Help a Luddite with MP3 stuff....

[PetrolioBenzina]

The audio forum is not interested in the stock unit, so that's why I posted here.

My '17 86 has the PT546-00160 (Pioneer?) head unit. My music source is a USB stick formatted to FAT32. The music itself is from CD's ripped to WAV files, then converted to MP3 using DB Poweramp. All the ID3 tags but artist and album are stripped from the files. The files on the USB stick are in artist\album order.

All I want to be able to do is to have this utter POS play ALL the music on the USB stick, not just the selected album endlessly unless I select something else. Press play, forget about it. I tried making a playlist using PlayListCreator3. The HU does not see the playlist.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I have read the manual several times, with no luck. Is this junk even capable of continuous play from album to album? Is there some magic dust I don't have? Some different arrangement of files on the USB stick?

The HU my '13 FR-S could do all this, why can't this POS?

[Sarlacc]

I have a different headunit with no such problems, so these are just general thoughts.

Try a different playlist format. Either M3U or PLS usually works, but often just one of them.
If that doesn't work, instead of using folders for artists and albums, try putting all the songs in the root directory of the memory stick.

[PetrolioBenzina]

Thanks. Both playlists are on the stick, I'l try one or the other. Also moving to root....

BRB..................

Added: All files in root, all visible. No playlist, does not roll over to next album. Should I use a rifle or shotgun to fix this issue?

[Sarlacc]

Again, shooting blind.
The playlists will not show up in the list of songs. You may have to find a menu item or something that says "playlist".

My preferred weapon in these situations is an axe. A small one for cramped places.
You just can't beat the tactile satisfaction of burying a hefty blade into some non-cooperative box of stupid electronics.
Pro tip: Have the stupid electronics powered and switched on for the full effect.

The size of the axe is important, right tool for the job and all that.

So these babies are, from left to right, suitable for:
1. Household appliances such as fridges and washing machines.
2. TVs and desktop computers.
3. Set-top boxes, laptops and headunits.
4. Microwave ovens and other high-voltage junk, note the insulating handle.
5. Remote controls, phones and other pesky pocket sized gadgets.



Hope this helps, good luck.

[Zhangy]

get a mp3 player

[MuseChaser]

OK, I'm shootin' in the dark here, too, but what the heck..

I've got a '13 FR-S w/ the stock base head unit, too, and it plays back my entire flash drive without any problem, as you mentioned.

When you say that you've got your files on the drive in a particular order, that isn't really true; the files are just data scattered around the drive however your computer thought was the most effective way to save it at that time. The files and folders are indexed in a certain way and, on your computer, you can display them in various orders (by file/folder name, by date, by size, blah blah). On mine, I save the tracks from each CD in a separate folder named the same as the CD's name, then I save THAT w/in a folder named by artist. The HU in my 2013 plays all the tracks in order, artist by artist.

If your HU won't do that, have you tried putting your flash drive in your computer, then dragging all of your individual track files into one huge directory? It might make finding a particular file difficult/impossible in the future, but it'd probably accomplish your goal of non-stop playback. On the other hand, if the id3 tags for artist/track/album are still in place, your HU might STILL be able to access things by album, even though you don't have them saved that way on your drive.

Just an idea... have no idea if it'd work.

Barry

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

OK, I'm shootin' in the dark here, too, but what the heck..

I've got a '13 FR-S w/ the stock base head unit, too, and it plays back my entire flash drive without any problem, as you mentioned.

When you say that you've got your files on the drive in a particular order, that isn't really true; the files are just data scattered around the drive however your computer thought was the most effective way to save it at that time. The files and folders are indexed in a certain way and, on your computer, you can display them in various orders (by file/folder name, by date, by size, blah blah). On mine, I save the tracks from each CD in a separate folder named the same as the CD's name, then I save THAT w/in a folder named by artist. The HU in my 2013 plays all the tracks in order, artist by artist.

If your HU won't do that, have you tried putting your flash drive in your computer, then dragging all of your individual track files into one huge directory? It might make finding a particular file difficult/impossible in the future, but it'd probably accomplish your goal of non-stop playback. On the other hand, if the id3 tags for artist/track/album are still in place, your HU might STILL be able to access things by album, even though you don't have them saved that way on your drive.

Just an idea... have no idea if it'd work.

