Supported USB File Types

[Mediocrates]

Yeah, but probably the right thing to do is to go back to my original (mostly ripped from CDs) AIFF files and convert 'em to M4A (which is what you originally suggested).

In fact, if the issue is that WAV files don't have the tags (for album, artist, etc) then M4A converted from WAV probably won't either.

I need to live with just being able to select artists (by tapping "Folder"), or redo a fair amount of work.

AIFF is another container format, which is very similar to WAV in that it is generally used for uncompressed audio. AIFF has generally been used in the Apple world, whereas WAV has generally been used in the PC/Windows world. What you already ripped to AIFF (which might be uncompressed audio) may include tags, so converting from AIFF to another container might preserve/convert the tags as well, but I'm not sure what ITunes will do.

Keep in mind that M4A is also a container format, so "converting" from AIFF to M4A doesn't inherently change the format of the audio. However, in the common usage of the iTunes world, I suspect that "converting to M4A" implies converting the audio to AAC, since the typical user isn't going to understand (or care about) the concept of a container versus an audio format. AAC is a compressed and lossy format, similar to MP3. If you configure iTunes to perform a lossless conversion/compression, I think it will use ALAC, which is Apple's lossless format (similar to FLAC). I don't think the Tesla media player supports ALAC.

If you end up having to go through the gruntwork of converting formats to generate new files for Tesla playback, then you might as well convert the audio to AAC or MP3. If you do either at the highest quality available, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to hear the difference.

 

[RustyShacklefo]

What you already ripped to AIFF (which might be uncompressed audio) may include tags ...

Thanks for the explanation.

AIFF is uncompressed - as far as I can tell, the file sizes certainly are consistent with that. And it definitely include tags.

Keep in mind that M4A is also a container format, so "converting" from AIFF to M4A doesn't inherently change the format of the audio. However, in the common usage of the iTunes world, I suspect that "converting to M4A" implies converting the audio to AAC... If you configure iTunes to perform a lossless conversion/compression, I think it will use ALAC, which is Apple's lossless format (similar to FLAC). I don't think the Tesla media player supports ALAC.

iTunes has two "encoders" which result in M4A files: one they call AAC, and the other "Apple Lossless". From the file sizes, the AAC appears compressed and the "Apple Lossless" uncompressed (although about 50-60% the size of the AIFF). The Tesla appears to be able to read them both (including the tags, as evidenced by both showing up under "Artists" and "Albums").

 

[Mediocrates]

Thanks for the explanation.

AIFF is uncompressed - as far as I can tell, the file sizes certainly are consistent with that. And it definitely include tags.

iTunes has two "encoders" which result in M4A files: one they call AAC, and the other "Apple Lossless". From the file sizes, the AAC appears compressed and the "Apple Lossless" uncompressed (although about 50-60% the size of the AIFF). The Tesla appears to be able to read them both (including the tags, as evidenced by both showing up under "Artists" and "Albums").

I'm surprised the Tesla media player handled the lossless output from iTunes, since I believe that is ALAC and I didn't think the Tesla media player supported that format. If it does, excellent...and all the better for you. That might be the way for you to go...to convert all of your AIFF to M4A "lossless (ALAC).

Also, to clarify terms, lossless and uncompressed are not the same thing. The audio format that is most commonly found in WAV and AIFF files is uncompressed, which means it is the raw representation of the audio content. FLAC and ALAC are compressed and lossless. This means these formats will produce an output identical to the uncompressed source, but they take less space (hence the 50-60% size difference you observed, which is typical for FLAC and ALAC). MP3 and AAC are compressed and lossy. These formats will produce a smaller file size than lossless compression, given the same source, but they cannot reproduce the output of the original source.

 

[RustyShacklefo]

FLAC and ALAC are compressed and lossless. This means these formats will produce an output identical to the uncompressed source ...

Being naturally suspicious as a Murphy-respecting engineer, I decided to test this. So I created an ALAC M4A file from an AIFF file in iTunes, put that AIFF file aside, and then created another AIFF file from the ALAC file. The two AIFF files don't compare byte-for-byte; but there's a single byte different in the header, about 300 bytes that differ near the end (out of about 60 megabytes), and an add'l 49 bytes at the end of the "reconstituted" AIFF file. That's good enough for me.

 

[vcor]

iTunes doesn't do FLAC.

I'm confused. Do you want to play music via iTunes or have the music on a USB to be played via Tesla's system? If the former, you're right that FLAC is not going to work for you. For placement on a USB stick, FLAC is a lossless option that works great and might be a better option than a compressed format like MP3. That assumes the source material is already lossless. Converting a lossy format like MP3 to FLAC or another lossless format will not gain any improvements in audio quality, and will only consume more file space.

 

[RustyShacklefo]

Do you want to play music via iTunes or have the music on a USB to be played via Tesla's system?

Both really, but the latter is the problem I'm trying to solve here.

For placement on a USB stick, FLAC is a lossless option that works great ...

Yes, but I have no way to make FLAC files (without using some other app). But that's ok, ALAC is working fine - except for the fact that compilations are fragmented into as many albums as there are distinct artists (researching that problem now).

 

[vcor]

... except for the fact that compilations are fragmented into as many albums as there are distinct artists (researching that problem now).

You should be able to play the compilation album. It sounds like the ID3 data is screwed up on the album. I only use MP3 and FLAC and don't have the issue, so I can't say if it's something to do with a different format. More likely the ID3 doesn't have the same album name for each song and is nothing to do with the format you're using.

 

[RustyShacklefo]

More likely the ID3 doesn't have the same album name for each song and is nothing to do with the format you're using.

iTunes has the same album name for each song. But a different artist. I've got a half-decent solution which is to copy all the files for compilations to a separate directory (on my Mac) and use a free app called Tag Editor Lite to change the artist name on all the songs to VARIOUS.

So when I am in my car, the albums all appear under Albums, and if I select VARIOUS under Artists I see all the compilation albums.

 

[Mediocrates]

iTunes has the same album name for each song. But a different artist. I've got a half-decent solution which is to copy all the files for compilations to a separate directory (on my Mac) and use a free app called Tag Editor Lite to change the artist name on all the songs to VARIOUS.

So when I am in my car, the albums all appear under Albums, and if I select VARIOUS under Artists I see all the compilation albums.

This is fairly common when retrieving tag information from an Internet source for the kind of compilation album you are describing. The "Artist" tag will be used to refer to the artist(s) that performed a given track. The "Album Artist" tag will be used to indicate the name of the artist for the entire album. This will even happen for albums that are nominally a single artist, but contain tracks that "feature" other artists, which may result in distinct "Artist" tags as well.

The problem is mainly that the Tesla media player seems to not look for "Album Artist" tags first for sorting/organization purposes - it seems to only use "Artist" tags. So, it's an incompatibility between a technically accurate set of media tags and assumptions made by the Tesla software developers about how the media player should work.

I've found that the implementation of the media player for file sources is lacking in many areas, and it seems to be getting lower in priority. I used to do most of my media playback from files on USB, but I've since switched to using my phone via Bluetooth so that I can have much better control of my music library (with the downside of not being able to really do so while driving). When Tesla removed the search feature for files, that's when I switched.