Playing MP3 files on CD

[neelyweely]

Another Q : has anyone had any success trying to play MP3 files on CD in their car ?

In my A Class (2005 A150) I have tried all different kinds of CD's, different software and even different PC's but the CD player still does not recognise the CD.

The owners manual has some vaguely worded get out clause saying that although it should play MP3 files on disk, they cannot guarantee this will work. I don't see what else I can try.

I would also add that the very same CD's play fine in my Lotus and home CD player.

Any tips for getting this to work ? Cheers.

 

[WJR]

Yes, I use MP3 CDs all the time in my car (2005 E320CDI), never had a problem, and they sound great. I take the songs from my Mac i-tunes library using Toast, but you need to remember to put them on the CD as MP3s, not any other format. I think you need the .mp3 end to the song title. You should also be able to do this with DVDs, but I haven't tried yet.

 

[MikeL]

Strange if the discs play in other machines - the best test I can think of is to "waste" a CD and burn a single MP3 - no folders etc and see if that plays, also burn at a lowish bitrate (128) and constant rather than variable bit rate. That will leave you with an MP3 that should play on any compatible unit. If it works you'll have to burn other discs until you find out what the brick wall is regarding Merc playback.

Mike

 

[R2D2]

I have a w204 with comand and CD changer and still can't play MP3 no matter how recorded or on what. If anyone cracks this one I'll be very pleased.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

MP3 work fine in the Audi, the stereo in the SLK is too old for this. The irritating feature in the Audi is that it plays the tracks in alphabetical order which is, of course, different to the order of the album. Not an issue with a collection of unrelated songs though.

 

[tudu]

I have a w204 with comand and CD changer and still can't play MP3 no matter how recorded or on what. If anyone cracks this one I'll be very pleased.

Yes, i agree i didn't think you could play MP3 discs through the standard CD slot even with comand unless you had a CD changer. Although you can on the new W204's

 

[agatward]

See my very first thread - http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=27574

You can only play MP3 CDs with the new W169 Audio 20 or Audio 50 heads if you have the CD Changer option. COMAND should take the MP3 CDs or DVDs with no problem.

 

[MikeL]

MP3 work fine in the Audi, the stereo in the SLK is too old for this. The irritating feature in the Audi is that it plays the tracks in alphabetical order which is, of course, different to the order of the album. Not an issue with a collection of unrelated songs though.

If you can be bothered rename the tracks with 01, 02, 03 etc at the start of the filename.

Mike

 

[neelyweely]

See my very first thread - http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=27574

You can only play MP3 CDs with the new W169 Audio 20 or Audio 50 heads if you have the CD Changer option. COMAND should take the MP3 CDs or DVDs with no problem.

That's where I'm going wrong obviously. I read the owners manual which states that the Audio 20 can play MP3 files on CD's and I assumed that this would be correct. There is no mention in there about the need to be using a CD changer.

It's not that big a deal for me to be perfectly honest, I'm really more cheesed off that MB could make such a glaring c0ck up in their literature, causing me to waste time/energy/CD's trying to get the thing to work.

 

[MikeL]

..... I'm really more cheesed off that MB could make such a glaring c0ck up in their literature, causing me to waste time/energy/CD's trying to get the thing to work.

You think that is bad, I've just spent two days setting up a wireless iPod/streaming net radio device with an AV receiver - both Denon. The instructions are useless. Some instructions contradict themselves and others are just plain confusing.

For example:

Models whose names start with 'AVR', 'AVC', etc, are supplied with a remote control unit capable of operating the ASD-3W. (Connection must be to the Dock Control port.) When a name has 'Dock RC' in it, the remote control unit (Dock RC) supplied with the ASD-3W can be used. When only 'Dock RC' is indicated in the Table, please do not connect via the Dock Control port.

I know it is in English because I recognise the words....

Then they forget to mention that the wireless device won't take a security key above a certain number of characters - that caused endless fun, seeing as the Wii, mobile phone etc all work fine!

Mike

 

[hawk20]

On my A class I had the MB i-pod connector fitted. Although I have a 6 cd changer I find I now never use it as I have about 30 hours of music on the i-pod and on shuffle it randomly selects them so you don't get bored. Nice system and you can skip tracks on the steering wheel controls and read song titles in the instrument binnacle.

 

[jono2000]

ummm... are we saying that MP3's only play via the CDC changer, or that they play on the console slot on an audio 20, but only providing you have the cdc installed?

or that they play on both, providing the CDC is installed.

ahhh... my head hurts.....

 

[Diesel Benz]

I have a w204 with comand and CD changer and still can't play MP3 no matter how recorded or on what. If anyone cracks this one I'll be very pleased.

A W204 should be more flexible than my W221. It should even play windows media in addition to MP3. The MP3 parameters have a few restrictions, stated in the manual but nothing critical really. AAC-format or something from iTunes with its defaults would not work.

