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Alpine MP3 question again

Joined
16 January 2001
Messages
1,299
Location
Miami, FL. US
Sorry guys..I tried the search but couldn't come up with any answers. I have had my Alpine MP3 player/changer for a while now; though, I've only made one MP3 CD with no more than 55 songs for lack of time or effort. I recently made a CD with a total of 99 songs (thinking that anything over 100 may confuse the head unit). Having read through the search I now know that the head unit will start over at track "01" for 100...well I kinda get the idea at least.

After inserting my newly made 99 track CD, the changer took the usual 5-10 seconds to read the file and start playing. Though, for the life of me, I can't understand why the head unit (or really the changer) reads the files in a totally different order than what I made on the CD. Whats worse is that the head unit (sigh, or is it the changer) will only play 35 songs. This makes no sense to me since I made another CD with 55 songs in the exact same manner as the CD with 99 songs. I simply selected the song files I wanted on my windows XP PC, dumped them into the recordable CD drive directory (in a certian order) and copied them to the CD.

All the songs play just fine on the PC BTW. I just can't seem to get them all to play on the Alpine. I'm really frustrated here. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for the help guys. Funny, has anyone else had as much drama with the Alpine CD changer as me?:rolleyes:
 
I think it has to do with the Folders and root folders embedded in the MP3s when you download them. I dont know if you can do anything about it though.
 
BladesNSX said:
I simply selected the song files I wanted on my windows XP PC, dumped them into the recordable CD drive directory (in a certian order) and copied them to the CD.

What software did you use to create the CD? The internal Windows XP software?
 
Re: Re: Alpine MP3 question again

wilsonp said:
What software did you use to create the CD? The internal Windows XP software?

Yes. Everything was done via the OS. I didn't/couldn't use Windows Media player or Roxio easy CD creator since as far as I know neither will record the mucis files in data form only. I selected the music files I wanted in a particular order and sent them into a stanby folder in the recordable drive. When I finished selecting the files, I just click "copy files" and they are all placed on the CD in data form. I've done it this way before with 56 songs on the CD. Now, when I try to use the same method with 99 songs on the CD, only 32-35 song are played. I've seen the folder playback diagram for the MP3 player and it makes no sense to me. I considered placing songs in several folders; or placing them all in one folder. I've already made different CDs just in case it was a computer error; all in vain.

Do I have to buy a program to make the CD?
I know others here have the same Alpine CD changer. How do you make your CDs?
 
Last edited:
Hmm. I use Nero (v5.?) and basically dump all my folders into the software which then burns them onto a CD-R (buy them by the hundred at Sam's for about 9 cents each)

Anyway - they play in order, no problem with more then 100, no problem with random play. Only problem I have is trying to fast forward or reverse through a song sometimes does not really work.

FYI
 
BladesNSX said:
I can't understand why the head unit (or really the changer) reads the files in a totally different order than what I made on the CD.

The Alpine sorts tracks based only on the first few characters of the filename. So, for instance, if your tracks are named something like "artist name - song name.mp3" and you have multiple tracks from the same artist in a folder, the Alpine never parses the filename past the non-unique artist name, and subsequently plays the tracks in whatever order it likes. What I do, and it's a bit of a PITA but it works, is to duplicate all the tracks I want to burn to a temp folder on my HD, then use a renaming utility to prepend a track number to the file name, burn the CD, and trash the temp folder. Problem solved.
 
I have this same alpine changer (s634), although not in the NSX.
FWIW, I also use Nero (which is IMHO by far the best burning software) and rename the files into the following format:
###Artist - Title.mp3

It seem to work fine for me, but I have not gotten around to replacing the stock changer. Hope that helps.
 
Nero...Yes, I remember a computer guro telling me about that program. He had nothing but high praise for it. If it can indeed burn the songs I want with the renaming feature then that should solve the problem of self randomization somewhat. Still, I don't understand why one CD with 56 songs plays without a problem; yet, the 99 track CD will only play 35 songs. I made the CD twice; and the same 35 songs in the same order will play while the rest..well..don't. I will purchase the Nero program. I hope that will work. If anyone else has any advise let me know. I'm starting to wish I just got a harddrive installed rather than the CD player.

Thanx for the help thus far guys.
 
BladesNSX said:
I don't understand why one CD with 56 songs plays without a problem; yet, the 99 track CD will only play 35 songs. .

Maybe the rest of those files are corrupted? Just a guess.

White94: Thanks for the Nero tip.
 
If you go to Ziff Davis's software site at http://www.hotfiles.com and do a search for "Renamer" you will find a tool I really like for batch and automated file renaming.

