Having recently bought an E55 AMG, I thought I would just post my experiences with regards to playing MP3 music in the hope it may be of some use to someone else who might search in future - as I did initially and found a lot of helpful posts although I wasn't totally clear on what I had or what I was doing... however, having been in IT for 20 years, you get the knack of dicking around with stuff until it works...
Initially, I thought I would have to fit an iPod kit at a quoted £500 and I would have had to have bought an iPod as well as I don't have one. However, I've since been able to reduce that bill to a whopping 54p instead...
After doing some research and reading the car manual, I discovered I was able to play MP3s recorded onto DVDs using the single slot unit at the front of the car.
Now I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the audio in this Merc yet (I only got the car a couple of weeks ago) and having previously been into BMWs and other marques - this is my first Merc.
I don't actually know what Audio system I have although I believe it is Audio 50 with COMAND and entry level 10 speaker setup (not BOSE) - so I can only speak for this particular setup. I'm guessing a certain level would come with this level of car anyway.
Also, the car is a 54 plate (first registered October) with the fine mesh section above the inlet air vents, rather than the slats which you get in earlier 54 plates and older - I am not sure of the exact cut off but I understand a software upgrade is required for older units. If you follow this post and are missing something or it doesn't work, I would guess this could be the reason.
Anyway, here is my recipe for success:
1) I used Roxio Creator Premier 9 and selected the DATA option - as the disc needs to have audio written as files, not as recorded audio.
2) I already have my entire CD collection converted to MP3 on a PC running Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12 - recorded at 320kbps.
3) I first of all copied all my (our!) music to another folder, and then deleted anything I wasn't interest in. I also used this opportunity to search the whole of that copied version and deleted files with the following extensions:
*.jpg (to remove artwork used within Media Player)
*.ini (to remove ini files containing folder settings for that folder - only any use to Windows)
4) The manual states it can only go down 1 level of folders so I began reducing the hierarchy of folders so that all my music was within 1 level of folders. So for example, WMP stored (in my case) 'E:\Music\Lenny Kravitz\Mama Said', I had to alter this to 'L Kravitz - Mama Sd' and then ensure the files underneath are the track names on that album - using numbers 01, 02, 03 etc. onwards to keep them in the order you want/know.
Of course you could have your track named with the artist as well - but on my display, it shows the folder name at the top of the screen and the track name further down - which works fine. Where I have a situation which includes a compilation album - I only see the track name rather than the artist - but I know who the artist is anyway.
5) There is not unlimited room for the names so I worked to a limit of 20 characters (including spaces) for the folder name. I didn't bother renaming any files as I don't care if it cuts off part of the name. When the track is first selected, it shows all of the name anyway and then reverts. If you have bad OCD - this could take you a long time to get it perfect. I don't get why they couldn't use more of the screen space to display longer filenames...
6) Next was a question of inserting a blank DVD (I use Verbatim DVD-R as DVD-R have been around longest and is probably the most supported) and then proceed to add firstly, the folders contained within the 'Various Artists' folder, which was all the compilation discs. In my case, I was able to add the whole lot and I had something like 9MB free. Lucky git. This meant I could proceed to write the disc. With the 'Specific Artists', I added enough folders until the status at the bottom left indicates there was too much data (xMB over) and then removed folders until it just flipped to xMB under. I actually removed more because I didn't want to include say one album by Queen on one disc and the rest on another - I wanted them all on one disc.
7) For all of my discs, I used the following settings:
DAO (Disc At Once) (Closed)
Mode 1
ISO+Joliet+UDF
One recording only
Verify
The first disc I created I found took a while to start playing and if I was too quick changing tracks - the whole unit froze. I also didn't go far enough with renaming folders as a lot was missing. However, after remembering reading about the disc needing to be in UDF format, I chose ISO+Joliet+UDF (originally I used ISO+Joliet). Since then, the speed has improved and it seems more reliable.
8) Test a disc out. In my case, I had to choose AUX to get it to play the disc, and then once rolling, you can use the up and down buttons to changes tracks, left and right to change folders (if you select the AUDIO menu within the speedometer - you can use the steering wheel controls). Also, there is a FOLDER button at the top left of the screen where you can list all the folders on your disc and navigate to the desired folder (album).
The only thing I know to watch out for is dual layer discs. The drive can only read one side according to the manual, and they can get stuck. I would avoid using at all costs...!