Barry

He has a 17 now. That is the one that won't do it.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

He has a 17 now. That is the one that won't do it.

I read that part.. hence my writing "shooting in the dark." I DO have mine saved in individual folders on my flash drive. If his '17 is stuck on one folder, I was hoping that putting all of his track files in one large folder would solve his problem. That was my suggestion. Sorry if I was unclear.

Barry

[PetrolioBenzina]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Again, shooting blind.
The playlists will not show up in the list of songs. You may have to find a menu item or something that says "playlist".

My preferred weapon in these situations is an axe. A small one for cramped places.
You just can't beat the tactile satisfaction of burying a hefty blade into some non-cooperative box of stupid electronics.
Pro tip: Have the stupid electronics powered and switched on for the full effect.

The size of the axe is important, right tool for the job and all that.

So these babies are, from left to right, suitable for:
1. Household appliances such as fridges and washing machines.
2. TVs and desktop computers.
3. Set-top boxes, laptops and headunits.
4. Microwave ovens and other high-voltage junk, note the insulating handle.
5. Remote controls, phones and other pesky pocket sized gadgets.

This is good for in-car use.

[PetrolioBenzina]

Thanks again. I'll try all of these today.

Just to make it clear what I want to do:
1. Get in.
2. Start car.
3. Select USB as source.
4. Press play
5. Listen to music without further fat-fingered, old-eyes distracted driving. When one album finishes, go to the next you stupid POS!

[PetrolioBenzina]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

OK, I'm shootin' in the dark here, too, but what the heck..

I've got a '13 FR-S w/ the stock base head unit, too, and it plays back my entire flash drive without any problem, as you mentioned.

When you say that you've got your files on the drive in a particular order, that isn't really true; the files are just data scattered around the drive however your computer thought was the most effective way to save it at that time. The files and folders are indexed in a certain way and, on your computer, you can display them in various orders (by file/folder name, by date, by size, blah blah). On mine, I save the tracks from each CD in a separate folder named the same as the CD's name, then I save THAT w/in a folder named by artist. The HU in my 2013 plays all the tracks in order, artist by artist.

If your HU won't do that, have you tried putting your flash drive in your computer, then dragging all of your individual track files into one huge directory?

It might make finding a particular file difficult/impossible in the future, but it'd probably accomplish your goal of non-stop playback. On the other hand, if the id3 tags for artist/track/album are still in place, your HU might STILL be able to access things by album, even though you don't have them saved that way on your drive.

Just an idea... have no idea if it'd work.

Barry

All files are now in the root directory, no sub folders. They have artist and album ID3 tags, so I can sort and find by artist or album. It seems it can do everything but just play music without user intervention.

There's a utillity called DriveSort that allows you to set the directory order on a USB stick. I used that and it worked like a champ in the '13 head unit. You could easily skip to the next album in the list, or jump to the top or bottom. All without having to look at the stupid thing.

I know this is a minor issue, but I just can not believe that this thing in not capable of playing anything beyond the current selection.

Thanks again for all your help.

[ls1ac]

I gave up and put all the songs in the root.
I carry a few different USB's according to mood.

[hdbahn]

I have a '16 and mixed wma/mp3 USB. The only way I can play the whole drive is by selecting "Tracks" and letting it play all tracks in alphabetical order (which sucks since I've had a SONY AATRAC MEX-1HD for about ten years that (despite ripping CDs onboard one by one) plays artists and tracks in order without any file naming whatsoever). I have no clue how to make a playlist that works from my WMP library, and don't even understand what a root directory is although I like MuseChaser's description. I'm the Luddite that owns 6+ computers that I have upgraded all sorts of hardware on and use Windows and Ubuntu but files are incomprehensible to me. Also, the first couple of drives I plugged in either had too much data to finish indexing or would shut down when I hit a bump...but the very same drives now work, so maybe it was trans-Pacific corrosion that had to wear off.

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by PetrolioBenzina

Thanks again. I'll try all of these today.

Just to make it clear what I want to do:
1. Get in.
2. Start car.
3. Select USB as source.
4. Press play
5. Listen to music without further fat-fingered, old-eyes distracted driving. When one album finishes, go to the next you stupid POS!

You want to do all that?

I have a USB stick with 2000 of my favorite songs, and I do this
1. Get in.
2. Start car.
3. Listen to music in random order.

I will occasionally press "forward" to skip a track, but that's it.