Infotainment issues
 

We purchased a brand new 2022 MDX Advance recently and I love a lot about the vehicle. BUT, the infotainment system has not worked well at all for us so far.

Issues we are seeing:
1. A USB drive with a decent amount of music on it takes FOREVER to load every single time you start the car, even if the same drive has been in the car, plugged in and just hanging out. Has anyone found a way to optimize this? Everything on the drive is FLAC. I as hoping for ALAC support but it seems they didn't feel that was important... Argh.

2. When using Android Auto, the system will NOT let you play music from USB. This is a total head scratcher to me. This works on every other vehicle I have driven when Android Auto. Again, any way to make this work?

3. We see frequent error messages pop up on the screen and the system is just generally very very slow to respond to input. Are there frequent updates coming? Or is this system just severely underpowered and running poorly written software?

Mark

most likely #3...underpowered and poorly written

The fact that the new MDX has wireless CP/AA is confounded by the same limitation that '19 RDX and '21 TLX owners (w/o wireless CP/AA) have.

People will think they're checking off a box when making the purchase but it's not the same implementation as other car makes that have done it properly.

From perusing all the forums ( RDX, TLX, MDX) Infotainment seems to be a real weak area from Acura. Its a core part of the Car and in fact I would say Infotainment is a weak area of Honda in general as there are various complaints in other models such as Odyssey and Pilot as well. I definitely think this is an area they need to put more effort into and its a large deciding factor for me when choosing a vehicle. I think Genesis's system is much better. I await the reviews for Lexus's new refreshed system debuting in the new NX.

These are very discouraging comments .... I am in the Midst of leasing a new 2022 MDX Advance even with the Touch Pad which should have been a Touch Screen or even better BOTH. In fact, the Touch Pad which was introduced in 2019 RDX was the reason I didn't pick the RDX, and selected the MDX Advance in 2019. It confounded me during the test drive, and the salesman being a salesman just kept saying You Will Get Used to It....But I find the new 2022 MDX to be a great SUV - enhancd in so many ways, and after 2 test drives, see that I could get used to the Touch pad. But these comments are discerning. One question which I can't find the answers to and didn't notice when test driving: Does the Radio have a CD player which can record the CDs to an internal HDD? I have that on my 2019. I forget how large it is, but I can load, play and Record many CDs to the HDD and use the Steerin g wheel controls easily .THX for you input.

I don’t have a 2022 (yet), but know it does not have a CD player and I am pretty sure it doesn’t have a HDD that can be accessed.

I have a 2019 RDX with the touch pad and I will bet you will get used to the touch pad. After 3 years of ownership the muscle memory kicks in and my finger always seems to land on what I shooting for. My suggestion is to set the most used icons on the first or Home Screen and don’t move them.

The RDX infotainment had issues in the beginning, but after a few updates I don’t remember any issues in the past year and a half.

I hope you enjoy the new ride.

Billy

Besides the built in radio/satellite tuners, you can use a USB port or use the wired/wireless CarPlay/Android Auto (no CD player or HDD).

You also need to be savvy enough to customize the default layout. If not, what you see is what you get (probably lots of unused icons).

Lately, I've gotten a lot of loud popping noises in CarPlay in my TLX. I don't think there's any latest gen Acura that's immune (except the ILX which is on a super old platform).

There is no CD player in the 2022 MDX. Unfortunately the infotainment system has many of the same shortcomings on the 3rd Gen RDX (which I leased for 3 years)

Cazman, I just took the Plunge and leased a new MDX Advance (2022). Hate to use the word LOVE for a car, but I really LIKE this car. Got it like Birdie did in Blue Pearl / with Graystone interior. As mentioned above, there is no CD player and HDD like my 2019 had. They should have added that feature. Now I have to convert all my Cds to a Flashdrives. Fortunately, I have a Tascam CD / Cassette / USB player. It can record CDs and Cassettes to USB (Flash drives ) easily , No PCs needed. I know there is all the Hoopla about Streaming your music, however, YOU have to pay monthly fees for TIDAL, Spotify or Pandora (I have TIDAL and Spotify, but won't pay for Pandora). The 2019 MDX had a Huge HDD which allowed me to play and record the CDs for easy access to all my music. Oh well, "The Times They Are A Changin"... per Bob Dylan. But not always for the Best like Acura's decision to go with a TTIP instead of a Touch screen or even better, include BOTH.

The problem with playing music on a flash drive is that you cannot do it while using Car Play. I think a better approach would be to store your music files on your phone. I agree that the lack of internal music storage on the 2022 MDX is a real shortcoming.

