Okay, been looking at ALL the threads regarding SD card use on Bolero & the subsequent firmware updates that appear to be at V.54 and have been without change for a year or so, and thought it might be good for a bit of an update as to what is actually realistic on this version now it's been this way for a while. Soooo....

1. What is the maximum number of tracks we can expect the Bolero to actually read nowadays?

2. How long should it take for the Bolero to read the X number of tracks from question 1?

3. Does the make and/or Gb size of the card make a difference to the read speed?

Over to those in the know....

OK, here's my take on it, I have a Bolero in my '61 plate Superb:

1. My current 16GB card has 2,191 tracks on it, in folders by artist. I suspect the maximum number is only governed by the size of the SD card.
   
2. From a cold start, my unit takes less than 5 seconds to activate and start playing
   
3. I think my SD card is a class 10 and reads quickly. The other cards I have read just as quick as each other, I don't notice any difference.
   

Hope this helps.

3. Make of the SD card will make little real difference, but size and transfer speed will.

You can't expect a 16Gb card to be read as quick as a 4Gb card for example.

However, it is the transfer speed of the card that will determine the speed at which the Bolero can read the data. There is no point buying a memory card with a transfer speed much faster than the Bolero can handle. Don't ask me what the transfer speed is, but I suspect that it is a long way behind USB 3.0 (and probably 2.0).

AFAIK, the Bolero does not handle SDXC cards, but does handle SDHC (which means you can go over the SD 2Gb limit) - so no point buying beyond SDHC.

Will you notice a drop off in speed with an older SD card? Probably, but not massively I suspect.

I'm sure there will be something in the Bolero owner's manual about which cards to use.

I'm sure there will be something in the Bolero owner's manual about which cards to use.

Nope, the only information in the manual about what type of card to be used is the physical size of the card, nothing about whether it should be SD, SDHD or anything else.

By putting AFAIK, I appreciate it's not gonna be a 100% definitive answer but if the Bolero doesn't accept SDXC cards then by definition that would mean that it's maximum capacity is 32Gb. (for those who don't know, SD (Secure Digital) cards are up to 4Gb, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards are 4GB to 32GB and SDXC (Secure Digital Extended Capacity) are 32Gb to 2Tb)

I know the class rating (2,4,6 or 10) defines the WRITE speed of the card but i've not been able to find anywhere where you can see the READ speed on a card, so how do you access that READ speed cos I wasn't aware it was measured in a similar way?

Edited 29 June, 201213 yr by blackspaven

Interesting! Just been speaking to the people at MyMemory.co.uk (who do specify the read speeds on a lot of their products), and they say that the write speed usually IS the read speed as well!

No reason to not trust them, just never seen that written anywhere else.

Learn summat knew everyday.

Interesting! Just been speaking to the people at MyMemory.co.uk (who do specify the read speeds on a lot of their products), and they say that the write speed usually IS the read speed as well!

No reason to not trust them, just never seen that written anywhere else.

Learn summat knew everyday.

That's rubbishRead speed = speed a unit reads from the card . ie. Bolero reading tracks from cardWrite speed = PC/Camera writing to card which has nothing to do with read speed.

Read speed and write speed are generally quite different (think download & upload speeds).

I'll see if I can find some figures from somewhere.

Slightly off topic, I have a 64gb card in my HTC Sensation XE that is only supposed to take max 32gb. I would guess the problem lies with the format of the card. I would guess the 64gb sdxc card will work if it's reformatted to "fat"

HTC Sensation XE using Tapatalk.

SanDisk Extreme Contour read and write speeds: 25MB/s read & 18MB/s write.

That's just one example I found quickly.

SanDisk are probably the market leader on memory card technology and they state that these figures as being the maximum theoretical speeds. i.e. you are unlikely to see them in the real world for very long.

Not sure why you started another thread (http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/242710-anyone-wanna-comment-on-this/#entry2849300) linking to this one when you are getting answers here...

Read speed and write speed are generally quite different (think download & upload speeds).

That's more than a little misleading, since the download vs upload speed difference is purely down to the fact that networks are deliberately optimised to prioritise downloads, on the basis that most users spend more time downloading than uploading - i.e. it's got absolutely naff all to do with technical capabilities of your hardware.

There is no comparison.......

That's rubbishRead speed = speed a unit reads from the card . ie. Bolero reading tracks from cardWrite speed = PC/Camera writing to card which has nothing to do with read speed.

Yeah, I know what the difference is, thanks, just passing on what I was told by a well known company that sells them 24/7/365 and is also what they have on the individual cards for sale on their website.

Of course, if you could give a better and/or definitive answer as to how to find out/tell the READ speed of a card when it only usually states the WRITE speed in the blurb on most ad's, i'm sure we'll all be most indebted to your knowledge as we could then make a more informed choice.

Over to you vectra1...

Edited 1 July, 201213 yr by blackspaven

Not sure why you started another thread (http://www.briskoda....s/#entry2849300) linking to this one when you are getting answers here...

For a few reasons:

1. Cos it's not just for me.

2. Cos despite it being fitted in various cars, not everyone will necessarily read anything in the Octavia II forum, especially if they don't own one, and therefore wouldn't be aware of the link you've just put on. (remember, assumption is the mother of all f*ck ups, KB! )

3. Because there's lots of similar questions being asked on the Bolero from time to time on different forums on this site, so I thought it might be an idea to get an updated reccy of what's what on the main questions asked over the last few years in a section that people ARE more likely to look in, in general (see point 2), especially when we seems to be getting to a point where most of the minor glitches are being sorted by the newest firmware: if this had been here when i'd started looking, I wouldn't have struggled so much.

