GROM USB Adapter
Pros to this system (if they ever get it to work properly for us):
- You don’t need an iPod
- You can actually turn the OEM head unit into a 9 disc “CD Changer”
- You can play MP3, M4A (AAC), and WMA
Some cons to this system:
- You must create the “DISKS” on the USB drive in order, chronologically. If you don’t do this, for example if the Disk 5 folder is created at 7:00pm and the Disk 6 folder is created at 6:55pm, Disc 6 will play as CD5 in your head unit, and Disk 5 will play as CD6
- You cannot copy a “playlist” per se to each Disk. As you copy files, Windows sorts them by leading number, or alphabetically if there are no numbered tracks (as would be expected). The tracks will only play in the Windows sort order.
- You cannot have more than one track in the folder **start** with the same number. As an example:
DISK 1
1.File1.mp3
2.File2.mp3
1.File3.mp3
2.File4.mp3
In this case 1.File3.mp3 will play as 1st and 3rd tracks, but 1.File1.mp3 will never play.
- Another thing that was recommended to me was that the following structure would work:
DISK 1
Folder 1
1. File1.mp3
2. File2.mp3
Folder 2
1. File3.mp3
2. File4.mp3
In this case you could put a full album in “Folder 1” and another one in “Folder 2” and the duplicate track name problem goes away. Well it goes away all right…the last 4 tracks in Folder 1 didn’t play and nothing in Folder 2 played. I never received further recommendations or a solution to this issue.
- For the small numbers of you who have a Mac, you must bring the USB drive to a Windows machine and remove all of the “hidden” files that MacOS creates in order for it to work at all.
In my specific case, in addition to the list above (which you can actually work around if you have the patience) I experienced the following showstopper behaviors:
- Tracks would randomly not play
- Tracks would actually “skip” (i.e., stutter)
Worse, these behaviors were not entirely reproducible. For example on different passes through the “Disks” sometimes a track would play, sometimes it would not. In other cases a track would never play.
I sent two dump files to Dmitry during this process and while he was always very cordial and relatively helpful, he wasn’t all that responsive and in general did not make me feel that this problem was big deal to GROM. (As a disclaimer, I manage a technical support division for a software company, so perhaps I’m hyper sensitive to less than exemplary technical customer service).
What finally caused me to return the adapter was that after not hearing from Dmitry since the morning of Feb 10th, when on Feb 15th I emailed and informed him that I’d expect another set of “tests/instructions” to try by the 18th at noon or I’d have to just return the unit. His response surprisingly came only 18 minutes after my email.
In it he said that they couldn’t “guarantee a fix” by then and that he’d send me an RMA number on Tuesday.
As such, I bought an iPod on eBay and the GROM iPod adapter, which is what I simply should have done in the first place.
In conclusion, tonight I told them I did this last bit, and the response was that I should keep the USB adapter since they’d have a fix for me to test on Friday and I can just send them back the iPod adapter for a refund. It would have been nice for them to offer to do this in the first place two weeks ago…:frown:
I didn’t want to glue it on.
