MFT music playback questions

[StunnedMonkey]

On the off chance my EX ever arrives a question.

If I load mp3's on an SD card or USB stick, I can play them directly through mft, right? How long does it take mft to inventory a 32 gb card? If I leave the card in all the time, does it need to re-inventory the card every time I start up? What kind of browsing options do you have? Will it only play playlists or can I simply browse by artist and album on the fly? How clunky is this in mft? Will my album art display from an sd card?

If my iPhone is paired by Bluetooth but I'm playing music from an sd card, will mft switch to the phone for the Call then back to the tunes?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

 

[WDinSD]

On the off chance my EX ever arrives a question.

If I load mp3's on an SD card or USB stick, I can play them directly through mft, right? How long does it take mft to inventory a 32 gb card? If I leave the card in all the time, does it need to re-inventory the card every time I start up? What kind of browsing options do you have? Will it only play playlists or can I simply browse by artist and album on the fly? How clunky is this in mft? Will my album art display from an sd card?

If my iPhone is paired by Bluetooth but I'm playing music from an sd card, will mft switch to the phone for the Call then back to the tunes?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

I can't speak for the USB, I havent tried it yet. I can say with IPhone 4 it doesn't display the album art on mft. However you can just use the iPhone as always (have to pick it up, and flip though it). Any
Album or playlist will play almost instantly. It rocks. If you make a call the song pauses and resumes when the call ends.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I can't speak for the USB, I havent tried it yet. I can say with IPhone 4 it doesn't display the album art on mft. However you can just use the iPhone as always (have to pick it up, and flip though it)

What I envisioned was having two good-sized drives (one SD and one USB) inserted all of the time...one with Rock, one with Jazz. They key for me to make this work would be that MFT didn't need to re-catalog every time I start up, and also that it is easy to navigate. I'd use my iPhone for Podcasts and Pandora as you describe...just using the phone for control

So I'm hoping that someone has used an SD card or USB thumb drive for music playback and can describe how well this works.

 

[Pas1963]

Monkey - I use an 8gb USB stick loaded with music. Music plays fine, album art is spotty - not a big deal to me. Whole albums work fine, if you have a bunch of singles thrown into a miscellaneous folder that can be spotty. Getting 2.8 loaded today so will see if that makes a difference. The 8gb indexed and build commands in about 3-4 minutes so a 32 shouldn't take too long as well. If you have Navigation that will occupy the SD card slot but the car will hold 2 USB thumb drives.

 

[Pas1963]

Sorry, didn't see the second question. It only indexes if something has changed, not everytime you start the car. Playlists work ok but i had to build them using Windows Media Player and copy directly to the USB drive. Biggest headache i see is special characters like apostrophies in song titles and album names cause some issue, again I hope 2.8 might fix that, if not then editing the names of songs and albums will help.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Sorry, didn't see the second question. It only indexes if something has changed, not everytime you start the car. Playlists work ok but i had to build them using Windows Media Player and copy directly to the USB drive.

Thanks. That's a relief that it doesn't need to reindex each time. I don't use playlists. Is it easy to navigate by artist/album, or is it clunky?

 

[Pas1963]

It is easy, the menu offers browse options by Artist or Album, if you pick Artist you can then select Album or play all. Also the voice commands work well. "Play Artist <name>" or " Play Album <name>" or even "Play Track <name>".

 

[drumguru1]

Just a heads up. I think the SD slot is for Nav. only. At least thats what my dealership told me.

 

[kblee]

Just a heads up. I think the SD slot is for Nav. only. At least thats what my dealership told me.

That is correct, but there are 2 USB ports. So - he should still be OK

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Just a heads up. I think the SD slot is for Nav. only. At least thats what my dealership told me.

This FAQ suggests that the SD card can be used for music:

http://www.syncmyride.com/own/modules/faqmanagement/FaqList.aspx?tagId=604#question656

I'm not getting NAV, so maybe that's the difference? But if the SD slot won't work I can always use USB. I just happen to have a 32 gb SD card sitting here doing nothing.

