PCMCIA card on W221 Audio - ignore it, or use it?

[MikeInWimbledon]

Horrified to see PCMCIA card input on this system.

Does anyone enjoy using it, typically with a Compact Flash (CF), or SD adaptor?

(I understand it can handle up to 256 layers / 4000 tracks)

Feels primitive but I loathe not using original equipment.

Should I just relax and roll with it?

Better than CD/DVD audio presumably?

 

[bh13coupe]

I have one in my C207, It has an 16Gb SD full of music. It has made the CD player redundant. Although now I stream on spotify from my phone to a Bluetooth Dongle via the spare USB port in the glovebox. The flexibility is a different league to using the PCMCIA, although if that wasnt available the card reader solution is more than usable.

 

[Stardelta]

Use it in my s204 and it is superb, I'm using a 16gb compact flash card which holds enough for me and the sound quality is excellent and no different to CD and the screen shows all the standard mp3 information ie artist, track name etc

 

[markjay]

I use the SD Card slot on my NTG2.5 - I can't see why you would not want to use the PCMCIA slot with suitable adaptor?

 

[markjay]

The main issue for me was that it takes a-g-e-s to copy gb of music from the SD Card to the internal HDD... so it might as well just stay on the SD card!

 

[Diesel Benz]

Horrified to see PCMCIA card input on this system.

Does anyone enjoy using it, typically with a Compact Flash (CF), or SD adaptor?

What is horrified with the PCMCIA interface? Is it that you get confused when you try to select between different memory card types (of your favour perhaps because of DSLRs etc. at home) while owners of more recent models do not have to make the choice since the car only supports one format?

FM radio is enough for me most of the time. If I wanted to listen to my own titles, I would use the memory card rather than audio DVD or analogue AUX ports.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Why horrified?

Why horrified? Seriously slow, obsolete CF technology, packaged into an early 1990's (sic) PCMCIA interface. It's a long way from just asking Siri to play spotify, podcasts and music streamed from a Bluetooth phone. (Cost approx £30 using a Belkin Aircast adaptor)

I guess I'm really trying to find if people just
listen to the radio & CD's,
"go with the flow," and use the CF card or
find some other way to stream a2dp bluetooth
(via that hilarious glove compartment socket ?)

What is horrified with the PCMCIA interface? Is it that you get confused when you try to select between different memory card types (of your favour perhaps because of DSLRs etc. at home) while owners of more recent models do not have to make the choice since the car only supports one format?

FM radio is enough for me most of the time. If I wanted to listen to my own titles, I would use the memory card rather than audio DVD or analogue AUX ports.

 

[markjay]

Why horrified? Seriously slow, obsolete CF technology, packaged into an early 1990's (sic) PCMCIA interface. It's a long way from just asking Siri to play podcasts and music streamed from a Bluetooth phone in my pocket. (Cost approx £30 using a Belkin Aircast adaptor)

I guess I'm really trying to find if people just
listen to the radio & CD's,
"go with the flow," and use the CF card or
find some other way to stream a2dp bluetooth
(via that hilarious glove compartment socket ?)

My COMAND NTG2.5 was first released in 2009 and the OS is Windows Mobile CE5 Automotive, with a 40gb HDD.

Both items were obsolete about a decade earlier.

The automotive (and even more so aviation) industry always lags behind.

While Apple can dump a new barely-tested iPhone on the market every year then spend the first 3 months fixing bugs, this is not how serious industry works.

Consumer IT is all about cutting edge these days...

 

[John]

The best my previous E55K could do was read MP3 DVDs, which was not too bad for a 2004 car I thought.

Coming from self-created CD compilations with 10s of discs to 5 DVDs with all my music on was a great improvement.

I would rather use what is in the car already as long as it isn't too time-consuming, costly or massively inconvenient - who cares about obsolescence? Better for the environment to use something already there than buy something else that does the same job - unless need something over what that technology offers...

 

[Yugguy]

Horrified? Weird choice of words.

I have the pcmcia slot in my W204. I bought a Tera adapter allowing me to use a standard SD card which I have loaded with music. The NTG4 can read mp3 and wma. I don't copy to the internal hdd, no point IMO.

 

[SW18]

Horrified? Weird choice of words.

I have the pcmcia slot in my W204. I bought a Tera adapter allowing me to use a standard SD card which I have loaded with music. The NTG4 can read mp3 and wma.

I do the same as that, though I have also now copied some stuff onto the HDD. That means that I have about 50 of my favourite albums stored in the car ready to use if I forget to bring anything else along. I also have the adaptor to plug an iPod into the glove box socket but for some reason it doesn't always recognise that the iPod is there. I've read that this can be fixed with a firmware upgrade, (which Comand.co.uk can do) but since I started using SD cards in the PCMCIA slot I haven't bothered with looking for a firmware upgrade.