MikeElmendorf

Just picked up my 09 TL. Love it! However, I was under the impression that the stereo would play MP3s from a DVD. I burned a bunch to DVD, but it says "unsupported." Is there a trick to this? A certain program or type of disc I need to use?

Thanks.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

your stero will not play dvd with music stored on it, it will play dvd-a which is dvd audio, but that is a different format, dvd audio is the hd of audio and there is or was a format war just like blue ray and hd and finding music that you like in dvd-a is almost impossible to do...so back to the compact disc with your mp-3's you go....

KeithL

The ELS is smart enough to know the media is a DVD and will only read DVD Audio format ona DVD, I know that sucks!! What you can do is look at Disc Welder Bronze of better yet DVD Solo amd create the equivalent by jamming hours of music on a DVD-A. I have loaded up my 3G 6-disc changer with dics that have hours each of music on DVD-A. The beauty here is you can get hours at CD level quaility without any of the loss of MP3 compression.

http://www.cirlinca.com/products.htm

crxb

you could let the hard drive download cds or
- just plug in a USB drive or an iPod device

KethL - could you do the same thing you mentioned about music files on 6 discs - instead w/ a USB drive?

hydr0

I bought a 32gb USB thumbstick, and I just leave that bad boy plugged in there. More music then I'll ever be able to listen to, ever. Only downside is that when displaying the list of albums, it's pretty slow updating on the screen. Also, let's say you want an album all the way at the bottom, you have a lotttttttt of scrolling to get there, since you can't just scroll up from the beginning to get to the end, if you know what I mean.

crxb

with an iPod it will let you sort by album, song, artist, playlist - all on the nav screen - still could use a 'go to end of list' function

hydr0

Hmmmmmm didn't know that about the sorting. My thing with the ipod in the car is, here in NY we get it realllllllllllly cold or realllllllllllly hot lol. And neither of which is good for an ipod, I would think. This sorting thing might have to make me reconsider though, because scrolling through that thumbstick is a nightmare lol.

crxb

how about a flash based (nano) iPod? no moving parts? I just decided to keep my old iPod plugged into the car , instead of plugging/unplugging my iPhone every time I get in/out - you do have tx beat w/ the cold, but not so sure about the hot

hydr0

I'd hate to buy another ipod, especially being I just spent $70 on this thumbstick. Plus the converter, I'd be coming in over $100. What really sucks about the slow displaying of the albums is that anytime you go into an album, then go back to the main list, it has to load allllllll over again. Maybe I'll borrow my brother's nano and see if it loads any quicker. Thanks =)

Bearcat94

Since when are MP3's, CD quality?

And with the possibility of 99 songs per group (with, what 9 groups?) how the hell do you find the song(s) you want? Bad enough on a CD with MP3's and, say, 60 songs. Even stored by album and what not, it's kind of a moderate hassle to navigate. And DVD-A is *worse* - it doesn't even *display* text/tags (at least in the 3G. Is it changed in the 4G?) - good luck finding anything effectively that way.

Not to say the DVD-A in 5.1 doesn't sound fantastic - it does and is worth the minor hassles. But MP3 copied into DVD-Audio for formatting purposes - meh.

MikeElmendorf

Wait, so is it or is it not possible to play MP3s off a DVD if burned correctly?

The iPod works GREAT, but I'm not always going to keep the iPod in the car. I have a bunch of discs I've burned with MP3s on them, which I kept in the changer in my 07. I don't especially want to deal with a thumb drive, especially with the speed issues. I did think about getting a second iPod just to use for the car.

I thought someone had posted a while back that it would read MP3 off of DVDs. I know the 3G did not do this.

msslp04

Look at this thread:
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-audio-bluetooth-electronics-navigation-94/graphical-user-interface-gui-project-free-dvd-592879/

Kevin

bmode

You guys, please read the PDF by Adobeman, it's very good. We spent weeks and 10 pages of a thread answering questions and figuring out what format/frequency/bit-rate works best.

