Quesdtion on thumb drive and music

[BRJACKET]

I have a 5.0 Ultimate. I have been using my old IPhone as a music player but want to switch to a USB thumb drive. The drive I bought is a USB 3 so it should process the data the fastest way possible. I copied all my songs to the thumb drive (approximately 3500- so not too bad). The songs are from ITunes so they are in that format. When I plug it in the head unit reads the USB drive and shows the artists, songs, etc. But when I start playing, many of the songs freeze up during playback. If I disconnect the drive and replug it in, it will start the song over again but freezes again at the same places.

It seems like the problem is one of the following: the actual thumb drive, the type of drive (USB 3 vs. USB 2), the ITunes format of the songs, or the head unit reading the data. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Nikgen]

I have a 5.0 Ultimate. I have been using my old IPhone as a music player but want to switch to a USB thumb drive. The drive I bought is a USB 3 so it should process the data the fastest way possible. I copied all my songs to the thumb drive (approximately 3500- so not too bad). The songs are from ITunes so they are in that format. When I plug it in the head unit reads the USB drive and shows the artists, songs, etc. But when I start playing, many of the songs freeze up during playback. If I disconnect the drive and replug it in, it will start the song over again but freezes again at the same places.

It seems like the problem is one of the following: the actual thumb drive, the type of drive (USB 3 vs. USB 2), the ITunes format of the songs, or the head unit reading the data. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Copy the music to your Jukebox and then you can ditch the thumbdrive!

 

[ksoze]

It seems like the problem is one of the following: the actual thumb drive, the type of drive (USB 3 vs. USB 2), the ITunes format of the songs, or the head unit reading the data. Does anyone have any suggestions?

You should copy the songs onto the Jukebox instead of playing from the USB for convenience. A few things:

• You need to convert the iTunes songs to MP3 - 320kbps preferably, before copying them to USB drive. Simply select the songs in iTunes, right click and "Convert to MP3" (make sure to go to Preferences first and ensure the conversion rate is to 320kbps).

• Unless you have a lot of drive time, may want to put songs in folders on the USB drive that are small groups - when you copy to Jukebox it is a process that cannot be stopped. I had many folders that I put 25-50 songs each that could be copied on short drives. Just select a folder and if still driving, do another folder until all done. I named them Folder1, Folder2, so I could remember where I left off.

• I suspect the USB on the car is not USB 3, so any speed capability will be throttled by the cars slower USB, just as the playback is limited to 320kbps.

 

[srobak]

Will the Genny play FLAC - or am I limited to 320k mp3?

 

[Nikgen]

You should copy the songs onto the Jukebox instead of playing from the USB for convenience. A few things:

• You need to convert the iTunes songs to MP3 - 320kbps preferably, before copying them to USB drive. Simply select the songs in iTunes, right click and "Convert to MP3" (make sure to go to Preferences first and ensure the conversion rate is to 320kbps).

Why? I just copied the M4a files to my jukebox and they play fine and sound great. Why convert from one lossy, compressed format to another which might just degrade quality while making your files larger - which means less music available on your jukebox?

 

[ksoze]

Will the Genny play FLAC - or am I limited to 320k mp3?

Limited to 320kbps

Was also not happy converting uncompressed files to 320 for the car. Not unusual however, as most car jukeboxes have same limitations. Was using an iPod classic to play uncompressed music, but too many issues with the iPod connection and the car forced me to use the jukebox.

Looked into units like the Fiio X3 which will play hires music, but appears to be clumsy with no steering controls, power and transfer and is not built for car integration. Would require using the unit controls to select music, etc., which is not optimal when driving.

 

[TroyK]

i've been using a 32 gig thumb drive with no issues. the 2000+ songs are in mp3 format. does anyone know if the jukebox can be voice operated? that's what i miss most about my regal is that it accepted voice commands to play usb music. much easier than trying to navigate the screen while driving!

 

[rickkapur]

I do not have an Ultimate; just the base v8 2015. Only way i could move songs from USB to Car storage is to do it one at a time...very very maddening.

Any suggestions to get around this on my base v8 (not an Ultimate)?

