Has anyone got any ideas why the Bolero system will not play a 16Gb SDHC loaded with MP3's?

Insert the card & it says processing with the option to cancel and that's as far as it goes for 20+ minutes, the dialogue box then disappears, but doesn't give you any chance to play the music on the card.

The card is formatted to FAT32 as required for 16Gb, there's 10,5Gb of music on the card in MP3 format @ 320, 192, 160 & 128kbps, both of my home PCs will accept the card & play music from it.

Also when I attach a WD Passport drive via USB & MDI, it'll find the first folder, play the contents, but won't "Mix" them, I've checked that the Mix function is enabled in system setup, so that's not the problem.

Any help & advice would be greatly appreciated.

IJ.

Has anyone got any ideas why the Bolero system will not play a 16Gb SDHC loaded with MP3's?

Insert the card & it says processing with the option to cancel and that's as far as it goes for 20+ minutes, the dialogue box then disappears, but doesn't give you any chance to play the music on the card.

The card is formatted to FAT32 as required for 16Gb, there's 10,5Gb of music on the card in MP3 format @ 320, 192, 160 & 128kbps, both of my home PCs will accept the card & play music from it.

Also when I attach a WD Passport drive via USB & MDI, it'll find the first folder, play the contents, but won't "Mix" them, I've checked that the Mix function is enabled in system setup, so that's not the problem.

Any help & advice would be greatly appreciated.

IJ.

How about starting from basics? Try with 1 mp3, then 1 album etc as (from your other postings) am not sure if this SD card has actually been working or not since you've had it.

Can the MDI be disconnected while you try the SD card in the Bolero?

Hi.

I've tried:

1. Recoding them from AAC to MP3

2. Simplified the file structure so that it's now a folder which is the Artist and inside is just music tracks, NO Album folders.

3. The SD card is working perfectly, it's recognised by the computers, it's been formatted correctly & tested.

4. If I add music tracks without putting them in a folder, it works (SD card), however with 2575 tracks of music & >1100 artists you're going to have conflicts with the song titles such as Let's Dance & Believe (3 different artists have recorded them!) you can't have two titles with the same name.

5. Even with the simplified file structure the Bolero, will not access all of the artists folders, so therefore the mix function will not work, it will only play a single folder & even then only sequentially.

6. I've disconnected the HDD from the MDI interface & it makes not a jot of difference, it will not play the SD card!

I'm getting really annoyed (censored version)

Edited 8 December, 200916 yr by Indiana Jones

Hi.

I've tried:

1. Recoding them from AAC to MP3

2. Simplified the file structure so that it's now a folder which is the Artist and inside is just music tracks, NO Album folders.

3. The SD card is working perfectly, it's recognised by the computers, it's been formatted correctly & tested.

4. If I add music tracks without putting them in a folder, it works (SD card), however with 2575 tracks of music & >1100 artists you're going to have conflicts with the song titles such as Let's Dance & Believe (3 different artists have recorded them!) you can't have two titles with the same name.

5. Even with the simplified file structure the Bolero, will not access all of the artists folders, so therefore the mix function will not work, it will only play a single folder & even then only sequentially.

6. I've disconnected the HDD from the MDI interface & it makes not a jot of difference, it will not play the SD card!

I'm getting really annoyed (censored version)

Persevere Indiana, it will get sorted!

However, to clarify and hopefully sort it once & for all, has the SD card worked in the Bolero with a minimal amount of mp3s on it? Yes/No?

Have you tried another (smaller) SD card in your Bolero? Yes/No?

Have you tried your 16GB SD card in another Bolero? Yes/No?

You mention re-encoding from AAC to mp3 - are some of these files protected (ie from iTunes or similar) and therefore only playable on your computer? Yes/No?

Have you ensured that the correct id2/3 tags are in place in each mp3 file - try using Tag & Rename as it's quite good. Yes/No?

Download the Bolero manual from SUK just in case there's something you're doing that isn't allowed.

