FR-S USB playback (TOO MUCH MUSIC)
 

Hey guys,


I realize that my usb playback on the FR-S cannot pick up more than 200 or so songs in the usb. I didn't know until i press the upward arrow from the first track to see that there are only 200 or so songs. When in reality i have over 20 gb of songs.


Could this be the factory stereo problem? I have no problem accessing the music through my computer, however in the car it limits to only 200 ish songs.. WTF


Anyone else experiencing this, or know a solution?

I have noticed the same. I didn't look into it much, but I think I read somewhere that the titles had to be in a certain format or not use special characters or something. But between this and the horrible shuffle algorithm I have been thinking about just buying a cheap mp3 player that runs off the usb port for power, and outputs audio into the 3.5mm jack under the usb slot. Cheaper than buying a new headunit.

How did you format the USB? What format is the music in? Are you using the "safely remove" doodad in Windows?

IIRC, this was an issue a while ago with a fix, but I'll be damned if I remember what it was. I'll look for it. Mine works fine.

ETA: What head unit?

FAT32 Format.


2014 Standard Touchscreen headunit.


This is really frustrating if it cant read due to the characters in the title -__-"

Are they all mp3 files?

I have 16 gigs of music that my stereo see's. I only have folders on the root labelled title and artist, then the songs are in there.

This deck will not see m4a, or whatever itunes uses. Not sure on other formats though.

Yes, they are all mp3's.. T_T

Going to separate the files into smaller chunks and see if thats the problem, will update later.

by format I was talking about the song title format, like if it is too long or has special characters for example: ( / @ ! & - _ ) I think a lot of my songs have a dash between artist and song name in the file name.

My problem is with the 2013 bespoke touchscreen one.

All mine are in mp3 also, I have about 400 songs on my thumb drive, but it only recognizes about 250 of them.

Yeah, I don't want to go through renaming all my songs either. Good luck figuring it out.

Check my post here. Maybe it will shed some light on using the USB and organizing files.

Further, I use this app to ensure that everything displays in alpha order.

I think I have way over 200 song files - never bothered to check. I've yet to not find a song on the USB.

Overall, I am surprised that the FRS does not have more current file management capabilities. I dislike having to rename every folder with the name of the Artist just so the display/selection makes sense and is usable.

If that sorter works that will be awesome!!!!! Never understood its issue with sorting folder names.

Edit: Guess I need to find it elsewhere. The download link is dead.

Here are some other options for a FAT sorter

http://www.murraymoffatt.com/software-problem-0010.html

Update:


After seperating the files. the magic number is 255 each folder... I have checked multple of files and they all say 255.



I can still access my music, it seems that i need to seperate them into individual files with a limit of 255.


I will try the other method suggested to see if i can surpass this limit.



Wow, this is so frustrating. The usb plays higher quality than my ipod though, although it isnt a major difference... id still prefer usb T_T

Ooops - sorry 'bout that. Looks like you have it sorted-out though.

The FATSorter app I use is an old (circa 2007, I think) Windows app. It's primative, the UI is a little kludgy, but it works just fine. Here's the one I use.

That's it, thanks! 18 gig on my 26 gig doodad. MP3 converted from WAV, organized like this:

Electronica\Index ID\Odyssee\Track Number Track Name
Lounge\Shamans Dream\Prana\Track Number Track Name

Organized with the Fat Sorter. Works great. I have the vanilla head unit, no touch screen. IIRC, it's a root file issue in FAT.

Sees like it's somehow an 8-bit issue (2^8).
0-255

do you have to convert it?

once organized with the fat sorter am i able to have more than 255 songs in a folder?

Doubt it. his just sorts it so that the folders will actually show up in alphabetical order.

Yea what is up with that shuffle thing, in a folder of like 150 songs it plays the same 15 over and over....

A lot of sowftwae has really poor shuffle algorithms, so you get certain patterns over time. If you don't frequently cycle music, start from a different sorting method, or just plain listen to a lot of music, you'll start to notice it.

I had a sandisk MP3 player in 2008 that would have one single shuffle method. I could get it to kind of shuffle differently if I sorted by artist or genre instead of just songs, but it was bad.

Randomness / RNG is really hard to code, surprisingly. Computers don't like random. Most methods also require a "seed" or some form of info for the random algorithm to start off of. Usually it's time, like time since startup, or system time. Which makes it easy to manipulate or for patterns to form.

/nerdrant

Unsure what you mean by "convert". I "THINK" the problem is a file system problem. If you have all of your music in the "root" of the USB stick (no subdirectories) there is a file limit. I'm not sure if that is a FAT or head unit issue.

