Missing your in-car CD player?

[crl84]

Different views - I really just like being able to stream anything that takes my fancy and have everything just work. I binned my cd collection a long time ago. Each to their own.

Not much use for the thousands upon thousands of commercially released albums that aren't on streaming services....

 

[Rolfe]

There are things on YouTube I could happily listen to all day. I pay for a subscription to STAGE+, the Deutsche Grammophon streaming service, which is very good.

I don't see it as either/or. Although if the sound reproduction is limited by the Bluetooth connection to the phone, then the USB stick is likely to get my vote on sound quality.

I like the radio too. If I don't want to choose, I just switch on Radio 3 and see what comes up.

I also think, as someone else said near the beginning of the thread, that since MG provide us with the USB facility, and that's presumably because there are people who want it, then it should bloody well work. I'm just figuring out how to beat what seems to be a bug in the system into submission.

Quick question. Can anyone tell me an easy way to get an mp3 file of total silence, that lasts for a few minutes?

I wanted this way back when, when my Golf insisted on playing the first track alphabetically that it could find on my iPod, while I wrestled with its idiosyncratic way of handling iPod playlists to find what I wanted. All I remember is that it was some random track from the middle of some German opera, that began with the German word "aber" (but). The solution seemed to be a track of absolute silence, named aaaaa, or maybe 00000.

I never did it, but the MG4 seems to do the same thing - you get the first track until you have sorted out what you want. Any ideas?

Oh wait. As you were.

<Goes off to find an mp3 of "Four minutes 33 seconds">

ETA. That worked. Cost me a quid, and cheap at half the price! I got a 33-page pdf of album artwork and notes along with it.

Why didn't I think of that before? <shoots self>

 

[Archev]

Quick question. Can anyone tell me an easy way to get an mp3 file of total silence, that lasts for a few minutes?

I wanted this way back when, when my Golf insisted on playing the first track alphabetically that it could find on my iPod, while I wrestled with its idiosyncratic way of handling iPod playlists to find what I wanted. All I remember is that it was some random track from the middle of some German opera, that began with the German word "aber" (but). The solution seemed to be a track of absolute silence, named aaaaa, or maybe 00000.

I never did it, but the MG4 seems to do the same thing - you get the first track until you have sorted out what you want. Any ideas?

Oh wait. As you were.

<Goes off to find an mp3 of "Four minutes 33 seconds">

ETA. That worked. Cost me a quid, and cheap at half the price! I got a 33-page pdf of album artwork and notes along with it.

View attachment 17367

Why didn't I think of that before? <shoots self>

It seems silence is damned expensive

 

[dangerechulo]

you could always try an external cd/dvd player that works with the already usb connection. It will required an extra purchase but it will be an only charge then all your cd will become usable again.
I have added a youtube video as an example

 

[Rolfe]

Haven't read the thread, have you?

1. The car doesn't recognise my USB CD/DVD player. Will it recognise any?
2. Having a CD player sliding around in the interior is not that great an idea. Blu-tak?
3. You'd have to park up every time you wanted to change the CD.
4. CDs are not indestructible and are liable to get damaged kicking around a car.

Far better to have the music neatly on a single USB stick so the entire playlist will just play for hours without you having to do a single thing more, and the CDs can stay home, safe in their boxes.

It seems silence is damned expensive

Ah, but this is SPECIAL silence, artistic silence, as performed by <checks notes> Antony Pitts, with Tonus Peregrinus and The Song Company.

Also, it was really just 88p but they rounded it up to £1 because that was their minimum purchase.

 

[Archev]

Ah, but this is SPECIAL silence, artistic silence, as performed by <checks notes> Antony Pitts, with Tonus Peregrinus and The Song Company.

Also, it was really just 88p but they rounded it up to £1 because that was their minimum purchase.

OK so it’s golden . But my eyes didn’t see

 

[BishiBoshi]

I had another thought on this, Spotify (and I assume other music apps) can play and organise MP3 files stored locally on the phone too so you can use the app functionality to customise them into playlists etc and then just play them on the phone via carplay / auto just like you would with any streamed music. Gets around all the faff.
Oh and if you really want an MP3 of silence for some strange reason: GitHub - anars/blank-audio: Set of blank MP3 audio files

 

[dangerechulo]

Haven't read the thread, have you?

