USB Pause & Play Order

Got my 2011 IV today with sunroof, nav and upgraded audio system.

Here is what I discovered and some questions (the manuals are almost totally useless).

1. Was disappointed there is a 255 file limit per folder (I have some folders with 600 or 700 tracks but I'll get over it....)
2. CDs seem to work perfectly fine other than it will truncate long titles from my tags.
3. I was able to get my iPhone 4 (32 GB) recognized both as a USB device and also as a bluetooth audio player. I will probably never use it with USB since the jack is in the middle next to the drivers seat - a really dumb place considering I want to keep my iPhone on the dash to use while driving (not going to detail in this thread the apps I use in the car). So I have a lighter adapter with a USB in it so I can plug in the phone using the adapter under the gear shift (much closer). Using the iPhone 4 as my player gives me full access to music on my iPhone playable in the order I want to hear it (such as by album or a playlist). I can also control the playing from either the iphone or the prius display.
4. I tried a 4 GB USB drive and this generated a couple of questions / concerns:
a. I couldn't figure out how to pause the play. What happened to the pause button that I saw for bluetooth audio and CD?
b. Tested it with two folders, one with 100 files. Performance on the prius display was atrocious trying to page forward and backward.
c. Anyone have any idea what the sort order is? I would have thought it would be alphanumeric but the first track started with "100 - " and the next was "001 - " and then "002 - " up to "099 - ". Is it sorting using a file name or one of the ID tag fields?
5. I connected a 320 GB hard disk to the USB port. It read but had worse performance issues (as you would suspect as there are more folders and files). As most of the folders have more than 255 files in them, I was limited to 255 but I could not for the life of me figure out how decided which 255 to subset. I need to experiment a bit more during the next few days especially with folders of less than 255 files.

It would sure be nice for USB devices if we had some flexibility other than their current fixed sort order. But I am certain topics like "playlists" have been discussed here many times. What I would really like to see (as all my tracks / files have fully loaded ID tags), is the ability to browse the same way I do on the "iPod app" of my iPhone, by genre, artist, label, song, and playlists.

Are we stuck with the current design forever until we buy a new car or does Toyota intend someday on updating the software that controls all this?

Joel

 

Tideland - thanks. Yes no pause in CD. For other cars, that may be OK but if you are controlling your CD via the screen and there is no pause, you must let the track play to control the CD (or put volume at 0). Hitting stop/off also prevents you from interacting with the display. It also truncates the title so it could be difficult currently to identify it.

Also did you notice as far as I know, since the Audio button is on the left (the ones on the right can stay on the screen permanently), it won't stay there indefinitely - the map screen for example won't come back.

Looking forward to IOS5 as well and being able to see the info on the display on the car. Planning on keep my iPhone 4 behind the steering wheel (with a Ram-mount). I use a free app (Radar Active) which identifies red lights and speed traps (it has competition - this is the one I like). I also purchased some months back, the Garmin app so I have another nav tool and I also have the BeatTheTraffic app which is my current preferred app for accurate traffic info. The issue I found in my Lexus RX300 was putting the iPhone on the dash (especially with a Otterbox) caused it to overheat (and when the iPhone starts to overheat it turns off the backlit display). Getting the air from the A/C to blow on the phone alleviates the problem. Will see what it does in my Prius. Also have a Garmin NUVI 3790 (the high end flagship) which I don't think I will use anymore and plan to sell it on eBay.

Jim - I think I agree with you but not exactly sure why our friendly Windows Vista writes the file to the directory in an order other than the current sort order. Need to look into that a little more and if that is indeed the way the Prius reads it, then I will find a utility (which I may already have) to physically sort the directory on whatever device I use via the USB port.

Thanks all,
Joel

 

woops - meant to say the map screen will come back.

 

Jim - did some more investigation. The Prius does indeed read the files and directories in the physical order they were written to the device. In fact when it plays the last entry in a folder, it next places the first entry of the next folder.

So in order to play the music in the order you want - either sorted or manually placed, you need to physically reorder the file entries in the folders (and perhaps the same for the directory entries).

I was able to successfully physically order the entries with a free utility called "DriveSort Version 1.223". It even has a "playlist" mode where you can manually drag the files into the order you want them to appear in the directory. I tested it and it works - the Prius will play it in the sort order or the order I placed them.

The only thing I wished DriveSort would do which it doesn't is sort using ID tag information (such as track number). I use Tag & Rename for all my ID tag work but as far as I know you can not physically rewrite the file order in the folder based on the sort order it displays.

If you have any other suggestions other than DriveSort to rewrite the folders especially based on ID tags, please let me know.

Thanks for moving me in the right direction.

Joel

 

thanks. still learning all the options. yes that option was there and works. I just tried my old 16 gb Sansa MP3 player. It works no different from a memory stick. It's ID tag and information (other than the displayed file name and artist ID) is ignored. It will play the tracks exactly the same in the order written to the folders.