He was talking about the internal storage of the car -- it was advertised as holding 3,000 songs.
HDD's do indeed work on the USB ports, if you have a lower-power one. I have a 500GB G|DRIVE slim (sold at Apple stores) that works just fine!
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Playlists on USB
- Thread starter Andrew Wolfe
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Model S User Interface
He was talking about the internal storage of the car -- it was advertised as holding 3,000 songs.
HDD's do indeed work on the USB ports, if you have a lower-power one. I have a 500GB G|DRIVE slim (sold at Apple stores) that works just fine!
I put all of my music on a USB thumb drive in a "music" folder. Then I wrote a script to copy the songs listed in a MyList.m3u file (playlist file), and put them into a directory called playlists/MyList. It's an extra copy of the same files (can't do symbolic links on a FAT filesystem). I noticed it plays them in alphabetical order, so my next modification to the script will be to prepend a number to the filenames to ensure they play in their playlist order! I will share the script (should work on mac os x and linux) when updated.
This works well -- even better if you set up different folders for different playlists. The car doesn't show the prepended track number, which is a nice little feature.
MusicMonkey is by far the best program I've used to manage a music library. Highly recommended. I have "only" about 350 albums, all ripped to hard drive as uncompressed WAV. MediaMonkey manages tags and files and everything for me, and transparently (on the fly) converts and copies music to removable devices according to my specific instructions. The USB stick for my Tesla gets highest-quality FLAC files of every song rated 3 stars or more, the Sandisk PMP I use for workouts gets 256 Kbps OGG files rated four stars or more, and so on. All automatic... beautiful.
For those wondering about size limitations in the Model S, I think it's whatever the FAT32 standard can handle which IIRC is 2TB. I have a 128GB USB stick and it works perfectly. Just know that all USB sticks must be formatted FAT32. If Windows doesn't do it natively, there are programs you can download that'll do it for you and do it well. The one I use is called "guiformat.exe", though I don't recall right now just where I got it.
For those wondering about size limitations in the Model S, I think it's whatever the FAT32 standard can handle which IIRC is 2TB. I have a 128GB USB stick and it works perfectly. Just know that all USB sticks must be formatted FAT32. If Windows doesn't do it natively, there are programs you can download that'll do it for you and do it well. The one I use is called "guiformat.exe", though I don't recall right now just where I got it.
You're lucky that your USB stick works great - my 64GB FAT32 formatted PNY drive with about 7,000 mp3s gives my MS (and me!) problems. The screen just has the spinning circle when I switch to the USB Drive. Ownership and the SC have told me that the car has to index all of the files on the disk before the contents appear, that this is a low-priority task, and must re-index if the drive is removed or the car turned off before it finishes. They have suggested using a smaller drive with less files as a solution.
Try reformatting the drive and recopying the files. Also try to ensure that they're tagged properly. Try a different drive. Troubleshoot the issue, don't just take it at face value.
You should not be having problems. There are people out there with 500GB low-power USB hard drives connected, 64GB is not a problem. And as for indexing... yes, the files do have to be reindexed but indexing roughly 4,000 tracks (about 90GB of FLAC files) takes less than 10 seconds... maybe even 5-6 seconds.
You should not be having problems. There are people out there with 500GB low-power USB hard drives connected, 64GB is not a problem. And as for indexing... yes, the files do have to be reindexed but indexing roughly 4,000 tracks (about 90GB of FLAC files) takes less than 10 seconds... maybe even 5-6 seconds.
FYI- I am using a thumb drive formatted ext4 and the Tesla reads it just fine.
I haven't checked whether or not symlinks work...If anyone wants to preserve the sequence of your playlists from your music collection, please do the following;
1. Download a free program media monkey(MM). MediaMonkey Download MediaMonkey Free.
2. After you install it in your computer either let it scan your music or skip that step if you just want to drag some playlists from your iTunes into media monkey.
3. Create and name few playlist folders in MM. Then drag each of your playlists from iTunes one at a time into "now playing" column on the right side then drag from there into each play list you created in MM.
**Somehow MM won't allow direct drag and drop into the playlist field compared to iTunes.
Once each playlist is created, delete songs from the now playing field (only from playing list) so you can drag the next playlist there to create the subsequent playlists in MM.
4. Once all your playlists are created, edit the song sequence as you like in each playlist field of MM.
5. Now insert a FAT32 formatted flash/USB drive of your choice and capacity you like to use in Tesla. It will show up in the left column of MM under playlists and media servers.
6. Click on the USB drive and it will show 4 tabs on the top named "summary, autosync (device), autosync (library) and options".
7. Click on "autosync device" and choose if you want to sync all 3 collections (music,podcasts, playlists) or a single one (playlists).
