crxb

I wanted to see how well the music hard drive in the car worked. So I made some music cds from my iTunes play list.

(yes I can just plug the iPhone in for the same thing - but sometimes when I'm in a hurry and don't want to mess w/ plugging/unplugging the phone from the car)

My issue is: you insert the cd into the radio and it begins ripping to the car's hard drive. Only it doesn't seem to find the titles of the songs? I didn't make a mp3 cd - just a regular music cd -

the songs play fine - I thought the 'gracenote' - deal was supposed to recognize songs - so at least - on the hard drive my songs would have titles.
gracenote just said something to the extent of not found.

anyone else try this yet?

I haven't tried it w/ a commercial music cd yet - dont even know if I still own any -

CraigMacDTA

Interesting...I figured the gracenote would pick up on that...maybe it's only retail CD's...I'm gonna email my tech dude who answer's all my tech questions and get some answers.

Stash

Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote will only provide info on real cd's that are registered in the database. It is based on some characteristics at the beginning of the CD....not the actual music inside the cd.

But what will happen on a cd that comes out next week? Will the car connect to the internet and download a new version of the database?

crxb

-----page 340 of the owner's manual says ck w/ dealer or www.acura.com 'to update grace note album info that is included w/ the nav system'

"insert the update disc into the disc slot, or connect the USB flash memory device that includes the update" I guess this is just for gracenote and separate from a nav update disc. wonder how much they want for a grace note update?

Colin

This is correct. Commercial discs have a serial number on the intro track. This serial number is associated with "Hotel California" and when the player reads intro file, it looks to the Gracenote database and displays the album and song information,

CDs did not have enough storage capacity to keep the track data on the disc itself. Sony and Philips knew that they had 650 mb of space, and the adjusted the bit rate encoding to achieve a 74 minute playing time. This time was determined as the length of Beethoven's 5th symphony and the reason CDs record at 44.1 KHz vs. 48 KHz for DAT.

bmode

I just ran a CD test with iTunes and Toast Titanium on the same CD title/material. "Bmode's Eclectic Cafe" burned by iTunes did not show up in the TL with any information whatsoever. If fact in the top right hand corner of the display the CD media recognized it as a CD only.

The burned copy from Toast displayed perfectly with CD title, track titles and run times. The media display in the top right corner now changed to CD-TEXT!!! However, before I burned the Toast disc, I selected CD-Text and also entered my UPC code for my CD. So I guess we can assume at this time, that the iTunes burn software does not transfer MetaData or Gracenote doesn't recognize it. I also tried this with DVD-A and it did not work, but in the display it changed to DVD-A.

Colin, can you explain what you mean about the CD's did not have enough storage capacity to keep the track data on the disc itself?

Colin

Well it is ancient history for me but I was in audio retail when CDs were introduced in the early 80's. Once the physical dimensions were set (120mm), Sony and Philips set out to define the specs for the CD. These were laid out in a Red Book which insured that all CDs would be compatible with all players.

Because of the lasers available at the time, they knew that the discs would be limited to 650 MB. They also knew that 48K would be the best sampling rate for best sound, however, this would only yield a playing time of 60 minutes. They wanted 74 minutes so they reduced the bit rate and sacrificed quality for space. Since these were never envisioned as computer discs, and since they were pushing the limits as it was, no space was allocated for track data. Remeber that early CD players had tiny little displays that only showed what track was playing and the minutes and seconds.

S2000 Driver

Colin,

You may find this article on Dutch scientist, Kees Immink, of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kees_A._Schouhamer_Immink

Treblig

Just a thought, but you may want to make sure that in your iTune burn preferences that you have "show cd info" (I believe that's what it says) selected.

bmode

Oh snap, I never noticed that before as I always use Toast, nice tip Treblig thanks it worked! So how is Gracenote going to help us with song identification especially when the text is already on all of our cd's?

crxb

trying it now "include cd text"

Colin

I'll be curious to see if this works. I think that the exact data will be missing. Every pressed CD (vs. burned) contains a certain ID string unique to that CD and this is what (I think) the system is looking for.

bmode

As I posted above it worked for me. I have a home made Remixed Xmas CD with various artists so it couldn't possibly register with Gracenote, and the text came up? Just in case there is a difference, I'm on a Mac which has always provided better results with media stuff, so that might be a factor if CRXB can't get it to go.

Colin, is there a major difference between red book and orange book cd's? I know red book was the first way back in the early 80's and is pretty much the standard, but what does orange book bring to the table?

