Hi All

Newbie here

I've got an early Octavia 3 with Amundsen. I play .flac files held on an external hard drive through a Denon with no problem.

I've just transferred some flac files on to both a FAT32 formatted USB stick and SD card and the Amundsen can see both devices but can't see or read the flac files.

Any suggestions please?

Cheers

Andy

 

 

Android auto + VLC player.

15 hours ago, Fangio246 said:

Hi All

Newbie here

I've got an early Octavia 3 with Amundsen. I play .flac files held on an external hard drive through a Denon with no problem.

I've just transferred some flac files on to both a FAT32 formatted USB stick and SD card and the Amundsen can see both devices but can't see or read the flac files.

Any suggestions please?

Cheers

Andy

 

 

•  

I have that problem. Manual seems to say that flac files can be played, but mine won't. It's a 2013 with original software.  

Try it with other format audio files from the same source? Also maybe try different file extensions .flac .FLAC? 

Have found the SD card works better than the USB but I only use AAC/M4A.

Good luck. 

Hi

Thanks for the advice

I have tried itunes files and they are fine, both from SD & USB. Shame about flac as I have most of my music in that format! Currently they are .flac

I honestly wouldn’t bother with flac for car audio. You’re better off encoding to vbr mp3 as the files take up far less space and unless you have impeccable hearing they’re indistinguishable, especially in a car setting with all the background noises. 

 

In terms of your issue, they’ll be much easier to play too. 

18 hours ago, maffyou said:

I honestly wouldn’t bother with flac for car audio. You’re better off encoding to vbr mp3 as the files take up far less space and unless you have impeccable hearing they’re indistinguishable, especially in a car setting with all the background noises. 

 

In terms of your issue, they’ll be much easier to play too. 

 

If you read his post, OP says he has most of his music in flac format. 

2016 plays flac cleanly. 

 

 - Bret

My 2014 with Columbus played FLAC via USB or SD fine.

Hi

Thanks, but saying flac play fine on my car with Columbus or with a 2016 model really doesn't help me does it! I want a solution, not an affirmation that 'my' car is fine with flac....

Like ords said, on a 2013 with Amundsen there seems to be a problem.

Looks like I may have to start again and rip all the CD's I want through itunes....

 

20 hours ago, maffyou said:

I honestly wouldn’t bother with flac for car audio. You’re better off encoding to vbr mp3 as the files take up far less space and unless you have impeccable hearing they’re indistinguishable, especially in a car setting with all the background noises. 

 

In terms of your issue, they’ll be much easier to play too. 

And in the Octavia there's plenty of background noise🙉

Instead of iTunes you could try the Sony MediaGo software its a free download. 

2 hours ago, TDIum said:

 

If you read his post, OP says he has most of his music in flac format. 

Thanks, I did read that. As the OP is having issues getting flac to play, I was suggesting that he might be better off moving to mp3 files as he knows they play fine and he almost certainly wouldn’t experience any noticeable loss in sound fidelity by doing so. As a result, he’d have files which worked and used up significantly less storage space too, which is also advantageous. 

 

In my experience people have chosen to use flac because they’ve heard it is better than a lossy format like mp3, which is true. But unless you’re listening on a high quality separates system and have very good hearing, 90%+ of people can’t perceive the difference between a lossless file and a high quality variable bit rate mp3. Add in the extraneous noises in a car setting - the engine noise, road and wind noise, noise from other traffic - and it more than covers any potential fidelity loss. 

 

Sorry if you found my attempt to be helpful offensive. 

 

Nearly forgot, @Fangio246 try https://m.freemake.com/free_audio_converter/ This is freeware and will directly convert your flac to mp3 formats so no need to dust the CDs off again, which will also be faster as it won’t have to buffer the data through the optical drive either. 

Edited 31 May, 20197 yr by maffyou

4 minutes ago, maffyou said:

Sorry if you found my attempt to be helpful offensive. 

 

Hmm. I didn't find it offensive... 

2 minutes ago, TDIum said:

 

Hmm. I didn't find it offensive... 

Then I’ll say sorry again as you clearly seemed to find something wrong with what I’d written. 

7 hours ago, Fangio246 said:

Hi

Thanks, but saying flac play fine on my car with Columbus or with a 2016 model really doesn't help me does it! I want a solution, not an affirmation that 'my' car is fine with flac....

Like ords said, on a 2013 with Amundsen there seems to be a problem.

Looks like I may have to start again and rip all the CD's I want through 

You should be grateful that people are replying to your post. All replies are helpful , each in a different way. By saying 'it works fine for me' may point to an example of 'operator error'

Please be more gracious for all any replies.

if you need to reconvert, itunes is not the optimal way to do it. 

 

If you've *proved* that the USB Stick or SD card works, have swapped to another, and have made sure the files aren't corrupted, then maybe your car can't play them back. I have an Amundsen, based off of MIB2, and it works for me. I do not *know* that MIB1 would work, but I also don't know the state of the firmware on your device. It's possible a file runs through on your PC but doesn't in the car and I would not be surprised if it would only work via SD and not USB. You are at the earliest end of the model.