8. You can either skip autosync library or enable it if you like!
9. MOST IMPORTANT STEP:Now click on "options" tab and select "file locations". On the top field of "Sync files to" look for "music" tab and change the default to <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Title>. This assigns a automatic incremental number to all the songs in your playlist in sequence so it will play in the same order in Tesla.
10. Also check the box "Enforce use of sync mask for files already on the device".
11. You can click on "playlists" tab (last one in options)and check box for "sync playlists" which will do automatic syncing each time you plug the device. Make sure to change the default in the "destination directory" to <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Title> just like before.
12. Following these steps may take longer for the first time but once all your playlists are dragged into MM next time updating few songs is lot easier. If someone wants to just play the songs in random sequence it is also possible to incorporate into the directory field as well.
I hope music lovers will find this method useful.
Good luck
Pramod
1. Download a free program media monkey(MM). MediaMonkey Download MediaMonkey Free.
2. After you install it in your computer either let it scan your music or skip that step if you just want to drag some playlists from your iTunes into media monkey.
3. Create and name few playlist folders in MM. Then drag each of your playlists from iTunes one at a time into "now playing" column on the right side then drag from there into each play list you created in MM.
**Somehow MM won't allow direct drag and drop into the playlist field compared to iTunes.
Once each playlist is created, delete songs from the now playing field (only from playing list) so you can drag the next playlist there to create the subsequent playlists in MM.
4. Once all your playlists are created, edit the song sequence as you like in each playlist field of MM.
5. Now insert a FAT32 formatted flash/USB drive of your choice and capacity you like to use in Tesla. It will show up in the left column of MM under playlists and media servers.
6. Click on the USB drive and it will show 4 tabs on the top named "summary, autosync (device), autosync (library) and options".
7. Click on "autosync device" and choose if you want to sync all 3 collections (music,podcasts, playlists) or a single one (playlists).
8. You can either skip autosync library or enable it if you like!
9. MOST IMPORTANT STEP:Now click on "options" tab and select "file locations". On the top field of "Sync files to" look for "music" tab and change the default to <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Title>. This assigns a automatic incremental number to all the songs in your playlist in sequence so it will play in the same order in Tesla.
10. Also check the box "Enforce use of sync mask for files already on the device".
11. You can click on "playlists" tab (last one in options)and check box for "sync playlists" which will do automatic syncing each time you plug the device. Make sure to change the default in the "destination directory" to <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Title> just like before.
12. Following these steps may take longer for the first time but once all your playlists are dragged into MM next time updating few songs is lot easier. If someone wants to just play the songs in random sequence it is also possible to incorporate into the directory field as well.
I hope music lovers will find this method useful.
Good luck
Pramod
FYI- I am using a thumb drive formatted ext4 and the Tesla reads it just fine.
I gave symlinks a try a few days ago, created several (relative) links to various songs in other dirs and put a few actual files into a test directory too.. unfortunately the Tesla media player doesn't see/show the links, I'm sure it'd be trivial for them to correct it..
It should be trivial to fix a lot of the missing features of the audio system...including a more modern disk format, shuffle mode and .m3u playlist support. But they've shown no inclination to fix these or other sorely needed audio system features. Audio people to whom I've shown the audio interfaces on this car are appalled. Or derisive.
Agreed, none of those items hardly require significant development work... they really should release the SDK so we can help ourselves and them.
Figured out three interesting things that make the USB music work better, especially for compilation albums:
1. You must make sure the Album Artist is set in the music (I use EasyTag or MusicBrainz Picard). If it is not set, every song in a compilation will show up as its own album.
2. If you change a file on the USB, you must change the dir path or file name. The car caches the file by name, so you need to change its path. I have a dir at the root of my USB drive called "music" that I change names of when I change a file. Change the name to "music0", for example. Then the car will reload all the files.
3. The car appears to use the image from the first file in an album. Makes it a bit weird for personal compilations.
1. You must make sure the Album Artist is set in the music (I use EasyTag or MusicBrainz Picard). If it is not set, every song in a compilation will show up as its own album.
2. If you change a file on the USB, you must change the dir path or file name. The car caches the file by name, so you need to change its path. I have a dir at the root of my USB drive called "music" that I change names of when I change a file. Change the name to "music0", for example. Then the car will reload all the files.
3. The car appears to use the image from the first file in an album. Makes it a bit weird for personal compilations.
Mac iTunes Playlists on the Model S USB drive
If you are on a Mac using iTunes, then I ran across a useful discussion about copy playlists using Automator. While the person did not provide the Automator script for us to copy (Evidently, each Mac OS requires the script to be entered and compiled on it, so copying doesn't work.), they did talk through each of the steps to creating the script. I followed them and got it to work - then spent a long time to get it to do just a little more. The main benefit of this is to get the playlist to play in the same order on your Tesla (although iTunes doesn't have a way to export shuffled anymore).
