Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

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Red
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Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby Red » Mon Oct 14, 2013 3:42 pm

I'd have put mine up for sale but seeing as there's So damned little out there that would make a fun replacement, I'm doing a bit of modernizing on my car instead. Which brings me to the radio.

I'm spoiled by having Bluetooth in newer cars, and pulling my old Pioneer (AM/FM/CD, great little radio but no BT for it) to install a newradio that also has BT support for streaming music and phone, and USB support for an iPod or USB memory stick. And here's the rub.

My "library" is just under 12,000 files in just under 1,000 folders. It will grow some more but not a lot very quickly. It does mean I've filled a 64G memory card and will be getting a classic iPod (160GB) as the master one of these days.

But a quick look at the Sony MEXBT4100P, a nice competitive radio, says it can only recognize 10,000 files on a USB stick, and I'm already at 12,000, so I can play them on streaming BT but not on a memory stick left in the car. In terms of power...I don't need or want a glass-shaking stereo, I think the old one is 25W/c and this one is rated over 40W/c and that's really more than I need. Not fancy, just "gobs of music" capable. The SONY can play CDs, nice now that I've migrated off them, and the lights can be changed to match the dash more or less, which is nice. Oh, and the BT includes an external mic so I can run it up higher instead of picking up transmission noises.

So...I'm not looking for a fancy rig, just one that does these basics well, and will take MORE than 10,000 files on the USB stick or iPod. Anyone have any suggestions for that?

SONY says, 1000 folders or 10,000 files.
Pioneer says 500 folders (unclear if that's the TOTAL or at any level) and 15,000 files.

Somewhere out there...
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

jinx
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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby jinx » Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:44 pm

why would u "need" that amount of music in a car at any one particular time ? r u running away ?
do u pull over while sorting thru all those folders, to find the music to suit your mood ?

i simply run cheap radios that take SD cards and have decent output (50w x 4). Drag what files/folders u want to the card.... switch the card whenever u feel for a fresh selection

most 2 recent $40 indash i bought.
http://www.amazon.com/Bravo-View-IND-10 ... sbs_misc_3
http://www.amazon.com/Boss-612UA-MP3-Co ... cr_pr_pb_t

bluetooth adapter wouldn't cut it 4 u ?
http://www.amazon.com/Kinivo-BTC450-Blu ... cr_pr_pb_t

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Red
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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby Red » Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:55 pm

Jinx, I operate a pirate radio station so I need a lot of music at hand when folks call in with requests.

No, really, I just find it convenient to have it all in one place and see no reason why I should have to split it up and decide in advance "Oh, I'll take these albums this weekend." That's the 1980's calling you, hold on for your call, please.<G>

SD cards don't help the matter at all. A "standard" SD card often tops out at 2GB. An SDHC (High Capacity) card tops out at 32GB, and anything that supports SDHC also stops at 32GB. For several years now the standard has been SDXC which commonly means 64GB with larger cards not easily found.

OTOH USB sticks can easily exceed that, so I'm looking for USB capability not SD, SDHC or SDXC.

Similarly, I could buy a BT adapter, but then that's one more gizmo on the loose and needing charging. I want the BT built in, to work with the phone, and work smoothly. If I buy the $40 radio and the $40BT adapter, I'm only $30-40 away from the price of a better radio which doesn't need wires hanging out, doesn't need batteries, AND has push buttons for the stations. After 18 years on the last radio, I'll go the extra $30 to get it all integrated and from a brand name.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby jinx » Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:18 pm

No, really, I just find it convenient to have it all in one place and see no reason why I should have to split it up and decide in advance "Oh, I'll take these albums this weekend." That's the 1980's calling you, hold on for your call, please.

dunno how u ever survived the cd era then..... musta had your trunk/hatch full of discs :)

car audio forum perhaps ?

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Red
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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby Red » Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:43 pm

No, I survived the CD era by mourning my tapes. Stacks of metal tapes carefully mastered to CD quality, but when the first radio was stolen from the car, I couldn't get a dual tape+CD replacement so I went CD and kept two dozen in a binder to take with me.

Last couple of years though, I've invested a lot of time putting everything (300 CD's, 400 two-album tapes, and a few stray LPs) into digital form. High quality digital form, which freed up a lot of space. And once you make that kind of migration to a new technology, wtf would you want to be saddled with 20-year old obsolete hardware limits? <VBG>

So I've got the masters on disk (3 of them, because I know drives die) and *almost* everything on a 64GB memory card in the phone, no extra effort once it was all digitized anyhow. And then once you've got everything in one place, in one piece...it becomes a no-brainer to just say "no" to anything that would limit that.

Checked with SONY today (some companies would do better with no tech support at all) and found out they have a limit somewhere between 150 files and 10,000 files, total FILES, and they're not sure of anything about that. Tried to check with Blaupunkt, who seem to have a nice option of radios that will retain memory when the power is cut--which I'd like because I don't like the radio being a vampire on the car battery all the time. But, they have no idea about what their limits are. And then there was Pioneer, who were a bit confused but eventually we figured out their newer models will do the job. Nicely discounted. Their better radios force you to choose Sirius or HD radio, and really, with 12,000 songs on the memory do you think I'd choose Sirius?<G> So I'm getting HD radio as well. My sound system will be coming into the 21st century, for about $25,000 less than the cost of replacing the car with an FRS. BRZ. Suboyota. Whatever.

I suspect that with any of these radios, if they can deal with an iPod that they really will all be able to deal with whatever is ON an iPod, but this way I get to leave a memory stick in the car, and just tune in "Radio Red" without any extra wires or fuss.

Yessir, 12,000 polka tunes, play 'em loud enough and all the other traffic will go away and let me through.<VBG>
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby chocobot » Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:13 am

Were you upset when you had to transfer 12,000 polka tunes from 8-track tape to compact cassette for your new 85 GT-S?
Your skill in reading has increased by one point.

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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby John H. » Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:58 pm

chocobot wrote:Were you upset when you had to transfer 12,000 polka tunes from 8-track tape to compact cassette for your new 85 GT-S?

Image

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Red
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Re: Radios & USB/MP3 file limits?

Postby Red » Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:11 pm

No, I only had six thousand to transfer, the rest is all NEW polka music.

You know, reggae polka, rap polka, ganjam polka...there's just so much to explore! <G>
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S