Leaf Audio/Music Features

[evnow]

In the immortal words of Bill Gates: "enough for anybody".

That is an urban myth. (BTW, the myth is about 640K, not 64K).

See under misattributed quotes.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

Also,

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9101699/The_640K_quote_won_t_go_away_but_did_Gates_really_say_it_

 

[Rat]

Crap! My son gave me a 16GB USB drive for Xams just to use in the Leaf and I spent most of yesterday loading up 600+ files in one folder on it. Now I'm going to have to go back and figure out which 100+ to delete. Maybe we'll find that the limit is really 510 in the root and 255 in each folder. I'm sure someone will know for sure and post here before I get my Leaf anyway. Gudy, Reeder, you guys like music?

 

[Timaz]

Can the leaf stream music from and iPhone though Bluetooth Like I can on my prius?

 

[evnow]

Can the leaf stream music from and iPhone though Bluetooth Like I can on my prius?

Yes. Bluetooth AVRCP supported.

 

[Timaz]

Great, I was hoping so! Thanks for answering!

 

[omkar]

Can the leaf stream music from and iPhone though Bluetooth Like I can on my prius?

Yes. Bluetooth AVRCP supported.

I just experienced this today. I was toggling through the various Sources (FM, AM, XM, Bluetooth Audio) and when I got to Bluetooth Audio, it started playing the music on my iPhone. Pretty cool!

 

[evnow]

I just experienced this today. I was toggling through the various Sources (FM, AM, XM, Bluetooth Audio) and when I got to Bluetooth Audio, it started playing the music on my iPhone. Pretty cool!

What can you do using bt ? Next/back/pause ... how about metadata display ?

BTW, can you check whether it can handle more than 510 tracks thr' usb ?

 

[prberg]

Quick update on the music system in the LEAF (since I took delivery last night!). Sounds better than I thought it did during the test drive. Sound separation was decent, not outstanding but decent. Anyone find out what speakers we have or who is the manufacture?

So far what really bugs me is the USB music interface. I just don't like the way it works. But maybe I just need some more time with it. It just seemed hard to navigate. You can go up/down with tracks and on the steering wheel, but to change album you have to use the screen. Scroll up and down and hit the album (folder name actually) name. I wish you could change the way it displays the music. Right now it just seems to be by album name (which sometimes I don't even know what artist it is by the album name). Maybe I'm missing some extra functionality here.. and MAYBE Nissan will update the software and might improve the navigation? You can do a shuffle of all songs.. so that is nice.

Regarding the file number limitation. First it was hard to test, because I had all my songs in folders based on artist and I couldn't tell if the LEAF was showing them all to me. I tried to put all the MP3's in the root folder... and I did run into the 255 file limit there.

So then I tried to just make 4 folders and put all my songs (about 1000 files total on a 8GB drive) into those folders. It seemed to work! I had about 250 files in each folder and when I popped it into the LEAF it showed me all 4 folders and the correct number of songs in each folder. I didn't try to go and play all the songs in each folder, but it does seem to see the files so maybe this won't be a problem for us!

-Peter

 

[JasonT]

I didn't try to go and play all the songs in each folder, but it does seem to see the files so maybe this won't be a problem for us!

This is excellent news! I know there were some people on this board that had already purchased large USB devices to store lots of music, and were not thrilled with the 5xx (I don't remember) limit that was gleaned from the service manual. Depending on how well my MP3 player works with the system, I might consider switching to a USB drive. I typically just "shuffle all" anyway.

 

[LEAFer]

So then I tried to just make 4 folders and put all my songs (about 1000 files total on a 8GB drive) into those folders. It seemed to work! I had about 250 files in each folder and when I popped it into the LEAF it showed me all 4 folders and the correct number of songs in each folder. I didn't try to go and play all the songs in each folder, but it does seem to see the files so maybe this won't be a problem for us!

-Peter

What format is the 8GB drive ? NTFS, FAT32, FAT16 etc ?

