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      03-26-2012, 07:41 AM   #1
rains
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IPOD / USB / Other Dilemma

Hi,

This my first post and my first BMW due on 13th April. I have read many posts on the forum but can't get my head around what to do...

I have ordered the professional multimedia package (ZGP) and therefore i want to take account of the album art. I have an original IPOD mini which i use in my last car but i gather this is no good so:-

1) do i buy a new IPOD and if so which one, Nano etc....
2) use an USB stick and leave it connected, if so how do i get album art on the USB from Itunes
3) use an USB hard drive

Please advise ?

Thanks
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      03-26-2012, 08:24 AM   #2
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If you use an iPod Touch or iPod Nano you will get album art and it will be fully controllable from the steering wheel etc.

You can also use a USB stick and leave it connected - you can just copy the artwork along with the tracks.

USB drives skip as you go over bumps so don't bother.

Using an iPod of some description is the easiest option.
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      03-26-2012, 12:17 PM   #3
Matt01
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The two USB ports arent designed to
Power a portable hard drive, so don't buy one, a 4gb USB key will hold about 3 days of music and cost about £10...
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      03-27-2012, 02:49 AM   #4
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Getting album art onto a USB stick is a little trickier than an iPod but, as xenon says, certainly do-able.

There is a touch more functionality if using an iPod, such as the ability to create playlists and better searching capabilities.

If you are considering buying a new iPod, then I believe that the latest generation Nano and Touch will produce slightly crisper artwork images. I bought a latest gen iPod Classic a few weeks ago purely to live in my new car and whilst the artwok displayed on the i-drive screen is undoubtedly a bit grainy, I'm happy to offset this by the fact that I've got all the tunes I will ever need thanks to the huge storage size of the Classic.

Before shelling out for a new iPod, you could try a USB stick and see if it meets your needs (all for a significantly lower sum).

Just to add (in case you're not aware already) you've also got the option of copying around 10-12GB of music files to the hard drive in the car, either by importing from USB or ripping CD's. The functionality though is a little more restricted, i.e. the way tracks are sorted, limited search functions etc.
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      03-27-2012, 03:17 AM   #5
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I use a 32Gb iPod touch and the album art is very clear. Coupled with the fact that a true "random" works out of the 3000-odd tracks and it does all I need.

Using the in-built HDD seems too restrictive to me and never seems to do exactly what I want it to do. Slow to copy to as well.
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      03-27-2012, 03:56 AM   #6
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I have no idea what experience the two posters have above with hard drives, but what I know is this. I have a 60GB HDD plugged into my USB in the arm rest. I have never had a track skip and the socket powers the drive just fine. And yes, I have artwork where I have been bothered to embed it on the file.
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      03-27-2012, 04:07 AM   #7
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Yes, the HDD certainly works. I guess it varies by HDD-model or the roads in which you travel on as to whether it bumps.

I went with the iPod simply because it's a cinch to keep up-to-date via iTunes.
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      03-27-2012, 11:26 AM   #8
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I have a 250gb Western Digital Passport Hard Drive that works just fine. Like other posters have suggested, you need to embed the album art into the files for any that are missing. I think the program/utility I use is called mp3tag.
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      03-27-2012, 08:55 PM   #9
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Forget about ipod etc. I interchange between a 32GB and a 16GB USB sticks and they work a charm. For £10 a pop we are talking value for money. I do not get album covers, but I am not fussed about it. Everything else works great. As above mp3tag does the job...
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      04-03-2012, 02:21 PM   #10
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Thanks for all the advice. Decided I want to make the most of the options available to me and album art so going to buy a new nano with a short cable this week. Fingers crossed all to be good.... Roll on the 13th as not had a car for over 3 weeks
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      04-03-2012, 04:00 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xenon View Post
USB drives skip as you go over bumps so don't bother.
Unless you get a SSD drive

120GB drive stuffed with WMA files (lossless cos that's the way I like it), embedded album art - all works a treat.

Had to do a little research to get a drive with low enough power requirements - Corsair F120 did the trick, I did try a Crucial one (I think it was) but it wouldn't power up properly, initial power draw was too high for the socket.
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      04-04-2012, 01:42 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the_rangdo View Post
Unless you get a SSD drive
Good call. Overkill for me - my entire library is only 14Gb.
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      04-04-2012, 06:21 AM   #13
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I have had no problems with tracks jumping using regular USB sticks. No problem at all.
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      04-05-2012, 06:02 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psyxologos View Post
I have had no problems with tracks jumping using regular USB sticks. No problem at all.
Why would you? It's solid-state so bumps wouldn't affect it.
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      04-07-2012, 12:40 PM   #15
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USB stick is the way to go, for value for money and you can also add playlists to it etc...
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      04-07-2012, 09:15 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xenon View Post
Why would you? It's solid-state so bumps wouldn't affect it.
SSD drives won't work due to the power that they require. Unless you are prepared to run it off of something other than the USB power. Maybe there is one out there now, but when I researched this a couple of months ago, that was the case.
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      04-08-2012, 02:44 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snj1013 View Post
SSD drives won't work due to the power that they require. Unless you are prepared to run it off of something other than the USB power. Maybe there is one out there now, but when I researched this a couple of months ago, that was the case.
Yes they will, I'm using one. Worked fine in my E91 and now my F11.

As stated in my post above, I had to research one with low start-up power requirementss. Corsair F120, worked fine for > 12 months with no hitches and no external power, just what comes out of the USB slot.
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      04-08-2012, 04:25 AM   #18
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I went for a second hand iPhone 3GS from eBay 32G £200 and a media cradle for it, again from eBay £30 . You don't need to use it with a sim just as an ipod so you might get one even cheaper if it has an RF fault. This gives you the plugin capability with things such as Genius mixes and you can also fast forward and rewind which is particularly useful if you listen to podcasts. The media cradle also gives you video. You can leave it in the car.

Plus if it does have the capability to run BMW apps (most require a sim though)
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      04-09-2012, 04:59 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snj1013 View Post
SSD drives won't work due to the power that they require.
What is it with people making bold statements that are utterly wrong?
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      04-13-2012, 09:35 AM   #20
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Took delivery of the car today so looking forward to working everything out over the weekend!
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