To be continued......................

Persevere Indiana, it will get sorted!

However, to clarify and hopefully sort it once & for all, has the SD card worked in the Bolero with a minimal amount of mp3s on it? Yes/No?

Have you tried another (smaller) SD card in your Bolero? Yes/No?

Have you tried your 16GB SD card in another Bolero? Yes/No?

You mention re-encoding from AAC to mp3 - are some of these files protected (ie from iTunes or similar) and therefore only playable on your computer? Yes/No?

Have you ensured that the correct id2/3 tags are in place in each mp3 file - try using Tag & Rename as it's quite good. Yes/No?

Download the Bolero manual from SUK just in case there's something you're doing that isn't allowed.

To be continued......................

Tried the memory card with just 8 tracks on it, FINE

Tried the memory card with just 20 folders on it. FAIL

I have a bit of software (Sound Taxi) that strips the DRM out of Itunes music files & so the MP3 files are DRM free

Tried two other 16Gb cards, different makes, both the same as above, tried a 8Gb card, All Fine & then Fail.

I went to the dealer this morning and got them to try it and its failed again with both HDD & SDHC cards, it even failed to shuffle the tracks on a 512Mb card

That really bewildered the technicians too.

Tried it in 2 Octavias & a brand new Superb in the showroom, that did it too. So there's got to be a software fault in the Bolero, as all of the card work on the laptop at the dealer & my PC's without any problems whatsoever.

The dealer will be contacting SUK & elevating it up the chain to see how many more are like it & to see if a remedy can be found.

Finally I've got the downloaded Bolero manual & the latest one in the glovebox of the car, both are identical.

IJ.

No

Tried the memory card with just 8 tracks on it, FINE

Tried the memory card with just 20 folders on it. FAIL

I have a bit of software (Sound Taxi) that strips the DRM out of Itunes music files & so the MP3 files are DRM free

Tried two other 16Gb cards, different makes, both the same as above, tried a 8Gb card, All Fine & then Fail.

I went to the dealer this morning and got them to try it and its failed again with both HDD & SDHC cards, it even failed to shuffle the tracks on a 512Mb card

That really bewildered the technicians too.

Tried it in 2 Octavias & a brand new Superb in the showroom, that did it too. So there's got to be a software fault in the Bolero, as all of the card work on the laptop at the dealer & my PC's without any problems whatsoever.

The dealer will be contacting SUK & elevating it up the chain to see how many more are like it & to see if a remedy can be found.

Finally I've got the downloaded Bolero manual & the latest one in the glovebox of the car, both are identical.

IJ.

No

Pt2.

It looks to me that you've found the problem all by yourself Indiana and not realised it.

You've tried 3x16GB cards and 1x8GB card and they all initially work (with the 8 tracks?) and then fail (with the 20 folders?)and I'm presuming you've added more (and different) music to the other 12 folders? That obviously means that all these cards are OK.

As having only 20 folders is never going to be a problem then the common denominator must be in the music you're adding that's confusing the Bolero. Also remember that even if the music plays on your PC, the PC may have DRM or other codecs installed which the Bolero can't have.

Ignore what was mentioned in the other posts about having all the tracks in the root dir - I think that OP referred to SD cards pre 16GB so may not have been too troublesome but would certainly have still caused problems with deciding what to list if the ID tags weren't 100% perfect. (I'm just loading a 512Mb card up at the moment to test the theory!)

If you try your 8 known good mp3 in 20 folders then they should all work fine.

If you PM me your phone number I'll probably be able to talk you through a few things easier than via the forum

Edited 10 December, 200916 yr by john999boy

Pt2.

It looks to me that you've found the problem all by yourself Indiana and not realised it.

You've tried 3x16GB cards and 1x8GB card and they all initially work (with the 8 tracks?) and then fail (with the 20 folders?)and I'm presuming you've added more (and different) music to the other 12 folders? That obviously means that all these cards are OK.

