iDrive not recognizing Ipod playlists
12-27-2007, 05:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Rudy' post='510971' date='Dec 27 2007, 08:56 AM
If the cable isn't anything special, why not try an audio patch cable (male mini plugs on both ends) and the USB cable that comes with the iPod? There's really no need for the "Y" part, two individual cables should be the same thing. Again, this is assuming that there's no additional circuitry embedded into the BMW cable. (They may have done something to regulate the volume output from the iPod to control any distortion, etc. coming into the car.)
12-27-2007, 05:46 AM
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Originally Posted by JSpira' post='510997' date='Dec 27 2007, 09:43 AM
It IS special (so are you, Rudy). It?s not possible to duplicate this with two cables as you need to be coming out of the dock output and only the BMW Y cable can accomplish this.
Oh, and thanks for explaining about the cable too Jonathan...
12-27-2007, 08:45 PM
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Ok I am a bit confused. I have a 04 545 w/ the IPod connector in the glove box and it works as it is supposed to. I also have a 07 X5 W/ USB and AUX input. I just use my IPOD cable and that is all I need for the IPOD to work. I do not know why you need a Y cable which takes up the aux and USB port. The USB port is designed to deliver sound and song name to the IDrive. I do have Nav on both cars so maybe that makes a difference. Anyway....
I have made the following observations on the USB ipod input on my 07 X5.
I have noticed that the IDirve sometimes gets confused when loading the song list when the device has a ton of songs. The IDrive will display the actually fine name on the IPod like "AAFDS" (this is apples special name encoding for making it harder to view file names actually on the device) I have about 10k songs and sometimes it takes 5 min for the IDrive to properly display the ID3 Tags and not the actual files name.
I have also noticed that my older Ipods have trouble w/ the play lists but my newer ipods do not.
Ipod Gen3 Classic 20GB, I have not been able to get the playlists to work.
Ipod Nan0 Gen 1 8Gb- Play lists work just fine.
Ipod Touch Gen1 16Gb - Playlists work just fine.
I hope this may help out some.
I have made the following observations on the USB ipod input on my 07 X5.
I have noticed that the IDirve sometimes gets confused when loading the song list when the device has a ton of songs. The IDrive will display the actually fine name on the IPod like "AAFDS" (this is apples special name encoding for making it harder to view file names actually on the device) I have about 10k songs and sometimes it takes 5 min for the IDrive to properly display the ID3 Tags and not the actual files name.
I have also noticed that my older Ipods have trouble w/ the play lists but my newer ipods do not.
Ipod Gen3 Classic 20GB, I have not been able to get the playlists to work.
Ipod Nan0 Gen 1 8Gb- Play lists work just fine.
Ipod Touch Gen1 16Gb - Playlists work just fine.
I hope this may help out some.
12-28-2007, 04:46 AM
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Originally Posted by MRV99' post='511272' date='Dec 28 2007, 12:45 AM
Ok I am a bit confused. I have a 04 545 w/ the IPod connector in the glove box and it works as it is supposed to. I also have a 07 X5 W/ USB and AUX input. I just use my IPOD cable and that is all I need for the IPOD to work. I do not know why you need a Y cable which takes up the aux and USB port. The USB port is designed to deliver sound and song name to the IDrive.
12-28-2007, 05:10 AM
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Originally Posted by flipside' post='510681' date='Dec 26 2007, 10:53 AM
I stopped using the iPod cable that came with the car. The sound quality going through the aux port isn't that great. I copied all my music over to the iPod in disk mode and use a standard iPod cable into the usb port. The sound difference is like night and day
12-28-2007, 05:27 AM
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Originally Posted by iversonm' post='511342' date='Dec 28 2007, 09:10 AM
I've had no issues with sound quality. Are you sure there are no Equalizer settings enabled on the iPod?
However, I have found that people don't always plug the aux-in plug in properly and that can result in poor sound.
12-28-2007, 09:34 PM
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Alright guys, so I picked up the cable from the dealer today and EVERYTHING works perfectly now. Thanks for all the help. No sound issues.
12-29-2007, 04:32 AM
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There is a sound quality issue when you use the BMW Y cable. The ID3 info (Artist, song, album names etc) gets pushed through the USB port, but the sound is split from the ipod and pushed to the analog aux input. This is how they get around the DRM issue.
As other people have discovered, there is a capacitor on the AUX input that cuts out a lot of the low frequencies and gives everything a bit of a muffled sound. The aux input is protected from high level inputs blowing the sound system, but it also hinders sound quality. When you use the ipod in disk mode (just using a regular ipod cable) its a full digital transfer to the sound system.
The downside to this, as stated before, is that you lose the ability to play DRM protected music (ie, just about anything you buy from the itunes store), and the playlists you make in itunes will not show up. You can get around both, but that might be a discussion for another day
The easiest way to hear the difference is listen to a favorite song on CD and then on the ipod. You'll be surprised.
As other people have discovered, there is a capacitor on the AUX input that cuts out a lot of the low frequencies and gives everything a bit of a muffled sound. The aux input is protected from high level inputs blowing the sound system, but it also hinders sound quality. When you use the ipod in disk mode (just using a regular ipod cable) its a full digital transfer to the sound system.
The downside to this, as stated before, is that you lose the ability to play DRM protected music (ie, just about anything you buy from the itunes store), and the playlists you make in itunes will not show up. You can get around both, but that might be a discussion for another day
The easiest way to hear the difference is listen to a favorite song on CD and then on the ipod. You'll be surprised.
12-29-2007, 04:55 AM
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Originally Posted by BemveE60' post='511562' date='Dec 29 2007, 01:34 AM
Alright guys, so I picked up the cable from the dealer today and EVERYTHING works perfectly now. Thanks for all the help. No sound issues.
12-29-2007, 04:56 AM
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Originally Posted by flipside' post='511604' date='Dec 29 2007, 08:32 AM
There is a sound quality issue when you use the BMW Y cable. The ID3 info (Artist, song, album names etc) gets pushed through the USB port, but the sound is split from the ipod and pushed to the analog aux input. This is how they get around the DRM issue.
As other people have discovered, there is a capacitor on the AUX input that cuts out a lot of the low frequencies and gives everything a bit of a muffled sound. The aux input is protected from high level inputs blowing the sound system, but it also hinders sound quality. When you use the ipod in disk mode (just using a regular ipod cable) its a full digital transfer to the sound system.
The downside to this, as stated before, is that you lose the ability to play DRM protected music (ie, just about anything you buy from the itunes store), and the playlists you make in itunes will not show up. You can get around both, but that might be a discussion for another day
The easiest way to hear the difference is listen to a favorite song on CD and then on the ipod. You'll be surprised.
As other people have discovered, there is a capacitor on the AUX input that cuts out a lot of the low frequencies and gives everything a bit of a muffled sound. The aux input is protected from high level inputs blowing the sound system, but it also hinders sound quality. When you use the ipod in disk mode (just using a regular ipod cable) its a full digital transfer to the sound system.
The downside to this, as stated before, is that you lose the ability to play DRM protected music (ie, just about anything you buy from the itunes store), and the playlists you make in itunes will not show up. You can get around both, but that might be a discussion for another day
The easiest way to hear the difference is listen to a favorite song on CD and then on the ipod. You'll be surprised.