FR-S USB playback (TOO MUCH MUSIC)

[carma143]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

Update:


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

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

[JARE_ee]

do you have to convert it?

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

Originally Posted by Tromatic

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.

[UtahSleeper]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

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.

[lantsalot]

Originally Posted by Target70

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.

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

[LucidMomentum]

Originally Posted by lantsalot

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

[Tromatic]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

do you have to convert it?

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

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.

[UtahSleeper]

Originally Posted by LucidMomentum

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

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.

[JARE_ee]

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...

[Tromatic]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

This sucks.


Random Sucks.


At least be able to shuffle through folders with a 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...

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

[Target70]

Originally Posted by UtahSleeper

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.

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

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Target70

I don't see how it is so hard to get right...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.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

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 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.

[phobos512]

Originally Posted by JARE_ee

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...

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.

[UtahSleeper]

Originally Posted by Target70

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

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.