I wholeheartedly agree. It is suprisingly poorly implemented, considering where we are, in general, with portable mp3 players these days.

 

So I burned an mp3 CD with a 1-minute silent mp3 in each folder in the heirarchy.

It still didn't show a folder heirarchy, it still flattened everything out. But it is nice to not have to hear the beginnings of each song in each folder in rapid succession anymore.

 

What sampling bit rate did you use for the 5 seconds of silence? I'm kind of an audiophile, so I would prefer that the silence be ripped at 256 kbps or 320 kbps, anything lower just wouldn't be very high quality silence...

 

You're joking right?

 

Of course. Guess I need to learn how to use those emoticon things...

 

I hope someone can update this thread if they find a suitable solution. \subscribed

 

Here is my setup on the MP3 CDs. It works out perfect for me. Each disc is a mix of similar bands or overall genre. For instance below is a Rap Mix. You see each folder represents an artist and then in each folder is the songs from that artist. 99% of the time I drive around in "1 Disc Mix" mode to just shuffle the whole disc, but sometimes if I want to just hear one artist I will go into "1 Folder Mix" mode.

Oh and don't judge the rap mix, sometimes I get into a funny mood and actually like rap music, plus the Bose system on this car actually has bass

Anyway I have zero complaints with the system:

 

Thanks for posting the pics, it's helpful.

Now here's another question for you MP...do you have just one album in each Artist folder, or do you have multiple albums?

 

I take it this is all moot if you get the nav package as you can only read mp3's from the in-dash cd player and not the trunk cd-changer?

 

I just take all of my favorite songs from each artist and dump them in the folder. I make sure the file name for the burned track is "clean". What I mean by clean is that it doesn't say like 01_Song Name, 02_Song Name, so they just say the exact song name.

I personally listen to music in "shuffle form" all the time otherwise I get bored, so I set it up this way to just have all songs from an artist in one folder. I guess that can be a slight inconvenience if you like say 40 songs by an artist, but then again at the same time you don't have to struggle to find the one song you want to hear if you don't remember the exact album it's on you know where the song will be alphabetically.

I have not messed around with nested folders, which I guess was the original question in this thread, but I really don't see the need for them (for my application).

Can't help you there since I don't have navi, but are you sure the trunk changer is not for MP3 CDs as well?

 

That much I can confirm from all the reading that I've done ...
The trunk CD changer only plays regular CDs - it does NOT work with MP3 CDs.

It looks like major parts of this audio system are about 5+ years behind the times ..... I mean I can't find a CD player which does not support MP3 even if I look hard in stores
Have no idea where Infiniti sources this antique cd changer from.

 

Think about it, how many of us that have navi are going to use that CD changer? We have compact flash and the Music Box system available as alternatives to listening to a bunch of mp3 cds. More members here with navi are reporting that they just want to remove the changer to save trunk space than members who are actually using it. In my opinion if using a non MP3 capable changer saved money in the production of the navi package, Infiniti made the right choice.

 

I hear ya .... but looking at what we find at retail, a CD player capable of playing MP3 is not necessarily more expensive than a normal CD player.
Maybe that was the case a few years back - but certainly not now.

Unless Infiniti saved a decent chunk of change with this approach, it is not worth it. (I really doubt they saved anything).

The design of the trunk system (and placement) is a totally different question altogether.

Oh and while we are at it, I wish it were possible to upgrade the harddrive to a much larger one in the future .... that would be among the first hacks that I would try (once I get my G)

 

Infiniti would likely purchase these types of items in very large scale bulk orders, so there may have been enough for production of the 07 sedans in inventory. Compared to the cost of writing off the excess inventory, using the changers could result in a large cost savings for infiniti.

The problem with upgrading the hard drive, as Garnet Canuck pointed out, is that for use in an extreme environment (excessive vibration and extreme temperatures hot and cold) Infiniti had to use the Seagate EE25 drive which is made for automotive and military applications. The EE series drives are currently available upto 40GB (the current drive is 30GB) so the cost of upgrading combined with the risk of damaging the audio control unit would not be worthwhile.

 

+1, great point.

I am going to have Infiniti replace the trunk liner and I'll have the changer mounted on the floor in the corner. The only reason I'm not having it totally removed is for possible resale. Any CDs I like enough to have in a changer I like them enough to rip them in the 10 minutes or so it takes to rip to the HD. My commute is 40 minutes or so each way and in the first week or two I had ripped the 20 or so CDs I liked onto the HD. To say nothing of the CF player, XM radio or Ipod inputs.

Having the changer in this car is like having the stupid little compass in the rearview mirror in a car with a kickass nav system two feet away.