Help with Swing/MDI iPod operation

[seppuku]

Hi all,

Brand new Fabia vRS owner - love the car (met race blue with black pack).

I'm having a few problems operating my iPod Touch (1st gen) from the Swing radio, I wonder if anyone can help?

* How do I move between albums/artists? The controls on the stereo and steering wheel only seem to move between tracks within an album

* What does the right hand knob actually do? I turned it to experiment and it seems to play tracks from the root of /songs in some kind of order I can't quite fathom

Yes, I have read the manual but it doesn't really go into any detail on these things!

Cheers

[KBPhoto]

You are correct in that the manual is rubbish on this matter...

Is there an 'up' button anywhere? Probably one of the six along the middle...

This should take up 'up' a level of folders, e.g. from tracks to albums, or albums to artists, etc.

I don't have a Swing stereo, but it's probably generally similar to all other Skoda HU's in principle.

[seppuku]

If I go to Browse then I get an 'up' button but this just takes me from where I am to the root of /songs which isn't really too helpful...

Has it got anything to do with the fact it's an ancient iPod do you think?

[KBPhoto]

Not knowing exactly how its supposed to function, I don't know.

However, the Stream MP3 (with MP3 CD's, not the MDI), Bolero and Columbus units all have an 'up' function which goes up one level of the folders.

Can you access playlists or audio books or genres from your iPod?

[seppuku]

No - when the iPod is connected via MDI you can't use it at all.

[jrw]

Hi all,

Brand new Fabia vRS owner - love the car (met race blue with black pack).

I'm having a few problems operating my iPod Touch (1st gen) from the Swing radio, I wonder if anyone can help?

* How do I move between albums/artists? The controls on the stereo and steering wheel only seem to move between tracks within an album

* What does the right hand knob actually do? I turned it to experiment and it seems to play tracks from the root of /songs in some kind of order I can't quite fathom

Yes, I have read the manual but it doesn't really go into any detail on these things!

Cheers

Same car....even down to the colour, same iPod and same issue!

Its the radio and the iPod thats at fault. You can only browse folders on the Swing and the iPod only stores the songs in one folder called /Songs (bad design on Apples part). I have cured it by installing a Columbus! It reads the playlists and albums as coded by Apple and as you would see on the iPod if you were using it with headphones.

[seppuku]

Ah thank you brother! Not really the solution I was hoping for to be honest

Do all iPods do this or is there a chance that newer ones would honour the folder structure?

[KBPhoto]

No - when the iPod is connected via MDI you can't use it at all.

I meant through the HU.

Seems its been resolved, but not satisfactorily. Seems like a bit of a design fault and not much better than the Aux/3.5 mm input option...

[jrw]

They all do it. Friend got one a week after the other half and she has a 3rd gen. Just got myself a 2012 columbus for 380 notes. So she can keep the old one I put in to test

Dont need the Ipod at all then as the columbus has 30gb on board for storage and also a sd slot.

[seppuku]

I meant through the HU.

Seems its been resolved, but not satisfactorily. Seems like a bit of a design fault and not much better than the Aux/3.5 mm input option...

Yes - it seems a bit odd that the Swing will show the information about the track being played very nicely, and the Swing can control the iPod with regards to forward and backwards on tracks, but can't navigate the artist/album information.

But, if that's how it is - so be it!

My other option is to use BT-AUDIO but my Nexus 4 doesn't have AVRCP 1.3 so that's not really ideal either.

First world problems!

[jrw]

Duplicate post, dam smart phones

[zouche]

I have a new vRS with an iPod nano 5th gen plugged into it and I can navigate through the different albums on it...

Once you go up to the top of the folder tree, the buttons lined up under the display say something like songs, albums, artists. Press the button under the one you want and then scroll through with the right side dial.

Works for me!!

[seppuku]

I have a new vRS with an iPod nano 5th gen plugged into it and I can navigate through the different albums on it...

Once you go up to the top of the folder tree, the buttons lined up under the display say something like songs, albums, artists. Press the button under the one you want and then scroll through with the right side dial.

Works for me!!

Yes, I tried that - but regardless of which button I press (artists/albums etc) the right hand knob just scrolls through songs - and not even in order!

I've ordered an MDI-Micro USB cable so I can see if my Nexus 4 will do the trick that way.

I must say, BT AUDIO sounds a lot better than ipod via MDI, but then ipods have always sounded awful.

[jrw]

Yes, I tried that - but regardless of which button I press (artists/albums etc) the right hand knob just scrolls through songs - and not even in order!

I've ordered an MDI-Micro USB cable so I can see if my Nexus 4 will do the trick that way.

I must say, BT AUDIO sounds a lot better than ipod via MDI, but then ipods have always sounded awful.

just what I was about to say. Album, artist, track etc is just the info not a selection. Then when you scroll it just follows through the file names in alphabetical order. It can't physically do anything else as it just reads the folder Ipod/songs and all the tracks are listed in this one folder.

[seppuku]

I see, so if I physically copy my artist/album folder structure to the Nexus 4, theoretically the MDI connection should allow me to browse it!

[bobnaldo]

Get a Bolero from a Superb for £150 and sell your Swing for £50 like I did?

Big improvement IMHO, especially if you have the new steering wheel as it matches perfectly.

[seppuku]

Get a Bolero from a Superb for £150 and sell your Swing for £50 like I did?

Big improvement IMHO, especially if you have the new steering wheel as it matches perfectly.

Don't really want to start modifying the car if I'm honest - but if it really bugs me it's good to know that's an option!

[zouche]

OK, so it was bothering me that maybe I had got it wrong with the navigation, but I had a good go today and can confirm that it is possible to navigate through the artist, playlist, album and song lists on the Swing radio with an iPod nano.

Select albums then either push the button under 'Open' or push the right dial in... Then you get this:

Where you can choose to open 'all' albums, or keep turning the right dial and you can select an individual album by pushing open or the dial again, such as:

Then, push to play the track displayed as below (intro is the first track on the album). If you have 'Mix' selected, the tracks will be in a random order, otherwise they should show in the right order.

It is a bit tedious scrolling though albums one at a time (limitation of the swing display) but it is possible - I tried it today to be sure!!!

Edited 21 June, 2013 by zouche

[KBPhoto]

Better written than the manual.

Well done zouche.

[jrw]

Get a Bolero from a Superb for £150 and sell your Swing for £50 like I did?

Big improvement IMHO, especially if you have the new steering wheel as it matches perfectly.

or a columbus for 380 like I did

Added bonus of hard drive and card slot then

[RachelNorfolk]

Sigur Rós fan, zouche?

:-)

[bobnaldo]

Got me thinking about a Columbus now, ha.

[zouche]

Sigur Rós fan, zouche?

:-)

A little bit, yes!

[zouche]

I'm also considering a Bolero/Columbus upgrade...

Is it a straight plug and play? I guess it is for a Bolero, but what other bits and bobs are needed for a Columbus? I don't have bluetooth and would really like to add that.

[bobnaldo]

I put a Bolero in my Fabia and it was a straight plug and play, I already had bluetooth installed on the car and it all just worked seamlessly. I think the hardest part is getting the surround off from around the head unit, as it can be a little fiddly but I got the dealer to do that for me when I collected the car.

Just need to make sure you buy a Bolero from a Superb and not an Octavia as they are different sizes, unfortunately the Octavia one is much more common.

I think the Columbus requires a little coding and you need to put the antenna somewhere? Personally I've put a Brodit mount next to my headunit and use Google maps for directions which come through the speakers via bluetooth.