Micron

In my desire to remove any and all Apple products from my household (don't ask unless you're ready for a debate based on well-informed opinions, history, etc), I'm looking at alternatives to iPods for use in my car. I presently have a 2G 16GB iPod Touch, which can only hold a fraction of my library. Aside from not wishing to spend a fortune on an iPod touch, I want to avoid using a mechanical-based device like the iPod Classic, as I want to leave it in my car 24/7/365.

That being said, has anyone previously put together everything the Nav units are capable of reading and playing? It seems like a lot of guesswork and patchworked trial and error.

I'm proposing to take a handful of flash drives of different capacities (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB), format them with various formats (vfat, FAT 16/32, maybe even HFS/HFS+ since that's the native iPod format), various directory structures and various file formats (mp3, mp4, wav, ogg -- including various encoding AND bitrates!) to systematically verify once and for all, what works and what doesn't!

In addition to what I listed, what all would you guys (and gals?) like to see tested???

JSolo

iTrader: (14)

16GB flash drives are at the best price point right now. 16GB is ALOT of mp3's, even at 320 kb bitrate. Seems simple enough. I picked up a corsair flash drive for $10 AR on amazon few weeks back.

Modme

iTrader: (17)

I dont understand the purpose of this. I can tell you exactly what will/will not work on the a/v system.

The oem usb will support any mass storage device up to 128gb. This includes flash drives, portable hard drives, and cell phones. The device must be in FAT32 format and cannot be larger than 128gbs. If youre portable hard drives is 500gb, create a single partition less than 128gb and format as FAT32.

If you have navigation, the player supports the following formats:
File format “MP3”, “WMA”, “AAC”, “M4A” “DivX”, “MPEG4 (ASF)” “JPEG”
File extension “.mp3”, “.wma”, “.aac”, “.m4a” “.divx”, “.afs”, “.avi” “.jpg”, “.jpeg”
Maximum file size for music and video: 2GB
Maximum file size for pictures: 2MB
Folder levels: 8, Folders: 255 (including root folder), Files: 512 (Max. 255 files for one folder)

For cars without navi:

MP3
Version MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG2.5
Sampling frequency 8 kHz - 48 kHz
Bit rate 8 kbps - 320 kbps, VBR*4
WMA*2
Version WMA7, WMA8, WMA9
Sampling frequency 32 kHz - 48 kHz
Bit rate 32 kbps - 192 kbps, VBR*4
Tag information (Song title and Artist name)
ID3 tag VER1.0, VER1.1, VER2.2, VER2.3, VER2.4 (MP3 only)
WMA tag (WMA only)
Folder levels: 8, Folders and files: 999 (Max. 255 files for one folder)

Micron

I have searched high and low for a while now, without anything near as detailed and thorough as what you've posted... Heck, the Infiniti manuals for the Nav, vehicle, etc don't even list anything regarding media support.

So the purpose was to figure it out for myself and share the information, since I hadn't found it anywhere else.

Where did you get the information from?

Modme

iTrader: (17)

A combination of the user's manual and factory service manual.

JSolo

iTrader: (14)

Got a link for the service manual?

dbobke

While what Modme quotes is true for one type of head unit in the 2012, the 2012 owner's manual has two (Type A and Type B) head units. My car has the Type A according to the pictures. Based on the specs on p. 4-48, I should be able to have 512 folders and 5000 songs on a USB stick since I have the navi. However, I cannot see more than 255 folders.

Does anyone have any ideas on why the specs are not matching what the car is doing? Is there some special way to organize the folders/files? I have 454 folders with no more than 3 levels and about 3300 songs.