usb mp3 playlists?

[stromdriver]

Its also too bad that there is no "hierarchy" for the folders as well, so you can just "play all" from the top folder. That's just as bad as not being able to read playlists...Unless I am mistaken about this?

there's two shuffle modes, current folder, and all folders, if you push it once it shows one folder icon meaning current folder, push shuffle again and it shows two stacked folders which denotes 'all folders/files' on the drive

 

[lokoalien]

got it working

After much frustration with .m3u not working, I decided to lookup playlist formats on wikipedia, thinking that maybe one will work. I tried several of them on my usb stick and got .pls to work (cheers2)(cheers2) I tried .pls .xspf EXTM3U, maybe others will work too, but I stopped at .pls since it works.

Here is a test example that I put in "music.pls" on the root of the drive:

[playlist]
File1=03 Girl.mp3
Title1=girl beck
Length1=209
NumberOfEntries=1
Version=2


Strangely it ignores the title that I put in and displays the mp3 tag. length is time of the track in seconds. Sub folders work

 

[notalk]

Just to make sure I understand this, are you saying music can be set up in folders and sub-folders on a usb drive and can be searched on the head unit? Then, the "issue" becomes the start at the beginning of the drive every time you start the car.

Is the "load time" reasonable? Can you have folders three or four levels deep?

 

[lokoalien]

Sub folders work

By mentioning that Subfolders work, I was refering to playlists. For example you can have a playlist in the root of the drive that points to a MP3 file in a subfolder(could be several folders deep). I was trying to convey that all of the mp3 files did not need to be in root of the drive with the playlist. It may even be possible to put the playlists in folders, haven't tested.

 

[notalk]

It sounds like the only way to know whether this works for a particular person is to make the USB drive the way you want it, then go to a Mazda dealer to see what happens during a test drive.

 

[RedBaron]

.m3u playlists work just fine. You only need to make sure the line "#EXTM3U" is at the top of the file (remove quotes). You can use a text editor to add it.

Easiest solution is to download sPlaylistMaker free from http://skwire.dcmembers.com/fp/?page=splaylistmaker. Just run the exe, make sure the EXTM3U option is checked and drag and drop the folder set onto the window. Done in seconds, with all sub folder's playlists created too.

Simple.

 

[vroom]

I did all my playlists using Windows media player. No additional software required. Works like a charm (well, if you call not remembering what song I was on each time I shut off and restart the car a charm...). Just save your playlists as .m3u.