SD Cards in Bolero with iTunes- what I've learnt the hard way!

[mwas123]

I thought I'd post my experiences of using SD cards in Bolero and what I've learnt along the way, now that I think I've finally got my card to work more properly. I hope this might be of help to others, or do let me know if you've came across any quicker way to do this.

To start at the beginning.....

All my music is in itunes, and on my iPhone, and having had ipod integration on my old car, it was not something I wanted to lose. The obvious thing would have been to just specify MDI, but of course there is the unfathomable issue that the UK is not allowed MDI, either as a factory fit or aftermarket accessory.

So, if I want to be able to play my music, and want to be able to navigate through music, my best option seemed to be putting all my music on an SD card.

Problem 1- if your music is on itunes, then it is in an MP4 format, whereas it needs to be in MP3 format for the card to work. The solution to this is a program on the internet called 'Soundtaxi'. You have to pay £20 or so for it, but it will convert the format, and also remove the DRM lock on tracks purchased from iTunes (though now iTunes music is DRM free I think). However be warned, that though you can set the conversion process to run automatically, it takes a time. My poor laptop was running for 16hrs straight converting everything. I would make sure that the converted files are being written to somewhere else on your hard drive (rather than to the SD card).

Problem 2- In order to make the last step of the process work, you need to be wary of the depth of the folders. You cannot have subfolders in subfolders. The iTunes default seems to be the artist, then the album, then the track, which is three levels. The way to get round this is to deselect the the option in SoundTaxi to preserve folders. This will then convert the mp4 files to a flat folder you specify. i.e. all you will have is all the tracks in one big folder. You then need to do a bit of manual work that can be labarious, to create new folders, and paste the individual tracks into their respective folders. This is much easier if in Explorer for the folder, you choose the view 'details' option, and sort on Artist name. You can then just pick up a block of a particular artists tracks and copy them into the respective folder.

Then when I had the folders as I wanted them I copied them to the SD card. I used a 16gb class 6 SDHC which I got from Amazon for about £30.

At this stage, you will be able to play your music through Bolero, BUT.... Problem 3- it is incredibly clunky- it is very slow to pick up the tracks, and when you try to jump to another folder it seems to get stuck for 10 seconds or so which is really annoying.

Luckily, the Octy 2 forum came to the rescue. See the link below and post #154. DanishViking has very usefully produced a program that provides some modifications to make the file structure much more Bolero friendly, which speeds things up considerably and gets rid of the clunkiness. It also adds a playlist of all your tracks, which is great if you do what I do and just have my entire music collection of shuffle.

My link

Do follow the instructions as to how to use it, and don't forget to put one mp3 file in the root directory, i.e. in the top folder of the SD card.

So, after many hours at this, and the rescue of a DanishViking, at last I seem to back to where I was if only I could have specified MDI, and just plugged in my iPhone!

Edited 8 May, 2010 by mwas123

[Rob666]

You're a star for working this through and sharing. However, it is a little more than 'unfathomable' why we cannot have MDI in the UK.

Come on Skoda, what the hell are you playing at? This isn't rocket science, although you seem to be trying to make UK Snow Monster owners complete a degree in applied computer science.

Please stop mucking around and give us the option directly instead of these convoluted workarounds.

[ernieb]

I do not have the car yet so I'm in the dark as to how the Bolero works, even after reading the manual that I downloaded.

So a couple of questions?

Once the SD card is configured using the DanishViking setup do you see the albums or artist as a folders or is it just tracks?

If it's just tracks can you use the 'playlists' to create an album or artist, by it's name, or is it just playlist 1, 2 etc.

Sorry if these are very obvious but at present I can not play.

The firmware setup in the Bolero does seem to be very basic from what has been said and the manual does not help much.

ernieb

[GentleGiant]

It is not just Skoda, ALL the car radio makers are fitting SD support as a badly supported afterthought. Finding a 1/2 decent unit is very difficult.

My Clarion FB288RBT is the best I have found for under £500, the only real problems with it being no support for SDHC and dodgy bluetooth support.

Sadly, with the car makers fitting custom units to nearly everything, I doubt I will be able to transfer it when I get my new car.

[mwas123]

Once the SD card is configured using the DanishViking setup do you see the albums or artist as a folders or is it just tracks?

If it's just tracks can you use the 'playlists' to create an album or artist, by it's name, or is it just playlist 1, 2 etc.

The menu items will be by album or artist, and then track name when you go into the artist/album.

In terms of playlists, I have been putting the individual songs in a folder called playlist 1, playlist 2 etc and seems to work.

[ernieb]

Thanks, mwas123

Another question:

If you selected an album would it play all the tracks or do you need to select tracks one at a time?

ernieb

[mhjonesuk]

Thanks, mwas123

Another question:

If you selected an album would it play all the tracks or do you need to select tracks one at a time?

ernieb

I've found that it starts playing the first folder by default after inserting the card but this can be changed by selecting the track you want manually. If you select the first track of an album it will work through the tracks in order then move on to the next file in the list. When I made my card up I arranged it by Artist then Album.

[ernieb]

Thanks mhjonesuk, that's what I wanted to know.

ernieb

[CharlieB72]

I was clearing up an iPod speaker box from last christmas and a lead fell out. Turns out it joins the Aux port ( in the front centre armrest) to the kid's nanopod. In then plays very nicely through the Bolero. Got a £9.99 iPod/iPhone charger from Argos to keep it going through the 12V 'cigarette lighter' in the front and voila - happy kiddies who can control their music from the back.

[mhjonesuk]

Thanks mhjonesuk, that's what I wanted to know.

ernieb

No problem ernieb the other thing to mention is that it lists folders alphabetically so if you want folders or albums in any sort of order you need to think about adding a, b, c etc. or possibly 1, 2, 3. I am still fiddling with the file structure to get it how I want it but thats part of the fun.

Mark

[bahnstormer vrs]

I was clearing up an iPod speaker box from last christmas and a lead fell out. Turns out it joins the Aux port ( in the front centre armrest) to the kid's nanopod. In then plays very nicely through the Bolero. Got a £9.99 iPod/iPhone charger from Argos to keep it going through the 12V 'cigarette lighter' in the front and voila - happy kiddies who can control their music from the back.

It seems like this is the solution.

I presently use my mobile phone as an mp3 player using a lead to connect to the AuxIn in my Octavia. I had thought that to use an SD car would be a simple, more permanent solution but it seems the most user friendly option is to again connect my phone/mp3 player using the AuxIn.

Progress?

[mhjonesuk]

I was clearing up an iPod speaker box from last christmas and a lead fell out. Turns out it joins the Aux port ( in the front centre armrest) to the kid's nanopod. In then plays very nicely through the Bolero. Got a £9.99 iPod/iPhone charger from Argos to keep it going through the 12V 'cigarette lighter' in the front and voila - happy kiddies who can control their music from the back.

The only thing is if you don't like thier music, then having a particularly annoying track played repeatedly can be torture if you have particularly cruel kids.

[CharlieB72]

Yes - ground rules will have to be set!!! Fortunately, I have found the rear-front speakers fader slider on the screen so that will alleviate the problem of SClub ad nauseum.

[mhjonesuk]

prefer the headphone solution myself can still hear the eldest ones music though despite telling him to turn it down.

[One small step]

Have tried both the MP3 player via the aux socket and also the 16GB SDhc card. The SD card displays the track name and artist in the bolero display and you can navigate through the files using the steering wheel buttons. It does take an age to read the card though at the start of a journey - but the quality is superb and plays about 80 albums back to back - great for long treks!