Oh and I tried burning metadata on the DVD-A disc, and it doesn't display the text in the TL, yet! I will figure that out soon.

crxb

Treblig - that works! from iTunes burned six of 11 songs from an album - grace note recognized it.

bmode - mac here too, did you say you got grace note to recognize a home made mixed cd? I tried to burn a mixed play list w/ cd text included - but grace note didn't recognize it

bmode

But is that really Gracenote working there as iTunes provided the Metadata? Because I have a homemade song that my brother wrote called "Xmas with You", and it's not published, but it came up on my CD list in the TL? Is that because iTunes transfered the Metadata through or did it actually connect with Gracenote?

Oh, sorry I wasn't clearer. Regarding my Xmas remix CD, it too is not a commercial CD but the tracks were recognized in the TL, once I checked the "include text" button pointed out by Treblig. And I'm really wondering if it's just text data being recognized by the player, because my home theatre Denon DVD player recognizes text, and it doesn't have Gracenote capabilities?

Ahhhhhhh, another Mac user, You got some great taste over there crxb, an Acura and a Mac, what a great combo we got! I'm a total dork = TL, iPhone, Macbook Pro, and Mac Pro.

crxb

at this point may just be easier to play this playlist from the phone
guess won't hurt to sacrifice a few more cds experimenting
-all I wanted to do is burn the cds (from about 6 hr playlist)- rip to car's hard drive and - have the all the title info.

mac / acura / iPhone - looks as if targeted at similar tastes
local acura dealers had ran an ad here (you have probably seen) - had the last gen TL - guy using his mac, clicking something w/ the mouse, and somehow they tie it directly to the acura and the road -
now another dork would like the acura-link to be able to send data up w/ the iPhone - not-compat (down we all get direct from xm)

bmode

You could also use a USB flash drive to upload the songs to the HDD if you don't want to use up CD media discs. Although, it might be longer though as you might have to manually change the titles, and with TL entry system, that could take a while? I uploaded a few wallpaper pics the other day with a 1GB flash device, the display is pretty clear, as you can cram in a high quality Jpeg of 6MB per wallpaper entry. Too bad it doesn't recognize a higher quality file format like TIFF or PSD, Jpeg and BMP are not my choice of quality.

I saw that other thread regarding the iPhone. Apparently at this time, the AT&T data plan is not compatible with AcuraLink, but what are we really missing out there? The dealership is not much help on this topic, as I called them to ask if a cell phone is needed to use AcuraLink to the fullest and he said no. On Monday, I'm gonna try the Acura customer service number that's in the manual and hit them with a bunch of questions.

crxb

allows your car to send data upstream about its condition, schedule service - from what I read in the owners manual - 'missing out' - on more tech you might not really ever use, but cool to be able to

DJM52

The song data will carry on the the HDD but only if when recording the CD you have to transfer the song & artist data, it's a prompt in itunes, to the CD when recording.

bmode

Yes DJM52, Treblig already pointed that out above thanks. I'm now curious if anyone has gotten the USB transfered songs to retain metadata? I had to manually edit a bunch of USB transfered songs, which really sucks and takes a long time.

Wavehogger

When using the USB the song title displayed is the actual file name of the .mp3, not the tag or metadata. And the display is short so I usually just put a track # and the title of the song. It usually can display most of it.

bmode

Hogger, I'm referring to transfered from USB files to the HDD, not using it as a playback source which we do see the title thank god. And true, the character list is unfortunately short in the displaly.

Wavehogger

I'm confuzzled.. Are you saying you have transferred MP3's from the USB to the HDD? I didn't see anything in the manual on that, nor did I see any type if copy function. But to be honest I didn't look cause I thought they'd never allow us to copy them over.. I did read the manual saying only commercial CD's can be ripped, nothing about the USB transferring over. If it's possible, mind telling me how, thanks

crxb

Wavehogger - you are talking about using a USB drive just to play from (just like an iPod) - at 1st I thought you were using the USB drive to export to the HDD. I found this in the manual: －
－
"Only recordings from a standard
CD-DA (44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo
PCM digital sound data) to HDD
are supported.
Digital music files, such as MP3,
WMA, AAC etc., in CD-R, DVD-R
and USB flash memory devices
cannot be copied to HDD.
Likewise, digital music files
recorded to HDD cannot be copied
to CD-R, DVD-R and USB devices."

