snorf

I watched a video telling how to automatically record to the acura hard drive. That was nice, but there was only a mention that it could be done manually and no instruction. How do you do it manually? I click that I want to do it manually and all the songs are listed there. I tried everything I could think of, but am unable to record anything manually (i.e. select songs). Thanks in advance for any help.

cu2wagon

Okay, so caveat emptor, I have a '14 TSX but it has a similar feature.

With regards to the "manual" vs. "automatic" recording of CD to HDD, what I found is that there is a setting in the audio options menu to select between automatic or manual.

Meaning that when set to automatic, when you insert a CD the system will automatically rip it to the HDD. When it is set to manual, you insert a CD and it will play it without ripping to HDD; you must go in and specifically tell it to rip that particular CD to the HDD.

I do not think you can control *which* songs to record from a particular CD. It's an all or nothing deal. You only have control of if the system initializes the transfer on it's own every time, or only upon your prompting.

snorf

Thanks cu2wagon. I knew about the auto/manual, but when I clicked on an individual song nothing happened. The song would just play. What I didn't realize was that it was recording.... it just took a very long time for it to show up on the screen (as a percentage of the recording complete). I've learned you can click on individual songs and they will eventually record, but if you turn off the car and restart it, it does not continue recording like it does in auto. I think when you record manually it would be nice if REC would show up in red or something instead of waiting until one song is over and another started before it gives you a percentage of the recording complete. I think Chrysler got it right in my neighbor's car - you can record off CDs, mp3s or USB/ipod. It took my neighbor just a few minutes to load his entire music collection. All my music is on iTunes (I no longer have CDs I bought long ago and now buy only from iTunes) and I cannot make a CD from iTunes that will record on the HDD. I went to the library and borrowed a couple CDs to make sure I could record and they worked fine. In my case (or for people who purchase music online), this is a very poor setup.

snorf

Yeah, the CD to HDD thing is, um, novel? My suggestion, like others, is to just cut out the middle step.

$45 and you could be set with nearly a lifetime of mp3s that you could load, plug in, and forget about: amazon.com/dp/B00YFI1EBC/ref=twister_B00MQL3OHW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Or just stream directly from your phone (or mp3 player if so equiped) to the car via bluetooth.

I see the CD/HDD as a bit of a relic. Much like that last available tape deck in the Lexus SC430; there's still *some* value to having it, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and is dying on the vine.


Thx cu2wagon. We have an iphone but we don't use Bluetooth. We lost a family member to someone who was playing with their phone while driving so that is somewhat of a sensitive issue for us. We don't talk or text from behind the steering wheel. The USB is convenient, but my wife likes to keep the phone charging when we're in the car and she uses the usb port for that. Easily worked around, though, I know.

cu2wagon

I understand your reasoning. This past summer I had a 5-mile loop I'd go running on and for the majority of that distance I'd be on the sidewalk going against the flow of traffic. I started paying attention to the drivers and it was astonishing how many people are driving (45-55mph, no less!) around with their eyes in their laps. But I digress.

Just one additional, unsolicited, point. At least on my car, and I don't see why yours would be different but I don't know for sure, once my phone syncs via Bluetooth and starts playing, I can control it from the dash or steering wheel controls. So even though the music is running from the phone, it doesn't require any more attention than the radio/CD/HDD/XM etc.

You can still retain attention on the road while using it as such. For short trips, it's certainly no different from popping in a CD. For longer trips, your copilot/navigator might need to be charged with selecting new tracks or creating a playlist or what have you. But still no different from CDs or Tapes of the past!

Just my

snorf

My wife keeps the iphone and isn't in the car with me all the time. (I don't have, nor do I care to have a phone.) I know I can use the USB or ipod, but thought I'd try the HDD since it came with the car. The recording of music to the HDD should be an embarrassment to acura (among some other acura shortcomings). It's almost a part-time job if you want to record to the HDD from CDs. If you try to do it manually, sometimes it will work and sometimes it will not work. If you do it on auto, then you have to go back and one-by-one delete each song you didn't want on the HDD. It's really nothing short of a PITA. If acura is going to advertise itself as a premium car, then perhaps they need to step up to the plate and catch up with what "non-premium" cars have been doing for quite some time. This afternoon, my wife and I took a friend to lunch. We have now learned to just record the entire CD, then go back and delete the songs we don't want on the HDD - it's time consuming. (I now have hours into this while my neighbor took less than 10 minutes to put his entire music collection on the HDD of his Chrysler. He used the USB, but could also do it via mp3). While waiting for the friend we shut off the car. When our friend got in the car I started it and the songs were no longer listed by title, but every song was listed as "multi hits". So I removed the CD, then as soon as I put the car in gear the alarm went off telling me I was getting too close to an object. The closest object was perhaps 500 feet away. I drove for a bit, then pulled over, turned the car off and restarted it and the alarm went off. I think I'm going to write off the HDD and just do the USB. The difference in music quality (higher bit rate) isn't worth the effort required to put the music on the HDD.