If you do a quick search of my posts, you will see quite a few regarding my questions about how to get MMI working the way I want on my new A6 with regards to media sources. I would like to share my findings with any other current/potential A6 owners. The MMI manual is woefully inadequate in explaining the nuances of media and audio playback in general. This will save you a week of headaches, and a lot of wasted gas with the engine running in your driveway!

JUKEBOX
*******
Positives
- Album art scrolling, just like iTunes or iPod.
- Easy to load songs from any source: DVD, CD, SD card.
- Automatically organizes your songs by ID3 tag info. You can search by artist, album or track just like iTunes.
Negatives
- Does not support user created playlists.
- Limited to 4000 files. Not enough for a large music library.
- Takes quite a while for a full import to fill up the Jukebox.

I like the Jukebox a lot. Works just like iTunes. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't support user created playlists. The file limit restrictions and space restrictions of the Jukebox do not allow for a full music library import, but it would be a perfect size to load up your favorite playlists. Alas, it is not to be. Maybe a software upgrade by Audi in the future???

SD Card
*******
Positives
- There are 2 slots. One can be used for playing music, while the 2nd can be used to add songs to the jukebox without ever having to pull one out.
- MMI supports up to 32gb cards. If you use both, that is 64gb of storage, more than enough for most peoples music libraries.
- Supports user created playlists.
- Displays album art.
Negatives
- Songs are not organized. MMI reads the song files however you load them, with names and folder structures intact.
- Cannot scroll album art.
- Must edit your playlist files to get them working correctly.

The SD card will probably be the main audio source in my use. I listen to music by playlists. However, it is very tricky to get the SD card folder structure correct and matching the playlist. Check out my detailed instructions on this on another thread. Trust me, this was the biggest headache with my new car. I spent 2 weeks trying to figure it out with no help from my dealer, the manual, and very little help online.

http://forums.audiworld.com/showpost.php?p=24169730&postcount=4

iPod
****
Positives
- Easy connection, as Audi provides a cable.
- Can play your iPod using the car controls, fully integrated.
- Easy to maintain your iPod and change up the music on it.
Negatives
- MMI converts the digital music from iPod to an analog signal. This can reduce sound quality. Not noticeable by me with Bose system and most tracks at 128kbs.
- Album art is not transferred.

CD Changer
**********
It's a 6 disc changer. Does anyone use CDs anymore? Fits nicely in the glove box. I believe you can import songs from CDs, but I have not tried. I also believe you can play .mp3 discs. That could squeeze a few more gb of storage if you need it.

DVD Player
**********
In the dash. It can play regular movie DVDs and burned DVDs. I believe it supports DVD-Audio, but I don't own any to test. You can also use it as a data drive and fill a DVD up with .mp3 or video files for more storage.

USB
***
Audi does not include a USB cable. Not really necessary with dual SD card slots, but available for anyone with a flash drive with music. Not sure of the list price.

Enjoy. Please review the link to my other thread. I think most will probably find that the SD card is the best way to listen to larger music libraries.

Great information! I had the opportunity to read the MMI manual for just a few minutes while I was waiting at the dealer... It mentioned that you could play video files directly from DVD (of course), but also off of SD and jukebox based on a handful of video formats (mpg, avi, etc.). Have you tried that in your experimentation? How about video off your iPod?

Thanks!

Video files play great from Jukebox and SD. I played a movie DVD too. I don't keep video on the iPod I use in my car, but I suppose it would work. Not sure. Can't recall if the Video option was there on the menu under MMI.

Unfortunately, video doesn't play off the ipod. I have composite connector for the MMI which you can plug into the ipod/ipad etc, via the composite ip*d cable. Get's messy, but it's fun to play angry birds on the screen and hear it through the sound system.

I use it sometimes to show the BBC iplayer on the screen. The quality is excellent. I've yet to work out how to get my Bberry playbook to output flash to it as it only has a mini-hdmi output and as far as I know, I can only input analogue video through the MMI. Please feel free to let me know if there's a way to do it. That way, you can watch Audi TV, for example when the Le Mans series racing is on it.

Unfortunately, video doesn't play off the ipod. I have composite connector for the MMI which you can plug into the ipod/ipad etc, via the composite ip*d cable. Get's messy, but it's fun to play angry birds on the screen and hear it through the sound system.

