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USB MP3: undocumented feature, pleasant surprise

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by RichPasco, Mar 17, 2011.

  1. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    That could be a nice feature if well-implemented. You like it? I have neither an iPod nor an iPhone.
     
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  2. skilbovia

    skilbovia Member

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    Thanks, that was what I was hoping to hear. I'm bummed that the iPod won't let you use voice control to search for a particular song, but getting to the album should be good enough. I'm now one step closer to the $400 64GB iPod. Much cheaper than $1300 for a new head end.
    The only way I've been able to use the USB port is to set up 3 folders, in my case Oldies, Rock, and Classical. I dragged and dropped songs one by one into these folders and play them usually in folder random mode. So I have what amounts to 3 radio stations playing only songs that I like, which is cool, but unfortunately, no search function. And if I want to pause a song I have to turn off the audio system or set it to another source. Who ever programmed this feature was a complete idiot. And Toyota isn't gonna do a damned thing about it.
    I did have a Ford with Sync and I was really impressed with its capabilities. I actually really loved it. The JBL stereo in my Prius sounds great, but the search function for any device I use to listen to my own music completely and totally sucks.
     
  3. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Well the implementation of the audio system with the nav is poor. The scrolling feature is horredously slow. I don't know why they didn't give you the option to jump to a specific letter (Ever tried scrolling through the list of POIs, trying to find the one you want?). I can't imagine scrolling through a playlist which can be longer than the list of POIs. I find the TUNE button to be quicker. You just have to stop once in a while to listen to the song to see how close you are to finding the song you want.

    I don't have the iPod connector and only use BT audio streaming so it's the only way I can safely navigate and select songs (via artist or playlist only. Apple doesn't let you choose the song by song title) without looking at my phone and causing an accident. I would assume if it's connected to the iPod connector, the function would work.

    Now it'll slightly differ whether you have the iPhone that's connected via bluetooth handsfree to the car or an iPod that isn't. With the iPhone, you can talk into the car's mic while with an iPod, you'll haev to make sure that the iPod's mic can hear your commands. I don't know which iPod models have Voice Control but I assume the iPod Touch at the minimum (since it appears to be an iPhone without the phone bit).
     
  4. Rstaton

    Rstaton New Member

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    I just got a 2011 Prius III. I don't know of any USB connector. Where is it? Or is it only on certain models? Thanks.
     
  5. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    In my 2010 Prius V, the USB connector is inside the console, next to the Aux In jack.
     
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  6. Rstaton

    Rstaton New Member

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    D'oh! Then I don't have one. :(
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    It comes with the navigation package.
     
  8. rpeek2

    rpeek2 Dry Ice Juggler

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    I have an iPod Touch4 which to my knowledge, unfortunately has no capabilities of Voice Control via USB. Functions and operates pretty much as in previous posters statements. If someone knows of a voice component--I'm up for a "pleasant surprise" myself.
     
  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Wow so the Voice Control function is exclusive to the iPhone? That sucks...
     
  10. Thai

    Thai Prius Neophyte

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    Itouch 4G...no voice control that i know of.

    As for scrolling, just be thankful that we can scroll forwards AND backwards!! On Acura/Honda system, you can only scroll forward...so, if you want to hear that song #601, you need to scroll thru 600 songs before getting to it. At least with the Prius, you can save some time by scrolling backward. Yes, the scrolling may take some time as the info is being loaded from Ipod to NAVI screen, but this is not too bad.

    For me, i just go to the playlist that i want...and then just hit RANDOM...this way, i get to listen to music and just hit "next" button whenever i don't like a song.
     
  11. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    I discovered a potential bug in the MP3 player. If an MP3 file has embedded artwork file bigger than about 256 KB, the Prius system won't play that MP3 file, but skips to the next one. Strange, because the Prius system doesn't even try to display artwork.
     
  12. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Interesting find....
     
