[Freondude]

I read on the MKV forum that radios were advertised with a 2gb max but that folks were successfull in using 4gb and 8gb standard SD and even 32gb SDHC. Any have the truth on what work in the MKVI radio lineup?

 

[mojo]

I have a 2010 Golf TDI (RCD-510) and it will accept up to 32gb SD card. However, it has a limit of 512 folders or 2048 files -- so unless you listen to only very long songs, you won't come close to filling a 32gb card. Maybe an 8-16gb card would be more appropriate.

The MDI connection can accept just about any size, however. If you opt for the USB MDI cable, you can use a USB card reader to read any size flash card. I have a 250gb portable hard drive hooked up (about 70gb of music on it currently) and it reads all of it no problem and with good response (less than 3 seconds when searching through all of the music). I did find out, however, that in MIX mode, it for some reason applies the 512 folder/2048 file limit -- it only mixes the artists that start with A-B in my collection. I'm going to play around with playlists this weekend to see if there's any way around it.

Many have posted response time and display issues using certain iPods/iPhones via the MDI, so you may want to opt for the USB or USB Mini cable and plan on using a portable hard drive or flash memory.

 

[mojo]

So I've tinkered with various playlists to try to get around the Mix issue and haven't had much luck. When I tried to Mix all of my 11,000+ songs, it only played artists that began with A-B. So I created a playlist that included all songs and it wouldn't even load that. Then I created playlist by genre -- rock (6700 songs), jazz (1906), and blues (1091). Those would load (I could see the file titles) but wouldn't play. I then dropped one of the playlists down to 794 songs and it played fine.

I'm not sure what the magic # is, but in addition to the 512 folder/2048 file limit for SD cards and the MIX function, there appears to be a limit to the # of songs in a playlist, too. Just weird given that I can directly select any of the 11,000+ songs on the hard drive just fine.

Overall I do like the stereo and am happy I got the Dynaudio upgrade, but these little functions are not complicated and are available on even the worst of free music libary software options on the Internet. I'm sure it's not high on VW's list, but hopefully they will address items like this with a future firmware update.

 

[Freondude]

I bought an 8gb SDHC which is working fine and plenty large enough to accomdate a large mix of music. The wife soon found out that the majority of her music is in the format required for iPod which will not play as a stand alone file. All my music (100gb or so) is MP3. So she had to grab some of mine to have something for now for the SD.

Her iPod Touch is not recognized by the stereo when connecting it to the adapter. So resolving that got added to my lengthy "honey do" list. Any know of a decent app to convert MP4 to MP3?

 

[rickwol]

Sd card

Set up folders, say all bands beginning in A and so on, load all music into folders then take 1 song and drag it directly onto the sd card, when you load the sd the single song will always come on, hit mix then and your all set with the smallest and best sounding ipod.

 

[Freondude]

I had the car back at the deaslership to pickup the splash guards I ordered. I had my dealer and a couple of his buddies try connecting the iPod Touch in the Golf.... no luck. We tried it in a display CC and a GTI and again no connection. A tech was called in from the maintenance shop who must of simply had the magic touch cus he said all he did to get it working in the Golf was connect it while the radio was on. Anywho, the iPod Touch works fine now.

 

[Thunderstruck]

Couple of questions-I'm considering buying an 010 Golf with the factory radio, not the Nav system. Will the standard radio accept a USB hard drive, or is that limited to the ones with NAV? And since I assume it's a custom cable, how much do they run at the dealer? When I looked at one Saturday, it looked like a proprietary plug going into the connector.

 

[rabinabo]

I have a Western Digital portable drive connected to my 2010 Golf TDI with the base stereo, and it works perfectly. I ordered the mini-USB MDI adapter through vwdiscountparts.com, which connects straight into the drive. Here's the link ($28.68):

http://www.vwdiscountparts.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=MorePartInfo&PartID=833186&siteid=214028&catalogid=5496

 

[mojo]

When I picked up my new Golf (RCD-510), I just asked to get the USB connector rather than the iPod connector since I knew I wasn't going to use an iPod with the stereo. No problem for the dealer and I use a portable hard drive with it all the time. You also have the option of a USB mini connector, which is most likely what a portable drive would use; however, I figured a regular USB connector would allow me to connect flash drives and a card reader, too, so I went with it.

 

[BKStecklein]

Size of SD

I have 2010 TDI Jetta and yes there is the 512 Directory / 2048 File Limit. I find a 8gb SD card is about right. I have 2 for all the music I like.

