Audio: Testing audio formats

[dadaleus]

Hmm, I don't know how you approached it, but I copied my iTunes directory (after converting the few files that weren't already mp3s) to a USB, and I can select by artist, album, etc. just fine.

The only things I had to convert were Apple Lossless files, and once I copied the iTunes music directory I just used XLD to recursively convert the Apple Lossless files with FLAC (and delete original).

However, I would like a better way to skip to a particular letter. I have 10,000's of songs on there and I literally have to flick down about 100-200 times to go through the entire list of artists or albums, even within a genre like Alternative. It needs something like a list of letters down the right hand side you can press to skip to the desired letter in the alphabetical list. And I'd love to have shuffle.

 

[JakeP]

Has anyone tested Audible Audiobook (.aa) format for playability? These are notoriously finicky with DRM issues and on what devices they can be played back. But they are definitely something I want to be able to listen to on long trips.

 

[brianman]

However, I would like a better way to skip to a particular letter.... It needs something like a list of letters down the right hand side you can press to skip to the desired letter in the alphabetical list.

You mean like this?

 

[Ceilidh]

I am setting up a USB drive to use in my car when it arrives. I too have to convert a large library from apple lossless to FLAC on my mac then transfer it to the USB stick.

Thank you all for the reference to XLD. I do want to make sure I have my settings correct, however.

When I go to preferences in XLD and select FLAC, I am sliding the compression to "none," then leaving "Custom Apodization Functions" unchecked. Padding defaults to 4 kb, and by default the "OggFLAC" box is unchecked, while the "Allow to embed cue sheet" and "Set OggS filetype" are both checked.

If I leave it set up like this, is this the best way to retain sound quality while having files that the Model S recognizes? Just making sure I did this right.

What's confusing me is I don't know anything about FLAC or Ogg and I thought that Ogg was a different file type that the Model S does not recognize but now I'm thinking I just have no idea what I'm doing and don't want to mess it up.

Thanks for any tips.

Cheers.

---

So I ran it like this and noted that only some of my albums were converted. I am assuming that the program scanned the folder, found only the lossless file types, and converted those to FLAC, leaving AAC files as is? Is that correct?

Cheers.

 

[Lyon]

Okay, forgive me if this has been answered before but I'm struggling here.

I have an iTunes music folder that contains subfolders for each artist and each artist subfolder contains album subfolders. Most of these are in Apple's .m4a format.

I'm hoping to find something that will allow me to simply select the top level music folder and then basically tunnel into each subfolder and convert the files into something playable in the Model S. Doing this manually would be a royal PITA.

I'm using a mac.

Any suggestions?

 

[Larry Chanin]

Okay, forgive me if this has been answered before but I'm struggling here.

I have an iTunes music folder that contains subfolders for each artist and each artist subfolder contains album subfolders. Most of these are in Apple's .m4a format.

I'm hoping to find something that will allow me to simply select the top level music folder and then basically tunnel into each subfolder and convert the files into something playable in the Model S. Doing this manually would be a royal PITA.

I'm using a mac.

Any suggestions?

Hi,

I just started experimenting with portable audio files and I don't know much about the details of iTunes folder structure. However, I just copied the .M4a files from my iTunes folder on my Windows-based laptop and placed them in the root directory of a thumb drive and they played flawlessly in my Model S. Apparently the Model S obtains the cover art via the Internet. On one occasion it selected the wrong cover art for the Beatles Love album, but nevertheless the files sound great.

It also plays .flac files flawlessly.

Larry

 

[Lyon]

Hi,

I just started experimenting with portable audio files and I don't know much about the details of iTunes folder structure. However, I just copied the .M4a files from my iTunes folder on my Windows-based laptop and placed them in the root directory of a thumb drive and they played flawlessly in my Model S. Apparently the Model S obtains the cover art via the Internet. On one occasion it selected the wrong cover art for the Beatles Love album, but nevertheless the files sound great.

It also plays .flac files flawlessly.

Larry

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. More importantly, you've saved me oodles of time! Thanks!

 

[Larry Chanin]

If there's album art stored in the MP3 file, will the Model S use the album art from the file or will it still grab art from the internet?

Pardon a rookie question, but how can one tell if cover art is stored in the file? In my case I use M4a files. When I use the iTunes application or Media Monkey on my computer with these same files I do get the correct cover art for the Beatles Love album. I figured there was an additional graphic file on my computer that was not transferred to the USB thumb drive.