  13. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    Actually, the exact limit is 256 KB. Here's what I did to determine this: I took a known good MP3 file with no artwork, and made a bunch of copies of it, and to each I embedded the same artwork image with only one parameter varied: the JPEG "quality" factor, which in turn affects file size. My 2010 Prius V with navigation system could play each of them where the image was smaller than 256 KB but none of them where the image was larger than 256 KB. In the case of MP3 files containing larger images, the player would simply skip them and move on to the next file.

    For reference, the software I used to adjust the JPEG compression was Thumbs Plus 7.0sp2 from Cerious Software. The software I used to embed the artwork images was MP3Tag ver 2.48.
     
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  14. rhfritz

    rhfritz Junior Member

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    Thanks for posting this thread. I recently downloaded a number of MP3 files from the Amazon MP3 store and discovered this exact behavior on my 2010-III with Nav. I had wondered if it was a bitrate issue but noted that when I recoded the files using some old tool I had, the old tool apparently stripped out the artwork and it played. And recoding at the same bitrate had the same effect.
     
  15. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    Very interesting, thanks, rhfritz. I've downloaded Amazon MP3's but never noticed any embedded artwork. But then again, I routinely strip out embedded artwork from my MP3 files, regardless of their origin. Why have a dozen copies of the same image, one in each MP3 file, when a single folder.jpg file suffices for the whole album?
     
  16. rhfritz

    rhfritz Junior Member

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    I guess it depends on how you consume your music. I rarely buy albums -- just a bunch of singles I put in a player as a compilation versus a playlist composed of links to files. And I'm not sure how players capable of display handle the cover art when composed of a physical versus a logical grouping. Or perhaps the presence of folder.jpg overrides individual artwork.

    Regardless, last night I used mp3tag to simply remove the artwork whenever it was over 256k and rename all tracks to Title - Artist.

    But this issue would still seem to be a firmware issue in the player / head unit - something someone at Toyota should be able to oversee getting fixed. But who should be notified?

    Thanks again for the post.
     
  17. tgtech

    tgtech Member

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    This was driving me crazy and I couldn't figure out why some mp3's wouldn't play until I read your solution. I was going to embark on resampling the mp3's, reformatting the USB stick and other potentially lengthy troubleshooting steps. Fortunately, I kept searching until I found this thread and used your solution to remove the embedded artwork - everything is fine now! Thanks!
     
  18. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    Thanks for the feedback--glad it helped!

    - Rich
     
  19. JoelIrwin

    JoelIrwin New Member

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    I quickly glanced at all the responses here. So here is my take on it based on my experiences so far with my car as I use a flash drive as my primary way to listen to music though I do occasionally listen to stuff from my iphone 4. Firstly, you will not see a USB port unless you have the navigation package (either by itself or via the moonroof package). Secondly, any storage device should work in FAT format (I don't recollect ever trying ntfs). Thirdly, as far as I know, there is a file limitation of 256 tracks per folder. Fourth, you get only filename, folder, and artist on the screen and they will get truncated if they do not fit (the screen will not horizontally scroll). Fifth, the buttons on the display will get disabled/greyed out above the expected speed like anything else, so the only way to advance or go back would be via next/prev track (most efficiently from the steering wheel). Sixth, the songs will be played in the physical order they are written to the drive which may appear sorted to you on your computer but will probably not be on the drive. So if you want them played in a particular order, you need to physical put them that way after you write them out. I use a free windows utility called "drivesort". Seventh, any bugs or problems will not be fixed bu toyota except perhaps on newer models. So for example, when you first play a USB you may see "(no data)" for artist name even if you know you have an artist id tag. The workaround is hit another tab like FM or CD and then hit USB and the information will display correctly. Eighth, the USB player will not remember positions like CD or DVD player. If you pull out the USB drive and put it back in, play starts from the first track in the first folder.

    I do exactly what people suggest here - my file names include all the id tag info in them like title, artist, album and then I use the 'tag and rename' utility to create the tags from the filename. keep in mind, of course, that info on the toyota display gets truncated.
     
  20. RichPasco

    RichPasco Richard C. Pasco, Ph.D.

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    Yes, JoelIrwin, I agree that is a fair summary of this thread so far.