 

[BKStecklein]

I have 2010 TDI Jetta and yes there is the 512 Directory / 2048 File Limit. I find a 8gb SD card is about right. I have 2 for all the music I like

 

[MarcSG]

The answer to all yer questions are here: http://www.my-gti.com/719/differences-between-the-volkswagen-rcd-210-rcd-310-rns-310-rcd-510-and-the-rns-510

Tells you the differences between all the radios.

 

[Keithuk]

Welcome to the forum follow GTD owner. welcometomyturbodies

Yes I use that site and there are a load of useful tips on there.

 

[thrab]

Kind of an old thread but still relevant. If you have a lot of music and have a decent mobile data network where you're at you might like this. You can set up your streaming service from your PC at home and connect to it with you phone and listen to your collection on the road. Sound quality is very good over bluetooth as well (with the phones I've used anyways).

 

[1analguy]

I bought an 8gb SDHC which is working fine and plenty large enough to accomdate a large mix of music. The wife soon found out that the majority of her music is in the format required for iPod which will not play as a stand alone file. All my music (100gb or so) is MP3. So she had to grab some of mine to have something for now for the SD.

Her iPod Touch is not recognized by the stereo when connecting it to the adapter. So resolving that got added to my lengthy "honey do" list. Any know of a decent app to convert MP4 to MP3?

Just a note here: iTunes and/or an iPod will store music in any format you choose. That Apple compressed format that everyone feels so stuck with is just the default format. I had all my music in iTunes and on my nano stored in Apple Lossless format until I ran out of room on the 16gig nano, and then switched it all over to high-res MP3. After that, it only took about 20% of the room that the uncompressed "Lossless" format did...

 

[ChrisHo]

Since I store all my music in iTunes, is there an easy way to setup a folder/list arrangement using that or would you recommend a second program? With nearly 50g of music it makes making my own lists (as in without the use of a program) really difficult to the point of, its not worth trying.

btw, I am on a Mac

 

[1analguy]

Here are some direct quotes from the RNS-310/315 manual (print date: April 7th, 2010) that was issued to me at the November, 2010 delivery of my '11 Golf TDI. It's on on the bottom of page 21, under "Media source" and "Requirements for playback":

"SD and MMC memory cards up to maximum 2 GB and SDHC memory cards up to maximum 32 GB." Somewhere else it said that SD cards should be formatted in FAT16, while SDHC cards should be formatted in FAT32. Additionally, under "Requirements for playback" it says "MP3 files (.mp3) with bit rates from 48 to 320 kbit/s or variable bit rate." and "WMA files (.wma) up to 9.2 mono/stereo without copy protection." Also, "Play lists in PLS, M3U, and WPL formats", "File name and file path not longer than 256 characters", "Directory structures with maximum eight levels", and finally, "On memory cards maximum 5000 folders and maximum 15000 files, per folder maximum 6000 files".

Additionally, the manual states that the MDI input will also handle Apple's AAC format, though I haven't tried it yet...

Again, these specs/limits apply to the '11 RNS-310/315. With other units, YMMV...

Since I store all my music in iTunes, is there an easy way to setup a folder/list arrangement using that or would you recommend a second program? With nearly 50g of music it makes making my own lists (as in without the use of a program) really difficult to the point of, its not worth trying.

btw, I am on a Mac

While our main computer in the house is a late-model iMac, I do maintain a Vista/PC laptop for running VCDS, Bentely CD manuals, etc. and, for some reason I can't remember, when I was given my 4G nano I chose to load iTunes on the laptop and keep my music there instead of the good computer. I'm still trying to figure out a way to repopulate the iMac's iTunes from my nano, so I can quit using the laptop for my music. Both versions of iTunes are the latest available and seem to act similarly, but I'm kind of stuck myself. As you may have guessed, I'm no whiz at this stuff, by any means. I'm only familiar with things that I've done successfully myself. Here's something that may have bearing on your problem: once while exploring the laptop, I saw "Windows Media Player" (which I had never used), so out of curiosity, I fired it up for the first time. It was empty of course, but while I was fiddling around in its menus...all of a sudden music files began magically appearing! And wouldn't you know, they were all the same songs that I have stored in iTunes. After a while, every song from iTunes was also listed in Windows Media Player. Apparently, every time you open Media Player, it automatically searches all the likely locations on the computer for any new music files and then imports them. And, unlike iTunes, it will sync directly to an SD card or thumb drive. This relates to you because, if I'm reading it right, Media Player organizes its music files much like a CD or SD card. Now...is there a Mac version of Windows Media Player? If not, there must be some third-party solution to what you want to do. Sorry to run on so...I didn't know how else to explain...

