Vehicle music Q?

wa8yxm wrote:
It should not matter.. That said there are a few where it might.

Just one precaution.. Have very good anti-viruals on your comptuer (IE: Malware Bytes, Norton, AVG, and a list too long excluding McCaffee) and before you do anyting SCAN that new thumb drive/device.

While one would like to think that "it should not matter" in reality it does.

Car stereo "navigation" and file system is pretty archaic at best and not really "compatible" modern day OS file system standards. Luckily most thumb drives come preformated at FAT32.

However some of the larger 64 gig and 128 gig ones may use Extended file system and USB3 speed drives may not always function at USB1 speeds. I HAVE run into computer systems that no longer "support" USB1 and USB2 speeds until your OS has loaded with the proper drivers..

The drive now days is to remove older "legacy" backwards compatibility in hardware and software.. So it is no longer a one size fits all world..

It should not matter.. That said there are a few where it might.

Just one precaution.. Have very good anti-viruals on your comptuer (IE: Malware Bytes, Norton, AVG, and a list too long excluding McCaffee) and before you do anyting SCAN that new thumb drive/device.

Yes, checking the manual, but am not tech-smart, so some of it whips by my ears.

Unit is Bang & Olufsen Surround (great sound!) and it can actually store music in an HD inside the unit, which I just read about in that manual ... not sure how many song files it will hold. IT can record from CD, MPG3, or USB drive.

But it also says Fat 32 (as you mentioned) and says some but not all DRM is playable.

monkey44 wrote:
We have the opportunity to play CD or Digital music in our SUV, and have always just listened to radio or CD ...

If we decide to switch to MP3 or USB input (we have both) does it matter which USB flash drive we buy? Is there a music USB flash drive or are all simply digital and it only copies the files and plays directly??

Try USB just once and you will never want to go back to shuffling CDs!

Couple of things to consider.

While folks are saying that ANY USB drive can work, there is some possible exceptions to that rule.

Number one, must be "FAT 32" partition (IE DOS), not NTFS (NT/XP up), USB drives typically are preformated with a FAT32 partition. Don't be tempted to reformat as NTFS, most likely will not be readable in your car stereo.

Number two, not ALL USB drive sizes may be compatible, especially drive sizes larger than 64 GB, when in doubt read the stereo manual!

Number three, most car stereos will not play DRM copy protected music files, if you are buying digital downloads they typically are protected with DRM.. With those files you will have to convert them to MP3 files which doesn't support DRM protection (you will lose some sound quality however with MP3 format).

Number four, create different folders on the USB drive for each CD album, this allows you to group music and find what you want easier, especially if you are dealing with several thousand songs or more.

Number five, not all car stereos can access thousands of songs on one USB drive, READ the stereo manual, it should give you the max folders/songs it can access (hint, many have a limit of 99 folders)..

When in doubt, READ THE MANUAL!

Number six, load it up and enjoy!

Great - thanks for info - and yes, my desktop has a USB-3 port. So, will copy the files direct to USB.

Any specific brand better than another?

You can use any usb drive. I purchased one that barely sticks out of the dash and just leave it plugged in all the time. I think I have about 2000 songs on it.

Any USB flash drive will work. If your computer has a USB 3 port you might want to consider a flash drive with USB 3. It doesn't matter if it's USB 2 or 3 for playback, but USB 3 will copy files from you computer much faster.

For audio files any usb memory stick will work, Walmart has varying sizes that will hold hundreds, even thousands of songs should your music library be that large. We also utilize Bluetooth from our smartphone to connect to our vehicle stereo system. Another method is to connect via aux input if available on your vehicle, these days it is rare that I rely on the radio to listen to music anymore.