Rudy

cobradav, be sure and let us know how the dual layer DVD works out for you. I don't remember if reading if anyone else has gotten one to work successfully...

cobradav

Somebody over on the bimmerfest 6er forum did it successfully with nearly 8gb worth. I do not think we discussed the # of files issue.

MrTrilby

FWIW, it's no urban legend, but maybe it's dependant on the version of software your car runs, and which spec navigation you have?

My 530d has business navigation. I burnt a DVD-R with 490 tracks spread across 72 folders. The car only sees the first 218 tracks and ignores all the folders after that point.

big_ipaq

I have business navigation too, it, written in my sig. How did you check that only 218 tracks are there? How can I count them, manually?

As I previously said, I could find no problem with my DVD burned with more than 800 mp3 files and lots of folders.

My car is probably CIP 19.x as this was first which supported MP3, but it was upgraded in period when 20.x was available. Don't know if I do have 20.x but everything looks the same.

MrTrilby

I dumped as many MP3s as I could fit onto a DVD-R.
They're organised in to folders Artist->Album->Tracks.

On the DVD, I have folders running from (A)bba down to (W)et wet wet (ok, so not really those artists, but I couldn't think of a band beginning Z).

On the i-Drive display, it only lists folders down as far as M, and then it just stops.

I counted (on my PC) how many files are in the folders from A down to M. It's 218.

Regardless of the exact number of files you get to play, no matter what I do, i-Drive won't display folders on my disc from M down to Z.

big_ipaq

I doubt the CD files directory entries are alphabetized. I will check to be sure. Otherwise...

Anyway, it sounds like there may be a problem with the number of directories, NOT the total number of files. As a software engineer, I can think now only to one reason for limiting number of files: random play.

Mine SURELY can play more than 800 files. I will burn 10 DVDs to do some more tests.

cobradav

Then maybe we should know MrTrilby's CD structure. That is, how many folders (artist/albums) before it ran out of reading folders. My most recent efforts were using iTunes which ended up sorting alphabetical by Artist, album name within artist and then by song within album. As I mentioned earlier, I intend to fill up a DL DVD but if I am going to run out because of a limit on folders then I may not want to waste my time/$$ (DL are expensive compared to ordinary DVDs). So if I average 12 songs per album then I need only about 21 folders to test the 239 song limit. Even with 320kb coded MP3s I can test this on a regular DVD. I'll try tonight (provided I get my daily honey-dos completed) using 25 folders if I have that many prepared.

cobradav

OK, DVD (not a DL yet) built and tested. Results - a resounding success
Files = 574
Artists = 26 (Primary folders)
Albums = 48 (folders under artists)
Total Size = 3.72GB (I burn at high MP3 bit rates - generally 320kb)

Have not checked each and every song yet, but I have tested first and last song in each album. When going back to Root or from one end of artist list to the other the systems takes about 1-2 seconds to read DVD (display states "Reading DVD") and then displays what is desired.

I'll have to prepare many more albums now for my DVD-DL test. Probably be a week or so before I am ready and able to report back.

Specs in sig but to summararize
E63
Pro Radio (w/Logic 7 & 6 CDC)
Pro Nav
PROGMAN 20.02.00
Build date 01/05

DVD built using iTunes, and burned at 4x on Plextor DL DVD burner.

big_ipaq

I am glad you confirm my theory. Now we need to see why others have only part of the files. Maybe they do something wrong when burning DVDs?

twh

Too bad the regular audio CD slot isn't just a CD/DVD-DL and then we could have the NAV DVD in at the same time. The cost delta between CD and CD/DVD is minimal these days.

Tom