[RedStripe]

Hey guys, I just got my pre-Sept'05 e90 w/ nav updated yesterday. I picked it up yesterday afternoon, but found out they only did a software update but didn't do the mp3 retrofit. So I left it there assuming it would take another day or so. Well, they call me later in the afternoon saying it was already done (so it was completed in just a few hours). I found this to be rather fast, but then again, they did the software update in a day.

Anyways, I went back to pick up my car that night, but I still can't get my e90 to recognize any of my mp3 CD's. So I called today to make another appointment, and I got to talk to the technician that did the upgrades, and he said he had tested it yesterday.

Unless there is a confusion between an mp3 cd and an audio cd made from mp3's on the technician's part, I must be doing something wrong when burning mp3 cd's.

The mp3 CD I've been using to test was burned with Nero. It was just a drag and drop process... no folders or subfolders or anything. Also, this mp3 CD worked perfectly in the e90 loaner (no nav) that I got.

Any advice?

[vladinecko]

yeah, an MP3 CD is just a regular data CD, you don't need to do anything special to make one. which means, that the update wasn't done correctly or completely.

just for the hell of it though, i'd try burning another cd maybe on a different machine and see if that one gets recognize. if not, they i'd call your dealer and say that you tried different CDs burnt by different software and the car still doesn't play 'em.

good luck!

[younghov85]

You should try Nero. Its a cd burning software that WILL allow u to burn Mp3s

[Kamando]

Playing an MP3 CD/DVD should work if you have all the updates and mp3 retrofit so they prob only did a software update...The NAV slot is great for playing MP3 DVDs when you dont need directions anyplace. To get the full characters displayed on your MP3s follow the burning steps in the following topic....

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...&highlight=mp3

[RedStripe]

Ok guys, my car did get the upgrade and mp3 retrofit correctly!

But let me also preface with I'm no novice when it comes to mp3's and burning CD's either. So infact, it was the CD I was using, and here is what I learned today.

The disc I was first trying was not recognized. It was burned with Nero (older verison, like 4.x) on a PC running Windows 2000 onto a 700MB Verbatim CD-R. It was just a drag and drop of mp3 files ONLY onto the CD, so in essence it was a data disc of only mp3 files. This CD worked on the e90 NON-Nav loaner perfectly, but it does not work on my mp3 upgraded e90.

However, after doing a search, and coming across this thread, http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3813, I tried using iTunes (v 5.0.0.35) on a PC running Windows XP to burn an mp3 CD on a 700 MB Khypermedia CD-R, and it worked!

In iTunes, under Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Burning, there is the option to burn 3 types of CD's: 1) Audio CD 2) mp3 CD 3) data CD. I chose the mp3 CD option, and this methodology worked on my e90.

I looked at the contents of the non-working CD burned by Nero and the working disc burned by iTunes through Windows File Explorer, and the only difference I could find is that the iTunes burned mp3 CD had this .xml file created automatically by iTunes (ContentsDB.xml). Also to note, since this was my first time to use iTunes to make an mp3 Cd, it changed the name of the files that got burned on the CD to "[##] [song name].mp3" from what they were on the hard drive "[artist] - [song name].mp3".

So in conclusion, it seems that non-Nav CD drives are less picky about what kind of mp3 CD's it can read. My retrofitted/upgraded e90 will play (as far as I know at the moment) only this iTunes created mp3 CD, and not a plain data CD with only mp3 files. I wonder if this true only of the upgraded/retrofitted iDrive e90's, or on all e90's with iDrive.

My guess so far is that you need some sort of .xml file on your mp3 CD, I'm supposing it's some sort of table of contents for your CD drive. I will be testing this more thoroughly to definitively determine how to create a working mp3 CD for our iDrive equipped e90's. I'll report what I find out using different software to burn the mp3 CD's with (ex. Nero suite 6.x, Windows Media Player 10, etc.)

Please provide your feedback, too!

[Yobyot]

Originally Posted by Kamando

Playing an MP3 CD/DVD should work if you have all the updates and mp3 retrofit so they prob only did a software update...The NAV slot is great for playing MP3 DVDs when you dont need directions anyplace. To get the full characters displayed on your MP3s follow the burning steps in the following topic....

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...&highlight=mp3

This doesn't work for me. I can see the long file names in Windows Explorer, but the E90 still truncates them.

Anyone have an alternative?

[espo]

I have a post sept build E90 without NAV and I'm having some problems with my MP3 CDs... The problem isn't that the E90 doesn't recognize them (it does, and displays the whole file names including directories on the radio screen). The problem is when I go to play the songs, they "skip"!? I've burned them as a regular data disc on brand name (2 different types) CDs. They read and play fine on multiple computers, just not in the car?

Any ideas? Does burn speed to the CD make a difference? I've used an older peice of software to rip the MP3 (CDex, its free and was around way before iTunes since I've had a MP3 jutebox for about 5 years now) and have never had any problems playing them on any other peice of equipment (computers, DVD players, new MP3 players, etc.).

[wchongli]

Hello RedStripe.

I tried to use your way(iTurns), but it is not run.
I tried the Nero before, it is not work.
Do you have any ideas to make my MP3 run?

I am in China, many 325i guys here can not use the MP3. I want to find out why.
It is amazing that the 320 is OK for MP3.

Any body have idea in this case?

Thanks!

Chong

[KevinC]

Ditch the ancient Nero. I'm using Nero Ultra 7, and it rocks for creating MP3 disks that are 100% compatible in my non-iDrive player, including proper full album & track name display.

[john802]

Originally Posted by KevinC

Ditch the ancient Nero. I'm using Nero Ultra 7, and it rocks for creating MP3 disks that are 100% compatible in my non-iDrive player, including proper full album & track name display.

I've used Nero 6.xx Ultra w/ the same result.

[wchongli]

Anybody konw how to check out the i-drive version?
I guess it the version problem.

But my car was built in 2006.5.

My CD/DVD driver can not read out my burn MP3 disc.