It works - but I need to learn A LOT about how to manipulate the folders. The songs weren't all in order - I'm not sure how it recognizes order. Also, I'm not sure if you can stop, rewind, fast-forward, etc. It seems a little hard to manage the songs.

 

There's actually a glitch in the way it handles order that's driving me up the wall. It seems to ignore any leading zeroes in filenames (it sorts by filenames, sort of).

So what you'll get is this:

10
11
12
13
01
02
03
04
05

My solution for getting the filenames batch renamed from the way, say, iTunes does it, is by using a free program called TagScanner. It uses the ID3 tags (the data stored inside the file like Arist/Album/Track) to name the files.

So iTunes might have it as "01 - Bar", but you can use TagScanner to rename it to "Foo - Bar". I'll post some more as I figure out how the bloody thing reads files.

Though a note to any Infiniti software guys out there - please, please get ID3 support in there for on-sort, and take a lesson from anything that involves playing MP3s for a lesson on how to get the interface right. While this method works, it takes a lot of prep work with folders and batch renaming to make it a usable feature.

 

I've not a huge fan of the Music Box because of the ordering and searching system but the Compact Flash player has exceeded my expectations. Here is what I am doing. In iTunes I set up the info I want to display (album) and set the id tags to 2.4. The song title iTunes displays does not come up in the car. The title of the mp3 on your CF card does.

The folders come up in alphabetical order and the songs do also. I do one of two things: for a folder of songs I want in order, I just put 01 [space] or [bar] Title for each song ( 02 - Times Like These.mp3 ). For a mix folder I just have the artist and title ( Foo Fighters - Times Like These.mp3 ).

I wasn't a CF card user (memory stick) but I am buying a couple more cards as I find I am using this more than the CD's or music box.

 

^^^^ Great info Mike, thanks.

 

Okay, I figured out how to FF, REW, etc. But is there any way to pause a track or stop it without going into a different mode (CD, aux...)?

 

I know that in File Explorer view (just viewing the files on my CF card) you can sort by Track Number - right click on the title bar like where it says 'date modified' or 'file type' - then select track number . Is there any way to sort them like this on the CF card and then the stereo will read it that way? Or does it automatically read it the way it wants?

 

So actually having the car now makes it easier to play with ;-)

In playing around with the CF card today, it appears that it will only read the "bottom" level of folders you have on a card. So if you have say ten folders of artists set up, then in those folders say you have 5 albums each, all that you will see on the screen is the 50 album names, nothing about the artist. Additionally if it goes 1 step further say artist name -> dual disc album name -> disc 1/2 folders - all that will show on the screen is Disc 1, nothing else. I was really hoping for a true "drilldown" capability - but I love what I have at least. Its not perfect, but its more than workable for now. Could have sworn I read a workaround for this, or some way to change this, would love to hear back from some folks on this as more people start to use it. If this is the way its going to be than so be it, I'm thrilled, and will learn the best way to set up my card to work with it for now.

As far as ordering the songs in a folder, I have been doing it by "false editing" the song tags. What I mean by that is this. I have a program called dbpoweramp which is what I use for converting audio files. I can right click on an mp3 and select "edit tag" which will change the timestamp on the file. Since it appears the system orders by time, I set my folder up the way I want it, and if for some reason it doesnt rip right, I just go in, select edit tag, hit OK after making no changes and it changes the timestamp. Takes about 3 seconds per song, I can keep the filenames I want, and its ordered correctly.