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SD card playlists m4a vs mp3
04-12-2012, 01:57 PM
#1
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SD card playlists m4a vs mp3
I have 2012 A4 Premium. It does not have iPod interface, only Aux jack. So I have been using a 16GB SDHC class 4 card to play my music.
I copied the folders (organized by artist/album/song) I wanted from my iTunes directory directly to the SD card.
In the car, when I navigate to a particular Artist's album -- I can play the songs no problem. It doesn't matter if they are mp3 or m4a.
But playlists appear to only work for mp3 songs! Has anyone else gotten playlists to play m4a songs?
Here's what I did:
Exported a couple of iTunes playlist as m3u files (just text files listing the songs).
I editted each file to remove computer path (ie deleted F:\MyDocuments_HDD\My Music\iTunes\iTunes_Music) so that file looks like:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:218,Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffet
\Jimmy Buffett\Songs You Know By Heart\01 Cheeseburger in Paradise.m4a
#EXTINF:178,He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffet
\Jimmy Buffett\Songs You Know By Heart\02 He Went to Paris.m4a
:
<etc>
I then copied these files to root of SD card -- which now looks like:
ABBA
Adele
:
<more artists>
:
Beach.m3u
Country.m3u
:
But! when I try to use playlist in car -- only mp3 songs show up. If playlist only contained m4a -- the playlist itself will not appear
So if anyone knows how to get playlists to play m4a -- please let me know. I really don't feel like converting all those songs and then clean up duplicates in iTunes.
TIA!
I copied the folders (organized by artist/album/song) I wanted from my iTunes directory directly to the SD card.
In the car, when I navigate to a particular Artist's album -- I can play the songs no problem. It doesn't matter if they are mp3 or m4a.
But playlists appear to only work for mp3 songs! Has anyone else gotten playlists to play m4a songs?
Here's what I did:
Exported a couple of iTunes playlist as m3u files (just text files listing the songs).
I editted each file to remove computer path (ie deleted F:\MyDocuments_HDD\My Music\iTunes\iTunes_Music) so that file looks like:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:218,Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffet
\Jimmy Buffett\Songs You Know By Heart\01 Cheeseburger in Paradise.m4a
#EXTINF:178,He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffet
\Jimmy Buffett\Songs You Know By Heart\02 He Went to Paris.m4a
:
<etc>
I then copied these files to root of SD card -- which now looks like:
ABBA
Adele
:
<more artists>
:
Beach.m3u
Country.m3u
:
But! when I try to use playlist in car -- only mp3 songs show up. If playlist only contained m4a -- the playlist itself will not appear
So if anyone knows how to get playlists to play m4a -- please let me know. I really don't feel like converting all those songs and then clean up duplicates in iTunes.
TIA!
04-12-2012, 06:34 PM
#2
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I don't have my SD card on me currently, but I know that I have a mix of older mp3 and newer m4a files in playlists and both play for me. I have a MMI+ Nav w/iPod, so not sure if that makes a difference.
04-13-2012, 03:55 AM
#4
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I didn't know you could do playlists either. That's why I love this forum! 
What file extension are they saved as? m3u or just txt? Have you tried the m4u extension?
What file extension are they saved as? m3u or just txt? Have you tried the m4u extension?
04-13-2012, 12:36 PM
#6
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in iTunes, you can export a playlist, I had saved them as .m3u or .m3u8
then remove the user folder/home folder part of the path for each song ( /Users/Me/music/iTunes../ ) Take a look at my example below
then copy the .m3u file into the root of your SD card
Note 1: make sure the song paths match the structure of your SD card
Note 2: if you save it out on a mac, the file will have mac/unix style line breaks but you need to convert it to windows line breaks in some text editor ( otherwise the MMI will read the whole file as a single line )
** shame on the MMI developers for not handling this **
this is sampling of one of my playlists that plays ...
