I have an 09 which has the USB audio interface. I can encode and play wav, wma and mp3 audio files but not aac encoded audio files. According to my manual page 268 aac encoded audio files are supported for playback. Anyone get aac encoded audio files to be recognised and playback in their XK?

 

I don't have any AAC encoded files, but I'd be happy to help you sanity check stuff with my 10 if you like.

 

Not all digital music players can play AAC songs and only iPod can play ... are encoded using the AAC Protected format

 

I ripped these audio files directly from a CD into several formats including aac. They are not protected. They also use the LC Profile which plays on almost all digital audio players that decode aac encoded audio files.

 

Question for you guys with 2009 and newer XK(R)s that come with factory USB ...
if you plug in a USB drive with music files on it, does the system show you a list (of file names or titles or whatever) of whats on the USB drive so you can chose what to play next ?

I just had the Audio Connectivity Module fitted in my 2008 XKR.
I was amazed and very pissed off to discover that when playing MP3's stored on USB there is no track list or anything at all displayed on the LCD. According to the manual the only way to find the track you want to listen to is to keep stepping through the music track by track with the steering wheel control until you hear the track you were looking for. Its totally crap and useless, especially if you have like 2000 music files on the USB drive.

I was wondering if Jag made a better solution for the 2009 and newer XK(R)s that come with USB or if you still have the same problem?

 

Unless I'm missing something, the only way to navigate MP3s played via USB on my '11 is through the file / folder structure you have set up on the USB device. I have mine organized so the lowest level folders are the artist name, then per artist there is a folder for each album by that artist (this is how windows media player organizes CDs you rip, by default). It works for me, though the "shuffle" mode only appears to work off the current directory, so if you wanted to play through all your MP3s randomly you'd probably have to put them all in one directory.

Its weird, because by hitting the "next track" button on the steering wheel, I can move from the last track on a given album to the first track on the next alphabetical album... so its obviously able to navigate between directories without me expressly telling it to do so. Seems unusual that I can do that, but not make it play randomly from all the files on the drive.

It works okay, but I still do wish there was a plain old 3.5mm input.

edit: and to answer your question, the tracks / folders etc. are navigated through the touchscreen (so you do see some track info... maybe 6 or 7 folders / tracks at a time with standard "previous page / next page / first / last" navigation buttons). You can do it one at a time with the wheel controls but as you said, I think that would drive you crazy in about 30 seconds.

 

You can use the steering wheel to access the next song or the next folder. To get next folder, press and hold selection wheel for at least 2 seconds, then rotate up or down for next folder or previous folder.

tommyd, I think I read somewhere you can't have a mix of differently-encoded material in a single folder or a single media....something like that.

I also think the maximum media size is 4gb if you're using flash drives or SD cards.

I'm currently having no problems w/ AAC on a 4gb flash drive....EXCEPT hearing a pop every now and then.

 

Hi Ron,

Can you provide me with a sample AAC encoded file? The pop would indicate that the file was encoded using HE ACC. Try LC ACC instead. What is the sampling rate of the source? What ripping and encoding software are you using?

Tom

 

Some confusion here...

First, not sure about .aac files, I'll check and don't think there are any issues if they aren't tagged with any DRM data.

As far as random play, go to 'portable audio', then hit and HOLD the 'mix' button for several seconds. You will hear a tone (I think), then it will jump to a random song. Totally random. Oddly, you can't go back to previous songs, only forward to a random track. Odd little bug.

You can use any size drive formatted FAT. I'm using a usb3 drive that is 32 gigs with no issues. Not sure above that, to be honest, 32 is all I've tried. But at is so much damn music that I have on my 'to do' list the laborious process of adding more relevant music from among my many terabytes of material. Yes, life is hard...

In all seriousness navigating files on USB or iPhone is standard stuff. If your files are tagged appropriately, it'll list by song, artist, album, playlist, etc. the system is EXCELLENT at handling large files like audio books, picking up where left off, pausing automatically when you lower the volume all the way (love that), and picking up where you left off when you switch the car off or go to another source for a while. Good stuff.

Also, the phine wont show tracks on screen when plugged in, but if you want to rush to a specific track on your phone, you can simply unplug the phone, pick the track and start playing it, then reconnect the phone, the stereo will pick up where it was playing and go from there... No way to stream audio over Bluetooth, however. Bummer.

Mind you I'm in a '10, not sure about earlier setups or model years. other than occasionally locking up so as to prevent me from playing USB or phone based music, I'm pretty impressed with e interface. I wish they'd just integrate an iPhone or iPad with a custom app or two right in the dash, but that'd be asking a bit much from a car manufacturer. It'd save millions in hardware and development and yield a far superior platform and interface. I'm just glad it plays mp3 files, car makers are seriously behind e curve when it comes to integrating electronics IMO. Leave the interface to the company with the largest market cap in the world, they seem to be doing ok at the whole 'infotainment' on a screen thing I'd say

The B&W system does NOT handle mp3's particularly well IMO. Some far more serious and knowledgeable people have posted some good science on the stereo overall, so I'll leave that topic alone. I have however found that most mp3 files, even sampled at very high bit rates from A+ source material, which sound fantastic on my home system sound weak in the XKR. Then randomly a particular mp3 file will sound incredibly fat and full, with tons of power. Looking at waveforms yields no answers, so expect CDs to sound better than even equally high quali mp3z. For the most part.

I'll throw some .aac and .flac files, maybe some .wav files straight from a cd to compare where they sound better from the disc despite being identical data (I strongly suspect this will be the case).

And yes the usual disclaimers apply regarding the exhaust note in Dyno mode being a better soundtrack applyLive for the roar.

Skeeter

 

The system in my 2009 can handle up to 256gb. I tried using a 2.5 drive in an external enclosure and the USB port did not have enough power. I suspect it only supplies 500ma. Also, the system does not support .flac. I have not been able to get any acc encoded files to play.

Thanks for the tip to play audio files in shuffle mode. I'll try this when I get a chance.

BTW...the system is very basic in that it does not read ID Tags or alblum art...

 

Thanks Skeeter interesting stuff. Yeah I'm using a 32G USB thumb drive as well... I had a 64G drive but when I was moving everything to it I plugged a camera into a different USB port on my computer and it bricked the drive. I didn't realize they could be so fragile. You're right, 32G is plenty anyway.

How do you get the system to reorder the files on the USB drive? This morning I noticed the system was showing something like "file 1145" so clearly its indexing the whole thing. Pressing and holding buttons is not something I've tried... guess I'll go out on a limb and guess that press-holding the "folders" button will let me organize the files differently?

Its fun to keep discovering things about this car. This morning when I pulled out of my driveway I noticed there is a headlight that points sideways that illuminates when you turn the wheel past a certain point. Cool!

 

the only way to order files is to put them in a playlist (on the iphone or computer). Once they are on the thumb drive and in the Jag, the Jag merely shows you lists of cateogries, such as song (alphabetical), artists (same), albums, and so on. Standard mp3 id3 tag stuff.

The number is the nubmer of that sone from a purely alphabetic standpoint, from the album with the highest number (ike Aerosmith, with an "a" perhaps your first album alpha wise), then the first song in that folder. When you are shuffling around it is of no use, but is interesting to see where you are and how many songs are there in the first place.

Hope that answers your question. Just remember to hold down the 'mix' button for a good four seconds and it'll play random tracks across all artists, albums, whatever.

Have fun,

Skeeter

 

Interesting... I've not used a playlist before, I'll have to play with them a bit when I get a chance. I did try the mix thing on my ride home yesterday, worked great and thanks. I tend to listen to music by album, but my wife likes the random play thing so its a nice feature to have.