I've gone from 4 wallets containing large numbers of CDs to 4 DVDs.
That's it... I hope this of some use to someone.
Initially, I thought I would have to fit an iPod kit at a quoted £500 and I would have had to have bought an iPod as well as I don't have one. However, I've since been able to reduce that bill to a whopping 54p instead...
After doing some research and reading the car manual, I discovered I was able to play MP3s recorded onto DVDs using the single slot unit at the front of the car.
Now I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the audio in this Merc yet (I only got the car a couple of weeks ago) and having previously been into BMWs and other marques - this is my first Merc.
I don't actually know what Audio system I have although I believe it is Audio 50 with COMAND and entry level 10 speaker setup (not BOSE) - so I can only speak for this particular setup. I'm guessing a certain level would come with this level of car anyway.
Also, the car is a 54 plate (first registered October) with the fine mesh section above the inlet air vents, rather than the slats which you get in earlier 54 plates and older - I am not sure of the exact cut off but I understand a software upgrade is required for older units. If you follow this post and are missing something or it doesn't work, I would guess this could be the reason.
Anyway, here is my recipe for success:
1) I used Roxio Creator Premier 9 and selected the DATA option - as the disc needs to have audio written as files, not as recorded audio.
2) I already have my entire CD collection converted to MP3 on a PC running Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12 - recorded at 320kbps.
3) I first of all copied all my (our!) music to another folder, and then deleted anything I wasn't interest in. I also used this opportunity to search the whole of that copied version and deleted files with the following extensions:
*.jpg (to remove artwork used within Media Player)
*.ini (to remove ini files containing folder settings for that folder - only any use to Windows)
4) The manual states it can only go down 1 level of folders so I began reducing the hierarchy of folders so that all my music was within 1 level of folders. So for example, WMP stored (in my case) 'E:\Music\Lenny Kravitz\Mama Said', I had to alter this to 'L Kravitz - Mama Sd' and then ensure the files underneath are the track names on that album - using numbers 01, 02, 03 etc. onwards to keep them in the order you want/know.
Of course you could have your track named with the artist as well - but on my display, it shows the folder name at the top of the screen and the track name further down - which works fine. Where I have a situation which includes a compilation album - I only see the track name rather than the artist - but I know who the artist is anyway.
5) There is not unlimited room for the names so I worked to a limit of 20 characters (including spaces) for the folder name. I didn't bother renaming any files as I don't care if it cuts off part of the name. When the track is first selected, it shows all of the name anyway and then reverts. If you have bad OCD - this could take you a long time to get it perfect. I don't get why they couldn't use more of the screen space to display longer filenames...
6) Next was a question of inserting a blank DVD (I use Verbatim DVD-R as DVD-R have been around longest and is probably the most supported) and then proceed to add firstly, the folders contained within the 'Various Artists' folder, which was all the compilation discs. In my case, I was able to add the whole lot and I had something like 9MB free. Lucky git. This meant I could proceed to write the disc. With the 'Specific Artists', I added enough folders until the status at the bottom left indicates there was too much data (xMB over) and then removed folders until it just flipped to xMB under. I actually removed more because I didn't want to include say one album by Queen on one disc and the rest on another - I wanted them all on one disc.
7) For all of my discs, I used the following settings:
DAO (Disc At Once) (Closed)
Mode 1
ISO+Joliet+UDF
One recording only
Verify
The first disc I created I found took a while to start playing and if I was too quick changing tracks - the whole unit froze. I also didn't go far enough with renaming folders as a lot was missing. However, after remembering reading about the disc needing to be in UDF format, I chose ISO+Joliet+UDF (originally I used ISO+Joliet). Since then, the speed has improved and it seems more reliable.
8) Test a disc out. In my case, I had to choose AUX to get it to play the disc, and then once rolling, you can use the up and down buttons to changes tracks, left and right to change folders (if you select the AUDIO menu within the speedometer - you can use the steering wheel controls). Also, there is a FOLDER button at the top left of the screen where you can list all the folders on your disc and navigate to the desired folder (album).
The only thing I know to watch out for is dual layer discs. The drive can only read one side according to the manual, and they can get stuck. I would avoid using at all costs...!
I've gone from 4 wallets containing large numbers of CDs to 4 DVDs.
That's it... I hope this of some use to someone.
Last edited:
pics?
