[martin mustang]

Question on music via i-drive, are iPods the best option? From easy use like play lists and search ….
My experience so far is only with the Ipod Classic, with a good amount of space, but one down side to it is the resolution low compare to iphone or ipod touch, the album covers on display is not the best, hence can you get better result with memory stick?

[SonicEndeavor]

Yes, in my opinion memory sticks are the way to go. The artwork resolution is quite good (provided the artwork in your music files is of sufficient resolution), plus you can play high resolution flac audio files without having to convert them to another format, and also dts 5.1 audio works well from the memory stick.
Additionally, you can copy from the stick to the iDrive hard drive without any loss in quality.

[martin mustang]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Yes, in my opinion memory sticks are the way to go. The artwork resolution is quite good (provided the artwork in your music files is of sufficient resolution), plus you can play high resolution flac audio files without having to convert them to another format, and also dts 5.1 audio works well from the memory stick.
Additionally, you can copy from the stick to the iDrive hard drive without any loss in quality.

Thanks for your feedback SonicEndeavor, do you use any app to organise your playlist or simple folder structure?

[SonicEndeavor]

Originally Posted by martin mustang

Thanks for your feedback SonicEndeavor, do you use any app to organise your playlist or simple folder structure?

Just a simple folder structure - one folder for each album and playlists in a separate folder. I drag and drop from iTunes then use dbPoweramp to ensure the album art is stored in the file since iTunes doesnt store the artwork in the file unless you use the manual add feature in iTunes.
It's a little cumbersome but it works well. Although if you have a large library it will take some time for iDrive to index it.
As another option, I just started using the Amazon Prime music service which integrates nicely with the iDrive. You can either download the music via wifi or stream it live.

[Sjoerd]

I use a 160gb Ipod Classic. Before on memory sticks but prefer the Ipod. About 120GB now is taken

For me Ipod works great; much better than memory stick or bluetooth Ipone.

I only have MP3; not FLAC eg.

What I do as well is play music DVD's. Suits the B&O quite nicely

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Just a simple folder structure - one folder for each album and playlists in a separate folder. I drag and drop from iTunes then use dbPoweramp to ensure the album art is stored in the file since iTunes doesnt store the artwork in the file unless you use the manual add feature in iTunes.
It's a little cumbersome but it works well. Although if you have a large library it will take some time for iDrive to index it.
As another option, I just started using the Amazon Prime music service which integrates nicely with the iDrive. You can either download the music via wifi or stream it live.

I just grabbed the Itunes Media directory from my PC and copied it onto a 32GB thumb drive. All of the album art seems to work fine even though it's in separate files.

I have a 2014 535ix, if that makes a difference.

[SonicEndeavor]

Originally Posted by Dodge DeBoulet

I just grabbed the Itunes Media directory from my PC and copied it onto a 32GB thumb drive. All of the album art seems to work fine even though it's in separate files.

I have a 2014 535ix, if that makes a difference.

It depends on how the artwork was obtained. If you let iTunes find the artwork, then the artwork is not embedded in the file. If the music was downloaded from other sources and already has the artwork embedded or the user adds the artwork manually in iTunes, then it's already embedded and will work fine.

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

It depends on how the artwork was obtained. If you let iTunes find the artwork, then the artwork is not embedded in the file. If the music was downloaded from other sources and already has the artwork embedded or the user adds the artwork manually in iTunes, then it's already embedded and will work fine.

All of the albums in question were purchased through iTunes, and I did nothing to obtain the artwork for them. So there goes that theory . . .

[SonicEndeavor]

Originally Posted by Dodge DeBoulet

All of the albums in question were purchased through iTunes, and I did nothing to obtain the artwork for them. So there goes that theory . . .

Purchased from the iTunes store is different. That artwork is embedded in the file. I'm talking about music imported from other sources like CD's where the iTunes software on the computer finds the artwork and adds it. iTunes adds the artwork to a folder on the PC instead of embedding it, so if you copy the files to a flash drive, there's no artwork.

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Purchased from the iTunes store is different. That artwork is embedded in the file. I'm talking about music imported from other sources like CD's where the iTunes software on the computer finds the artwork and adds it. iTunes adds the artwork to a folder on the PC instead of embedding it, so if you copy the files to a flash drive, there's no artwork.

Ok . . . but there are also jpg files in the directory with the m4a files, which seems somewhat redundant. I guess I wouldn't put it past Apple, though

[TheGr8Swami]

I have a question for the iPod owners.. Are you using a regular iPod USB cable or the special cable from BMW? My 2012 5 series experience multiple iPod restarts and shows fault codes and the technician stated I needed to use the BMW iPod cable to eliminate this issue!??!

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Originally Posted by TheGr8Swami

I have a question for the iPod owners.. Are you using a regular iPod USB cable or the special cable from BMW? My 2012 5 series experience multiple iPod restarts and shows fault codes and the technician stated I needed to use the BMW iPod cable to eliminate this issue!??!

I tried using my iPod Touch 3G with the regular USB cable, but it acted very strangely; it kept beeping like it was being plugged/unplugged and I couldn't really control it. I'm wondering if the USB voltage is low on that port.

My phone (HTC One M8) works fine with ConnectedDrive and a 32GB thumb drive works too. The phone would normally show an error charging if the voltage is low, so I'm not sure what's going on . . .

[TheGr8Swami]

Yes, it is a voltage issue that the technician is reporting. I may purchase a BMW cable from Amazon this week to see of the random restarts still occurs.

[SonicEndeavor]

I use the regular USB cable and haven't encountered any issues, but my iDrive is NBT (2014) vs. your CIC iDrive so there are hardware differences.

[Grover432]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Yes, in my opinion memory sticks are the way to go. The artwork resolution is quite good (provided the artwork in your music files is of sufficient resolution), plus you can play high resolution flac audio files without having to convert them to another format, and also dts 5.1 audio works well from the memory stick.
Additionally, you can copy from the stick to the iDrive hard drive without any loss in quality.

I didn't know my 2013 535 X Drive had a HDD to copy music to. How do I do it?

[SonicEndeavor]

Originally Posted by Grover432

I didn't know my 2013 535 X Drive had a HDD to copy music to. How do I do it?

There's a partition on the iDrive HDD dedicated to the Music Collection where you can rip CD's to or copy music from a USB drive.
Here's a how-to:
www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417311

It's also explained in the entertainment/ navigation manual.

[martin mustang]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

There's a partition on the iDrive HDD dedicated to the Music Collection where you can rip CD's to or copy music from a USB drive.
Here's a how-to:
www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417311

It's also explained in the entertainment/ navigation manual.

Nor sure I have HDD in my 2011 car! I need to check this out, thanks for the link

[remmib]

I've got most of my music on the HDD too.