Speeding up Bolero SD, possible solution

[Harlequin]

So you can't hit the hazard light switch easily now? I know it's not used often, but I do like to have unfettered access to that button

Lol, remind me not to drive near you!

Anyway from a post some time back when we both just taken deliver of our cars I seem to remember you have checked the auto, oh **** hazard lights so jobs a good un

[john999boy]

I'm not too sure what Harlequins Parrot has to do with speeding up the Boleros SD card but at least Raglits seems to be veering over to the playlist camp.

That just leaves Evening Star who did try in another thread but was defeated by Winamps playlist creation and his apparent lack of ID tags.

Edited 14 April, 2010 by john999boy

[Evening Star]

Never have used IDTags, they take up space and are unnecessary.

[Raglits]

I'm not too sure what Harlequins Parrot has to do with speeding up the Boleros SD card but at least Raglits seems to be veering over to the playlist camp.

That just leaves Evening Star who did try in another thread but was defeated by Winamps playlist creation and his apparent lack of ID tags.

I think Harlequin is pointing out that if you get the Parrot installed for bluetooth handsfree you can use an SD card in that and the mix works properly...

I'm only thinking about it... haven't turned to the playlist side yet

[john999boy]

Never have used IDTags, they take up space and are unnecessary.

That's the equivalent of saying you want to pick a radio station to listen to but not to see what it is :S

I can't imagine what an ipod looks like with no ID tags or pictures attached. Well actually I can - it would be RUBBISH

As for taking up space, I'm sure that you could probably drive all the way to Moscow (extremely slowly) and still not have heard all the ID tagged mp3 tracks on a 16gb card!

You'd be hard pressed to remember the 1193 different artists names that you have let alone the 2590 tracks without ID tags

I think Harlequin is pointing out that if you get the Parrot installed for bluetooth handsfree you can use an SD card in that and the mix works properly...

I'm only thinking about it... haven't turned to the playlist side yet

I didn't realise it could do that but it still wouldn't be as 'integrated' as a properly working Bolero would it?

[Harlequin]

I think Harlequin is pointing out that if you get the Parrot installed for bluetooth handsfree you can use an SD card in that and the mix works properly...

I'm only thinking about it... haven't turned to the playlist side yet

Indeed, can't be at all arsed with the Bolero SD too clunky. Apologies if I offended your delicate sensibilities though John

Edited 14 April, 2010 by Harlequin

[Harlequin]

I didn't realise it could do that but it still wouldn't be as 'integrated' as a properly working Bolero would it?

not sure what you mean by integrated. If you literally mean having a "non modded" dash (or wherever you mount it) no.

However the 9200 parrot kit I have had a 3 inch display and integration for SD, USB, Iphone and 3.5mm. It has a remote that is attachable to the steering wheel which allows full control of the unit, phone, voice dialling and such.

It takes about 3 seconds to read my 16GB SD, it will then allow me to play either totally randon, per artist, album, genre etc.

All in all, if you dont mind the extra costs I think it provides a better option than the Bolero, though for everything but SD the Bolero isnt a bad unit.

Perhaps at some point they will upgrade the processor or software to the same as the columbus to sort the playback issue, but that doesnt help at the moment.

[Evening Star]

Now I've just told Itunes to do the ID3 tags to 2599 tracks to ID3 v2.4, lets see what happens now!

[john999boy]

Indeed, can't be at all arsed with the Bolero SD too clunky. Apologies if I offended your delicate sensibilities though John

Clunky it may be but only when it's not used with playlists and thank you for caring about me so much

not sure what you mean by integrated. If you literally mean having a "non modded" dash (or wherever you mount it) no.

Perhaps at some point they will upgrade the processor or software to the same as the columbus to sort the playback issue, but that doesnt help at the moment.

It's similar to the Columbus v TomTom debates. Columbus looks better and is the preferred fitment but TomTom performs better. In that case though it costs a lot more to keep the 'integrated' look.

Agreed on the 2nd point - one difference however - my workaround cost a bit of time (maybe not too long if cheesemonkhai gets involved) , yours cost a bit of money. As a consequence you do get 'free' bluetooth lol.

[Harlequin]

Clunky it may be but only when it's not used with playlists and thank you for caring about me so much

It's similar to the Columbus v TomTom debates. Columbus looks better and is the preferred fitment but TomTom performs better. In that case though it costs a lot more to keep the 'integrated' look.

Agreed on the 2nd point - one difference however - my workaround cost a bit of time (maybe not too long if cheesemonkhai gets involved) , yours cost a bit of money. As a consequence you do get 'free' bluetooth lol.

Tis true. Actually the SD was an additional benefit I didnt realise about till the unit got delivered. I got the Parrot as I wanted bluetooth in the car and didnt want a DSG. Mine has ESP too as it seems to choose music to suit my moods. Lots of Rage against the machine of late.

Anyone know if there is such a thing as software upgrades for the Boleros?

[john999boy]

Now I've just told Itunes to do the ID3 tags to 2599 tracks to ID3 v2.4, lets see what happens now!

I'm suprised that iTunes didn't embed ID tags into it's music anyway but hopefully the Bolero will be able to read v2.4 properly?

I've just found this:-

While there are legacy and future standards for ID3 tags, the most popular version implemented today is ID3 version 2.3. A follow on version, 2.4, is documented on this website but has not achieved popular status due to some disagreements on some of the revisions and the tremendous inertia present in the software and hardware marketplace.

[john999boy]

Anyone know if there is such a thing as software upgrades for the Boleros?

Or even how to see what version is installed?