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080424194133862
This builds on previous people's posts that suggest putting playlists into unique folders, then using the play by folder on the USB drive. The script prepends a sequence number to override the normal alphabetical sort. Each of your playlists will need to be separately exported to different folders.
The additions I made are as follows, in case you want to make things simpler in the long run (if you keep exporting repeatedly with updates). My method, by the way, is to keep a mirror of my 32GB USB drive on my computer so that I can make these updates at any time, then periodically bring my USB drive in and "sync" it (I use ChronoSync for that step - great tool! :smile.
My Details (steps within Automator - some are like in the link and some are new):
As mentioned in the original hint, select all the songs in the playlist you want to export, then fire off this script. Don't do again until it is complete or unexpected results will occur.
Last caveat - I am a luddite with my Mac these days and running this on Snow Leopard 10.6.8, so this surely works differently on other OS versions, but should be similar.
Good luck!
If you are on a Mac using iTunes, then I ran across a useful discussion about copy playlists using Automator. While the person did not provide the Automator script for us to copy (Evidently, each Mac OS requires the script to be entered and compiled on it, so copying doesn't work.), they did talk through each of the steps to creating the script. I followed them and got it to work - then spent a long time to get it to do just a little more. The main benefit of this is to get the playlist to play in the same order on your Tesla (although iTunes doesn't have a way to export shuffled anymore).
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080424194133862
This builds on previous people's posts that suggest putting playlists into unique folders, then using the play by folder on the USB drive. The script prepends a sequence number to override the normal alphabetical sort. Each of your playlists will need to be separately exported to different folders.
The additions I made are as follows, in case you want to make things simpler in the long run (if you keep exporting repeatedly with updates). My method, by the way, is to keep a mirror of my 32GB USB drive on my computer so that I can make these updates at any time, then periodically bring my USB drive in and "sync" it (I use ChronoSync for that step - great tool! :smile
.My Details (steps within Automator - some are like in the link and some are new):
- I created my Automator as a "Service" specific to iTunes, so it would show up in the iTunes->Services menu
- at the top fill in "Service receives "no input" in "iTunes" - this is what tells it to be put into the iTunes Services menu
- Ask for Confirmation - just as suggested
- Ask for Finder Items - I give a prompt for a playlist folder name, starting in my playlist mirror folder and of "Type" "Folders" and no check for "Allow Multiple Selection"
- Set Value of Variable - I called a new variable "Playlist" - it will be set to the same name as the folder from the previous step.
- Get Folder Contents - don't check the "Repeat for each subfolder found"
- Move Finder Items to Trash - this clears the playlist folder of any previous contents - things don't work right if there are already files in there. You could add a confirmation before this if you like.
- Get Selected iTunes Tracks - select "Tracks" from the menu and check "Replace existing files"
- Make Finder Item Names Sequential - "Make Sequential" and "Add number to existing name" and "Place number before name" and "Start numbers at 1" and "separated by dash" and check to "Make all numbers 3 digits long"
- Optional - "Get Specified Text" - fill in "All done with play list export" or change to what you like
- Optional - "Speak Text" - select a voice you like. The last 2 will let you know when the script completes so you can run the next one.
As mentioned in the original hint, select all the songs in the playlist you want to export, then fire off this script. Don't do again until it is complete or unexpected results will occur.
Last caveat - I am a luddite with my Mac these days and running this on Snow Leopard 10.6.8, so this surely works differently on other OS versions, but should be similar.
Good luck!
majorlance
Member
Great tip! I have "A Better Finder Renamer" that can randomize file names in a folder. (My Model S won't arrive until late December so I can't verify that all of this will work...) My plan was to copy each playlist to a folder (I don't have that many) on a flash drive and then run the randomizer function of ABFR and pre-pend a random number to each song in the play list. This would have (hopefully) created a relatively simple way to maintain a randomized playlist.
But I love the Automator tip outlined above. Easy, simple and allow for effortless updating of the flash drive.
All that said, how hard can it be to add a "shuffle" command to the Tesla interface???
But I love the Automator tip outlined above. Easy, simple and allow for effortless updating of the flash drive.
All that said, how hard can it be to add a "shuffle" command to the Tesla interface???
plugh
New Member
majorlance
Member
If you put a playlist in a folder, does it play in filename order or song (or artist) order? (My car doesn't arrive for a month so I can't test.)
All this discussion about kludgy ways to get the Tesla music system to function as well as a Windows 95 system just about says it all. You should be embarrassed, Tesla.
