Some of us have the interface installed. But there have been reports of limitations regarding how many songs are avaliable, and how playlist are viewed and organized. So the question is.

#1 What is the best way to organize music so that we can have access to as many songs as possible when we use the interface?

#2 How should playlist be organized in the computer for the best results in the car?

If you have it figured out or your an expert fill us in. Add your tips and tricks to this thread.

 

I wouldn't consider myself an expect, but I was able to get all my tracks, but I only have a mini with approx. 800 song (lot of music for the amount of time I'm in the car).

1st - As in the manual, 5 series max is 255 folders per directory 500 tracks per directory (7 series is a 1,000).

2nd - You'll have to untilize the 1st directory CD1 "Playlist". CD2 "Artists" will only get you 255a/500t. I have created 10 different playlist with 15 to 25 tracks each and 2 additional playlist title Artist T-W and Artist X-Z (this covers the last 300 artist/tracks).

I also have norrowed the "Genre" (CD4) to quickly locate specific music type. Maybe not the best way, but it works for me. If you have a bigger ipod with over a 1,000 tracks, you are out of luck......

Just pick you fav's

 

Still trying to figure out the nuances of the system. But i'll be back

 

WHAT??? You can only get access to 1000 tracks in total?? I was going to get this installed.
I have a 60gig Ipod that is a little more than half filled. Is this really going to be a problem?

I had planned to call the dealer today as I am up for my 1 year service. If anyone knows the ansers for sure please post a response

Thx

 

I have approx 2700 songs (12G currently and can see all the "albums" but when sorting by "artist" I can only see artists from a-s. I guess this is the directly limit. The other problem is if I want to listen to an artist that starts with say "r" I need to scroll through a huge list and if you don't keep navigating all the way to your desired, like if you pause to pay attention to your driving, the screen goes back to the currently playing song and you have to begin the scrolling all over.

play lists of driving songs is about all I can do. Any other suggestions to stay sane.

 

The 255(256) folders limitation for the E60/E61 makes sense - that would imply eight bit (2^8) addressing within the ''CD player kluge" for BMW's iPod MOST Interface. I assume that the E65/E66 (Seven Series) used another CCC (sic) and hence addressing system.

It would have been nice if the iPod Adapter manual had mentioned these limitations - wouldn't it?

The limit also makes sense for a CD Player software since few normal CDs (or even MP3 CDs) have more that 20-100 tracks.

As one can also assume that our system was built upon that pre-existing architecture - a limit of 256 tracks would have seemed more than generous to BMW's (sic) software engineers. (I had surmised the 256 limit - but had never been able to count to more than 190 folders before downward scrolling stopped. Thus I was not sure whether it was and addressing limitation or memory limitation. ? It's nice to know for sure.)

I listen to mostly classical, opera, showtunes and folk music. I have a 60 GB iPod with about 51 GB of music. My workaround is as follows:

1. I have set up very large playlists ? for example one playlist contains 10 of Mozart's Operas (1.1 days of music) ? to listen to any one opera one scrolls down to the Overture of the one want to hear and selects PLAY. (No I have not checked if I can play a song number 270 in that playlist ? but I will tomorrow.)
2. I have done the same for each composer's orchestral and choral works.
3. Johnny Cash's songs are listed under one playlist as are all of Joan Collins etc. I also have playlists with longer assortments and compilations of music etc.

Thus I have been able to reduce the number of playlists to less than 256, and I think (hope) I can access all the music on the iPod.

I reiterate ? it would have been much better had BMW disclosed these limitations in the instruction iPod Interface manual rather than let us wander about the wilderness and discover them for ourselves.

It will be even better, if in some future iteration of the Entertainment software if BMW could increase the existing limit and set up an alphabetical GoTo Menu, such as they have for the phone and the Address Book! (Are you listening BMW?)

 

This thread is for tip and tricks for the new iPod interface. Do you have some???

 

Sounds like the best tip is not to install the ipod adapter

 

I think I'll stick to my AUX input.