The W221 is also very flexible with the file structure (where some previous implementations had issues).

Have you tried the memory card?

PS. With all the music a 32 GB memory card or DL DVDs can hold (the HD on a W204 would add flexibility but isn't an option on the W221), I've never seen a need for iPod with the slow interface.

 

[oldcro]

Do not try playing Apple mp3's from iplayer etc. they do not work. If you use a PC use Windows Media Player to convert music to MP3 and loading a CD with them. Works for me, so worth a try for the price of a blank CD.

Rip the CD to WMP using MP3 option then burn a CD. Note: protected tunes are as stated PROTECTED so may not work.

 

[Alfie]

I have a w204 with comand and CD changer and still can't play MP3 no matter how recorded or on what. If anyone cracks this one I'll be very pleased.

You have a W204? did I miss something? I thought you had a W203

The newer small single slot 6 disk Cd players that hook up to a MOST comand can play MP3's. A W204 with comand should be able to play MP3's via the memory stick slot.

 

[Diesel Benz]

Do not try playing Apple mp3's from iplayer etc. they do not work. If you use a PC use Windows Media Player to convert music to MP3 and loading a CD with them. Works for me, so worth a try for the price of a blank CD.

Rip the CD to WMP using MP3 option then burn a CD. Note: protected tunes are as stated PROTECTED so may not work.

I usually just copy files and folders from my iTunes folder as they are and burn on a DVD. Those are certainly "Apple MP3 files". But iTunes is not converting songs into MP3 by default but uses better coding, AAC or some variants. These files do not play on an MB.

 

[Londonscottish]

If you can be bothered rename the tracks with 01, 02, 03 etc at the start of the filename.

Mike

It's things like this that really put me off using mp3 formatsor at least trying to do anything other that play them.

My wife bought me an early iPod some years ago and I had to get a new laptop as my OS wasn't supported (groan....)....that cost me loads of time and hassle as I had to reconfigure the entire sodding laptop to get it back to how my old one had been.

Then the battery failed on my first iPod and disk went on the 2nd (so that was the and of my time with Apple). And all this time I'd still take a discman on a long haul flight as the battery life on an iPod was pitiful. And I'd already spent a zillion hours farting around with playlists and genres and generally losing the will to live.

Then I went to Creative and had to re-learn how to catalogue all my tracks. (more bloody playlists and genres). And then the synch stopped working properly so I had one lot of genres and playlists on the PC and another on the player. And then my hard disk failed and took out the Creative sotware that I had spend 100 gazillion hours configuring. At this point I looked out of the window at the sunny day and went "******** to this - I've got a million better ways to spend my time".

And when I bought some CD's in Ibiza last year that happened to be MP3 format I am at least able to play them in the car as the new system I put in supports the format. So I will grudgingly admit that the system has it uses (for about 0.1% of my CD's)

My Creative Nomad is frozen in time - no tracks loaded in two years.

MP3 to me is fine in theory - you just need

(1) a Nick Hornby-tyoe obsession with making lists
(b) an IT department to administer all the systems

I don't have (a) or (b) so (c) buy and play CD's - they're great

 

[joembuck]

This has been done a lot in the past

to summarise my understanding

E class and similar with the separate Navigation slot are completely different from A/B/W203-C etc. Experience here doesn't count. E class with DVD Navigation seems to be much more flexible and can be upgraded to support MP3 playback

On the ABC's MP3 Playback via the CD changer was introduced around October 04 -with the facelift - for the Audio 20 only

With Comand APS it did not come in until the end of 2005 / beginning of 2006 (about 10 minutes after mine was built) again just via the Changer. There is no upgrade path - at least none I've managed to find in 2 1/2 years of looking

New W204 and similar are allegedly much more flexible.

 

[greekCL]

Another Q : has anyone had any success trying to play MP3 files on CD in their car ?

In my A Class (2005 A150) I have tried all different kinds of CD's, different software and even different PC's but the CD player still does not recognise the CD.

The owners manual has some vaguely worded get out clause saying that although it should play MP3 files on disk, they cannot guarantee this will work. I don't see what else I can try.

I would also add that the very same CD's play fine in my Lotus and home CD player.

Any tips for getting this to work ? Cheers.

Maybe your system is not MP3 compatible and it only plays simple Audio CD's? Does it specidy anywhere in the manual that it can play MP3s?

 

[Norseman]

Maybe your system is not MP3 compatible and it only plays simple Audio CD's? Does it specidy anywhere in the manual that it can play MP3s?

I`m not sure - but as far as I know is the Comand-system in a 2004 E-class able to play mp3 - but I`m not sure - My car is second hand, imported from Germany to Norway, and I can assure you all, I don`t understand more than 1% of whats written in my German instruction manual.