(I found this from the pdf file of the owner's manual - from acura.com - go to myacura and you can do the same)

Wavehogger

Yeah crxb, that's what I read. So what is bmode referring to when he says,' Hogger, I'm referring to transfered from USB files to the HDD, not using it as a playback source which we do see the title thank god. And true, the character list is unfortunately short in the display' I thought he meant you can transfer from USB to HDD, which we both read cannot be done.

bmode

You have to remove the HDD restrictions:

1) press and hold - Cancel/Map/Menu simultaneously (all around the navigation button)
2) navigate to detail & setting
3) function setup
4) HDD ripping restriction *warning* all songs on the HDD will be erased

There's a bunch of car diagnostics in this menu, it's very cool. Although I'm a little nervous as I just tried to upload a mp3 from my USB flash device and it didn't work, but it did before. I think my USB stick is corrupt. I will format it again a la FAT file.

bmode

I bet I just sent everyone down to their cars in the middle of the night to check out this out!

cds-tl

bmode:

How do you move songs from a USB drive to the hard disk? I haven't found that feature either. I have been into the service menus (three button press), but didn't see anything there either.

Thanks,

-- Dave

bmode

Yeah, I'm not getting it either now. I saw my salesperson do it right in front of me too? Once you remove the restriction, the HDD button pops up to transfer USB to HDD. He made a liar out of me, and I just lost all my HDD songs to do this...

cjTL

iTrader: (2)

Make sure your USB stick only has music files on it, and no other documents/folders.

bmode

I did that uiop? I actually reformatted it too just to be sure and only put one Mp3 and one wav file on it and it didn't work. Both tracks played fine, but no burn to HDD... oh well...

Wavehogger

Yeah, I tried this little restriction removal when my car was brand new. I didn't see any option to move files from the USB to HDD. And I did it then because someone said if you did that you could also rip from 'non' commerical CD's and that statement proved to be false information, I could still only rip from commerical CD's. Until I see multiple people here saying it works, and exactly how they're doing it, I'm not going to format my drive and have to re-rip all the cd's again. I hope someone has an answer.

bmode

Whoa, hold the phone! I copied a bunch of songs to the HDD from a iTunes burned CD? So did CRXB posted above, what happened to yours? I'm definitely sure about this one!

crxb

thats true I transfered 6 cds worth of songs from an iTunes playlist of mine -except no song titles transfered. they were blank. - the play list was a mix of many songs/albums. I did try again w/ just the songs from a single album from iTunes - and w/ the 'include text' option turned on - the burned cd when transfered to the HDD - did show song titles. what I wanted was just to burn the playlist and get the song titles on the HDD. but w/ about a hundred songs and only 3 or 4 songs at most from a single cd - see I don't want to burn a cd for every couple songs - for now its just easier to play the playlist from my iPhone - kind of makes the HDD a disappointment. I mean if Apple (if I'm correct) sells more music than Walmart - just what is the % of music bought as download mp3s as compared to cds off the store shelf?. the downloaded mp3 part is still okay - as I said above you can burn a cd from the mp3s (that were on the same album) and get the titles to the HDD. but when many of us by our music by the song - long story short - I don't want to have to burn a cd for every few songs to get the titles to the HDD

clear as mud?

crxb

not to mention the sound you can get from the DVD- audio discs - great - but try to buy a dvd - audio disc? look online - the choices are very limited
thats the end of my rant

bmode

I'm pretty much sticking to the iPhone as my music player as well, as the HDD is just too much work! I kinda wish we had the 6 cd holder back? Plus I fill up my iPhone with AIFF files instead of Mp3's for those really important tracks, like Bmode's Eclectic Cafe! Yo CRXB, does your iPhone work every time when connecting to the USB cable? It's failed on me twice so far, but that's 2 out of a 100 times to date.

crxb

Once the car said something about bad file on t phone. Once I restarted t phone it was fine

Wavehogger

Ok I think I understand everything above.. But still I haven't heard how it is possible to directly transfer MP3's from the USB to the HDD, which someone said was possible. And if it works do the titles transfer? And could someone please tell me what the steps are to do it because I see no options to copy/paste/move/transfer them to the HDD when viewing them in the regular operating mode or the special diagnostics menu. And considering I'm a very techy geek myself I am really wondering how I missed this..

bmode

You didn't miss a thing hogger, it's not working for me nor any one else at this time. I called my sales person earlier today and he told me he never did that, just played back tracks from his USB stick, so I got excited there and mixed things up, my apologies. However, everything else above works. Just unlocked the HDD restriction, and you can burn any CD with text to the HDD. Good luck and sorry for the mix up.

JustJoshin

This thread became very convoluted with all the CD:HDD & USB:HDD posts. But this is the fix I was looking for to take burned .mp3 CD's and rip to HDD