Media player in 8.0 actually got worse (for local music)

[dkonigs]

So I'm one of those weirdos who actually keeps a large USB thumbdrive full of music in his car, and often prefers to use it as a source of music playback. I even go so far as to organize the files in the music collection so they're easy to browse.

After upgrading to 8.0, I've noticed a few changes that actually make the user experience a whole lot worse. Some feel like outright bugs, and others feel like blatant user interaction oversights. So here goes...

• When browsing by "Folders", album tracks are sorted alphabetically by song title. This completely ignores the track number in the metadata, and the file name itself (which, in my case, often has a track number prefix.) However, if you browse to the exact same album via the "Albums" grouping, tracks are correctly sorted.
• They removed the alphabetical jump-list from the right-hand side of the media lists, making it so there's no longer a quick way to skip to a particular letter in the list.
  
• Scrolling large lists of media is now extremely sluggish and painful. You can almost feel the system groaning at you as you do it, and it'll even mistake a scroll gesture for a tap gesture amidst the sluggishness. As such, you'll accidentally open albums during the process.
• When you browse back from an album, it jumps you back to the top of the entire list. Given how painful scrolling that list is, this just makes that experience even worse.

So in short... track sorting is screwed up, and the UI is so damn sluggish its painful to use.

 

[DDarrow]

Yep. You pretty much summed it up. Major step in the wrong direction.

You really screwed this up Tesla!!!

 

[DrumCoder]

There's also a minor change they made to terrestrial radio for the five of us who still listen. (I don't want to make a new thread so I'll piggyback on this one since it's "local music")

For HD stations, the car used to go out and get the album name and cover art from the internet based on the title and artist provided by the HD station. This sometimes gave hilarious results (my local alt-rock station would show a hardcore gangsta rap album art any time they were in commercial) but worked well the rest of the time. Now, it no longer goes out and gets any of that information.

Also, I flip between several FM stations using the buttons on the left steering wheel. With this update, they moved ALL my favorites, including my Slacker and Tunein favorites, to that bar. So, if I'm on the station that's at the end of my radio favorites (which are not in the same order as I had set them previously but that's fine with me I can adapt) it jumps into the Slacker station instead of looping around to the first FM favorite. One I'm on a Slacker station, the buttons on the steering wheel control THAT playlist, and I can't go back to a radio station unless I use the touchscreen.

I also echo all the USB comments - I do keep a USB stick in my car for my local music and am not too thrilled with the new interface. I did notice that it's doing a better job pulling album art, but I'm not sure if it's actually pulling it from the ID3 tags or from some other source - but albums that used to not have album art (as they are not listed in Gracenote) now actually have album art that is accurate.

About the scrolling through the USB list if you have many albums, I noticed that it would freeze, and it would also freeze the display on the IC when I was playing a tune off of that same USB stick. The art would stay up, but the name and duration would go away, and I couldn't scroll anymore. I wonder if part of that is because I don't have a fast USB stick...

 

[bob_p]

I've been responsible for major software projects. And what we keep seeing with the Tesla releases appears to be an example of what happens when the software team isn't getting sufficient input from the end user community.

There's no reason why Tesla can't be more open about their software development process - and get owner feedback while the software is still in development. And, they should open the beta program to allow owners to "opt in" or "opt out" of the beta process - so that more owners can participate - and provide their input.

When 7.0 came out - there was an immediate pushback on the changes of where the time of day was being displayed - which Tesla addressed in an update after 7.0 was distributed. AP owners, when not running in AP mode, also wanted the "classic" dashboard layout - which those of us with non-AP cars still have. And who thought it was worthwhile putting a small picture of the car in the middle of the dashboard???

 

[kirkbauer]

I'm looking forward to 8.0 but I have a huge USB drive of music so I'm not happy about this regression...

 

[BLKTSLA]

I agree there are some regressions when it comes to USB but I think they nailed everything else as a step forward. If we make enough "noise" about it they can always update it an minor fix now that the overall framework is in place.

 

[royewest]

I'm also hoping for better USB support, since it's the only way to get CD-quality audio into the sound system. And I'm hoping they'll also add more robust support for larger USB devices -- I have an SSD with all my music that I plugged in to the USB port and froze my screens. Now I don't dare go larger than 32G.

 

[DDarrow]

I'm also hoping for better USB support, since it's the only way to get CD-quality audio into the sound system. And I'm hoping they'll also add more robust support for larger USB devices -- I have an SSD with all my music that I plugged in to the USB port and froze my screens. Now I don't dare go larger than 32G.

Weird. I'm using one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BGTG2A0/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's about 2/3 to 3/4 full and don't have any issues with it locking anything up.

 

[jeffb]

I'm looking forward to 8.0 but I have a huge USB drive of music so I'm not happy about this regression...

I just posted my workaround on the other USB thread.....its not perfect, but it works well enough (for now) https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/1747423/

 

[SwisSojourners]

I agree with all. Navigating through USB library is horrible with new update!