1. The car doesn't recognise my USB CD/DVD player. Will it recognise any?
2. Having a CD player sliding around in the interior is not that great an idea. Blu-tak?
3. You'd have to park up every time you wanted to change the CD.
4. CDs are not indestructible and are liable to get damaged kicking around a car.

Far better to have the music neatly on a single USB stick so the entire playlist will just play for hours without you having to do a single thing more, and the CDs can stay home, safe in their boxes.



Ah, but this is SPECIAL silence, artistic silence, as performed by <checks notes> Antony Pitts, with Tonus Peregrinus and The Song Company.

Also, it was really just 88p but they rounded it up to £1 because that was their minimum purchase.

1 well that is not any special cd player is specifically made for cars that read usb sticks
2 cd can be easily secure with a double tape seen that done with wireless carplay dongles no difference, also cd players can move around the technology for that was already invented that is why walkmans were replace by cd players you can walk and play
3 not really if you burn your cd/dvd with a mp3 format you can actually store multiple cds did that with my first car since i didnt want change cds. but i am just trying to stay original/old school
4 the life expectancy of cd as long as it is well taken care of is a lot longer than the read write lifetime of an usb

also if you are planning to copy the music from your disc to usb i would be careful with laws and regulation some tracks have code to prevent the copying of tracks and others are legally protected against copies. Although some places have said that as long as the media is not distributed does not count as copyright law is a really gray area and it depends

also i did read the thread that is why i responded the original comment because someone might want to use this method for classic feel. As for your alternative i think everyone by now know how to put music in a usb stick or know someone that does.

sorry my comment bother you so much

as for how to properly sort music is pretty simple but i haven't check the usb interface of the mg4 and it can differ from car to car also from audio format to audio format. Using folders are sometimes the best and obvious choice. When ripping music use ripping tool that will keep metadata and will allow you add your own some car interfaces allow for sorting of the metadata like genre or author for more here is a link.
Last time i had to rip a cd i used zune (no longer available) it had the best metadata ripping and editing tool also would allow for search of already existing metadata

How to Organize Music on USB Drive for Car? [EXPLAINED] | 99CarStereo.com

To properly organize music on USB for a car, choose the appropriate hierarchy for storing music in the flash drive. Sort your music into folders to use playlists in your car. That way, you will have an easier time finding the music you want to play in your car. To use it as playlists, you'll...

99carstereo.com

I ll take my leave

 

[stevegus]

No. Our Seat Ateca had one mounted in the glove box and we never used it in the 4 years we owned it

 

[Davn]

I had another thought on this, Spotify (and I assume other music apps) can play and organise MP3 files stored locally on the phone too so you can use the app functionality to customise them into playlists etc and then just play them on the phone via carplay / auto just like you would with any streamed music. Gets around all the faff.
Oh and if you really want an MP3 of silence for some strange reason: GitHub - anars/blank-audio: Set of blank MP3 audio files

Here we go again

 

[Rolfe]

1 well that is not any special cd player is specifically made for cars that read usb sticks
2 cd can be easily secure with a double tape seen that done with wireless carplay dongles no difference, also cd players can move around the technology for that was already invented that is why walkmans were replace by cd players you can walk and play
3 not really if you burn your cd/dvd with a mp3 format you can actually store multiple cds did that with my first car since i didnt want change cds. but i am just trying to stay original/old school
4 the life expectancy of cd as long as it is well taken care of is a lot longer than the read write lifetime of an usb

also if you are planning to copy the music from your disc to usb i would be careful with laws and regulation some tracks have code to prevent the copying of tracks and others are legally protected against copies. Although some places have said that as long as the media is not distributed does not count as copyright law is a really gray area and it depends

also i did read the thread that is why i responded the original comment because someone might want to use this method for classic feel. As for your alternative i think everyone by now know how to put music in a usb stick or know someone that does.