hope it helps
then remove the user folder/home folder part of the path for each song ( /Users/Me/music/iTunes../ ) Take a look at my example below
then copy the .m3u file into the root of your SD card
Note 1: make sure the song paths match the structure of your SD card
Note 2: if you save it out on a mac, the file will have mac/unix style line breaks but you need to convert it to windows line breaks in some text editor ( otherwise the MMI will read the whole file as a single line )
** shame on the MMI developers for not handling this **
this is sampling of one of my playlists that plays ...
hope it helps
Code:
#EXTM3U #EXTINF:363,Take a Picture - Filter Filter/Title of Record/06 Take a Picture.m4a #EXTINF:232,The High Road - Broken Bells Broken Bells/01 The High Road.m4a #EXTINF:198,The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells Broken Bells/04 The Ghost Inside.m4a #EXTINF:199,Trap Doors - Broken Bells Broken Bells/06 Trap Doors.m4a #EXTINF:270,Stylo (feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack) - Gorillaz Gorillaz/Plastic Beach/1-05 Stylo (feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack).m4a #EXTINF:283,Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon) - Gorillaz Gorillaz/Plastic Beach/1-07 Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon).m4a #EXTINF:246,Precious - Depeche Mode Depeche Mode/Playing the Angel/05 Precious.m4a #EXTINF:255,Blood - Aventine Aventine/Under the Milkyway (Remixes)/05 Blood.m4a #EXTINF:269,You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp) - Chuck Prophet Chuck Prophet/Age of Miracles/03 You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp).m4a #EXTINF:282,Under the Milkyway - Aventine Aventine/Under the Milkyway (Remixes)/04 Under the Milkyway.m4a #EXTINF:210,Fallin' - Alicia Keys Alicia Keys/Songs In A Minor/04 Fallin'.m4a #EXTINF:224,Secrets - OneRepublic OneRepublic/Waking Up (Deluxe Version)/03 Secrets.m4a #EXTINF:216,Misery - Maroon 5 Maroon 5/Hands All Over/01 Misery.m4a #EXTINF:259,Spiralling - Keane Keane/Perfect Symmetry/01 Spiralling.m4a #EXTINF:312,Perfect Symmetry - Keane Keane/Perfect Symmetry/05 Perfect Symmetry.m4a #EXTINF:239,Princess of China - Coldplay & Rihanna Coldplay/Mylo Xyloto/10 Princess of China.m4a #EXTINF:201,Moves Like Jagger [feat. Christina Aguilera] - Maroon 5 Maroon 5/Moves Like Jagger.m4a
04-14-2012, 03:35 AM
#7
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Yes, that's exactly what I do (except on Windows machine). Your playlist looks identical to mine except I have back-slash's instead of forward-slash's.
Rats, it really might be that the base music system doesn't have whatever software necessary to handle m4a's in playlists.
Hmm, can the dealer do "updates" to music system (is it still called MMI in base car?)
Well, I might have to convert anyway cause my husband's 2012 TDI Golf can't play m4a at all - but he has integrated iPod capability, so...
Thanks for your help!
Rats, it really might be that the base music system doesn't have whatever software necessary to handle m4a's in playlists.
Hmm, can the dealer do "updates" to music system (is it still called MMI in base car?)
Well, I might have to convert anyway cause my husband's 2012 TDI Golf can't play m4a at all - but he has integrated iPod capability, so...
Thanks for your help!
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10-29-2012, 01:06 PM
#8
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Same issue with me.
Having an 2010 A4 Allroad with the symphony II ( Panasonic CQ-ja1970g / 8t1 035 186 p) stereo.
mp3s in M3u playlist play fine - m4a files although playable directly, are not visible in playlists.
I have found though a workflow that although a little tedious seems to work. This is done on a mac so in windows probably there are similar programs.
1. Export all your playlists (keeping the itunes structure) onto your HDD in M3u - you can use itunes export (http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/)
The exported folder should have the playlists and a folder called music (containing all the subfolders artists / albums /etc)
2. Convert and delete with XLD all m4a files to 320k MP3 (if this are matched or bought 256k aac files on the audi base system there should be no audible difference). This takes a couple of minutes for 20Gb of music - but is completely automatic.