 

[TimeHorse]

What I want to know is

• Does it take sub-folders; IIRC it only accepts folders at the root-level. If you could do 2 levels, you could have artist at root and album as child like iTunes.
• Is there a rewind on the steering wheel? A Tap2GoBack 7 or so seconds or the Whadejusay (What did he just say) button for audio book and podcast listeners???
• If I hook up my iPhone and run the (if there so be) Tap2GoBack app to control my music playback, can he handle that? What if my iPhone is too old for Bluetooth Audio (3G)?

 

[prberg]

The USB drive that I used was formatted FAT32. I think the manual said only FAT32 and FAT16 would work. The manual also said that MP3's work, and also WMA files as well (there are more specifics if anyone needs them).

For FF and REW.. you just hold down the track up/down button a few seconds and it will start to FF (or REW) through the song. That was with USB audio.. I assume it would be the same for the ipod/iphone but I can't say for sure.

My phone will sync up via bluetooth for calls but I can't seem to get it to do anything else (it's an older Motorola Q).

It does take sub folders as well. It seems that the display will show the folder directly up from the actual music files. When I first had all my music on there from itunes, I was just seeming the album names (which is the folder closest to the actual MP3 files). It did not see the artist folders above that. When I put the MP3 all directly in 4 folders (music1, music2, music3, etc.) it just displayed 4 names on the screen (music1, music2, etc). It did pull the artist and song name from the MP3 tag, so that information is displayed, but the only information in the 'navigation' tree is the exact folder name which your music files are inside.

Hope that helps... let me know if I didn't describe that very well. I'm still surprised that all the full manuals are not on Nissan's website yet.

-Peter

 

[evnow]

Hope that helps... let me know if I didn't describe that very well. I'm still surprised that all the full manuals are not on Nissan's website yet.

Are the navigation & music information combined in the navigation manual ?

Nissan's other cars have music info in the user manual and a separate one for just the nav.

 

[turbo2ltr]

Is there a "shuffle all" option when playing from USB that will randomly play everything on the drive? I use that setting pretty much exclusively.

 

[omkar]

I just experienced this today. I was toggling through the various Sources (FM, AM, XM, Bluetooth Audio) and when I got to Bluetooth Audio, it started playing the music on my iPhone. Pretty cool!

What can you do using bt ? Next/back/pause ... how about metadata display ?

BTW, can you check whether it can handle more than 510 tracks thr' usb ?

For Bluetooth Audio via my iPhone, I was not able to do next/back via the controls on the steering wheel. I'm not sure if that answers your question. I didn't notice the metadata on the Navi. I will take a look next time.

I haven't yet tried out the USB. Too many gadgets, not enough time

 

[evnow]

For Bluetooth Audio via my iPhone, I was not able to do next/back via the controls on the steering wheel. I'm not sure if that answers your question. I didn't notice the metadata on the Navi. I will take a look next time.

BT supoprt depends both on the car and on the phone. Apparently the car supports ACRCP 1.3 (so you can use it for transport controls and metadata) - but may be iphone only does 1.1. Not sure whether android does any better.

 

[prberg]

Hope that helps... let me know if I didn't describe that very well. I'm still surprised that all the full manuals are not on Nissan's website yet.

Are the navigation & music information combined in the navigation manual ?

Nissan's other cars have music info in the user manual and a separate one for just the nav.

Yes the info about the music system is in the separate manual. That separate one has info on the navigation, music, carwings, etc.

There is a shuffle all.. so that works pretty well. But it's when you go searching for specific music where it gets more cumbersome.

 

[tps]

Last night I split my 2050 track collection from one huge directory into smaller directories to avoid the 255-files-max-per-directory problem. I just made "A0", for all the files who name starts with "A", etc. Right now, the largest directory has about 220 files, when I get to 255 I'll start another directory, for example "A1". I use shuffle mode just about all the time on my Sony MP3 player, and it seems there is no significant difference between all-files-in-one-big-directory and files-distributed-into-many-smaller-directories. I hope this works OK with the LEAF. I guess I might get my chance to try it out at the DC "Drive Electric" event...

 

[evnow]

My music is in hierarchical directories : genre - artist - album. Does Leaf handle 3 levels ?

 

[garygid]

With the USB flash drive, can you "shuffle" through just the selected/open folder, or is it only a shuffle-all-on-drive?

So, do I need a separate drive for "Christmas Music", or can I put it all in one folder and "shuffle-play" just that one folder?