 

[pekosROB]

Here are some direct quotes from the RNS-310/315 manual (print date: April 7th, 2010) that was issued to me at the November, 2010 delivery of my '11 Golf TDI. It's on on the bottom of page 21, under "Media source" and "Requirements for playback":

So does this apply to ths RCD 510 as well?

 

[canadamaxxer]

Here are some direct quotes from the RNS-310/315 manual (print date: April 7th, 2010) that was issued to me at the November, 2010 delivery of my '11 Golf TDI. It's on on the bottom of page 21, under "Media source" and "Requirements for playback":

"SD and MMC memory cards up to maximum 2 GB and SDHC memory cards up to maximum 32 GB." Somewhere else it said that SD cards should be formatted in FAT16, while SDHC cards should be formatted in FAT32. Additionally, under "Requirements for playback" it says "MP3 files (.mp3) with bit rates from 48 to 320 kbit/s or variable bit rate." and "WMA files (.wma) up to 9.2 mono/stereo without copy protection." Also, "Play lists in PLS, M3U, and WPL formats", "File name and file path not longer than 256 characters", "Directory structures with maximum eight levels", and finally, "On memory cards maximum 5000 folders and maximum 15000 files, per folder maximum 6000 files".

Additionally, the manual states that the MDI input will also handle Apple's AAC format, though I haven't tried it yet...

Again, these specs/limits apply to the '11 RNS-310/315. With other units, YMMV...



While our main computer in the house is a late-model iMac, I do maintain a Vista/PC laptop for running VCDS, Bentely CD manuals, etc. and, for some reason I can't remember, when I was given my 4G nano I chose to load iTunes on the laptop and keep my music there instead of the good computer. I'm still trying to figure out a way to repopulate the iMac's iTunes from my nano, so I can quit using the laptop for my music. Both versions of iTunes are the latest available and seem to act similarly, but I'm kind of stuck myself. As you may have guessed, I'm no whiz at this stuff, by any means. I'm only familiar with things that I've done successfully myself. Here's something that may have bearing on your problem: once while exploring the laptop, I saw "Windows Media Player" (which I had never used), so out of curiosity, I fired it up for the first time. It was empty of course, but while I was fiddling around in its menus...all of a sudden music files began magically appearing! And wouldn't you know, they were all the same songs that I have stored in iTunes. After a while, every song from iTunes was also listed in Windows Media Player. Apparently, every time you open Media Player, it automatically searches all the likely locations on the computer for any new music files and then imports them. And, unlike iTunes, it will sync directly to an SD card or thumb drive. This relates to you because, if I'm reading it right, Media Player organizes its music files much like a CD or SD card. Now...is there a Mac version of Windows Media Player? If not, there must be some third-party solution to what you want to do. Sorry to run on so...I didn't know how else to explain...

There is a small piece of free software out there called Copytrans (www.copytrans.net) that allows a person to be free of itunes entirely. It also allows a person plug in any number of ipods/iphones (iphones are a bit more work to get them functioning, but still work fine) and dump them to a PC. I use this (and the portable version I keep on my ipod at all times...to run on any PC i might run into) all the time....and am now happily itunes and Quicktime free....

 

[1analguy]

So does this apply to ths RCD 510 as well?

Having no direct knowledge of the RCD-510, I really can't say with any confidence, but from what I've read about it on similar threads, I suspect that it may be a bit more limited in its acceptance of the larger cards. I might be wrong about that, so...

There is a small piece of free software out there called Copytrans (www.copytrans.net) that allows a person to be free of itunes entirely. It also allows a person plug in any number of ipods/iphones (iphones are a bit more work to get them functioning, but still work fine) and dump them to a PC. I use this (and the portable version I keep on my ipod at all times...to run on any PC i might run into) all the time....and am now happily itunes and Quicktime free....

My wife got tired of me whining about this, so she found me the following article on copying iPod content to back into your computer:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-computer/P0/

I haven't tried it yet. If I understand the article correctly, and I'm doing the process "long-hand" (without any third party software), I'm kind of lucky that my nano already has the Windows software loaded on it...as when you load new software onto an iPod, it erases everything and you have to rebuild the iPod's whole library. :eek