GROM audio and mp3 tags

Does your head unit actually display any sort of text information about what it's playing? Does it show the filenames?

After spending a fair bit of time talking to GROM's support, I ended up with the impression that if I want anything more than just a track number to show on my MFD, I need the GROM-USB3. Which I now have. It's definitely a buggy product, but I do get to browse my USB stick using the same UI I'd normally use to browse the 6 disk CD changer's content if it was loaded with 6 MP3/CD's. (i.e. 6 CD-ROMs with MP3 files burnt onto them in data mode)... I'm reasonably happy with it.

The main competing product I'm aware of would be the VAIS MML, but as far as I can tell from the VAIS unit's manual (downloadable as a PDF from their website) it only lets you have 4 virtual "disks" on your thumb drive, and requires you to make 4 partitions to achieve this.

I've considered replacing the stock deck entirely with an Android based unit to get better navigation of my music, but I'm scared if I do that I'll come out to the car one day to find its windows shattered and dash wrecked by thieves...

 

As I understand it, the USB2 and AND2 units quite simply do not support text display. I know the marketing materials on their web page for those units say something along the lines of "support text display on most head units"... I spent a fair bit of time trying to get a straight answer from their tech support as to what needs to be true of the head unit for text display to work with it but they couldn't have been more evasive on the topic. As far as I can tell there's some sort of horrible disconnect between their engineering team and the team that writes the marketing material... I mean, you gotta figure if they were more upfront about those cheaper, older units not supporting text, more people would pay the slightly higher price for the USB3, which would be to their advantage.

They're just kinda super clueless about their own products. Out of date, misleading or confusing documentation, clueless and evasive support people, buggy products. Still, for the particular task of getting a Gen 2 Prius to play MP3's off a thumb drive, I think their USB3's currently the best solution available.

For iPod integration or bluetooth audio integration, I'd say VAIS' products are probably better.

If you're definitely not going to replace the unit, I'd say give up on the idea of getting text information to display.

Edit: One additional piece of information -- if your unit is actually a USB2P (i.e. "USB 2 Plus") rather than a plain USB2, there IS actually something you can try... The "Lexus 06-09 with Navi (GROM-USB2-TOY_MP3)" firmware. It took me a while to figure this out, but the "Navi" refers to cars equipped with an MFD, and even though they call this the Lexus firmware it also works for the Prius.

This is actually the firmware I flash my USB3 with. The AND2 unit I had at first wouldn't take flashes from the TOY_MP3 series... It's my understanding that USB2 units won't either, but USB2P units will.