 

[sdm9465]

I have some problems with USB drives but I'm still on v2.4. I originally used a 32GB drive. This worked for a week or two (with long indexing times and re-indexing most times I started the vehicle) but then I couldn't get it to work. There was some error about it being incompatible or faulty. Even removing it and reinserting it later didn't correct the problem. I moved that one to my 2009 and it works just fine there. Go figure.

The 16GB drive from my 2009 is now in the 2011. It always works but still re-indexes frequently and it takes quite a while. So far I find the USB drive functionality is not as good as it is in the 2009. Hopefully upgrading to v2.8 will change this.

 

[PVC25]

I do not have NAV, so I use a 16 GB SD card that is loaded with about 8 gigs of music.

They are broken up into folders, and then albums within my albums folders.

It indexes and build commands every time I start the car up. It takes about 3 minutes to complete this.

I am running 2.8

Once the index and commands are generated, you can browse playlists, or artists, individual songes etc. You can also manually browse.

My album art has been spot on as well.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

It indexes and build commands every time I start the car up. It takes about 3 minutes to complete this.

Eh, if it really indexes each time you start up then that'll be a deal breaker. If 8 gb takes 3 minutes, then 32 gb would take 12, and a pair of 32's would take 24. I mean, I stop at the liquor store, come out, and have to wait 24 minutes for tunes? No way that will fly.

I mean 3 minutes isn't bad but for only 8 GB I'd just keep the music on my phone. What I was hoping for is a much larger music collection stored full time.

Oh well.

 

[Pas1963]

I leave mine plugged in all the time and it does not re-index every time I turn the car on.

 

[drumguru1]

I leave mine plugged in all the time and it does not re-index every time I turn the car on.

Yeah if you leave in in there it won't reindex everytime. Plus our sales guy says that in his car with MFT it indexes his phone via usb in 1 minute for 32 gbs.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Yeah if you leave in in there it won't reindex everytime. Plus our sales guy says that in his car with MFT it indexes his phone via usb in 1 minute for 32 gbs.

Ok. Seems like a YMMV sort of thing. Guess I'll find out how it works for me when (eh, if?) mt EX shows up.

 

[jedimike]

I use a 32Gb Zune HD and have found that I use voice commands 95% of the time. My most frequent command is "play playlist xyz" followed closely by "play artist xyz" (xyz being a ficticous example... not the actual group). Anyway... browsing through MFT is too slow and I only do that when I can't decide what I want to listen to.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Ok. If I say "play artist Green Day" and I have Dookie, Insomniac, and American Idiot all on there, what does it play? Does it just start on track one on the first alphabetical album? Random?

 

[GrillCosby]

On the off chance my EX ever arrives a question.

If I load mp3's on an SD card or USB stick, I can play them directly through mft, right? How long does it take mft to inventory a 32 gb card? If I leave the card in all the time, does it need to re-inventory the card every time I start up? What kind of browsing options do you have? Will it only play playlists or can I simply browse by artist and album on the fly? How clunky is this in mft? Will my album art display from an sd card?

If my iPhone is paired by Bluetooth but I'm playing music from an sd card, will mft switch to the phone for the Call then back to the tunes?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

Not stupid at all. Good sound in a ride is paramount to having a good riding experience. If you don't mind a bit of crackle but a solid sound regardless, you can find an AM/FM transmitter that has a USB INput - and hook it up to any device you want. I have a transmitter that has the iphone jack, headphone jack in - and a usb in. it was like 25 bucks, and worth it.

 

[jedimike]

Ok. If I say "play artist Green Day" and I have Dookie, Insomniac, and American Idiot all on there, what does it play? Does it just start on track one on the first alphabetical album? Random?

Good question... I assumed it was chronological by year, but it could be coincidence so I have to verify. You can also say "play album dookie." For me, the audio commands work flawlessly. The only time it messes up is when I'm not in the correct section. For example, you can't issue entertainment commands when you're in the climate section.