3
#EXTINF:274,Lay All Your Love on Me
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\05 Lay All Your Love on Me.mp3
#EXTINF:253,Super Trouper
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\06 Super Trouper.mp3
#EXTINF:283,I Have a Dream
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\07 I Have a Dream.mp3
#EXTINF:295,The Winner Takes It All
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\08 The Winner Takes It All.mp3
#EXTINF:188,Money, Money, Money
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\09 Money, Money, Money.mp3
#EXTINF:201,S.O.S.
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\10 S.O.S.mp3
#EXTINF:326,Chiquitita
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\11 Chiquitita.mp3
#EXTINF:252,Fernando
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\12 Fernando.mp3
#EXTINF:262,Voulez-Vous
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\13 Voulez-Vous.mp3
#EXTINF:288,Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\14 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).mp3
#EXTINF:195,Does Your Mother Know
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\15 Does Your Mother Know.mp3
#EXTINF:237,One of Us
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\16 One of Us.mp3
#EXTINF:239,The Name of the Game
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\17 The Name of the Game.mp3
#EXTINF:231,Thank You for the Music
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\18 Thank You for the Music.mp3
#EXTINF:163,Waterloo
.\ABBA\Gold- Greatest Hits\19 Waterloo.mp3

The text at the end of the #EXTINF line is what's shown on the DIS when the file on the line after is played (the number is the length in seconds of the track, information that the RNS-E doesn't use).

[psg001]

i dont think i'm ever going to get an ipod, both my parents even have them and I dont!! Dont like the way you upload songs, found it a real pain, they work pretty well tho once the music is uploaded..

gotta say I am massively impressed with the memory card/mp3 system in the RNS-E, it works really well. Screw apple!!

[RocketShip4]

Regardless of whether you like the ipod/apple/marmite or not, the Audi ipod kit in the RS4 is poor at best.

[victor2vt]

Take my Satnav disc out, put music cd in, seeeeemple !!!

[PetrolDave]

the Audi ipod kit in the RS4 is poor at best.

Second that, currently the only decent iPod kit in Audis is in cars with the "real" MMI.

[approved]

alpine kit through tv tuner is pretty good as an alternative if you want your full library of music with you.