 

If a recode would be needed, MP3Tag would be my personal weapon of choice for this, with the correct converter - there are a bunch of MP3 implementations thanks to the Fraunhofer - and then Foobar2000, along with an evening to let everything run through. As said, though, I'd prove your files are readable before going through the file conversion motions, and I'd make sure you are running the most recent firmware on the device in the car. I would also make sure that *any* files are readable through the media and also make sure that the album art are shown correctly when encoding three-four albums before letting it loose on an entire collection. 

There may also be an issue with the number of files in a directory (I'd hazard a guess at 255, 511, or 1023 being limits) and another with SD Cards in excess of 32GB (ExFAT vs FAT32). If it's an SD card, you should also try a full-size one rather than a micro with an adapter.

 

 - Bret

 

5 hours ago, brettikivi said:

if you need to reconvert, itunes is not the optimal way to do it. 

 

If you've *proved* that the USB Stick or SD card works, have swapped to another, and have made sure the files aren't corrupted, then maybe your car can't play them back. I have an Amundsen, based off of MIB2, and it works for me. I do not *know* that MIB1 would work, but I also don't know the state of the firmware on your device. It's possible a file runs through on your PC but doesn't in the car and I would not be surprised if it would only work via SD and not USB. You are at the earliest end of the model.

 

If a recode would be needed, MP3Tag would be my personal weapon of choice for this, with the correct converter - there are a bunch of MP3 implementations thanks to the Fraunhofer - and then Foobar2000, along with an evening to let everything run through. As said, though, I'd prove your files are readable before going through the file conversion motions, and I'd make sure you are running the most recent firmware on the device in the car. I would also make sure that *any* files are readable through the media and also make sure that the album art are shown correctly when encoding three-four albums before letting it loose on an entire collection. 

There may also be an issue with the number of files in a directory (I'd hazard a guess at 255, 511, or 1023 being limits) and another with SD Cards in excess of 32GB (ExFAT vs FAT32). If it's an SD card, you should also try a full-size one rather than a micro with an adapter.

 

 - Bret

 

Interesting comments.  Mine is a 2013 model running on original software. I also cannot play flac files and it doesn't display all my files. I'm using a 128gb micro card. Why do you suggest trying a full sized card?

Hi Bret

Firstly can I say I really appreciate the time you've taken to reply and compile this comprehensive answer.

I am using full size SD cards. The same SD card and USB play itunes files fine, so both USB & SD slots are working. I use mac and frankly it's been so long since I converted my CD's to flac I can't remember what converter I used (It certainly isn't on my computer now!). I also only put about a dozen flac files on the 16GB SD card (FAT32 formatted) to try it, so it wasn't a big card or overloaded

I'm taking it without researching that MIB2 is the updated firmware for Amundsen and MIB1 is the original. How do you check and update your firmware as it may well be that this is the problem?

Andy

MIB1 is the original hardware, the MIB2 units are the "next generation" along, the final ones before the massive current touchscreens. There's a difference in sound quality, too; I remember listening to a 2014 one and being unimpressed, whereas the newer ones are pretty good.

 

I just found the handbook and it clearly states that flac is supported. Having said that, I'd want to make sure that the filenames aren't massive (128 chars) and that the extension really is .flac, lowercase. I'm not sure what the base OS of the headunit is or whether it's actually case-sensitive or not...  as for the firmware, I'm not entirely sure and haven't read the manual, but this is a liink: https://ws.skoda-auto.com/OwnersManualService/Data/en/Octavia_5E/05-2013/Navigation/Amundsen/A7_Octavia_Amundsen_InfotainmentNavigation.pdf 

 

I don't know that there are different iterations of the FLAC standard, that's the only other thing I could think of. If it says it supports it, it really should. I'd suggest trying WAV and Ogg if you have any lying around. 

 

regarding adaptors: things work loose. They're not as reliable as full size ones IME. Skoda seem to agree in that manual.

 

 - Bret

12 hours ago, Fangio246 said:

I use mac and frankly it's been so long since I converted my CD's to flac I can't remember what converter I used (It certainly isn't on my computer now!).

The Mac does tend to put files with names beginning ._ onto all drives it accesses, these can confuse the MIB - I also use a Mac (as well as a Windows PC) and use a program called BlueHarvest to clean up these files. Might be worth a try...

Hi

I've had a look at my hardware & software versions. It is the MIB1 040 Hardware and software version 0421. I believe the Amundsen software has been updated a couple of times to version 0490. I wonder if this version can play .flac files.

My files have the .flac lowercase file extension and are on average 30 to 60mb in size. They play fine off a hard drive through my Denon system.

I called Skoda UK and they hadn't got a clue. My local Skoda garage had never heard of .flac!

So still in the dark

Andy

I found a chap on the forum who has the 0490 Amundsen software installed and he has tried a flac file. No go, see screen shot attached.

Looks to me like the MIB1 won't play flac files....

Andy

Cars are crappy places for audio.

If you want max quality go for 320kbps CBR MP3 but if you encode with LAME you should be using v2 which should be transparent relative to the quality of the listening environment.

FLAC is pointless in a car audio setting.

43 minutes ago, abaxas said:

Cars are crappy places for audio.

If you want max quality go for 320kbps CBR MP3 but if you encode with LAME you should be using v2 which should be transparent relative to the quality of the listening environment.

v2 is what I used to encode my entire CD collection almost 15 years ago - that was a long summer of ripping, tagging and transferring to my newly acquired iPod!

43 minutes ago, abaxas said:

FLAC is pointless in a car audio setting.