sorry my comment bother you so much

as for how to properly sort music is pretty simple but i haven't check the usb interface of the mg4 and it can differ from car to car also from audio format to audio format. Using folders are sometimes the best and obvious choice. When ripping music use ripping tool that will keep metadata and will allow you add your own some car interfaces allow for sorting of the metadata like genre or author for more here is a link.
Last time i had to rip a cd i used zune (no longer available) it had the best metadata ripping and editing tool also would allow for search of already existing metadata

How to Organize Music on USB Drive for Car? [EXPLAINED] | 99CarStereo.com

To properly organize music on USB for a car, choose the appropriate hierarchy for storing music in the flash drive. Sort your music into folders to use playlists in your car. That way, you will have an easier time finding the music you want to play in your car. To use it as playlists, you'll...

99carstereo.com

I ll take my leave

Sorry you thought I was bothered, I didn't intend to upset you. I merely saw points being made that had already been discussed.

1. I don't see any point in buying a special CD player for a car that has a USB port which will allow music to be played for very much longer than an hour and a bit, or however long a CD lasts for, without any intervention by human hand.
2. I don't see any point in sticking an external CD player to my car to prevent it rattling around, when it has a USB port that isn't going to rattle around.
3. Yes, burning CDs into .mp3s so that they'll play one after the other without having to be changed by hand is what we're talking about here. Specifically about how to do this and get the MG4 SE to play these .mp3s in the right order. And be able to select the tracks/playlist you want.
4. The life expectancy of a CD is not enhanced by being used in a car. Using CDs in a car is the very definition of not taking care of them. The life expentancy of a USB stick is unimportant since the .mp3 files will remain on your computer in their own file and you can import them to a brand new USB stick with a click of your mouse.

As I mentioned earlier, I am copying CDs I have already bought and paid for into a format I can play in my car which has no CD player. In my opinion this is fair use, and if anyone wants to come and object to this, we'll see how they get on. (Obviously if a CD has code to prevent copying then I will not be able to copy it. None of the CDs I have bought has such a code.)

If you think "everyone knows how to put music on a USB stick by now" you may well be right. People in that category have no need to read the thread. However, the SE's simple-minded refusal to recognise nested folders presents a particular problem, and not everyone who has just bought a new car is 100% au fait with this procedure. Using folders is the obvious choice but it will not work on the SE and is a waste of time to try.

There may well be better ways than using iTunes, but at least I was prepared to do a step-by-step description of how to do it with iTunes, and I know that works.

 

[Rolfe]

I had another thought on this, Spotify (and I assume other music apps) can play and organise MP3 files stored locally on the phone too so you can use the app functionality to customise them into playlists etc and then just play them on the phone via carplay / auto just like you would with any streamed music. Gets around all the faff.
Oh and if you really want an MP3 of silence for some strange reason: GitHub - anars/blank-audio: Set of blank MP3 audio files

That's fine, if you want to use your phone for that. Others have criticised the sound quality of the Bluetooth streaming process (I haven't used it). Personally, I do not yet have a phone that can support Android Auto and don't know when I'll be able to get one, so it's not even an option as yet.

However, what I'm doing is getting my own CDs into a format that will play on a modern car. As I said, this is probably of most interest to classical music fans who want to organise complete symphonies, operas, oratorios and so on, and own CDs of particular performances that can't be found on streaming services.

 

[BishiBoshi]

That's fine, if you want to use your phone for that. Others have criticised the sound quality of

Hmm, I'm not sure if Spotify as an example would transcode the file or just decode it. I would like to think it could decode MP3, MP4, FLAC (lossless potentially) just fine but I may need to check. For streaming, assuming you aren't just on a free spotify account then spotify can be AAC 256kbit/s if you max the settings which isn't lossless but is pretty good.

On another note, if you really care about audio quality then you should not have been using MP3 at all as there tends to be some 'crush' even at high bitrates such as 320kbps. Spotify for instance tends to use OGG/AAC which are better but are also lossy, FLAC can be lossless.