 

[dkonigs]

I just posted my workaround on the other USB thread.....its not perfect, but it works well enough (for now) https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/1747423/

That workaround (alphabetical-grouping directories), combined with writing a script that injects track numbers into the ID3 tag song name field, may be the only way to get this thing usable again.

But we REALLY seriously should NOT have to do any of this.

Of course the only real solution may be to get the developers of this software to actually use it themselves, on a daily basis, and not automatically assume everyone only does Slacker.

 

[jeffb]

Yeah, track numbers in the tag info would get the order right but for now Im relatively ok with just being able to find the album and songs Im looking for in a reasonable amount of time. The track order thing is probably a bug since the track order IS correct elsewhere in the media player, they just need to display the tracks as they are on the drive, essentially just by their file name (which IS numbered) not alphabetically by the tag.....so Im figuring that might get fixed. Some of the other "issues" with the USB player seem more like choices so Im less confident that those will change.

 

[randompersonx]

Wow, what a huge disappointment.

Who exactly wants to listen to their music in "alphabetical order", as opposed to track order?!

Haven't they heard of "Concept Albums?"

I would kill to get support for playlists -- seems like such a simple feature would make this 1000X better.

 

[Barry]

If I read the update info correctly, a short tap of the steering wheel button should cycle through FM stations ONLY, and a long press cycles through all favorites (including streaming media).

Is this working for anyone? For me, any tap, long or short, cycles through all media, and once you get to the first streaming favorite, the down button does NOT go back to the last FM station. Am I missing something?

Also note that when I pull into the garage and mute the audio, it comes back on when I open the car door.

 

[STbreaker]

So I'm one of those weirdos who actually keeps a large USB thumbdrive full of music in his car, and often prefers to use it as a source of music playback. I even go so far as to organize the files in the music collection so they're easy to browse.

After upgrading to 8.0, I've noticed a few changes that actually make the user experience a whole lot worse. Some feel like outright bugs, and others feel like blatant user interaction oversights. So here goes...

• When browsing by "Folders", album tracks are sorted alphabetically by song title. This completely ignores the track number in the metadata, and the file name itself (which, in my case, often has a track number prefix.) However, if you browse to the exact same album via the "Albums" grouping, tracks are correctly sorted.
• They removed the alphabetical jump-list from the right-hand side of the media lists, making it so there's no longer a quick way to skip to a particular letter in the list.
  
• Scrolling large lists of media is now extremely sluggish and painful. You can almost feel the system groaning at you as you do it, and it'll even mistake a scroll gesture for a tap gesture amidst the sluggishness. As such, you'll accidentally open albums during the process.
• When you browse back from an album, it jumps you back to the top of the entire list. Given how painful scrolling that list is, this just makes that experience even worse.

So in short... track sorting is screwed up, and the UI is so damn sluggish its painful to use.

A very accurate and super painful description of what happened to those of us that use a USB drive for music. I get that they are pushing the streaming options hard, but c'mon man...

Also disappointed that the right scroller wheel can't pick the audio source anymore, though they at least mitigated that by having the tabs at the top and the favorites at the bottom

 

[STbreaker]

I agree there are some regressions when it comes to USB but I think they nailed everything else as a step forward. If we make enough "noise" about it they can always update it an minor fix now that the overall framework is in place.

If you guys haven't done it already, consider emailing Tesla with "owner feedback" in the "Contact Us" section. Seems like the most official way to "make enough noise" about our disappointment.

 

[PtG62901]

I have an old iPhone that I use as a car player. iPhone 6.0 plugged in to power allows Hey Suri functionality, drive selection there. Not saying it wouldn't be nice to have Tesla give you the solution you want, but for a couple hundred bucks, you could work around this. Then you could move on to wanting AirPlay.

 

[Petra]

Well, that's not good, considering that USB flash drive is the only audio source we use in our Model S... I'm still waiting for 8.0 here, so I guess I get to look forward to the media stuff getting worse than it already is.

If we're all good little boys and girls, maybe someday Tesla will release a software version that can read/display/respond to those newfangled text message things that the cool kids use.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Sadly, the only way Tesla will make changes that owners demand is when Tesla has more competition and they start losing sales to someone like GM over self-inflicted, unforced errors of the kind it has been making lately. Steve Wozniak is selling his Model X in favor of a Chevy Bolt. According to him, it is much more practical and offers a ton more convenience features. At some point in the next couple of years, Tesla is going to start feeling the pain of not listening to its ownership base.

 

[DCGOO]

For HD stations, the car used to go out and get the album name and cover art from the internet based on the title and artist provided by the HD station. This sometimes gave hilarious results (my local alt-rock station would show a hardcore gangsta rap album art any time they were in commercial) but worked well the rest of the time. Now, it no longer goes out and gets any of that information.
.

Cover Art is also now missing from TuneIn