I transferred 500+ songs from iTunes to a USB FlashDrive today. Most of these were saved in the the Apple "Lossless" format. Since they were all in the iTunes Match cloud, I figured they'd transfer as AAC format files. I then RTFM, and it seemed to say that AAC files were OK in the USB input (along with MP-3 files).

Anyway, any MP-3s in the FlashDrive would play but no other format would do so. I'd appreciate any suggestions about this.

For context: 2013 TL-SH-AWD/Tech with Nav updated to 2.7 (if that's important)

Thanks for any help with this.

JG

 

Despite what the manual says - which is a rather unclear "Only AAC files recorded with iTunes are playable", whatever that means - I've never gotten them to play from a flash drive. I bought a prior generation iPod nano with a cracked screen off eBay and use that - the screen doesn't matter because you control it from the car anyway.

Other option seems to be to convert them all to MP3 but my time is worth more than that.

 

I have a USB drive with AAC files and it works just fine. I did not use iTunes to transfer the files, I just copied them off the hard drive onto the USB drive.

Billy

 

billty - Thanks. I'll give that a try in the AM. JG

 

I transferred AAC and MP3 files to a blank FlashDrive this morning. Both play just fine in the audio system. FWIW, I plugged in my iPad2 using the Apple/USB cable. Audio system recognized it as an iPod and played the music on there also. It would not charge (I think the DC demand is too high) but otherwise is fine.

Thanks to all for advice on this.

 

There is a major plus for using USB drives instead of iPods on Acuras: the support of HE-AAC codec, which is an update to AAC codec which provides support of high sampling rates, which are limited to 48 KHz with AAC and ALAC. For the audiophiles around, this is a major plus. Apparently Acuras like the versions of HE-AAC supported by Apple: not HE-AAC v2 but instead AAC-LC plus SBR (Spectral Band Replication). HE-AAC can be easily created using a Mac with the afconvert utility, which you may need to compile.

 

is there a list of working flash vendors? i tried a 32g flash-drive formatted as both ntfs(figured why not) as well as fat32, and neither format is recognized by the car.

 

I have a Verbatim 32 Gb that is FAT32 formatted that I can not get to work. Not sure if the flash drive or music format or what.

 

Converted some stereo 24/96khz to HD-AAC using nero12 and they read unsupported in the TL - not sure it it was the USB but I will try a different one or add some MP3s to see if they pick up. I tried a plethora of different options variable, average and constant bit rates all read unsupported. I guess there is a difference between he-aac and hd-aac but unfortunately I do not see and option in Nero recode for he-aac. Does anyone have a link to a he-aac encoder?