I have a 1 terabyte hard drive in the car, which contains a fraction of my music collection (all legal, for those who were ready to leap). There's no elegant way to have decent fixed playlists or random play. The best that I can do is select a genre, then pick a random alphabetical song in the collection as a starting point (for example, somewhere in the "F"s), then just hit play. It'll step through songs alphabetically from there, which is "kind of" random, I guess. Issues include multiple copies of the same song from different albums, but at least it's a workaround.
You can't even select "Artists", hit play and get useful mixes, because the system won't cycle through all albums sequentially, just one. So if you have several hundred cuts from, say, John Coltrane, you'll only hear the cuts from a single album. This is a drag if you want to hear a more general mix of the artist's work, but especially so because often a collection contains only one cut from one album, and that cut will just cycle over and over until you manually change the album selection. Crude.
I work in the music industry and I'm embarrassed when a colleague or artist gets in the car and they see how poorly the music system is designed. They can't connect their iPods or other audio players to the car system (unless I disconnect my phone and give them the Bluetooth port for their phones). They can't easily hear my music collection the way they can in my other car, or in any standard rental car, for that matter. I have thousands of playlists that work fine in just about any car but the Tesla. Sigh.
Hopefully the system will be redesigned for the Model X, and reflect the excellence of the rest of the car's design.
I have a 1 terabyte hard drive in the car, which contains a fraction of my music collection (all legal, for those who were ready to leap). There's no elegant way to have decent fixed playlists or random play. The best that I can do is select a genre, then pick a random alphabetical song in the collection as a starting point (for example, somewhere in the "F"s), then just hit play. It'll step through songs alphabetically from there, which is "kind of" random, I guess. Issues include multiple copies of the same song from different albums, but at least it's a workaround.
You can't even select "Artists", hit play and get useful mixes, because the system won't cycle through all albums sequentially, just one. So if you have several hundred cuts from, say, John Coltrane, you'll only hear the cuts from a single album. This is a drag if you want to hear a more general mix of the artist's work, but especially so because often a collection contains only one cut from one album, and that cut will just cycle over and over until you manually change the album selection. Crude.
I work in the music industry and I'm embarrassed when a colleague or artist gets in the car and they see how poorly the music system is designed. They can't connect their iPods or other audio players to the car system (unless I disconnect my phone and give them the Bluetooth port for their phones). They can't easily hear my music collection the way they can in my other car, or in any standard rental car, for that matter. I have thousands of playlists that work fine in just about any car but the Tesla. Sigh.
Hopefully the system will be redesigned for the Model X, and reflect the excellence of the rest of the car's design.
Someone should do a feature-by-feature comparison between the Tesla and other infotainment systems - for cars in the same price range and also for those at lower prices.
While the Model S scores the highest score for Consumer Reports on the overall vehicle - the overall functionality of the Model S - compared to other vehicles would rank pretty low.
The media playback features are very, very basic - they look great on the screen - and Tesla doesn't limit any functionality while the car is moving (which other manufacturers do) - but the media playback lacks common features such as song repeat, random playback, playlists, skip forward/backward, fast forward/rewind, ... And navigation through long lists of stations or favorites is extremely challenging (especially while the car is moving). Audiobooks on USB media don't work well because of the lack of these features - and risk losing saved position in a very large audio file.
And then there's the navigation system... Besides the awkward dual-map database architecture that uses an out-of-date database for doing the routing, the software capabilities are light years behind what's available on smart phones.
Because these are all software features - they can be added - and if enough Tesla current and prospective customers push back on Tesla, they will hopefully raise the priority of bringing their infotainment system up to a level comparable to the rest of the car.
I don't regret purchasing my P85 - and have enjoyed driving it the last two years - and remain hopeful that we'll start seeing more functionality added in upcoming software releases.
While the Model S scores the highest score for Consumer Reports on the overall vehicle - the overall functionality of the Model S - compared to other vehicles would rank pretty low.
The media playback features are very, very basic - they look great on the screen - and Tesla doesn't limit any functionality while the car is moving (which other manufacturers do) - but the media playback lacks common features such as song repeat, random playback, playlists, skip forward/backward, fast forward/rewind, ... And navigation through long lists of stations or favorites is extremely challenging (especially while the car is moving). Audiobooks on USB media don't work well because of the lack of these features - and risk losing saved position in a very large audio file.
And then there's the navigation system... Besides the awkward dual-map database architecture that uses an out-of-date database for doing the routing, the software capabilities are light years behind what's available on smart phones.
Because these are all software features - they can be added - and if enough Tesla current and prospective customers push back on Tesla, they will hopefully raise the priority of bringing their infotainment system up to a level comparable to the rest of the car.
I don't regret purchasing my P85 - and have enjoyed driving it the last two years - and remain hopeful that we'll start seeing more functionality added in upcoming software releases.
majorlance
Member
Similar threads
