Scrolling through iPod on MDI - slow?

[Stu vRS]

Hey guys, just picked up the new Furby vRS, I absolutely love it!

I got the iPod working perfectly through the stereo, however, when scrolling through the artists it takes forever!

Is there anyway to scroll faster through the lists?

Thanks

Stu

[Latte]

Hi stu, I dont think there is a quicker way scrolling sideways when you have a lot of music stored, found this with the Iphone on MDI. Unless someone else knows better.

Maybe there is a way of reorganising your files on the Ipod?

My way around is to use a cheap portable hard drive and a good index.

I bought a £35 250gb drive from maplin. Well big enough for all my music, fits in the slot by the MDI socket and is invisible there so thats where it lives permanently. It goes to sleep when you remove the key and wakes back up when you switch back on, and plays from where it left off.

I have about 120gb of music on it so far. In order to speed up file selection I have organised the drive with top level folders A-Z so I can drill down quicker without scrolling sideways through 2000 artists!

[Stu vRS]

Hi stu, I dont think there is a quicker way scrolling sideways when you have a lot of music stored, found this with the Iphone on MDI. Unless someone else knows better.

Maybe there is a way of reorganising your files on the Ipod?

My way around is to use a cheap portable hard drive and a good index.

I bought a £35 250gb drive from maplin. Well big enough for all my music, fits in the slot by the MDI socket and is invisible there so thats where it lives permanently. It goes to sleep when you remove the key and wakes back up when you switch back on, and plays from where it left off.

I have about 120gb of music on it so far. In order to speed up file selection I have organised the drive with top level folders A-Z so I can drill down quicker without scrolling sideways through 2000 artists!

Not a bad idea at all that mate, I already have a hard drive, only problem is it would mean buying another cable.

Did you use a program to organise it into folders of A-Z?

[SJFISHER67]

Do you have a link to the hard drive you have bought? And is that just plugged in via the mdi with a usb lead?

[Latte]

Hi, try this link for the hard drive

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=444528

You will need a cable MDI to USB to connect it. The drive actually has a mini-usb socket on it and includes a mini-usb to normal-usb lead. It is probable that a MDI to mini-usb lead would be ok. Either are available on ebay, I got one for £3.99, they seem a bit dearer now but cheaper than dealers. Search for Media lead, and remember that the MDI is common to VW/Seat/Skoda so the leads should be the same.

The standard formatting of this hard drive is not compatible with the MDI, the car will not recognise it. Unfortunately this means it wont work straight out of the box. I downloaded some tunes to it and got error messages in the car. Panic.

Then I read the car handbook and found that you need FAT32 file formatting for a device plugged into the car. Most current PC operating systems will not be able to achieve this for you. If you search online there are programs available for free that can achieve this for you. But be aware that drive formatter programs can format your main hard drive if you don’t use them properly, so if in doubt find an IT-savvy buddy to help you.

So hopefully now we have an empty FAT32 formatted hard drive ready to fill up. Create 26 new folders on the drive and name them A,B,C to Z. Then copy and paste your music into the relevant folders, plug it in the car, select Media/PD, wait for the MDI to sort it out, then browse and enjoy!

[Stu vRS]

Hi, try this link for the hard drive

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=444528

You will need a cable MDI to USB to connect it. The drive actually has a mini-usb socket on it and includes a mini-usb to normal-usb lead. It is probable that a MDI to mini-usb lead would be ok. Either are available on ebay, I got one for £3.99, they seem a bit dearer now but cheaper than dealers. Search for Media lead, and remember that the MDI is common to VW/Seat/Skoda so the leads should be the same.

The standard formatting of this hard drive is not compatible with the MDI, the car will not recognise it. Unfortunately this means it wont work straight out of the box. I downloaded some tunes to it and got error messages in the car. Panic.

Then I read the car handbook and found that you need FAT32 file formatting for a device plugged into the car. Most current PC operating systems will not be able to achieve this for you. If you search online there are programs available for free that can achieve this for you. But be aware that drive formatter programs can format your main hard drive if you don’t use them properly, so if in doubt find an IT-savvy buddy to help you.

So hopefully now we have an empty FAT32 formatted hard drive ready to fill up. Create 26 new folders on the drive and name them A,B,C to Z. Then copy and paste your music into the relevant folders, plug it in the car, select Media/PD, wait for the MDI to sort it out, then browse and enjoy!

Thanks for the advice mate, just picked up a USB MDI cable for £3.28 delivered! Can't believe I paid £15 for the iPod one.

If anyone is interested http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170575144979#ht_561wt_1141

Also, I have another problem with the MDI, sometimes it decides not to work and say "No Audio Files on Device" or something like that.

I figured it is because I have the iPhone and not an actual iPod, so maybe someone can enlighten me on this?

[jcm]

Picked up a 250gb portable drive while the offer at Maplins is still on.

Formatted the drive to FAT 32 without problems.

What format do the cd tracks have to be to play from the 250gb portable hard drive through the midi system ?