Edited 1 July, 201213 yr by blackspaven

Read speed and write speed are generally quite different

That's my point: I thought they were too, but the people who sell them said usually it isn't and at least they backed that statement up by saying that most of the cards on their website have BOTH the read AND write speed advertised (which is quite unusual from what i've seen on other sites), and the ones I looked at were indeed very close.

Anyway, surprise, surprise, all this nonsense is completely leading away from the point of this thread in that it's trying to establish some FACTS for others who are thinking of what the Bolero can NOW do with the latest v.54 firmware, as there doesn't appear to be much accumulated knowledge in any one specific place, just snippets of info here & there.

So can we try to get back to the first post again please??

Yeah, I know what the difference is, thanks, just passing on what I was told by a well known company that sells them 24/7/365 and is also what they have on the individual cards for sale on their website.

Of course, if you could give a better and/or definitive answer as to how to find out/tell the READ speed of a card when it only usually states the WRITE speed in the blurb on most ad's, i'm sure we'll all be most indebted to your knowledge as we could then make a more informed choice.

Over to you vectra1...

Simple really.Download and install a tool from herehttp://www.flashmemorytoolkit.com./download.htmlStick your card in your pc reader and do a test on itHere is the read speed result of my class10 WRITE cardHope this helps you

Simple really.Download and install a tool from herehttp://www.flashmemorytoolkit.com./download.htmlStick your card in your pc reader and do a test on itHere is the read speed result of my class10 WRITE cardHope this helps you

That's a pretty cool tool, but unfortunately it's a bit redundant when you're trying to find out what the speed is BEFORE you buy it, which is what my point was: don't think the seller would be too happy if you asked to run that on the card before handing over your dosh!

THAT'S why I made the point, cos it just isn't that easy to find out compared to the write speed!

Edited 2 July, 201213 yr by blackspaven

Okay, I've gotten a PM from someone who's using the Danish Viking programme and is getting a good 4,000 traks on one 32gb SDHC card and they're loading within seconds, but that's because he was using that method BEFORE the V.54 firmware came out and is just happy to keep using it, so is anyone getting anything like that number on a 32gb card just by dragging & dropping as I guess it was originally intended, WITHOUT the DV programe??

Surely the total number of tracks is always going to be variable, depending on the size of each "track"?

Wouldn't a "track" that lasts say 10 minutes take more memory than a 5 minute "track"?

Okay, I've gotten a PM from someone who's using the Danish Viking programme and is getting a good 4,000 traks on one 32gb SDHC card and they're loading within seconds, but that's because he was using that method BEFORE the V.54 firmware came out and is just happy to keep using it, so is anyone getting anything like that number on a 32gb card just by dragging & dropping as I guess it was originally intended, WITHOUT the DV programe??

I have a class 4 card as well, I will run a test on it later.

Do you have a card to run a test on?

My point is that read/write speed is not always the same as the Dealer told you.

Same old story really. Never trust a salesperson

Surely the total number of tracks is always going to be variable, depending on the size of each "track"?

Wouldn't a "track" that lasts say 10 minutes take more memory than a 5 minute "track"?

Not so much dependant on song lenght but more so on mp3 quality.

ie.

same card filled with mp3's @ 128kbps will hold a lot more than the same card filled with mp3's @ 320kbps which is the best quality to use.

1. I think what you are really asking is, 'Is there a maximum number of files that a Bolero will recognise or be able to read from an SD card before it starts to ignore them?' (There are rumours that the Columbus will only read the first 2048 songs, but I have yet to find conclusive evidence and also it is not the Bolero with the latest firmware).

2. It depends upon a lot of factors including the read speed of the memory card as well as the transfer speed of the SD reader, firmware, hardware, etc.;

3. Yes.

To give more information regarding 3. take a look at these links: Ken Rockwell (look at the sections titled 'Downloading - but only the Card Reader ones are relvant - and the Write Speeds, in Computer) and Ken Rockwell (look at the two sections - Copy Back to Cards and Download from Cards).

This testing does show that there is a difference between read and write speeds when transferring from a computer to a memory card and vice versa.

That's more than a little misleading, since the download vs upload speed difference is purely down to the fact that networks are deliberately optimised to prioritise downloads, on the basis that most users spend more time downloading than uploading - i.e. it's got absolutely naff all to do with technical capabilities of your hardware.

There is no comparison.......

It was merely an analogy!

Surely the total number of tracks is always going to be variable, depending on the size of each "track"?

Wouldn't a "track" that lasts say 10 minutes take more memory than a 5 minute "track"?

Not so much dependant on song lenght but more so on mp3 quality.

ie.

same card filled with mp3's @ 128kbps will hold a lot more than the same card filled with mp3's @ 320kbps which is the best quality to use.

Yeah, fair enough, both good comments. I think I was thinking about lots of people posting on threads saying that they had discovered a maximum number of tracks accepted by the Bolero, mostly specifically either 1,000 or 2,000, so I figured that the unit had a headspace of a set number of tracks and therefore even if you could fit, say, 2,800 tracks on a card, it would only recognise 2,000 of those tracks.

As I've said, I've been chatting with someone on here who by using Danish Viking's programme, has been able to get over 4,000 tracks available on a 32gb card, so perhaps my initial question should've been:

What's the maximum amount of tracks anyone has fitted on a single SDHC card that has been successfully read by their bolero unit, and was it using the Danish Viking programme or just drag & drop?