I use it sometimes to show the BBC iplayer on the screen. The quality is excellent. I've yet to work out how to get my Bberry playbook to output flash to it as it only has a mini-hdmi output and as far as I know, I can only input analogue video through the MMI. Please feel free to let me know if there's a way to do it. That way, you can watch Audi TV, for example when the Le Mans series racing is on it.

This is good to hear. With the iOS4x and MLB At Bat 2011 recent upgrades, this means one will be able to watch MLB games on the in-vehicle screen and audio. Nice.

SD Card
*******
Negatives
- Songs are not organized. MMI reads the song files however you load them, with names and folder structures intact.

How in the world is that a negative? That's exactly how I want my stuff to show, exactly the same as the file structure on the NAS...

Anything else is an abomination...

How in the world is that a negative? That's exactly how I want my stuff to show, exactly the same as the file structure on the NAS...

Anything else is an abomination...

So playing music on your iPod/iPhone is an abomination? Jukebox organizes by album, artist or track - just like with any portable music player. Most people get used to that and use it to find and play music. Hard to call that an ABOMINATION! Lighten up!

If you use Windows explorer to find and select music, fine. Enjoy. I prefer software to keep my music organized. Jukebox does that. The good thing is, Audi allows you to choose how you want to listen and play!

I have an A7 and I believe the MMI is the same version as the A6. The DVD won't play any DVD-audio discs as I still have some from my previous Acura RL. Jukebox is a good design from Audi, and it even displays Chinese characters on the instrument LCD!

I have an A7 and I believe the MMI is the same version as the A6. The DVD won't play any DVD-audio discs as I still have some from my previous Acura RL. Jukebox is a good design from Audi, and it even displays Chinese characters on the instrument LCD!

I can play DVD-Audio disc on my A6 without any issues.

CD Changer
**********
I believe you can import songs from CDs, but I have not tried.

Can anyone confirm that you can copy CD's from the changer to the hard drive?

If so, how much is the quality degraded since I imagine it converts from PCM to some lossy compressed format to save space.

Jukebox is a good design from Audi, and it even displays Chinese characters on the instrument LCD!

Actually this has been a big complain for many years. I just couldn't understand what is so hard about that when almost everything is written in Unicode and therefore should be able to display any characters. MMI is still not able to display Chinese but at least the instrument panel can now.

Actually this has been a big complain for many years. I just couldn't understand what is so hard about that when almost everything is written in Unicode and therefore should be able to display any characters. MMI is still not able to display Chinese but at least the instrument panel can now.

Exactly. I have no idea why there is a difference in language coding between the main LCD monitor and the instrument panel LCD. It simply does not make any sense.

Can anyone confirm that you can copy CD's from the changer to the hard drive?

If so, how much is the quality degraded since I imagine it converts from PCM to some lossy compressed format to save space.

Just tested and you can only import discs from the center DVD disc slot. Changer can play mp3 discs.

I don't want to drift of topic, but I have question regarding the use of SD cards on the MMI.

Can anyone tell me what kind of SD cards to use? Should I use the faster class 10 cards? Will that help with the scanning of my music files?

In my temporary Peugeot 508SW I curently use an 8Gb USB-stick, which will take 1 to 2 minutes after each start before it is ready to play music. How does that work with the Audi MMI and SD cards?

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

I don't want to drift of topic, but I have question regarding the use of SD cards on the MMI.

Can anyone tell me what kind of SD cards to use? Should I use the faster class 10 cards? Will that help with the scanning of my music files?


I have a class 10 and a class 6 in mine, see very little difference but I haven't timed how long they each take. With the price of class 10s I would just use those, or import the music to the jukebox and not worry about the SD other than as an update.

Does the 2012 Jukebox support both mp3 songs and audiobooks from iTunes? Apple formats are .aac for music and m4b for books. Are they supported? 2010 model just ignores it while importing into jukebox from sd card.

Does the 2012 Jukebox support both mp3 songs and audiobooks from iTunes? Apple formats are .aac for music and m4b for books. Are they supported? 2010 model just ignores it while importing into jukebox from sd card.

Don't know. The manual was pretty good about listing what formats were supported IIRC.

Still waiting for my car and therefore the question. Guess I'll have to wait. :)

Where/How did you get the composite connector? I have an Ipod Composite connector for video, but how do I get the connector from those three plugs to the Audi system?

thx.

Guys, do nice artwork and all show up in the 2012 A6? If so, for what connections? iPod? SD Card? Jukebox?

