I am now the proud owner of a new Tesla for about a week. When I began researching the Tesla I was surprised that it did not include a CD player (I would love to see a study comparing the universes of people who can afford a Tesla with people who have a collection of CDs they would like to play in a Tesla) and initially this seemed like a deal breaker for me. My previous car came with a system that played MP3s and I found the sound quality unacceptable.
My first thought was to see about having an aftermarket installation of a CD player, but then I discovered this forum and began reading to see if there were others with similar issues. That’s when I learned about FLAC files and how they might be the answer to my problems. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. The important word in here is lossless. This means that there is no loss in audio quality when a CD is converted into FLAC files. The file size is also compressed somewhat, not at much as MP3, but with no loss in audio quality.
Next there was the big debate about whether the Tesla could play FLAC files. No one at Tesla will say for sure, but the forum seemed to agree that as long as the file format was FAT 32 it should work.
So, about a month before my Tesla was due to arrive, I decided to make a test FLAC file and take into the dealership (which for me was on the second floor of a shopping mall called BelSquare) to see if it worked.
A little research showed that the preferred program for ripping CDs to FLAC was Exact Audio Copy(EAC). Unfortunately, my experience with EAC was not good. The website would not let me download the latest version; so I downloaded an earlier version. Setting up the system requires pages of decisions and even though I had some help from the internet, it was simply too complicated for me. I did rip one CD which took about 45 minutes, but it didn’t copy the track titles for reasons I did not understand. The web page for EAC did contain an ad for Easy Audio Copy which gave you 14 days before having to pay about $30. I was frustrated enough with EAC that I tried Easy Audio Copy and found it really was easy, probably too easy with too few ways to tweak the end product. However, it took me only 8 minutes to rip the same CD to FLAC.
Next I got a 64 gig flash drive and tried to format it to FAT 32. I have a new computer with Windows 8.1 and it would only let me format the drive to exFAT. I thought, “well it sounds like it’s close to FAT and it’s my only choice; so why not.” I have a TV that has a USB interface and plays FLAC files; so I tested it and found that it worked! I went in to Tesla and tried the drive, but the car did not even recognize that I had a drive inserted in the USB port. Back to the drawing board. I did some more research and discovered that FAT 32 means that it is not intended for flash drives larger than 32 gigs. In fact when I inserted one less than 32 gigs, windows had no trouble formatting it to FAT 32, which, in fact, turned out to be the default format for the drive anyway. A tech person at the office formatted my 64 gig drive to FAT 32 with some external software and I returned to the Tesla store armed three drives, 4, 32, and 64 gigs respectively all with my CD copied to FLAC files. Surprise, it worked on all 3.
I had only one problem. And this, to me, is the genius and frustration of Tesla. Someone decided that the track title displayed on the Tesla media screen doesn’t need to be longer than 25 or 30 characters. There is a giant screen with a lot of empty space and a track title in the middle that is simply way too short. It is clear to me that this programmer does not actually listen to music. Maybe there is a way to increase the number of characters displayed in the track title, but I haven’t found it. OK, that’s my rant. Let’s move on.
Let me finish with a couple of things I have discovered about Easy Audio Copy. The good news is that it numbers the track titles so that the copied CD will play in the right order. If you have multiple CDs you can hold down the shift key while pressing the album cover and it will number the tracks for all the CDs so that they play in the right order. Also just before you start the copy process, it shows you what the track titles will look like. You can edit them from this screen and the results will show on the Tesla screens as well.
So now I have a new Tesla that plays my CDs via FLAC files on my 64 gig drive. Maybe some day someone will publish Exact Audio Copy for Dummies and I will at last understand how to use this excellent, but too arcane for me, program.
My first thought was to see about having an aftermarket installation of a CD player, but then I discovered this forum and began reading to see if there were others with similar issues. That’s when I learned about FLAC files and how they might be the answer to my problems. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. The important word in here is lossless. This means that there is no loss in audio quality when a CD is converted into FLAC files. The file size is also compressed somewhat, not at much as MP3, but with no loss in audio quality.
Next there was the big debate about whether the Tesla could play FLAC files. No one at Tesla will say for sure, but the forum seemed to agree that as long as the file format was FAT 32 it should work.
So, about a month before my Tesla was due to arrive, I decided to make a test FLAC file and take into the dealership (which for me was on the second floor of a shopping mall called BelSquare) to see if it worked.
A little research showed that the preferred program for ripping CDs to FLAC was Exact Audio Copy(EAC). Unfortunately, my experience with EAC was not good. The website would not let me download the latest version; so I downloaded an earlier version. Setting up the system requires pages of decisions and even though I had some help from the internet, it was simply too complicated for me. I did rip one CD which took about 45 minutes, but it didn’t copy the track titles for reasons I did not understand. The web page for EAC did contain an ad for Easy Audio Copy which gave you 14 days before having to pay about $30. I was frustrated enough with EAC that I tried Easy Audio Copy and found it really was easy, probably too easy with too few ways to tweak the end product. However, it took me only 8 minutes to rip the same CD to FLAC.
Next I got a 64 gig flash drive and tried to format it to FAT 32. I have a new computer with Windows 8.1 and it would only let me format the drive to exFAT. I thought, “well it sounds like it’s close to FAT and it’s my only choice; so why not.” I have a TV that has a USB interface and plays FLAC files; so I tested it and found that it worked! I went in to Tesla and tried the drive, but the car did not even recognize that I had a drive inserted in the USB port. Back to the drawing board. I did some more research and discovered that FAT 32 means that it is not intended for flash drives larger than 32 gigs. In fact when I inserted one less than 32 gigs, windows had no trouble formatting it to FAT 32, which, in fact, turned out to be the default format for the drive anyway. A tech person at the office formatted my 64 gig drive to FAT 32 with some external software and I returned to the Tesla store armed three drives, 4, 32, and 64 gigs respectively all with my CD copied to FLAC files. Surprise, it worked on all 3.
I had only one problem. And this, to me, is the genius and frustration of Tesla. Someone decided that the track title displayed on the Tesla media screen doesn’t need to be longer than 25 or 30 characters. There is a giant screen with a lot of empty space and a track title in the middle that is simply way too short. It is clear to me that this programmer does not actually listen to music. Maybe there is a way to increase the number of characters displayed in the track title, but I haven’t found it. OK, that’s my rant. Let’s move on.
Let me finish with a couple of things I have discovered about Easy Audio Copy. The good news is that it numbers the track titles so that the copied CD will play in the right order. If you have multiple CDs you can hold down the shift key while pressing the album cover and it will number the tracks for all the CDs so that they play in the right order. Also just before you start the copy process, it shows you what the track titles will look like. You can edit them from this screen and the results will show on the Tesla screens as well.
So now I have a new Tesla that plays my CDs via FLAC files on my 64 gig drive. Maybe some day someone will publish Exact Audio Copy for Dummies and I will at last understand how to use this excellent, but too arcane for me, program.