USB Audio Interface

[ozx5]

I am in the Australian Market,

Though I wanted to ask any worldwide x5ers australian or otherwise, what their thoughts/experiences are with the usb audio interface.

Any comments/complaints/praises for this, and how does it rate with non apple mp3 players, ie sony stick / samsung / creative zen...?

(not a big ipod fan)

Thanks

[ozx5]

Anyone? Anything?

has anyone got this feature/option in their car at the moment??

[Blue Mountain Raider]

i think it works fine. i mean you just plug a USB flash drive loaded with mp3 into the car's usb port, select the audio source from idrive or radio controls and you are good to go. i mean, what can go wrong?

[ozx5]

Cool,

no thanks for that bmr. its just all the dealers dont know much about it in use... and yeah, i just wanted to know good parts of the feature.

Just a quick question, via the idrive and display lcd, does the track listing appear on the lcd... and if so does it show stuff like time elapsed, time reamining, is it easy to ff and rewind quickly through an mp3 as its playing via idrive or the steering wheel....

alot of questions, but no one seems to know... thanks mate

[X5downunder]

Originally Posted by ozx5

Cool,

no thanks for that bmr. its just all the dealers dont know much about it in use... and yeah, i just wanted to know good parts of the feature.

Just a quick question, via the idrive and display lcd, does the track listing appear on the lcd... and if so does it show stuff like time elapsed, time reamining, is it easy to ff and rewind quickly through an mp3 as its playing via idrive or the steering wheel....

alot of questions, but no one seems to know... thanks mate

Hi mate,
I just ordered mine X5 E70 but decided not to get the USB interface as it already has the aux input and I have the ipod myself and my kids like to plug their PSP/Nin DS in for better sound. Having said that, I am told it has similar functions to AUDI's SD card slots and it will display song names, playlist, etc. If the car didn't come with aux input, I would have definitely ordered the USB interface.

Cheers.

[pvandam]

There are certainly still a lot of questions around the USB interface.
As the AUX interface is basically only an AUDIO input, the USB interface is only a DATA reader, hence the player is in the Idrive. From an operating point of view this USB option is a lot better as it integrates with Idrive and you can feed any data type (MP3 player independant).

But as ozx5 says, there are still many questions unanswered and no dealer knows. I've also ordered it with the expectation I can connect my USB harddrive to it..

This would be my list of questions around it:
- What formats supported? (would I need to convert my audiocollection from WMA9?)
- Having 3200 songs on my drive, would it handle that?
- Would it support album/genre/artist listings and playlists? (like a real media player?)
- Will it power my USB Harddrive, and will it powerdown when I remove the keys from the car?
- Will it still be fast enough with more than 3000 songs, or will it completely become unusable (slow) as it was not designed to hold so many songs.
- And all the questions from ozx5 about display info

The first cars with this options should now be on the market as production started in April, as soon as my dealer has one, I will test the above options in the showroom. Will post the results here if noone has done so already in the meantime.

[X5FX]

If you do a search, all of these questions have been answered. Someone posted a document that showed supported devices and formats.

Also try searching this forum, there is alot of info here:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=27

[ozx5]

Pvandam,

thanks for jumping on the wagon for us with that info, appreciated... im taking my chances, and quite frankly from what i've heard .. why not, it all reads and sounds good. But questions are what make you think of possibilities and what ifs? its a funny thing that... not knowing one or teo things makes you want to find out more and more etc....

x5fx,

i tried doing a search i didnt find anything, maybe it could be my search technique, regardless i will look throught the e90 posts, i have actually found them beneficial for other small things, i just keep thinking that even though these features are similar amongst the bmw model range, ie 3,5,x5 etc... their are differences and only true e70 x5 answers can help

but thanks anyway

[ozx5]

i caught this over on www.e90post.com

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55507

dont know if it is seen as relevant

[jamesboags]

Originally Posted by ozx5

I am in the Australian Market,

Though I wanted to ask any worldwide x5ers australian or otherwise, what their thoughts/experiences are with the usb audio interface.

Any comments/complaints/praises for this, and how does it rate with non apple mp3 players, ie sony stick / samsung / creative zen...?

(not a big ipod fan)

Thanks

I've ordered this but car does not arrive until next month.. from what I have read you'll be fine with memory sticks.. but may have problems with players such as the zen... I too am looking for a one-stop shop for all things about this interface and am still piecing togather the info.. anyways I have an 8gb flash drive awaiting car arrival.. and have plenty of compact flash cards from my camera with a card reader to try out... The BMW ipod cable is apparently needed to connect the ipod successfully.. but again the information is all hard to piece together !! Good luck on your search..