Satellite Radio Tip:

You can go thru and different to presets or favorites, you can turn off the channels you don't want to listen to ever. You can even turn off entire catagories of channels like talk, traffic, foreign etc. That way you don't have to scroll thru things you have no interest in when looking at all the stations.

I don't remember exactly what menu it was under but if anyone can't find it I will look it up.

Actually there is another way to play music on the new A6! Use bluetooth connection with your iPhone or android phone! You can see all the track info on the MMI display and use playlist on your phone ! No need to duplicate music on any device or disc and it is digital ! If you use bluetooth connection for handsfree calls then your phone is already connected to play music!

There is 1 drawback though: bluetooth connection drains the battery so u may need to charge your phone more often!

Actually there is another way to play music on the new A6! Use bluetooth connection with your iPhone or android phone! You can see all the track info on the MMI display and use playlist on your phone ! No need to duplicate music on any device or disc and it is digital ! If you use bluetooth connection for handsfree calls then your phone is already connected to play music!

There is 1 drawback though: bluetooth connection drains the battery so u may need to charge your phone more often!

Great! Do nice artwork and all show up in the 2012 A6? If so, for what connections? iPod? SD Card? Jukebox?

And most imp, how is the sound quality on iPod cable vs bluetooth? Gotta be some loss of quality with BT, correct?

Sound quality is excellent on BT! I can hear no interference or down grade of quality ! It sounds like a direct cable connection ! BT is digital so there shouldn't be any loss of quality !

Great! Do nice artwork and all show up in the 2012 A6? If so, for what connections? iPod? SD Card? Jukebox?

yes all track info show up in MMI and instrument panel ! we are talking about bluetooth wireless connection !

Great! Do nice artwork and all show up in the 2012 A6? If so, for what connections? iPod? SD Card? Jukebox?

Sorry I think I misunderstood your question !
Yes all track info is displayed on MMI for most connections !

Sorry I think I misunderstood your question !
Yes all track info is displayed on MMI for most connections !

except album art !

Thanks! So what connections show the album art except BT?

I mainly use BT so I am not too sure about others connections but I believe CD, ipod and BT connections will not show album art. while SD card or jukebox should show !

My problem with MMI and Jukebox is that it does not seem to recognize Album Artist, so if you have a compilation album with bunch or different Artists, there does not seem to be a way to play just that album in entirety. Jukebox separates the album into bunch of separate albums categorized by Artists. On most portable players, Albums are usually separated by Album Artists so compilation albums show up as a single album under Various Artists.

I do like the fact that Instrument Cluster LCD can display unicode fonts correctly. It would seem that a simple font change to unicode capable font would enable this feature in the Center Stack LCD as well. Is there an official channel where we can request this?

I mainly use BT so I am not too sure about others connections but I believe CD, ipod and BT connections will not show album art. while SD card or jukebox should show !

Thanks for the answer.

Thanks for the answer.

Dear dcmetro,

U r welcome! I can see that u have been waiting for the answer!

BTW, the system supports mp3, aac, wma and wav files !

Yup, got me a long wait :( Hopefully it supports apple audiobooks format as well (.m4b). Current A6 does not import it...just imports mp3 and nothing else.

Um............

There is no mention of audiobook format in the literature so the chance of supporting it is a bit slim............

Question about iPod connection: When scrolling through music (artists), any way to quickly scroll? Like by letter or page or something? I have like 1000 artists, and It takes a REALLY long time to get through the alphabet. Thanks.

Question about iPod connection: When scrolling through music (artists), any way to quickly scroll? Like by letter or page or something? I have like 1000 artists, and It takes a REALLY long time to get through the alphabet. Thanks.

When scrolling thru the scroll wheel faster, it automatically jumps by alphabets in my 2010. I believe 2012 should be the same way or even better.

When you're scrolling, does the touchpad become active? If so you could enter a letter on it...

When scrolling thru the scroll wheel faster, it automatically jumps by alphabets in my 2010. I believe 2012 should be the same way or even better.

Hmm, I'll have to try scrolling faster to see if that makes a difference. I fee like I've scrolled pretty fast. Thanks.

When you're scrolling, does the touchpad become active? If so you could enter a letter on it...

I don't have Nav, so I don't think that my screen is touch sensitive.

I don't have Nav, so I don't think that my screen is touch sensitive.

He was not talking about the screen here. I think Premium Plus and Prestige have a touchpad right next to the shifter where one can use hand to type information. Do you have a touchpad? If so, that might help too. I'm sure others with it can chime in. I have personally not received the car.