Album art loading/displaying question Comand Online 2018 W205

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Connoisseur

Active Member
SUPPORTER
Joined
Feb 24, 2021
Messages
428
Location
Yorkshire
Car
A205 C200 Cab; Porsche Macan; BMW i3s
Hi, today I’m loading a series of WMA files onto the 10gb media register in Comand. One question is if I load album artwork will the artwork display on the screen automatically, is there a file size/type limitation and any member experiences of doing this? I want a fall back of music permanently stored in the car, and album art is a nice touch adding a bit of extra colour to the display.

Cheers
 
Album art does display automatically if it is embedded in mp3 files, and I would assume separate album art (as a jpg in the same folder as the album) will also display.

Any particular reason you wish to use WMA format for your music?

Suggest you load a couple of albums with their art as a trial.
 
Album art does display automatically if it is embedded in mp3 files, and I would assume separate album art (as a jpg in the same folder as the album) will also display.

Any particular reason you wish to use WMA format for your music?

Suggest you load a couple of albums with their art as a trial.
Thank you. WMA because Comand won’t recognise the FLAC files I have and would like to retain quality/reduce compression as much as possible.

Will run a trial as you suggest👍
 
I ripped all my CDs to MP3 using iTunes. The files reside on a 64GB USB stick in the centre armrest. Must say, some sound better than others, so I’ve been thinking of ripping some of the poorer ones again, but using AAC to see if that’s any better.

This may be useful (it helped me understand a bit more on the options)...
 
I ripped all my CDs to MP3 using iTunes. The files reside on a 64GB USB stick in the centre armrest. Must say, some sound better than others, so I’ve been thinking of ripping some of the poorer ones again, but using AAC to see if that’s any better.

This may be useful (it helped me understand a bit more on the options)...
That’s a useful guide, thanks for posting. Am hoping for hi res with artwork; if that won’t work or file sizes are too large then AAC looks a useful half way house.
 
WMA because Comand won’t recognise the FLAC files I have and would like to retain quality/reduce compression as much as possible.
I completely understand about the desire to keep quality as high as possible (I use dbPowerAmp to rip my digital audio in FLAC format for home listening), but I also have mp3 copies encoded with the lame encoder using variable bit rate - that is typically around 190kbps - for listening on portable devices and in the car.

Having experimented, I can reliably identify the source as either the FLAC or mp3 versions on my home system, but in my cars I've compared lossless and the VBR encoded mp3 files and can't determine the difference - and that's with the engine off and the car stationary - as the resolution of the audio system just isn't good enough.

My advice would be to test it out for yourself in your own car. If you can easily / reliably determine the difference between mp3's encoded with a reasonable bit rate and lossless (or low loss) copies, then go ahead with the latter, but with limited storage capacity on COMAND the smaller file size of the mp3 copies is a big advantage.
 
I completely understand about the desire to keep quality as high as possible (I use dbPowerAmp to rip my digital audio in FLAC format for home listening), but I also have mp3 copies encoded with the lame encoder using variable bit rate - that is typically around 190kbps - for listening on portable devices and in the car.

Having experimented, I can reliably identify the source as either the FLAC or mp3 versions on my home system, but in my cars I've compared lossless and the VBR encoded mp3 files and can't determine the difference - and that's with the engine off and the car stationary - as the resolution of the audio system just isn't good enough.

My advice would be to test it out for yourself in your own car. If you can easily / reliably determine the difference between mp3's encoded with a reasonable bit rate and lossless (or low loss) copies, then go ahead with the latter, but with limited storage capacity on COMAND the smaller file size of the mp3 copies is a big advantage.
Sound advice thanks. I can be a bit anal about the quality of digital files, hence all this. I have a Bose system in my other car where the FLAC files improvements are easy to hear, though it is a much bigger space. Will assess how well the Burmeister in the C200 differentiates between WMA and variable bit mp3. 190 Kbps typical is not bad at all.

I now have the album artwork showing on the media register display with WMA tracks, though I do seem to have a duplication issue! 😅
 

Attachments

  • 267F8D8B-A653-4E7B-A2F4-76BFD4444D1D.jpeg
    267F8D8B-A653-4E7B-A2F4-76BFD4444D1D.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 8
I can be a bit anal about the quality of digital files, hence all this.
No worries - there are a number of audiophiles on this forum, so you're not alone.
Will assess how well the Burmeister in the C200 differentiates between WMA and variable bit mp3. 190 Kbps typical is not bad at all.
As you're probably aware the quality of the encoder has a part to play too, so a track encoded by WMP is likely to have artefacts that the same track encoded with LAME at a similar bit rate doesn't, especially at lower bit rates.
 
No worries - there are a number of audiophiles on this forum, so you're not alone.

As you're probably aware the quality of the encoder has a part to play too, so a track encoded by WMP is likely to have artefacts that the same track encoded with LAME at a similar bit rate doesn't, especially at lower bit rates.
Yes I am aware, but certainly no expert and am very appreciative of all the advice. I know my limitations and like what gives me very good, though knowledge and understanding of exactly how to get that can slow to a halt earlier than I’d like!
 
I also had the duplicate art work issue. I had put albums and art work onto the cars HD via SD card and had left the SD card in the slot as the card also contained my Personal POI files from “ Pocket GPS World” to show speed cameras. Removing the card removed the duplicates. I now have one SD card that I use to copy music onto to transfer the music to the cars HD. My second very small capacity SD card now has the speed camera files.
 
I also had the duplicate art work issue. I had put albums and art work onto the cars HD via SD card and had left the SD card in the slot as the card also contained my Personal POI files from “ Pocket GPS World” to show speed cameras. Removing the card removed the duplicates. I now have one SD card that I use to copy music onto to transfer the music to the cars HD. My second very small capacity SD card now has the speed camera files.
So removing the usb stick did remove the duplicate artworks, thank you. I now have around 400 tracks on the media register, complete with artwork👍

thxs everyone for the guidance and advice. It’s good to have found a friendly and helpful Mercedes owners group👍
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom