Question for SD card music users...

[zackiedawg]

I just grabbed an SDHC card to use in my RN510 audio system - I haven't yet loaded anything onto the harddrive and have been mostly just playing mp3s off a burned CD and listening to satellite. I'm busy picking and arranging songs in iTunes to drop onto the SD card, and had a question about how they work.

Does the SD card (or harddrive) simply play all the songs on the card, or can you add or have access to any chapter stops for artist/album? Can you scroll through artists to play songs, or just scroll through songs?

Also, can I load iTunes Playlists onto an SD card (or the harddrive) and access them, or is that functionality only for when an iPod is hooked up through the iPod connector? It would be nice if I could drop on a bunch of playlists and access them from the SD card or harddrive.

I'm trying to decide if there is an advantage as far as playlists, artist scrolling, etc using either the HD or the SD card...or am I better off picking up an old used iPod and plugging it in to the glovebox and leaving it there?

[Trock_Mcbad]

you can still select artist and albums. It organizes using folders so i dont see why you couldn't make a playlist folder and just have different playlist in that folder. make sure the files are mp3 because a lot of the albums i purchased on itunes are m4a files and it wont read them.

[Alppasta]

It all depends how you format your songs onto the SD card. I have artist folders and 3 random song folders from iTunes loaded onto my hardrive. That way I can sort by artist or get a random mix of iTunes library. It is completely up to you how you want it organized. Personally, after doing all that work, it is still more flexible to plug an iPod into the glovebox adapter, much more flexible.

[zackiedawg]

OK - thank you. That's good to know - so mainly it's up to me to just make folders on the SD card to seperate the artists, albums, playlists, etc as I want them organized. I wasn't sure if it actually accessed or used the folder structure on the onscreen display, or if it would just automatically search for and play any MP3's it finds.

One more question: if you shuffle or randomize the playback, does it only shuffle from within a given folder, or from the entire SD card or HD contents?

I may eventually try going the iPod route, but for now I don't have one (my last one died and I haven't replaced it yet) so I'm checking what alternatives I may have - I'm likely just going to play off the SD card for the time-being rather than dropping onto the harddrive.

[Alppasta]

Yeah in the shuffle mode it only shuffles within that folder and then goes onto the next folder. That is why I decided to add the iPod random folders. Oh and one more thing, if you are transfering the MP3 files onto the SD card from iTunes using a Mac computer, there is a command in terminal that you need to use because the Mac format leaves a shadow file on the SD card that the hardrive copies. No content just a blank file. I don't remember the command but I found it in VW vortex search.

[zackiedawg]

Thanks for all the help! Should have my SD loaded tonight and I'll try it out with a few playlists just to see how it works.