In even can generate random number pre-fix so that you can randomize the songs (for older DVD/MP3 players that can't do so automatically)
 
BladesNSX said:
...yet, the 99 track CD will only play 35 songs. I made the CD twice; and the same 35 songs in the same order will play while the rest..well..don't.

I use Nero as well but was annoyed at the inability to burn the tracks in a particular order. I was going to try some other software but haven't installed my MP3 player again.

You can try Nero without buying it.

Try using random play mode and see if the songs come up - I had a couple of tracks (over 90) that didn't play consistently when playing sequentially that would play in random mode.

Not sure why yet.
 
Guys...I think I've FINALLY figured out whats wrong.

It seems that the Alpine MP3 player cannot play songs in the WMA (windows audio) format. I dowloaded most of my songs via the Windows media player in the WMA format since it seems to take up less space on the CD with the same quality. However, after using NERO and still having only the same 35 songs play (and only those specific songs), I took a look at what makes those songs different from the others that don't play. Bottom line...WMA will not play. So, I can resolve this by going back and redoing all my dowloaded songs into MP3 as opposed to WMA. Though, as you can imagine, this is very time consuming. Any ideas on how I can convert all my song in WMA format into the MP3 format?

Thanx again.
 
BladesNSX said:
Guys...I think I've FINALLY figured out whats wrong.

It seems that the Alpine MP3 player cannot play songs in the WMA (windows audio) format. I dowloaded most of my songs via the Windows media player in the WMA format since it seems to take up less space on the CD with the same quality. However, after using NERO and still having only the same 35 songs play (and only those specific songs), I took a look at what makes those songs different from the others that don't play. Bottom line...WMA will not play. So, I can resolve this by going back and redoing all my dowloaded songs into MP3 as opposed to WMA. Though, as you can imagine, this is very time consuming. Any ideas on how I can convert all my song in WMA format into the MP3 format?

Thanx again.

Musicmatch Jukebox will do this, for one.
 
kenjiMR said:
What is the model # of the Alpine MP3 changer that is compatible with OE 94 head unit?
The S634.

I have tried a couple of programs for burning but am getting "skipping" on some of the tracks, most noticeable at the 6 or so at the beginning & at end: am I just stuffing too much on there? Any other reasons for skipping?(its not jumping over i.e completely missing tracks, literally just a small glitch occasionally - like your old scratched LP's did years ago!)
I also notice with Nero that it limits to 99 tracks- how do you get around this?
Any other s/ware suggestions?
 
I have tried a couple of programs for burning but am getting "skipping" on some of the tracks, most noticeable at the 6 or so at the beginning & at end: am I just stuffing too much on there?

I don't think so. Are you sure you have the lever switched for vertical mounting? This is the most common reason the unit skips. We have terrible roads and mine never does.

I also notice with Nero that it limits to 99 tracks- how do you get around this?

I use Nero and all of my disks have over 100 songs. Again the head unit will display song 110 as just "10" so you may have more songs then you think. Put it in a PC to be sure.

Good luck
 
Thanks for reply Nick -

1) it's not an Alpine though, it's a dash mounted head - it is skipping even when parked also - again, pretty much only at beginning & end of the library

2) The Nero won't even let me burn more than 99 - it gives an error message saying 99 is the limit - this is the latest downlaod version - do you need the "full" version to get 99+?
 
Latest version - if in doubt read the instructions! (i.e. Help file!)

Thanks, I figured out the issue with the "99" was not to use audio cd - I did "successfully" just burn a cd using latest version of NERO & this is worst one yet!
I only have to touch the console & it skips violently - Another one I did yesterday (different burn program) seems to be working fine????
I'm wondering if the starting quality of the CDRs might be a big factor?? Pre-recorded CDA's are fine incidentally
 
Sorry to answer my own question here, but wanted to update for the archive in case anyone experiences similar problem -
It turned out my burner was marginal - the discs it created would be OK on some pc's but not in my head unit or one other cd rom drive I tested them in, but OK on 4 other devices I tried.
I even successfully copied an image from a cd burned by the "bad" unit onto a new cdr using another machine/burner & it worked flawlessly.
Popped in a new burner into the home machine & the recorded discs from that unit play perfectly on my 2 offending units (the car & the other pc drive that wouldn't work previously)
I was beginning to suspect my head unit was bad - easier to buy $60 burner than mess with a warranty repair!
Happy camper again!
dance.gif


p.s. thanks to nsxxtreme for e-mail correspondence in trying to nail this down
 
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