Radio performance and USB Flash Drive / iPod Speed

M

Mogambi

Member
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2014 CX-5 Grand Touring AWD
OK, being incredibly frustrated at the lag time before the radio will play from an iPod or Flash drive, deciding to do a bit of testing. It seems fair enough that the radio will respond sooner depending on a couple of factors, first being the size of the flash drive / iPod and second being the data speed that device can supply. Which I suppose is why my iPod classic takes 20+ MINUTES at startup, to scan. 1) it's big, and 2) it's a slow little hard drive in there, so takes forever to scan.

So far here's what I'm finding after testing some various things:

iPod Classic: 20+ minutes to scan
16 Gig iPod Nano: about 2+ minutes to scan, maybe slightly less
64 tiny USB Flash Drive: About 5 to 7 minutes to scan.

These devices are all full.

When the 64 gig USB stick was nearly empty, as I tested it with only a few albums, mounted almost instantly.

The whole 'scanning' pisses me off, not sure why no other car on the market seems to have to do this on startup EVERY TIME, but oh well.

So now I'm on the hunt for the literal fastest USB Stick I can find, maybe 32 gigs. Hoping that will mount in under a minute or two, and I'll buy a few of them for my music.

Curious what other people have found, or has everyone given up and streaming via Bluetooth?
 
In other news, it would interesting to find out if by any chance the USB interface in the stereo is USB3.0 spec. If SO, then there are a variety of very fast new flash drives that might improve performance a lot! I might try a 32 gig USB3.0 super fast drive and see how quickly it comes up available.
 
The CX-5 has a USB 2.0 interface (I don't know of any car that has USB3.0).

We are all waiting for Mazda to fix these issues. In the meantime, all I can recommend is that you keep only the music you really want on the USB key (don't fill it up) so the issue becomes a bit less irritating.

Voice control barely understands artist names or album names, so you need to keep your music collection lean to be able to navigate it using the onscreen USB menu.
 
I doubt the USB speed would really help that much. The problem is more likely that the CPU in the head unit simply isn't that fast, and its reading all the files on the USB each time you turn on the car. What it really needs to do is build an index, like most MP3 software does.
 
Well I would have thought the same. But it must have something to do with it, since my 64 gig flash drive is usable in about 5 to 6 minutes, where the 160 gig iPod Classic, which runs a little hard drive and is really slow, takes 25-30 minutes! So way more than just judging the size. I just ordered a very fast 64 gig USB stick. I will compare it to this other I have which I know, on the computer at least, to quite slow.

For now I'm using the 16 gig iPod nano, which is usable in about 1 minute it seems.

But yes, clearly the thing needs to be able to build an index of the device and store it somehow. But I had a rental car, a Toyota Camry, for about 3 months. I plugged in my iPod Classic, all 160 gigs of it, and it was available right away.

Not sure that had voice command, probably not, and I'm sure it's the gracenote database that is taking time to build, for it to respond to voice command.

But yes, Mazda really screwed it up, and I do hope there will someday be a fix.
 
Voice recognition works pretty well for me. I use playlists a lot. In CD mode, you can say "Play Track 6" to do the obvious. Unfortunately that command is not available in USB mode while playing a playlist. It seems like a rather obvious command to support but I can find nothing like it. I tried "Play song 6" but no go. You can say "Next/Previous track" for USB playlists but for that just using the steering wheel Next/Previous button is much easier.
 
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One thing that annoys me about the voice command is how sluggish it is in general. AND that when it goes to play something, it repeats twice what it is about to play. So I say ' Play Album The Wall' and it repeats ' Play...Album...The Wall.......Playing....The....Wall....." What is the point of the second repetition?
 
I have ordered a portable duel port usb 5V charger i plan to connect my flash drive and glove box usb and supply the voltage to the head and flash drive .In theory as long there is no diodes on 5v side this should solve problem of re booting memory stick when car is stopped
 
Hi all the comment from flash drive issue from Mazda. Thank you for your recent email. Firstly, the length of time it takes is not a defect with the system. Secondly, we do not state exactly how the USB functionality works other than it is an alternate source to connect the devise and charges the devise at the same time. For the current system it initializes the synchronisation phase first, before operation is allowed. This functionality issue has been raised to Mazda, but it is important to note that there is no technical defect with the system, the system is working as designed and described as above. We do of course take on-board the views of our customers and therefore the issue has been raised to Mazda Corporation and a potential functionality improvement maybe available on future production, the exact date is not yet confirmed but likely to be on March 2014 produced vehicles (May 2014 delivery). Like any manufacture of equipment, such as phone companies for instance, improving functionality is an on-going process. Apple have launched the iPhone 3, 4 and 5 in a relatively short space of time and each have improvements over the previous one in how they operate as I’m sure you are aware with your own mobile devices, each have different functionality and in some cases, they have different connections. With iPhone 4 and 5, we know that these operate well with the current 6th generation products. With any product upgrade however, it’s unusual for a retrospective upgrade to an existing product, this is just how things evolve. In relation to the owners manual for Mazda6, we do not describe the specific functionality of the iPod / iPhone devices to such detail other than how to operate it. If they are connected via Bluetooth, the system is paired in a very short space of time and can start playing tracks straight away. Connecting the iPhone via the USB connection we are aware this can be more than a few minutes before the system can be used depending on the amount of data stored on the devise and the model of iPod or IPhone being connected. We would suggest if it does take more than 5-10 minutes to synchronise then disconnect and reconnect the devise. By going through a full resynchronisation process, this also means the iPod will default to the first track. In the case of some customers, we believe it has been intimated that a retrospective solution may be possible and this is what they are waiting for. Until we know when and if Mazda Corporation may upgrade the functionality, we can’t comment on any retrospective solution being made available, it’s unlikely there will be a retrospective upgrade to cars built now. However we need to keep in mind this is not a defect, it’s just how it currently works. I believe they are looking to evolve the synchronisation to work in the background rather than the first thing to happen upon connection allowing you to use the devise straight away. Kind regards, Customer Relations Executive Mazda Customer Information Centre cid:image001.png@01CE8886.0BF7D6B0 Tel: +44 (0)845
 
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Thanks Gareth. I read that as - 'it's rubbish, we know it's rubbish, we're hoping to fix it in the next gen CX-5, but as for your existing CX-5 - tough luck!'
 
If that means what I think it means, pretty much what KJO said, I guess any CX-5 purchase by me is now years delayed.

Don't know if Mazda corporate reads this forum, but getting hosed by your radio/software provider is almost certainly going to cost you sales. Shame, because otherwise, the car is first rate.
 
Agree
there not addressing or listening to what customers are saying and are quite happy churning out annoying defects on there cx5 music entertainment units.It is shame as the car needs these glitches ironed out other than that its a great car
 
Mogambi said:
The whole 'scanning' pisses me off, not sure why no other car on the market seems to have to do this on startup EVERY TIME, but oh well.
Click to expand...

My Infiniti does this this every time the car has been sitting for more than 20 minutes. While it does not automatically start at the first song, it does cut off whatever else you're listening to. The ipod controller takes over everything else. BTW, the scan time for a 5.5 w/about 24 gb of music is 3-4 minutes.

Curious what other people have found, or has everyone given up and streaming via Bluetooth?
Click to expand...

Seems to be the current best solution, recognizing the "sound quality" is a little lower w/ bluetooth than a wired connection.
 
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