[Guest]

I don't have my car yet but know from using them in Tom Toms, phones and a friend's VW that not all SD cards are the same. Different brands perform differently in terms of speed while some just don't work when others with the same nominal capacity do. Would it be an idea to post on here people's experiences (ie which cards they have used successfully and which ones, if any, gave problems). I read on a US forum that one owner has successfully used a Kingston 16Gb card having first tried a 4Gb card from another maker in vain.

Also, is there a maximum bitrate the Audi system (the HDD and the card readers) can read and can it read variable bit rate files?

 

[stevepen]

Hi Toodeep

I successfully use a Kingston 4Gb SDHC card to upload to the jukebox and all files are standard 128kbps ripped from mediaplayer.

Hope this helps

 

[hankscorpion]

Hi guys.. i use a Sandisk 8gb SDHC and it works with no problems at all.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so far.

Has anyone used a card or bitrate that didn't work? I'm starting to compile tracks to upload early.

 

[Rahoo]

I use my camera's one, just a note, if you drag fropm itunes its sorts the songs on the albums in alphabetical order !

 

[Guest]

I read somewhere that the current workaround is to include the track number as part of the title so that, for example, "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" becomes "01 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"and therefore 'alphabetically' first while "A Day In The Life" becomes "13 A Day In The Life" and 'alphabetically' last. Presumably it's the ID3 Tag that has to be edited. It's not elegant but some albums need to play in the right order so until someone comes up with another idea . . . . .

 

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I had (successfully) tried to use 32GB SDHC cards (Verbatim brand). I have Q5 built in Wk40 2009 with Audi Concert radio with 1 SD slot which does read SDHC cards, therefore accepts up to 32GB.

As far as I know, Audi started to install music equipment with SDHC-compatible card readers somewhere at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. I know that the latest A4's (model from Dec.2007) can't read SDHC cards, and all Q5's can.

The card readers in MMI and in the Concert and Symphony radios should be identical (although MMI has two reader slots).

However, I would like to share my experience with organizing of the music files on the SD card.
Initially, I copied all the files from my iTunes directory onto the SD card. I did follow Audi's official instructions to create a "_music" folder in the root of the SD card, and then store all subfolders into it. The folders of iTunes are organized according to the names of singers/bands, then one subfolder for each album. When I loaded the SD card with such folder structure, it took the Audi Concert radio around 5 minutes (or more) to read it. And even then it displayed only 20% of the songs (I had around 3000 songs on the SD card).
What I did next was to reorganize the folders. I kept the "_music" folder in the root of the SD card (although this is irrelevant) and created 26 folders from A to Z, and copied the music files into the respective folders according to the name of the singer/band. With this version of folder structure, the Audi Concert radio reads the card in 10 seconds and it does display all 3000 songs. (The card is 60% full).

Greetings,

 

[Guest]

Hi billy

I think there may be a limit to the number of folders at each level. Let's say that limit is 99 (just a guess but the figure rings a bell from previous research for a TT/iPod interface). The first method you tried might well have come up with in excess of 99 artist folders leading to the difficulty you had. Your revised method resulted in only 26 folders and, presumably, fewer than 99 artists folders in each; fewer than 99 album folders for each artist and fewer than 99 tracks for each album. Just a theory unless there is something you can think of that pours cold water on it.

It is perfect for me that you have posted your experience now as I am busy creating SD cards in anticipation of taking delivery of a Q5. It is also handy to know that I can move up to 32Gb. Thank you.

 

[Guest]

In anticipation of my Q5, which is due to be built week 50, I also have created a compilation for 'Jukebox.' I have done this using the advice as posted earlier i.e. 26 sub folders. Cannot wait until January 2010 to take delivery and to try it out. All the very best and thanks for the information.

 

[Guest]

Hi Toodeep,

Just to add that I didn't make any subfolders into those 26 A-Z folders, but had put all tracks from all artists beginning on the same letter in the same subfolder.

This way, you will save yourself from two extra clicks on the MMI interface each time you want to play another artist, and the average number of files in each folder will be still bellow 500 as Audi recommends (if you take 32GB card, which is a maximum for the MMI and which holds approx. 7000 songs, divided by 26, comes to an average of 270 files per folder).

Also, check this one out: http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/new_c ... Q_USB.html under the title "Are there any recommendations as to an "optimum folder structure?"

BTW, does anyone have experience with *playlists*? I have tried the .m3u format with relative paths to files, and tried with the playlist-file saved into every possible folder (the root and the subfolders) and still the MMI cannot find any playlists on the SD card. As it is currently by me, it's very impractical to have to go manually from one track to another...

Greetings,

 

[Guest]

I have a 16gb with a-z folders and that works. Its an Ultra II card. But I discovered another problem. It seems that the reader is extremley senseative and a lot says that the title is incorrect or damaged. Has any one the same problem with downloaded CDs? Has anyone a program that fixes it after the download? Or is it just to download a new song from the internet that fixes it?
Thx Kjell

 

[Kaine]

i think (however may be wrong) that track name length can cause problems - can you see if the problem tracks have long artist/album/track names?

Kaine

 

[Guest]

Maybee that could be one problem but i allso noticed that the first song often is damaged. And records with the least little scratch has problems. The strange thing is that the Cd palyer has no problem with the songs.

 

[Guest]

I found a way to fix it! Rip the CDs with windows mediaplayer 11 instead of Itunes. When I did this all songs where played and none where reported damaged! You still need A-Z kataloges for the Car to bee able to read the SDHC card but that is a little effort. It syncronises easy aswell with the cataloge.