Anybody know how to force the correct cover art on when playing on the Model S?

Larry

 

[William3]

Ugh. More examples of Tesla's bad programmers. Here's the deal: Album art shows up if you sort by "song" or sort by "artist". If you sort by Folder (essentially sorting by filename) then you won't get album art or artist names. I'm getting less impressed each day. The Slacker & TuneIn apps seem like they are missing a lot of features of the web version. Also, if you play a WAV file from the USB thumbdrive then you won't get any transport controls.

 

[MikeK]

Hi,

I just started experimenting with portable audio files and I don't know much about the details of iTunes folder structure. However, I just copied the .M4a files from my iTunes folder on my Windows-based laptop and placed them in the root directory of a thumb drive and they played flawlessly in my Model S. Apparently the Model S obtains the cover art via the Internet. On one occasion it selected the wrong cover art for the Beatles Love album, but nevertheless the files sound great.

It also plays .flac files flawlessly.

Larry

.m4a can be either AAC or Apple Lossless. Model S can play AAC but not Apple Lossless at this time. iTunes will tell you what the codec is if you get info on a track.

 

[ClearwaterBchSteve]

I ripped a selection of my favorite CDs to small form factor 16GB USB stick using FLAC 24bit @44.1Khz sampling rate. I have had no problem browsing by the various methods and album art is properly displayed. It's a small list of songs (500), but it only took the Model S a couple of seconds the first time the stick was inserted to catalogue the files. Selecting a file begins playback instantly and the sound quality is perfect (lossless). Keep in mind, FLAC is only about a 2-1 to 3-1 compression so the files require substantially more storage space than 128KB mp3's which are usually about 10-1 compression. Using the format I chose should provide for about 40 albums (600 songs) per 16GB of storage space.

I prefer Dolby Surround off. The Model S was delivered with software version 4.0. Personally, I feel the quality of the amplifiers and speakers is worthy of a "high-end" car audio system as long as the source material is good. "garbage in, garbage out". A good audio system will make good material sound great and bad material sound worse.

 

[dsm363]

Ugh. More examples of Tesla's bad programmers. Here's the deal: Album art shows up if you sort by "song" or sort by "artist". If you sort by Folder (essentially sorting by filename) then you won't get album art or artist names. I'm getting less impressed each day. The Slacker & TuneIn apps seem like they are missing a lot of features of the web version. Also, if you play a WAV file from the USB thumbdrive then you won't get any transport controls.

I wouldn't necessailry assume Tesla has bad programmers. The UI for the car works very well. It might simply be a factor of time to market. They are slowly releasing updates to address these issues. There are still many missing features and lots of work to do. I agree the media apps and Nav need most work.

 

[jerry33]

I wouldn't necessailry assume Tesla has bad programmers. The UI for the car works very well. It might simply be a factor of time to market. They are slowly releasing updates to address these issues. There are still many missing features and lots of work to do. I agree the media apps and Nav need most work.

+1 Even the best programmers can only program so much in a day.

 

[Ceilidh]

You mean not all programmers are like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish?!

cheers.

 

[jerry33]

You mean not all programmers are like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish?!

cheers.

LOL. Not all programmers are even like me

 

[brianman]

You mean not all programmers are like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish?!
cheers.

Only Hollywood programmers are like that.

 

[William3]

I wouldn't necessailry assume Tesla has bad programmers. The UI for the car works very well. It might simply be a factor of time to market. They are slowly releasing updates to address these issues. There are still many missing features and lots of work to do. I agree the media apps and Nav need most work.

Time to market. Hmmmmm. They've been working on it for 3 years. Not impressed.

 

[pilotSteve]

You mean not all programmers are like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish?!

cheers.

Its all about the Risk/Reward ratio as I recall....

 

[NigelM]

Mod Note: Un-sticking this thread and adding Tags to optimize searches.

 

[GreenMonster]

Hello, I'm new to this thread, so pardon me if this question has already been answered. I've had my Model S for a few months now and have yet to get my iPod to work when plugged into one of the car's USB jacks. At the time the car was delivered, I was told that this issue would be addressed in a future software update to the vehicle. Does anyone know when this update is coming? Seems very strange that a vehicle with this much technology is unable to play the world's most popular portable media player. (Note: I also own a Roadster and the iPod plays fine in that vehicle, which makes this even more strange.)