Bearcat, Keith means because of the 4.7GB capacity of a DVD (really 4.3GB), you don't have to use the MP3 format to cram stuff in there, and you can keep the AIFF or WAV file intact and still get a lot of songs on the DVD-A at CD quality. I've spent years in high end studios trying to preserve music and it all went to hell when the MP3 format came out. It's a great utility, but if not used properly you kill the music.

Mike the answer to your question is no. MP3's must be converted to comply to the DVD-A format. At this time, our Acura TL's will only read proper DVD-A formats.

Oh Vinnie, please don't say DVD-A is the "HD" of audio, that's just so wrong and misleading, but I know what you mean, as it has more versatility and headroom than a standard red book CD.

KeithL

I only have a 3G so no USB drive support so can't tell you. I do know that with my 6 disc changer I have well over 20 hours or music on the 6 discs in the changer and have more in the arm rest.

PaulNY

Yeah, thats my main gripe with the audio player, the refreshing of the album list, and the scrolling, its such a pain in the ass to get to "G" for example, and then, if i want to go back to like F, I have to restart, it'd be cool if there was a back button so it'd bring you right back to that "G" artist without having the scroll all the way through

NYSH-AWD

The easiest thing to do is: Get yourselves a 320GB classic ipod and just leave it in the car, hopefully most of your song collection either came from actual CDs or downloaded at a high bitrate.

It's the only way if you have over 350gb of music and dont want the CD mess in your car.

NYSH-AWD

RoyalBlue what part of NY are you from? I'm in manhattan and to my knowledge the only 4G TL owner thus far.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

why shouldnt i say that....it is what it is...dvd-a is high definition audio....period

hydr0

Brooklyn here =) That makes two of us, plus YanksFan in LI, that's 3. Power in numbers baby.

PaulNY

I'm in rockland county, a little north of westchester county, was first out of the door from ramsey acura back in september

S2000 Driver

Congratulations!

Why, may I ask, did you go to Jersey for purchase rather than Acura of Westchester or another NY Acura Dealer?

PaulNY

Ramsey was actually closer than any NY acura dealer, its only 25mins from me, whereas Curry Acura in Scarsdale is little further (and over a high traffic bridge/toll) and wappingers is well over an hour from me

Superb

That's weird.

I just went to my local Acura dealer to look at an SH, with tech package. I currently drive an '03 TL-S and I have a JVC deck that plays dvd's with mp3's and wma's. I took this and put it into the SH and it loaded right up and played the dvd perfectly including reading tag information. I tried on an MDX and it played my DVD also, even the voice commands worked with the DVD as far as specifying a certain folder and track in the MDX.......

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Guys, you owe it to yourself AND your car to purchase a real DVD Audio disc. The audio quality is outstanding! You can buy them online now, but not in stores anymore. Let me know if you'd like some sites to purchase them. It's been posted before on the 3G Community, but I'd be happy to provide them to you again.

And Bearcat was right, MP3's as the worst. It was designed for convenience, so you can cram alot of music onto one disc for portability. An MP3 takes original music and smashes/compresses the sound about 7-1/2 times it's original size. So you absolutely lose quality with any MP3 recording.

However a DVD Audio disc stores more sound and samples music at a much higher bit rate than a regular CD, so MP3's do not hold a candle to the quality of DVD Audio discs.

If you didn't get a sample disc when you bought your 4G TL, definitely go back to the dealership and ask for one. Please trust me on this...you'll thank me later.

S2000 Driver

Gotchya -- you're on the west side of the Tappan Zee so that makes sense.

bmode

You can say it all you want, but it's wrong and misleading. High definition refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD 480) video, and video only!

