MP3 VBR track lengths not shown in Superb MkII player.

[windbag]

Anyone got mp3 files encoded as Variable Bit Rate (VBR) to give the correct track length, rather than just saying "VBR" in the time-length slot?

None of mine do.🙁

 

My files all report the correct length in all my PC MP3 players (MediaMonkey,Foobar,Groove,VLC), so the Skoda player is the exception.

 

I've tried VBRfix, but it made no difference.

Any ideas how to get the correct track length with my files in the car welcome.

System info:

Skoda Superb MkII
HW Vsn H27
SW Vsn 6276
 

no files of ours on the internal drive
 

[PetrolDave]

What happens if you resample one of the tracks at a fixed sample rate?

[windbag]

1 hour ago, PetrolDave said:

What happens if you resample one of the tracks at a fixed sample rate?

Any tracks with fixed rate show tracklengths fine.

It is just a VBR file issue.

[windbag]

Has nobody found a way to get a VBR mp3 file to show the correct track length?

 

I found a thread on another forum which had a similar issue, but all the fixes suggested:

• VBRfix (Moonbase update)
• mp3val
• Foobar (Utilities/Fix VBR mp3 header)

have not changed "VBR" displaying where the correct track-length should be on the Skoda player.

 

In case it helps, I attach a typical mp3-VBR file (1.5 MB) that is doing this (and resisted all "fixing" attempts as described)

 

 

 

African Waltz-Johnny Dankworth.mp3

[langers2k]

I think it's a limitation of the headunit 😕

[PetrolDave]

26 minutes ago, langers2k said:

I think it's a limitation of the headunit 😕

Calculating the length of a VBR file requires reading the whole file first to calculate the playing time, and then while the file is playing doing the same calculation on the fly to calculate the time played & time left. This requires processing power and code space, neither of which are in huge supply in the head unit - so it's not unreasonable that Skoda didn't require it to be a supported feature.

[windbag]

20 hours ago, PetrolDave said:

 Skoda didn't require it to be a supported feature.

 

I had noted that these posts from July, 2014:

 https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/321349-different-audio-formats-on-the-sd-card/?do=findComment&comment=3849483

&

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/321349-different-audio-formats-on-the-sd-card/?do=findComment&comment=3851948

 

says "No time displaying problems with vbr",

&

"It seems this format is ok to handle for the car system"

- so was trying to find out what my problem was.

 

Looking here, though, it sort of implies it can't do the track length:

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/440051-columbus-questions/?do=findComment&comment=4947470

 

But this Feb 2017 post

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/424233-columbus-unit-not-remembering-last-trackalbum-played/?do=findComment&comment=4814816

shows a display which got VBR track-length right, as well as the progress bar and time left correct, and even displayed the artwork (!)

 

- so I'm confused.

I'm looking to generate many VBR mp3s, and would be sad if I later find I could have tweaked my process to enable the VBR track-length to work in the car.

 

If it truly isn't "supported", it would be helpful if it was noted somewhere explicitly, as I've spent a fair bit of time & trouble trying to fix VBR files at my end.

 

So my question still stands;

has anyone got the Skoda unit to display the correct track-length for VBR ?

- if so, by what encoding route/fixing method ?

OR

Is VBR track-length explicitly not Skoda supported ? 

- ie nothing I can do will help

 

 

[PetrolDave]

23 minutes ago, windbag said:

I'm looking to generate many VBR mp3s

Can I ask why you specifically want to generate VBR MP3 files rather than just fixed sample rate (at e.g. 320kbps)?

 

VBR will not provide a higher sample rate so the only benefit I can see is a potentially smaller file size - but with the memory sizes available now is this really such an important factor to necessitate the use of VBR?

[windbag]

1 hour ago, PetrolDave said:

Can I ask why you specifically want to generate VBR MP3 files rather than just fixed sample rate (at e.g. 320kbps)?

 

VBR will not provide a higher sample rate so the only benefit I can see is a potentially smaller file size - but with the memory sizes available now is this really such an important factor to necessitate the use of VBR?

Because:

a) it gives a constant quality of coding for each frame rather than just spewing out data where it isn't always needed - I am doing a whole load of spoken word stuff, some with interspersed music - the file size difference is significant.  Also true of much of the music I will be converting too.

b) I have a LARGE set of files to generate, which won't fit on the max size of card that the Skoda unit will read, so will have to be broken up into related blocks anyway, so file size is very important

c) It is my lifestyle choice for all sorts of reasons and to question such is really not the point - either the unit CAN be persuaded to read VBR files and give track-lengths - in which case I'm keen to hear how I might achieve such - or it isn't, and I can just concentrate on all the other mp3 players that do handle such files.