 

[BishiBoshi]

That's fine, if you want to use your phone for that. Others have criticised the sound quality of the Bluetooth streaming process (I haven't used it). Personally, I do not yet have a phone that can support Android Auto and don't know when I'll be able to get one, so it's not even an option as yet.

However, what I'm doing is getting my own CDs into a format that will play on a modern car. As I said, this is probably of most interest to classical music fans who want to organise complete symphonies, operas, oratorios and so on, and own CDs of particular performances that can't be found on streaming services.

Sorry I obviously replied to an unfinished post before that you edited, bluetooth can definitely reduce the quality even with the most recent versions because of the recompression but then your easiest solution is to use a cable.
CD's are 'only' 16-bit 44.1kHz so any conversion after that is at best replicating or at worst lowering the quality. Unfortunately MP3 or MP4 are always lossy, even at the maximum settings. Lossless studio quality recordings can be much better i.e., FLAC can be 32-bit, 96kHz so far better than a CD by default.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, I'm sorry, I accidentally hit "post reply" when I'd just started to type!

I realise that .mp3s are going to be a bit of a degradation, but here's a thing. I've been listening to the .mp3s I just made of a set of CDs I had listened to several times in my previous car using the in-car CD player. I was startled by how much better they sounded as .mp3s in the MG4 compared to the native CDs in the Golf GTi. I'm pretty damn sure the MG4 doesn't actually have as good a sound system as that Golf had, and yet... The difference is in the lack of competition from an ICE. I have been heard raving about the better articulation, the diction, and the transparent vocal quality.

Yes it's better still when I put the CDs into my home stereo with its fancy amplifier and serious speakers, but I can still do that if I want to. We're talking about car audio here, not a soundproofed listening room for golden ears. We're restricted to the file types the MG4 is prepared to recognise on a USB stick, and it's still pretty acceptable for cruising down the M6 to.

The main issue is actually the occasional slight hiccup as the USB moves from one track to another, and I got that on my previous car system too when it was reading directly from an iPod's .m4a files using the iPod playlist.

If there's a way to import CDs into a phone and play them that way using some other software, then that's beyond my pay grade at the moment. I just want my Keilberth Ring and my Levine Parsifal and my Solti Lohengrin and so on to play in my car, and I'm pretty happy with how they're doing it. I'd just like some folders please, MG.

 

[Rolfe]

While there might still be people reading this thread, I have another audio question. I can't find a balance function on the MG4's audio system? Does one exist? The sound seems to be coming mostly from the central console to me, and I'd like it to be more central for the driver's seat. (I don't usually play music if I have a passenger.) Am I missing some way of getting this to happen?

 

[Ian Key]

While there might still be people reading this thread, I have another audio question. I can't find a balance function on the MG4's audio system? Does one exist? The sound seems to be coming mostly from the central console to me, and I'd like it to be more central for the driver's seat. (I don't usually play music if I have a passenger.) Am I missing some way of getting this to happen?

As usual with this car it's not where you think it should be. Swipe right on the infotainment screen, tap Settings, then Volume settings and scroll down the page for various options.

 

[BishiBoshi]

While there might still be people reading this thread, I have another audio question. I can't find a balance function on the MG4's audio system? Does one exist? The sound seems to be coming mostly from the central console to me, and I'd like it to be more central for the driver's seat. (I don't usually play music if I have a passenger.) Am I missing some way of getting this to happen?

'Sound Field Balancing' under 'Volume Settings'

 

[siteguru]

I think it's called Sound Stage on the SE. (I noticed it yesterday as I was flicking through the menus whilst testing the screen after fitting a matt screen protector).

You can't really do much regarding front/back balance (as there are no rear speakers), but the left/right balance works as you'd expect. There's also an Equaliser option.

 

[Rolfe]

Thank you so much, I'll figure this out before I set out for my 200-mile run tomorrow. I was a bit thrown by the sheer ringing quality of one particular soprano hitting my left ear, and turned the volume down so that it wasn't right for the quieter passages, but this fix will sort that.

Whenever I have passengers the sound system is pretty much guaranteed to be off, and I only need it to be set up for optimum listening from the driver's seat.