3. Use a text-editor and find and replace '.m4a' with 'mp3'
4 Copy the folder to the root of the SD.
The whole process adds maybe 30' minutes for a 16Gb disk, but it works and the sw used is donationware.
Should you find a workaround for playing m4a files in playlist (eg. through a firmware update), please communicate it. Thanx
Having an 2010 A4 Allroad with the symphony II ( Panasonic CQ-ja1970g / 8t1 035 186 p) stereo.
mp3s in M3u playlist play fine - m4a files although playable directly, are not visible in playlists.
I have found though a workflow that although a little tedious seems to work. This is done on a mac so in windows probably there are similar programs.
1. Export all your playlists (keeping the itunes structure) onto your HDD in M3u - you can use itunes export (http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/)
The exported folder should have the playlists and a folder called music (containing all the subfolders artists / albums /etc)
2. Convert and delete with XLD all m4a files to 320k MP3 (if this are matched or bought 256k aac files on the audi base system there should be no audible difference). This takes a couple of minutes for 20Gb of music - but is completely automatic.
3. Use a text-editor and find and replace '.m4a' with 'mp3'
4 Copy the folder to the root of the SD.
The whole process adds maybe 30' minutes for a 16Gb disk, but it works and the sw used is donationware.
Should you find a workaround for playing m4a files in playlist (eg. through a firmware update), please communicate it. Thanx
11-05-2012, 02:45 AM
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Love this M3U Playlist App for the Mac--Made for Audi:
http://trick77.com/2011/10/15/mmitun...sed-playlists/
http://trick77.com/2011/10/15/mmitun...sed-playlists/
06-02-2013, 03:26 AM
#10
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Same issue with me.
Having an 2010 A4 Allroad with the symphony II ( Panasonic CQ-ja1970g / 8t1 035 186 p) stereo.
mp3s in M3u playlist play fine - m4a files although playable directly, are not visible in playlists.
I have found though a workflow that although a little tedious seems to work. This is done on a mac so in windows probably there are similar programs.
1. Export all your playlists (keeping the itunes structure) onto your HDD in M3u - you can use itunes export (http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/)
The exported folder should have the playlists and a folder called music (containing all the subfolders artists / albums /etc)
2. Convert and delete with XLD all m4a files to 320k MP3 (if this are matched or bought 256k aac files on the audi base system there should be no audible difference). This takes a couple of minutes for 20Gb of music - but is completely automatic.
3. Use a text-editor and find and replace '.m4a' with 'mp3'
4 Copy the folder to the root of the SD.
The whole process adds maybe 30' minutes for a 16Gb disk, but it works and the sw used is donationware.
Should you find a workaround for playing m4a files in playlist (eg. through a firmware update), please communicate it. Thanx
Having an 2010 A4 Allroad with the symphony II ( Panasonic CQ-ja1970g / 8t1 035 186 p) stereo.
mp3s in M3u playlist play fine - m4a files although playable directly, are not visible in playlists.
I have found though a workflow that although a little tedious seems to work. This is done on a mac so in windows probably there are similar programs.
1. Export all your playlists (keeping the itunes structure) onto your HDD in M3u - you can use itunes export (http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/)
The exported folder should have the playlists and a folder called music (containing all the subfolders artists / albums /etc)
2. Convert and delete with XLD all m4a files to 320k MP3 (if this are matched or bought 256k aac files on the audi base system there should be no audible difference). This takes a couple of minutes for 20Gb of music - but is completely automatic.
3. Use a text-editor and find and replace '.m4a' with 'mp3'
4 Copy the folder to the root of the SD.
The whole process adds maybe 30' minutes for a 16Gb disk, but it works and the sw used is donationware.
Should you find a workaround for playing m4a files in playlist (eg. through a firmware update), please communicate it. Thanx
Any help really appreciated.
