Playing MP3 files

[h5djr]

The Symphony III will also now play MP3 CDs whilst I'm not sure the external changer will so that's another advantage. I know you said you're not into MP3s but with a PC, CD burner and some free software you can easily cram 10 times the number of tracks onto each disc so it's worth looking into.

Whilst I am fully computer literate, having spent some 15 years supporting a computer network starting back in the days of MS-DOS I have never really looked into the question of using MP3 files. I current just copy my CDs for use in the CD player in the car.

I have a computer with a DVD-ROM and a DVD recorder drive. What software would I need and basically how does it work. Thanks.

 

[d3fy]

Drag and drop I should think, you get the mp3s you want to stick on the CD and just drag them on.

 

[AndyMac]

Depends how you want them organised.
The best way is to organise them into folders with the album titles otherwise you end up with 100's of tracks in the same folder so skipping to the right one is a right pain. Most CD burner software will support a directory structure.
Also use Easy CD ripper or something similar when converting the files to mp3 from the original CD's as this has CDDB look up so will title all the tracks & folders automatically

 

[Vertigo1]

If you have CDs which you want to convert to MP3 then look at either EAC or CDex which will rip your CDs directly to MP3 files.

Once you have all the MP3s you want, from whatever source, just burn a data CD with all the files on it and you're away. Not sure whether the Symphony supports directory structures on the CD or if it will read the ID3 tags but someone else can probably help out here.

 

[steve184]

So do you put albums in folders - how do you navigate these on the head unit? Does a folder name become a CD/playlist? so >| goes to next folder of files???

 

[alanjonesbath]

I assume being VAG the Symphony III will be the same as my Ibiza. In which case, I burn the CD's so I have folders for each artists, then a folder within those for each album by that artist, then the tracks inside that folder. Then you can use the normal < and > buttons to flick through the tracks, or fast forward through a track by holding the buttons. To flick through albums you then use the << and >> buttons on the steering wheel control, or buttons '1' and '2' on the stereo (the stereo was designed long before it supported MP3's, so when they added MP3 functionality, they just assigned those two buttons to flick through the albums rather than add two new buttons. Cheap ).

Personally, I use CDex to rip my CDs into MP3 format, then Roxio Easy CD Creator to burn the MP3's to the CD as a data CD.

Its also worth noting that certainly on the SEAT Alana MP3 stereo, the ordering is done alphabetically, so if you want you tracks to be played in the right order for that album, make sure you name them "01-Track Name", "02-Track Name", ... , "10-Track Name" etc. rather than "1-Track Name", "2-Track Name", otherwise it'll play track 1, followed by 10, 11, 12 and so on, up to 19, then 2, then 20, etc. Don't know if the Symphony will be the same, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

 

[tibbs]

use itunes to rip the cds it'll download track names etc from gracenote automatically and will organise all your tracks by artist then album automatically, you can use it to burn the mp3s to cd too