[PetrolDave]

OK humour me with a follow up question please...

 

I'm using a 400GB SD card in my Octavia III which more than accommodates my 28,000+ MP3 files (all 320kbps), what is the largest size SD card that can be used in your Superb II? Have you tried a card larger than Skoda say, in my experience over the last 20 years VAG have consistently under specified the card size that will work?

[langers2k]

@windbag - just to point out, there are loads of headunits, each will have different manufactures/hardware/software versions and 'supported' format lists.

 

 

From the posts you linked, there seems to be a:

- Amundsen+ (RNS-315)

- Columbus (MIB1?)

- Columbus (RNS-510)

- Columbus (MIB2?)

 

Only the last post, which is a Columbus (MIB2?) seems to support VBR properly.

 

[windbag]

Thanks, Langers2k, that explains why there is so much variety in he posts I came across. 

How do I identify which is in my car?

If this helps:

Skoda Superb MkII
HW Vsn H27
SW Vsn 6276

[langers2k]

That's a RNS-510 style Columbus, it's one of the newest versions with an SSD and I think has the latest firmware installed.

[windbag]

41 minutes ago, langers2k said:

That's a RNS-510 style Columbus, it's one of the newest versions with an SSD and I think has the latest firmware installed.

 

Many thanks for the decode.

But if  read your previous post correctly, it can't decode VBR track-lengths ?

If so, I can forget trying to change my VBR generation process to enable it to do so. 

[langers2k]

Correct.

 

As far as I'm aware, the RNS-510 style Columbus is unable to correctly show track lengths for VBR files

 

 

[windbag]

1 hour ago, PetrolDave said:

OK humour me with a follow up question please...

 

I'm using a 400GB SD card ...what is the largest size SD card that can be used in your Superb II? 

 

I haven't a clue.  I'm only using a 16GB one as a test, but I'm not going to do a "random buy" test of cards to find out.

If someone KNOWS the biggest size a RNS-510 style Columbus unit can take I'm happy to get one, but it will need to be up in the Terabyte size to get everything on in one go. 

Just changing 16GB disks seem to take the system a while to deal with (index?) - I'm not surprised - how long does it take your Octavia III to be able to use a changed-content 400 GB card?

[windbag]

3 minutes ago, langers2k said:

As far as I'm aware, the RNS-510 style Columbus is unable to correctly show track lengths for VBR files

 

Again, many thanks, that is categoric.

 

I will consider the trade-off of increased mp3 file size vs seeing the play times in the car.

Sad that the unit introduces such a need, when no other player I have does 🙁

[langers2k]

8 minutes ago, windbag said:

Again, many thanks, that is categoric.

 

At least within the limits of my knowledge

 

The official max SD card size is 32GB. Some people report success with 64GB and 128GB cards but you'll need to format them as fat32. Unfortunately, I don't think windows 10 will let you do this as standard.

 

There might also be limits to the number of folders/tracks on a single SD but I can't find anything official stating a max for later headunits.

[windbag]

13 minutes ago, langers2k said:

 

The official max SD card size is 32GB. Some people report success with 64GB and 128GB cards but you'll need to format them as fat32. Unfortunately, I don't think windows 10 will let you do this as standard.

 

There might also be limits to the number of folders/tracks on a single SD but I can't find anything official stating a max for later headunits.

 

Again, thanks for the info, that is really helpful.

I'm a bit concerned it might get silly in how long it takes to deal with (?indexing?) larger cards when content-updated/put in the slot - as even 16 GB takes a while with only 1500 tracks on board.

One final thing: do you know the size of the RNS-510 Columbus SSD?

Edited 4 March, 2020 by windbag

[langers2k]

Probably 40GB but as it's partitioned, most is reserved for the maps etc. There might only be 10-15GB for music storage.

 

No idea how long indexing will take or if it will be noticeable. When I had a Columbus fitted I either streamed from my phone via bluetooth or a USB stick in the MDI interface I'd retrofitted.

[windbag]

1 hour ago, langers2k said:

Probably 40GB but as it's partitioned, most is reserved for the maps etc. There might only be 10-15GB for music storage.

 

OK, stick with SD cards then; thought that might be the case.

[PetrolDave]

20 hours ago, windbag said:

how long does it take your Octavia III to be able to use a changed-content 400 GB card?

It takes around 5 seconds to identify the card and be able to access the folder list, from there any file I select plays almost instantaneously. It looks like if there is indexing taking place it's faster than I am moving from the glovebox (where the SD card is) to the touchscreen.

 

I see that Langers2k has identified you have an RNS-510 Columbus which doesn't support VBR, hopefully that will allow you to move forward.