As having only 20 folders is never going to be a problem then the common denominator must be in the music you're adding that's confusing the Bolero. Also remember that even if the music plays on your PC, the PC may have DRM or other codecs installed which the Bolero can't have.

Ignore what was mentioned in the other posts about having all the tracks in the root dir - I think that OP referred to SD cards pre 16GB so may not have been too troublesome but would certainly have still caused problems with deciding what to listed to if the ID tags weren't 100% perfect. (I'm just loading a 512Mg card up at the moment to test the theory!)

If you try your 8 known good mp3 in 20 folders then they should all work fine.

If you PM me your phone number I'll probably be able to talk you through a few things easier than via the forum.

How can the music be the problem?

I've just spent last night getting Itunes to convert all my music over from differing bit rates (320.160, 192 & 128) to a standard 192kbps, a fact that both WMP 11 & Itunes concur on.

All I've done is drag'n'drop the music folders on drive D:\ to drive I:\ (I've got 10 drives! 4x flash, 3xHDD int. , 1xHDD ext. & 2xDVD) which then copies it direct to a freshly formatted (FAT32) SDHC card.

Does it make any difference what the Allocation unit size (cluster) is? I'm just going to try formatting it in FAT32/16k to see if that makes any difference!

Back shortly.

Edited 9 December, 200916 yr by Indiana Jones

How can the music be the problem?

I've just spent last night getting Itunes to convert all my music over from differing bit rates (320.160, 192 & 128) to a standard 192kbps, a fact that both WMP 11 & Itunes concur on.

All I've done is drag'n'drop the music folders on drive D:\ to drive I:\ (I've got 10 drives! 4x flash, 3xHDD int. , 1xHDD ext. & 2xDVD) which then copies it direct to a freshly formatted (FAT32) SDHC card.

Does it make any difference what the Allocation unit size (cluster) is? I'm just going to try formatting it in FAT32/16k to see if that makes any difference!

Back shortly.

The bit rate isn't really a problem as anything up to 320 including VBR is ok.

From the manual:-

The version of the file allocation table FAT (File Allocation Table) of the

connected device must be FAT16 (< 2 GB) or FAT32 (> 2 GB).

Having all the tracks in 1 folder is a big mistake as I've just found out - Not able to easily follow artists or albums at all.

Also, from looking at the 'mix' function; it appears you'll need a structure of artist/album1-album2 etc format to enable mix's in sub folders. That's if you want mix's by artist of course.

Well I've just formatted it to FAT32/16k, loaded 70 different artists (folders) on there which took 3' to do.

Now each folder is purely Artist & Music, no album folders within the artist's folder.

So it's now in its most simple & basic form.

So you have:

A Folder = 10cc

Life's A Minestrone

Wall Street Shuffle

Rubber Bullets

Dreadlock Holiday

It found the music, but refuses to jump from artist to artist, it resolutely stays within a single (artist's) folder, turn off "Mix" and it will play them sequentially, which I don't want, unless I'm listening to a gapless album such as J-M-J Equinox or Oxygene!

Edited 9 December, 200916 yr by Indiana Jones

Now each folder is purely Artist & Music, no album folders within the artist's folder.

It found the music, but refuses to jump from artist to artist, it resolutely stays within a single (artist's) folder, turn off "Mix" and it will play them sequentially, which I don't want, unless I'm listening to a gapless album such as J-M-J Equinox or Oxygene!

So, it looks like you've picked tracks which aren't causing problems and proved the 16GB card is fine.

Have you got 'mix' ticked in the Bolero setup as that will enable folder/sub folder mix's?

As I said before, if you PM me your phone number I'm sure it can be sorted out quite easily as we're already half way there compared to earlier today

So what about those folk who haven't specified MDI because they haven't got an Ipod or External HDD, but want to transfer their music to a SDHC card & like me want a random selection of music?

Why should they be forced to listen to music sequentially?