[Evening Star]

Just rerun the Itune ID3 tagging and changed it to V2.3, I'll now get it to do a Playlist "On The Go 1" and see what happens when I pop the USB HDD into the car. I expect the same thing, 10cc all tracks & so on.

Now I know it's a USB HDD, but I suspect it'll be treated exactly the same way as a SDHC card by the Bolero.

[Raglits]

Just rerun the Itune ID3 tagging and changed it to V2.3, I'll now get it to do a Playlist "On The Go 1" and see what happens when I pop the USB HDD into the car. I expect the same thing, 10cc all tracks & so on.

Now I know it's a USB HDD, but I suspect it'll be treated exactly the same way as a SDHC card by the Bolero.

Don't forget that you'll need to edit the playlist to remove the reference to the drive letter... iTunes will (IIRC you're on Windows) put the path as something like D:\Music\Album Name\Track Name.mp3

whereas the Bolero (which doesn't use drive letters) will be looking for

\Music\Album Name\Track Name.mp3

and if you follow the guidelines to avoid delays in initial scanning it will need to be

\1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\Album Name\Track Name.mp3 ....

I will be looking at manually copying the mp3 files to the directory structure that's 9 levels deep and then writing a script that will create the playlists for me (one for each album/artist and a master playlist will all tracks) and put those in the top level of the SD card along with a single mp3 to stop the Bolero from thinking I'm dumb and put a card in with no music on it....

I use Mac OS and Linux apart from my work laptop... so any script I write is not going to be of any use to Windows users... Sorry

[Evening Star]

It saved it with D:\

So I've removed that & I'll try again shortly.

[stuartm]

I wrote some code earlier to try to get this to work. It failed to get my sd card to work in my bolero.

I think I must have misunderstood the m3u file organisation as suggested by the first poster.

my sdhc card is 16 gb with a 9 deep folder structure (added - Class 6 btw)

e.g

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/artist/album/<all the singles>.mp3

I ran a little java utility to make root of sdhc card look like

1 (first of nine folders as above)

single.mp3(to make the sd card work)

*many folders all in the root of the sd card*

air/Moon safari.m3u (so i can have artist then album, this should work?)

Moon safari.m3u contents look like

/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/Air/Moon Safari/01 La femme d'argent.mp3

/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/Air/Moon Safari/02 boy.mp3 etc. etc..

banco de gaia/last train to lhasa.m3u

last train to lhasa.m3u contents like

/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/banco de gaia/last train to lhasa/1.mp3

/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/banco de gaia/last train to lhasa/2.mp3

I know the mp3 work, I did have to strip off the drm, but now they are all mp3, card is fat 32.

Any idea what is wrong with the format of folders/files/m3u?

are slashes forwards or backwards?

is the first slash needed in the m3u file for the 1 folder?

Stu

Edited 14 April, 2010 by stuartm

[john999boy]

Nice to see someone having a try at it Stu - you're so very nearly there as well!

Here's the first line from one of my playlists:- \1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\9\10CC - The Best of the Early Years\01 Rubber Bullets.mp3

You can see that the only place you have gone wrong is that the slashes should be backwards and not forwards and that you don't have the initial slash placed before the 1.

Maybe the slashes could be either way (will check later) but you certainly need the leading one on each line.

Edit: Update - Just checked and the slashes appear to be okay either way so this: - /1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10CC - The Best of the Early Years/01 Rubber Bullets.mp3 works fine as well

Edited 14 April, 2010 by john999boy

[Evening Star]

Is there a commonly available Java applet to do what's required?

[Chaosdarkknight]

wouldn't just buying a class 6 or 8 SD card improve read speeds.

[Raglits]

wouldn't just buying a class 6 or 8 SD card improve read speeds.

Makes almost no difference whatsoever (on the Bolero)

[Chaosdarkknight]

Makes almost no difference whatsoever (on the Bolero)

That sucks then don't it, so what are all these \ 1\ 2\ 3\ things, is this like subfolders before you actually get to the playlist

Edited 14 April, 2010 by Chaosdarkknight

[Evening Star]

If you're feeling flash with da' cash you can always try a Cl.10 one.

[stuartm]

Added the first slash and made the slashes backwards. Still just hangs.

some further info

root on card

1

80 artist name folders/*.m3u (some with 5 playlist s(one per album))

...

I was hoping it would read the m3u files and allow me to have artist names showing on screen with inner m3u files, giving me album lists.

I am assuming I still need 9 folders before the artist/album/*.mp3.

Edited 14 April, 2010 by stuartm

[Raglits]

That sucks then don't it, so what are all these \ 1\ 2\ 3\ things, is this like subfolders before you actually get to the playlist

That's it. Kind of. The playlists should be in the root folder and the actual mp3s buried away at least 9 levels deep apart from one mp3 file that should be in the root directory.

The Bolero will only scan 8 folders deep but will read further down the file structure than this when playing music in a playlist... By putting all but one of the MP3s this deep the Bolero scan time is reduced to a few seconds instead of a few minutes... You need at least one MP3 to be scanned otherwise the Bolero barfs and claims there's no music on the card even though there are playlists available to it - go figure

Edited 14 April, 2010 by Raglits

[john999boy]

wouldn't just buying a class 6 or 8 SD card improve read speeds.

Unfortunately not in this case.

That sucks then don't it, so what are all these \ 1\ 2\ 3\ things, is this like subfolders before you actually get to the playlist

Not quite - the playlists stay in the root and the actual albums go in the subfolders. There's also a good few months worth of various playlists thread history that you may have missed

If you're feeling flash with da' cash you can always try a Cl.10 one.

Don't do it :S - he's just winding you up as he's been hassled today!