dgjk

I have been having problems getting mp3's to play - sometimes could nto read media - other times the car could not read the track and I tried everything and found nothing consistant about why did not work. I tried buring with and without files and used a different bit rate and used different programs

Then talked to a young kid from Best Buy who told me what to do

First - Bit rate is only quality - should not affect playability
Second - use a high quality media (was using generic cd-rw's, now using Sony cd-r's
Third - slow down how fast you burn them

He said errors when burning are causing the problem (Not the car) -

He did not say this exactly but cheap mp3 players need better copies - This is why would play on the computer andnot in the car

Anyway - now got 150 songs on one cd and I am excited

cobradav

Good advice. I had found this to be true on other types of recordings (duping DVDs, or even full rate music CDS) that it just does not pay to use generic CD or DVDs and use middle or lower middle burn rates. That is if you have a choice of 2X, 4X, 8X, 16X, 32, 48X , etc that 8X or 16X are much safer and produce a more reliable product while not having to resort to the REALLY slow speeds normally. But there might be occasions the some device (BMW CD player?) might even have to resort to 2X, or 4X. Not having MP3 capability yet it remains to be seen where I'll have to go to get good results.

Glad u got these little tips out to us to be prepared

EBMCS03

Oh I could have and should have told you that... Same goes for backing up DVD movies and regular music CDs. Use better quality CDs/DVDs and burn at a slower rate. Its a general rule.

Hehe sorry I dont pay much attention to MP3 threads. Wonder why...

Bimmer32

Hi dgjk,

I received the mp3 CD from you today. Thank you very much for sending it. I was so eager to try it in the car. Unfortunately, when I put it in, nothing happened. The Cd drive didn't recognize that there was a CD in it. I decided to flip the CD on the other side too, hoping a miracle would a occur. Nope, the Cd drive just said unrecognize media.

To everyone that claims no Nav can play mp3, I am afraid you are wrong. I have a 03/05 production date 05 545i no nav and premium sound (h/k) US model. The CD that works on dgjk does not work in my car. My software has not been upgraded. I asked the dealer last month if there were updates, he said no. The car is going to a different dealer on the 17th of this month. I will ask again.

dgjk

sorry to hear about that - so far heard from 2 of the 3 people I sent discs to and no luck - and from everything I have read they both should have worked.

Bimmer32 has a no Nav car - so mp3's should work - I agree - need latest software

The other guy has a 9/22/05 production 2006 with Nav and everything I've read said should work but he had no luck either - mayber he missed the production by one week - In this case there is a chance that a hardware update would be needed - though this is in debate

Dirty 30

I guess I would be the 3rd person then and the cd I received worked just fine. I have a Sep/05 build with no nav.