 

[BRJACKET]

I am going to try moving the songs to Jukebox in the mp4 (ITunes) format first. If I don't have to convert them to mp3 I would really rather not due to further compression. I also use playlists so I am going to try to see if I can copy folders to keep playlists. I will let you know how it goes.

 

[ksoze]

I do not have an Ultimate; just the base v8 2015. Only way i could move songs from USB to Car storage is to do it one at a time...very very maddening.

Any suggestions to get around this on my base v8 (not an Ultimate)?

I believe the Jukebox feature is limited to the Ultimate package.

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[Nikgen]

I am going to try moving the songs to Jukebox in the mp4 (ITunes) format first. If I don't have to convert them to mp3 I would really rather not due to further compression. I also use playlists so I am going to try to see if I can copy folders to keep playlists. I will let you know how it goes.

You can copy the iTunes files (m4a) directly with no conversion - that's what I did and it worked and sounds great to me (and I am a bit of an audio snob with my home system).

 

[ksoze]

You can copy the iTunes files (m4a) directly with no conversion - that's what I did and it worked and sounds great to me (and I am a bit of an audio snob with my home system).

That may work if the files in iTunes are already 320kbps or less when dragged to the USB drive for transfer. If they are lossless (imported from CD), then they need to be converted down to play on the Genesis.

 

[amartz]

Limited to 320kbps

I think most people couldn't tell the difference between 320kps and flac.

 

[srobak]

I think most people couldn't tell the difference between 320kps and flac.

I'm not most people...

In fact - I am probably the one of only a handful of people who uses a $3000 set of studio monitors as my computer speakers. You should see the home theatre...

 

[ksoze]

I think most people couldn't tell the difference between 320kps and flac.

That depends on a lot of things. In particular, the playback hardware and speakers, as well as the content. Like some here, I also have high end equipment which with some music, can detail the finer differences in compressed music. Even my desktop speakers (Bowers & Wilkins) alone can bring out more on uncompressed music when compared to MP3's, without simply artificially boosting the high and low end like many do.

The Genesis Lexicon system can reproduce this difference, depending on the original content - whether that difference is worth it is an individual preference. It would be nice to have the option easier.

 

[amartz]

After getting my Gen1, I wound up re-sourcing much of my music, because with the 17 speaker system, it was suddenly very obvious what I had wasn't up to par. I now have a fairly large collection of FLAC files. I've converted them from FLAC to MP3 at 320, at the highest sampling rate the conversion program would let me do, to load on my thumb drive. No artificial boosting of treble or base. And in that specific scenario, I wonder in a double-blind test with your equipment, how often you'd get it right which was the MP3 and which was the FLAC.

 

[ksoze]

, I wonder in a double-blind test with your equipment, how often you'd get it right which was the MP3 and which was the FLAC.

I have no idea, however with the rapid decrease in the cost of storage, would much rather have the uncompressed files to store and play. MP3's came about to keep files sizes low - with the cost and availability of storage today, seems like that is not such a concern as much going forward. Like you, I went back to FLAC and in some cases HD tracks to better appreciate music. I suspect I would fail some of the A/B comparisons, but do know many of the songs I have been listening to over the years as MP3's sure sounded different when I returned to the original CD and listened on high end earphones or other playback equipment with good DAC's.

 

[amartz]

Well, if my Gen1 could play FLAC files.....

 

[Pamplona/Beige]

I just added abut 400 songs and it took a good 35-40 minutes to copy them all. I did it on a long drive so I had no issues with time. In the upper right corner is a little folder to folder icon if you happen to stray away from the screen that starts up when you begin the initial transfer to indicate you are done transferring.

 

[TEF]

I have 2016 Signature model and with questions relative to music from a thumb drive:

Using the micro SB chip from my Samsung S5, I am able to play all music (and even view images) when it's plugged into the car's USB port. After a delay while the car's A/V system reads the files, I can view all the music (by artist, album, song) and also play it. When playing a specific tune, it displays artist name, album and song titles, but it does NOT display the album cover art. While my previous Iphone (4s) and my Samsung S5 displays album covers, the Genesis, using the same micro SB chip (from the S5), will not. Can that be corrected or can the album images be converted to another file format that is recognized by the Genesis? Finally,if and when the long-awaited android update is installed, will this be resolved?