Audio is a completely different animal, there's no resolution, it's all compression, bit-Rates and frequencies! In the AV world, my profession, I would be laughed at if I said that to experienced installers or "tweakies". I spend hours upon hours explaining the basics to my clients, what you stated above just confuses the issue. If you really want to impress anyone, use the term Dolby Digital surround sound, now that's synonymous with HD as the two combine for the ultimate theatre experience. And yes, Dolby Digital is a compressed format but given the complex algorithms and diversity of Dolby Digital, the sound is phenomenal when mixed and mastered correctly.

crxb

bmode: 'HD Radio' is just digital (signal) radio and not analog - right? is the sound on 'HD' radio any better/different?

bmode

Yes. We looked into this a while back when we first heard someone say HD radio. This is just another hype term misused out there! Don't get it twisted, at this time radio can't match CD quality. It's just not possible, but it is better than standard FM for sure, however there are limitations and broadcast issues.

Here's the website for some info: http://www.hdradio.com/

hydr0

For me, the prices the Brooklyn Acura dealers were giving me weren't even in the same ballpark as the Jersey dealer. Not sure why, since they're all on the same pricing plan in the Tri-State Area.

bmode

I forgot to mention how heavily compressed radio is, even HD radio is compressed, so there's no way it could compare to a clean mastered uncompressed commercial CD! Werd!

crxb

I imagine XM is compressed more than HD radio then ?

MikeElmendorf

Superb,

What software did you use to burn the MP3s to the DVD that worked? Also, exactly what kind of a DVD was it?

Thanks.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

CRXB, HD Radio does sound amazing. I've heard desktop units and the sound is incredible. I haven't heard a head unit for a car with HD Radio, but if it's anything like the desktop unit, the sound should be great.

Bmode was talking about compressed and uncompressed sound. He's right, Dolby Digital is compressed. I have one other opportunity for you to check out. If you search for DVD Audio discs, look for DTS discs. I think DTS audio is still slightly compressed, but the audio sounds incredible and the separation of the sound will sound amazing in your new TL.

bmode

Here's a small battle of format wars, DTS (digital theatre sound) vs. Dolby Digital, mostly on DVD units though. I opt for DD as we feel that the DTS mix is usually a bit too bright in the home theatre application, but a lot of people like it bright, they feel their getting more when the sound is bright. DTS is definitely compressed audio as well and a fine format. This reminds me of the showroom at Acura 101 on the first day I saw the new TL, the internet manager pumped the treble and bass to full when he showed me the sound system, I was too embarrassed to explain it to him of what he just did. Nothing but volume is gained when you crank both bass and treble equally, it may color the sound slightly, but it's just volume at that point.

To reiterate, the reason that most of the DVD-A and DTS discs sound so good, is that they likely remaster from the original source, and sometimes that's from the actual 2" analog tape. At this point, you hope the engineer made good notes for the mixdown, or you originally mixed with automation. I can tell you from experience, it's near impossible to recreate the original mix of any track, even with perfect notes and automation, and you can bet the new mix for 5.1 will be improved as the original back then, didn't have today's technology.

bmode

Oh regarding Superb's post above about having a DVD that plays mp3's and WMA's. What he doesn't realize is that an application converted those formats to most likely the .FLAC format. Here's the definitive guide:

http://www.tloftulsa.com/dvda/

Bearcat94

That is very interesting.

So, just to clarify, you had a DVD R or RW that you *copied* some MP3 and/or WMA files on to, put in the TL SH/Tech as is and it played? With Tags?

The DVD was not *authored* to DVD-A formatting (Audio_TS folder and VOB files)?

(My navigation comments still stand - so much music, so hard to organize/find - but tags and folders make it a LOT better).

MikeElmendorf

Bearcat - That's exactly what I did, and it didn't work. However, I did it just by copying files on to the DVD through Windows Explorer. I'm thinking maybe it would work if I used a different program?

Someone earlier definitely said that it WOULD work.

Absent that, I may just go buy an extra non-video iPod. I have about 13.5G worth of music on mine.

It is possible to sync an iTunes library to multiple iPods, right?

crxb

- yes

Bearcat94

Well, I wouldn't *think* it would work. Unless they've changed the capability in the '09's.

Just trying to figure out what Superb did that it worked. Re-reading his post, I wonder if he means he took his JVC Deck and tried it?

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i guess your just smarter then everyone else....or atleast me anyway...and i bet thats not the first time in your life you have heard that....