John

[Latte]

Picked up a 250gb portable drive while the offer at Maplins is still on.

Formatted the drive to FAT 32 without problems.

What format do the cd tracks have to be to play from the 250gb portable hard drive through the midi system ?

John

Hi John, The MDI will read MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG Vorbis files. Hope this helps.

[jcm]

Hi John, The MDI will read MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG Vorbis files. Hope this helps.

I see - thanks for that , looking forward to trying it out in the car - if it ever arrives !

I think a few others will be following your idea.

John

[Vrstdi estate]

Just ordered the Fabia Vrs and the Maplin drive too! Thanks for the tip off

[Vrstdi estate]

Bought the Seagate drive and tried to format using dos shell from cmd prompt in windows 7. After a number of hours of apparent progress I got error message stating the partition was too large for FAT32!! After trawling numerous forums I found this tool which formatted as FAT32 in seconds!! http://www.partition-tool.com/ Just waiting for my MDI cable from ebay to arrive so I can try it out! Still snowing so not had chance to play out in the furby either (

[BingoMad]

If using the hard drive as described in this thread, is it possible to play the tracks in a random order (I usually have my iPod set to random play) ?

[2mch2]

I have not got my car yet and can find very little information on what you can connect to the stereo, can you use a memory stick?

MCH

[Latte]

You can use the MIX function of the Swing stereo to play tracks within an album in random order, but not to get full random of your entire music collection.

You can use a USB memory stick with the MDI, you will need the MDI to USB lead. I have only tried up to 2gb sticks. Dont know if higher capacity sticks are ok but see no reason why not with the right formatting.

[hagman777]

Hi found the drive even cheaper at play.com

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/17764496/-/Product.html?source=9593&_%24ja=tsid%3a11853|prd%3a73876

[hagman777]

Hi found this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Dynamode-2-5-250GB-External-hard-drive-IDE-SATA-/110628816280?pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item19c1fdc598

[Latte]

The Seagate drive is a good match for the Fabia because its black and fits well in the little compartment where the MDI socket lives.

As the drive is black it is effectively invisible from prying eyes.

Also it has a couple of leds on it that illuminate when the ignition is on and these are a good match to the dash illumination!

[Stu vRS]

For an extra £2 over the above Seagate one, 320gb (bit overkill for music)

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/9752934/Seagate-Expansion-Portable-320GB-2-5-inch-External-USB-2-0-Hard-Drive-Black/Product.html

[dipaksomak]

I know this is an old thread, but still very useful. I am about to pick up my vRS and was wondering how to play music on it. Yeah for sure it comes with an iphone4 connector, but that meant, I'd be in a pickle if I am driving and received a call, as I dont have Bluetooth/parrot on it.

And from what you say, the drive makes scrolling faster and also provides resume, rather than re-scan of the whole drive.

 

thanks for this tip.

 

D

[Lee]

Useful?

MDI Specifications 2011.pdf

[fletch555]

I know this is an old thread, but still very useful. I am about to pick up my vRS and was wondering how to play music on it. Yeah for sure it comes with an iphone4 connector, but that meant, I'd be in a pickle if I am driving and received a call, as I dont have Bluetooth/parrot on it.

And from what you say, the drive makes scrolling faster and also provides resume, rather than re-scan of the whole drive.

 

thanks for this tip.

 

D

I don't think having a hard drive is any faster per se, it just means you can organise your music the way you wish rather than using iTunes.  I just use playlists with mine and never have a problem.

My iPod resumes from the last position in a song after I turn the car off and back on,

[zouche]

I would like to use a hard drive (USB Stick) but all of my music is in iTunes and I can't see any real way of getting it from iTunes to USB maintaining the file structures (album, artist etc).

Any ideas?

[dipaksomak]

Zouche, that's one of the problems/advantages of going apple...you have to stick to apple stuff. I use MediaMonkey to copy music to my iphone. This way I control the music as I have other non-apple mp3 players. It works really well. Google Mediamonkey. There may be an option to "migrate" out of itunes.

NB: under itunes, config your device to say you will manage the music manually.

 

hope that helps.

D

[zouche]

Hmm, I'll have a look at mediamonkey, I tried DoubleTwist but that didn't work at all. I do manage the music manually in iTunes, that doesn't make any difference to this situation though :(

 

I also have been having general problems. MDI doesn't seem to 'see' all of the tracks on the iPod i connect. Annoying!

[dipaksomak]

Hmm, I'll have a look at mediamonkey, I tried DoubleTwist but that didn't work at all. I do manage the music manually in iTunes, that doesn't make any difference to this situation though :(

 

I also have been having general problems. MDI doesn't seem to 'see' all of the tracks on the iPod i connect. Annoying!

 

The option to import from iTunes should be shown after Add/Rescan Files is finished. If it doesn't show make sure iTunes is installed normally and you may have to re-enable in the ini (See notes on enabling Import Data dialog: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/WebHelp:Adding_Existing_Files_to_the_Library/4.0#Notes)