Questions about iPod/USB MP3 Control without iDrive/Nav

[simianspeedster]

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to start an iDrive battle! My wife's 3 Series has the latest iDrive, but I don't think it's for me -- I like to keep things simple.

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I'm starting to put together my wish list for an 135i order. Right now, I don't plan on ordering iDrive/Nav, but I will order the upgraded (Harmon Kardon) stereo. My questions:

1) Does the iPod/USB integration in the 1 Series work like the 3 Series such that I can just use a USB key and not an iPod? That works great in my wife's car.

2) Can someone please explain how MP3 control works without iDrive? How do you browse folders/artists/albums/songs using the regular stereo interface? Is it intuitive or difficult?

3) Does artist/album/song information display on the stereo interface and/or the screen between the speedometer and tachometer?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

-simianspeedster

[acivick]

1. Yes. (With the interface)

2. You mostly use the right knob on the stereo. Kind of hard to do while on the road though.

3. Stereo interface. See #2.

I just put in a USB stick with all my songs and leave it on random. Skipping songs can be done from the steering wheel.

Hope that helps.

[nordique14]

1) Yes. I use a USB key to play music.

2) You scroll through the directories/songs with the right knob on the radio. You then press the knob to open the directory/play the song. Very simple. The problem is that you only have 2 lines on the display so it takes a while to scroll if you have lots of entries in the directory. you will want to have a good system to break the directories into smaller sections for quicker scrolling. There are a couple of threads on what people use for directory structures.

3) The info displays on the stereo not on the gauge cluster. Once again it is only 2 lines so you may have scroll through it all to see of the artist/album/song info if you want to see all of the tag info.

[sdpauly]

as people mentioned, the 2 lines to see your songs is kind of lame.

the CD player will also read/play disks that have mp3 files burned on them.

I have a little 2G thumb drive and I just pick a bunch of songs off of my computer at home and dump them to the thumb drive. Then just set the stereo to random.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by acivick

I just put in a USB stick with all my songs and leave it on random. Skipping songs can be done from the steering wheel.

Put it on Random! Where IS the random button??? I have not seen a random option on my HU. Help me out buddy!

To the OP... I have the USB/Ipod without Navi. I really like being able to play MP3s thru the HU. When you scroll thru the song list.... you can see folders and use the right round radio nob to cycle thru the song list or folders. Its kind of like an old version of Windows Explorer with little + and - next to each sub set folder. Its pretty easy to navigate.

[Feyd]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Put it on Random! Where IS the random button??? I have not seen a random option on my HU. Help me out buddy!

One of the stereo preset buttons changes function when you are using the an Ipod/USB.

Look to the left of the return arrow (on the right side of the preset button bank). I think it's labeled RND.

[jc_lbc]

Does anyone know if the USB/CD will play any of the loss-less formats like flac or aac? I figure I'll have to get a specific player for that and hook it in like an iPod but if it will play them off a USB drive, all the better.

[ennislaw]

Originally Posted by jc_lbc

Does anyone know if the USB/CD will play any of the loss-less formats like flac or aac? I figure I'll have to get a specific player for that and hook it in like an iPod but if it will play them off a USB drive, all the better.

I use Apple Lossless (AAC) all the time both on an iPod and iPhone, plays without problem. I only have the iPod/USB Adapter option. Never tried it off a USB drive.

pge

[nordique14]

Originally Posted by ennislaw

I use Apple Lossless (AAC) all the time both on an iPod and iPhone, plays without problem. I only have the iPod/USB Adapter option. Never tried it off a USB drive.

The USB port is not playing the music when you use an iPhone or iPod. the sounds comes from the AUX jack.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Feyd

One of the stereo preset buttons changes function when you are using the an Ipod/USB.

Look to the left of the return arrow (on the right side of the preset button bank). I think it's labeled RND.

Ok, cool! Thanks for the heads up! :P

[jc_lbc]

Originally Posted by nordique14

The USB port is not playing the music when you use an iPhone or iPod. the sounds comes from the AUX jack.

I should have been more clear... what I'm wondering is if I burned a disc or copied flac or aac files to a thumb drive (preferably flac as that's how I've encoded much of my music), would they play through the head unit or USB port as MP3s would?

[fwmcb]

It works pretty slick and if you click the track button it will give you more information on the track. I normally stick my ipod in it.

[nordique14]

Originally Posted by jc_lbc

I should have been more clear... what I'm wondering is if I burned a disc or copied flac or aac files to a thumb drive (preferably flac as that's how I've encoded much of my music), would they play through the head unit or USB port as MP3s would?

aac will play via USB. wma and mp3 also play. not sure about flac.

edit: looks like flac will not play

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165082

[DtE1]

For those who like to listen to audiobooks on long trips, I have found that Audible's enhanced format (their highest quality audio format) does not work when connecting your iPod via the interface cable. Format 4 (which has files half the size of the enhanced format) works fine.

[ennislaw]

Originally Posted by nordique14

The USB port is not playing the music when you use an iPhone or iPod. the sounds comes from the AUX jack.

Well, as I said, I've never used lossless on USB. In fact, never used a USB flash drive.

pge

[simianspeedster]

Thanks for all the great feedback, folks. I'll be working with my local dealer to drive whatever 1 Series they have in stock so I can get a feel for the car. If they have a non iDrive, I'll take a moment to poke around the stereo system as well.

FWIW, I think my wife's car chokes on WAV files, but it plays MP3s flawlessly. I've been re-ripping my collection to uncompressed WAV and I use MediaMonkey (great app) to manage everything. When I sync playlists/music to my wife's USB key, it automatically knows to convert the WAV files to MP3 on the fly. I load her up with about 40 albums at a time, so that lasts her for many weeks!

-simianspeedster

[fwmcb]

I had idrive on the e92, but I like not having it on the 1er. it handles the songs and everything in a similar fashion to the idrive, just less fiddling.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Feyd

One of the stereo preset buttons changes function when you are using the an Ipod/USB.

Look to the left of the return arrow (on the right side of the preset button bank). I think it's labeled RND.

Hi Feyd,

YuP! You were right my friend! When you listen to MP3's thru the USB flash drive port... the "RND" button lets the audio system randomly select tracts from that folder you are in. Its very nice!

Thanks again for the heads up.

David

[MotoWPK]

Originally Posted by nordique14

1) Yes. I use a USB key to play music.

2) You scroll through the directories/songs with the right knob on the radio. You then press the knob to open the directory/play the song. Very simple. The problem is that you only have 2 lines on the display so it takes a while to scroll if you have lots of entries in the directory. you will want to have a good system to break the directories into smaller sections for quicker scrolling. There are a couple of threads on what people use for directory structures.

3) The info displays on the stereo not on the gauge cluster. Once again it is only 2 lines so you may have scroll through it all to see of the artist/album/song info if you want to see all of the tag info.

I know this is an old thread, but as mentioned, it takes a long time to scroll through the folders on a USB drive when you have a lot of folders (in my case, 162 folders, each containing an album). Have wondered if there is not some way to 'jump' to albums or artists beginning with a selected letter to speed things up (posted this question a few days ago - no response, I suspect because there is no way to do this directly).

Continuing my search I came across the above quoted post discussing this issue and mentioning there are a couple of threads on what people use for directory structures to address this. Haven't been able to find these. Anybody know where these threads might be?