Which types of media do you use in car?

[Kev]

Having just bought a cheap as chips (22 quid) 16Gb USB stick to use in the car instead of the ipod (just for a cheap alternative when there's nothing on the radio tootling about) I'm wondering what media types you tend to use?

I have an mp3 CD that I flick over to when there's nothing on the radio but I was thinking it would be easier to get more music on to a USB stick and I can also change the folders/playlists on it when I fancy without having to burn a new CD. There are a couple of downsides. One is that it won't play protected music from the iTunes store (but I'll rerecord some choice tracks so that should be ok in the end) and the way I've got it at the moment you can't have two tracks with the same name but I'll work out a way round that.

I tend to keep the iPod for longer trips when I can set up more variety of tracks or podcasts or comedy to flick between.

[raffoul232]

Well i personally love the idea of the sd card. I bought a 16gb sd card for a cool 30$. I feel its better than the i-pod or anything else. But sometimes the i-pod is better if its put thru the aux (cause you can scroll to the song you want or search it). So, the only issue here is you cant search for a song you like if you have the media in or sd card in use. I mean you can search for contacts if you have the phone preperation, then why couldn't vw do the same for the music ?????????????????

[x5pea]

i chose ipod but its an iphone,

interestingly the MK6 GTi coms std with a USB & Ipod MDI cable my rocco only came with the USB

[nickp]

I have an 80gb 5th gen iPod that stays in the car all the time. It has 53 gig of music on it which is over 7000 songs. (29 days worth )
Sometimes I use playlists but mostly it's just left in mix mode. With so much music on there I'm regularly surprised by tracks that I'd forgotten about.
The iPod meets all my needs so I haven't needed to try another media device. The only time I use the CD player is if I've bought some new music while out shopping and can't wait to get home to load it onto the computer.
I'll be driving from London out to the west of Ireland in a few weeks so I'll bring a few discs with me just in case. I've already developed one glitch where the RCD510 doesn't recognize that the iPod is connected every morning when I start the car. I have to take the iPod out of the armrest and press menu to jump start it. It's okay then for the rest of the day. It's only developed this problem over the last month so I hope it doesn't deteriorate further and fail while I'm away. I plan to try a factory reset on the RCD510 to see if that cures it.
In general though the iPod works well with the RCD510 and I LOVE the Dynaudio

I have a real cross section of music styles on there, from Burt Bacharach to the Prodigy but that's probably for another topic.
I do love my deep house music though and use my Macbook Pro and Traktor Pro software to make mixes at home.
Traktor won't play DRM protected tracks so I burn the DRM Tracks to CD and then re-upload them to the computer and then they play in Traktor.
I imagine if you did the same you could play your DRM stuff on your USB stick Kev.
Slightly illegal but as long as your not doing it to make profit it's ok in my opinion. You paid for the music and anyway the iTunes store is phasing out DRM protection now.

[wigit]

I have a real cross section of music styles on there, from Burt Bacharach to the Prodigy but that's probably for another topic.

a man of taste Mr BB wrote some cracking tunes

[Trickytree]

Had my ipod nano for a while but it was doing my nut taking it in and out so now I've got a 60gb 2.5" external hardrive rigged up to the USB which is in a stylish brushed metal case, although you didn't see it as it fits like a glove into one of the armrest storage holes.

[scirocco1974]

same here but mines 120 gb holds all my music which is a lot well happy with it and it only cost £30 of e bay

[jc74]

i chose ipod but its an iphone,

interestingly the MK6 GTi coms std with a USB & Ipod MDI cable my rocco only came with the USB

You should really double check, mine only came with USB, and after cross referencing the brochure, I chased up with the dealer, and after persistance they gave the me iPod MDI cable...

[Kev]

Yep the ipod cable definitely comes with the car.
http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/roccop ... Connection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[chr15]

i chose ipod but its an iphone,

interestingly the MK6 GTi coms std with a USB & Ipod MDI cable my rocco only came with the USB

Your dealer stitched you up

[Kev]

There are a couple of downsides. One is that it won't play protected music from the iTunes store (but I'll rerecord some choice tracks so that should be ok in the end) and the way I've got it at the moment you can't have two tracks with the same name but I'll work out a way round that.

Just to follow up my own post, I found a bit of software today that might make a USB stick sync with itunes allowing it to take playlists and act more iPodish!
I'll report back on my findings

[nickp]

Good stuff Kev.

The only drawback with big iPods is they are b****y expensive

[Kev]

Hmm well it's a bit complicated but I think I've got it how I want it but I won't be able to tell till the morning (can't be bothered to walk all the way to car now )
If it works ok I'll write up a wiki page.

I got this app
http://www.binaryfortress.com/itunes-sync/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

which allows you to sync iTunes (on a PC) to any removable drive, such as a USB Flash memory stick.

There are a couple of common glitches which i had to work around.
one is to do this before you run iTunes
Type this into the Start Menu/Run dialogue box.
"C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /regserver

The other is to remove/rename any duplicate playlist names. Common ones are Podcasts, Music and iPod Faves. I chose to just add a 2 to the end of the duplicates.

Then it's a case of running the app and it asks you to choose the USB drive to move the music to, create the folders you want for the playlists and away it goes copying the artists in their own folders so you you have some organisation, just like they are in the iTunes library.

So, the acid test is tomorrow morning.

[ZephyR]

I can certainly see the advantage of being able to search with an ipod but they're too expensive risk leaving in the Roc all the time and I don't fancy the bother of plugging it in and out every time I park up.
USB stick is cheap enough to leave in, pretty fast, holds plenty of tunes and is reasonably manageable.

[Kev]

Well the folder/file layout it much better.
It still won't play the protected files but it's easier to navigate as you have artists and racks in their own folders. Just take on folder per playlist and it does the rest for you. I can also p;lug the stick in to my PC and it will resync just like an ipod

[jc74]

This sounds like it could be just the ticket...

When you say you have artists in the own folders, does it also have albums (in particular compilations of various artists) also in their own folders too?
I found this was the main drawback of the existing USB sticks - you were stuck with either playlists or the rigid folder structure which you set up yourself.

The BMW iDrive system had selection by Artist, album, folder and song title. Does syncing the USB thing like an 'iPod' allow for this now?

[Kev]

It arranges it just as iTunes does.
You can pretty much set it up how you want.

[jc74]

Any chance of of couple of pics to clarify?

[Kev]

Yep I'll try and sort some out.
Some further playing around over the weekend showed up one main issue
You can't get it to play a mix of the tracks in a playlist folder. It will only play them in order.
You can, however, mix tracks from one artist in one folder.

[Kev]

I'm still tinkering with three different applications to get the setup more how you would need it in the car.

I'll post pics or a movie when I've got it sorted out