I enjoy high-resolution multichannel FLAC files and playing these off a phone are just not possible. Remember that the limitation is going to be the phone and the type of cable used. The only cables that are hi-rez MCH capable are HDMI and the old firewire (all other types don't have the proper encryption).

Just to throw in my 2 cents.

I was in a long trip in my ‘19 RDX Advance and was using CarPlay. We were playing the music from Hamilton and I would swear it was in the new “spatial audio”. It really did sound great on the system.

Billy

Here's another idea? Would I be able to connect a WD Hard drive via the USB port in the console? Thereby, recording all my CDs to the WD HD and access them via the USB in the car? Does recording a CD Audio to a Flash drive or a HD, create MP3 files automatically? Elin, how do you record FLAC files on a Flash Drive? Sorry for the Naive questions. I have not really used my PC for music much. I usually Stream , or Play my CDs , Vinyl, or Cassettes. This is why I miss the HDD in the 2019 MDX, great access and ability to flip through folders and files easily. {lay the CDs 1X and record it and forget it.

By typing this, I think I answered one of my questions: What's the point to a 500GB HD , when I could use a 32 or 64GB Flash drive which would contain thousands of songs. I guess I should get busy, recording the CDs off my Laptop copying it to Flash Drives. But I still think I lose something in that Cds are in CD Audio quality, different from MP3?

I believe only USBs are allowed in the "smart port" and not HD drives.

If you have DVD-A, you can use this thread to rip those discs to FLAC onto your USB stick:
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-rdx-...p-step-971819/

If you are ripping CD's, make sure to select the best quality you can afford (typically 300kbps-1500kbps). MP3s are worse than that but you get a lot more storage space back. You can do this in iTunes or similar software.

ELIN, thx for the advice... I did (and had forgotten) that I did "rip" a number of CDs to Itunes and created 1 Flash Drive. Played it yesterday ( I don't know what format it is ?) - Blind Faith, Allman Bros, Sanatana, Bob Dylan, Cream, Doobies, and more.... Sounded soo good, I didn't want to leave the car. The ELS sound system with 16 Speakers is Outstanding.. I am giving up connecting a HD drive ... with 32 GB Flash Drives , a few of those will be Plenty of Music. MY Music ... Hey I'm 69 of the Woodstock Gen. I'm Lovin the new MDX !!

Follow the steps here: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-rdx-...ep-step-971819 to fix this. You can use Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en) to format the USB flash drive to FAT32/32k.

Frog_dude.... THX for this info. I looked at the link and pages of info of How Tos... Holy Mackerel, You guys are killing me !!! :what: FLAC, WAV, MP3, etc.type of music files. .I am a Music Aficionado to a certain extent. I never realized the differences in music file types (I presume because of the "compression"), and the affects to the music quality. In all of my previous cars including the 2019 MDX , they all had CD players; the MDX and the previous Infiniti 2016 QX60 had an internal HDD that could store CD quality music at your immediate disposal. So I'm left with the dilemma of solely using Music Streaming Services (TIDAL HiFi , SPOTIFY ) and start getting very busy to go through the process of recording My Music CDs to Flash Drives in FLAC formats. And using RUFUS to format the USB drive in the car to FAT32/32k. I'm sorry for being ignorant (hey I'm 70 YO), but What The Hell is That??? I'm going to experiment with what I posted and ELIN responded - try a WD Portal HD , plug into the USB drive in the car and see what happens. Could you guys tell me: If I play the CDs on my Laptop's CD / DVD player, can I burn those directly to the WD HDD? or must I copy them onto the Laptop's HD and then "burn them onto the HDD? Doesn't that procedure, create Compressed files? THX for your help.

To be fair, the HDD was somewhat unique to Acura, and I certainly enjoyed using it in my TSXs and first gen TLXs. However, as with other manufacturers, Acura moved to the USB/Carplay style of music inputs. It gives you the potential for a much larger music source without recording every song on a particular CD, some of which you may not wish to play. I have adjusted to Spotify and essentially can play the stuff I really want to hear, when I want to hear it.

Does formatting FAT32 improve performance over exFAT?

J., I would just format FAT32. That's what I did, and it worked fine. Originally, at my first attempt, I used a Cheapo Flsah drive, and during the Download a pop up window appeared that something was "wrong" with a file. It finished downloading, but did not Upload properly. Then I re-downloaded onto a Clean new Flashdrive, after formating it FAT32. That downloaded fine and uploaded to tha Cars Navi in about 45 minutes. Hope this helps. I'm going to check my version to see if this version is the most current.