Mix, means just that... Mix. My Golf's system used to do that if I inserted a MP3 CD, so why can VW/Skoda's Bolero, mix it up?

There must be a software fault.

I've also noticed that there's a button missing in the media setup menu, especially for those who have MDI & that's the PD button, so I'm now wondering if there's a batch of Bolero's which haven't been coded correctly.

Decided to reply to your other (Bolero Memory Card) post here to keep it in order.

I've done another test and the 'mix' function does work but looks as if it will play all the tracks in one folder before moving on to the next folder - not as good as an ipod but not sequential either.

As for the PD button - there isn't one - you'll find that you have to access the PD menu via your MFSW and Maxidot

Oh well, I'll try that out tomorrow, got to go to dealers and pick up the Boot Storage Bag (DMA 600 001) anyway so I'll have a little tinker then.

Do they issue firmware updates for the Bolero?

Oh well, I'll try that out tomorrow, got to go to dealers and pick up the Boot Storage Bag (DMA 600 001) anyway so I'll have a little tinker then.

Do they issue firmware updates for the Bolero?

They do - but considering your car is days old then I can virtually guarantee that there won't be one.

As mannyo said, the Bolero is working exactly the same as all the other HU's - I'm sure there will be a way to find out what firmware you have so perhaps someone could let you know how to do it?

Try making up a .m3u playlist for use in the car tomorrow - it'll then 'mix' to your own spec.

Surely it can't be that difficult for someone to write a bit of software code to enable it to do it?

Good grief, that bit of code would lead to loads more very happy drivers! Me included.

As it is now, I'm thinking that I might have to buy a second Ipod, so that I can have all of my music, in the way that I want it.

I've not got a Bolero, I'm just going on what I had to do on a Columbus to get mix working 'properly'.

Add a single track in the root folder, doesn't matter what it is but short is good.

Start playing that track and then turn on mix.

Now hit the next track button and it should pick something from one of your folders, the next track after that should be from somewhere else. Sometimes it will play a couple from the same place, but then it is random.

I've found that every time I turn the car off or play the radio etc and then come back to the SD card or HDD it finishes the track it was on last time and then plays the track in the root folder again, before setting off on another different random order.

Hope this is of some help, and good luck.

I've not got a Bolero, I'm just going on what I had to do on a Columbus to get mix working 'properly'.

Add a single track in the root folder, doesn't matter what it is but short is good.

Start playing that track and then turn on mix.

Now hit the next track button and it should pick something from one of your folders, the next track after that should be from somewhere else. Sometimes it will play a couple from the same place, but then it is random.

I've found that every time I turn the car off or play the radio etc and then come back to the SD card or HDD it finishes the track it was on last time and then plays the track in the root folder again, before setting off on another different random order.

Hope this is of some help, and good luck.

Anyone tried this on a Bolero?

tom

Yep & it doesn't work! :no:

What did it do when it finished playing the only track in the root? Somewhere in the set up of the Columbus there is a setting for 'mix current folder only/mix current and sub folders' maybe there is something similar on the Bolero?:wonder:

It always stays within the same letter of the alphabet!

A-ha, A1, Abba, Ace of Base, ABC, Adele, Aerosmith etc, etc.

So it will always stay in artists beginning with A's, B's C's or whatever.

It's the most stupid ICE system I've ever had & it's spoiling the enjoyment of my car!

My workaround on my 16GB SDHC card is to have every song twice on the card.

I have a directory called "Everything" which simply contains a copy of each track as well as directories by artist. I use the "Everything" directory when I want to Mix.

It effectively halves the number of songs but as I said it's a work around and way cheaper than buying another iPod to connect to the MDI. My 40GB Mk3 iPod charges but is not recognised for music and I have about 5GB on my iPhone which does work with the MDI.

Another thing I have discovered is that the Bolero does no seem to like sub directories. I started with directories for Artist then sub directories for Album. The Bolero just plain refused to recognise anything until I did away with the album sub directories.