If you have them organized in directories like \Band\Album\Tracks I THINK your problem will be solved. Can you find the manual for your head unit? It may tell you if there are any restrictions regarding USB storage.

I forgot to mention mine is organized by genre as well.

Blues\Sonny Boy Williams\Album\Track # Track Name
Lounge\yada yada yada

Pain in the butt, but try organizing your stick with a folder structure, see if that fixes your problem.

Agreed, shuffle can be hard to get right(C# random sucks), but atleast my ipod shuffle and winamp shuffle well enough that I go long periods of time without repeats. This stereo seems to sometimes shuffle well, and other times will play 5 songs that it had played the day before, in the same order.

This sucks.


Random Sucks.


At least have it shuffle across all folders with this cap of 255 each folder -___-"

My story basically is i have a lot of songs, and i like to shuffle them not knowing what is going to come up next, rather than specifically looking for genres,artists, or albums.

I guess i have to manually click on folders each time i get sick of one folder.

or....


i Might have to convert over to an iphone, and port my music over...



:(


:cry:

:bonk:

I still think your problem is that you have them all in one directory or "folder". iTunes sucks far more ass than this problem.

I don't see how it is so hard to get right, I bought a $30 sony cd player/Walkman? that plays mp3 cd's and is over 8 years old, and with about 100 songs on a disk, I have never had a repeat or pattern to the songs. In fact with no repeat selected, it will never play the same song again until it plays all of them, or the battery is taken out/dies, keeps memory even after you turn it off. Now with the frs radio I can skip through a list of 10 songs find one I want to listen to, get half way through the song, turn the car off, turn it back on and as soon as that song is over it will start back over with the same 10 songs I skipped earlier. I guess all I'm really trying to say is that if a $30 8 year old cd player can get it right, why can't a $1000 touchscreen head unit? /rant

also forget iTunes. go to youtube, find a song/video you like, and copy the url. open a new page, and go to, I think it's listentoyoutube.com (I could be wrong and as I am at work I can't check) and paste the url to the youtube page, and download the audio from the video in mp3 format... and yes I am a horrible, horrible person who pirates songs from the internet, especially ones I already have on cassette :P

It's not difficult, if they bother to do it correct. You take the alphabetical song list, number them 1 to x, then shuffle the entire list with no repeats. (technically you put the pointers to the songs in an array and shuffle the array). What you are basically doing is creating an on the fly playlist.


Some devices do a true random, basically picking a different random song after each one plays. and that is where you get into trouble for two reasons. That means you are tracking what's played so you get repeats. Also, on a computer there really is no such thing as a true "random" number. There are algorithms that approximate it based on time or some other system function it can attempt to run some formula against but a computer can't just randomly reach into a hat and pull out a song to play.

I do something similar except I have an iPod Classic with over 4,000 songs on it from an eclectic collection of music that my family owns. I play through them in alphabetical order by song title.


The problem with the new AHA headunit I just installed is that when you go to the Song listing, even though the song titles do not include the artist's name, it arranges them by artist, then by song title. Scion tells me "no it doesn't" and I tell them, "really, then why is Dancing Queen by Abba showing up at the top and ABC by the Jackson Five is somewhere in the middle? They tell me its the iPods fault.


What I have noticed though is the headunit does a proper shuffle on an iPod, which I assume is because the iPod is doing it.

There are two different random modes in the head unit - the first just played from a single folder; the other plays from all folders. The algorithm still blows though.

I did enough pirating while younger lol. Time for me to pay the piper.

And not sure why our stock decks suck, the sony in my other car has a great shuffle also.

Omg, I didn't know there's two options. Thanks!


Oh, BTW, do you guys use the feel sound setting and high automatic sound levelizer? I'm not sure what it does acoustically...

This.

Fair enough, although my excuse is I just download everything from our music collection to the iPod, don't say I listen to all of it.

I figured something like that.
Was just looking for a cheap shot.
Sorry 'bout that!

No problem, I literally LOL'ed when I saw it. Not even sure I have ABC on my iPod it was just the first "A" song I thought of.

about 1 week after I bought my car, someone broke frs and stole my work ID, and thumb drive (that's all I had in it at the time). I also just put everything we have on my drive, and I wonder at the looks on those kid's faces when they went through the drive and found everything from Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel to Megadeath and Metallica, to Pierrot and Do as Infinity(pop/Jrock/anime soundtracks).. ps my sister is a Japanese translater. pps I like most of the anime stuff anyway.

wait.. whats wrong with dancing queen? i have it on my usb..

:lol: Hahaha! I got "Brickhouse" by the commodores on my USB and a collection of Disco music along with some good ole rock n roll from the 70's & 80's. :D