For those that have the upgraded (premium) stereo option in the 2009 Cobalt SS, how many have tried plugging a flash drive into the USB port on the stereo head unit and playing songs?

For those that were successful in playing tunes off a flash drive, is there anything special you need to do? Is it just a matter of copying a bunch of mp3 onto the flash drive, popping it into the stereo and it plays?

Do you have to set anything on the HU or does it automactically play like a CD? Is there a way to display the track name as the song is playing?

I did a search and found one post that claim it worked, but they provided no details. I pick up my car tomorrow and it's a 4 hour drive back home, so was hoping I could use a flash drive instead of taking a CD wallet. Thanks in advance.

 

thats what i use a flash drive i have a 2 gb one and wit works pretty much like an ipod just make files and put your music in the files and you can search the flash drive with your stereo controls

 

Thats what I use, I have a 4gb just loaded with MP3's and plays great. I see no use of a CD anymore

 

Thanks for the info. So, you can search for the track you want to play on the flash drive via the HU? Does that mean you can have multiple folders on the flash drive, like say a folder for each CD you ripped? Let's say you're listening to a FM radio station when you decide to plug in the flash drive, is there a button on the HU you press to play the flash drive?

 

all you do is plug it in and the radio automatically starts reading it but if your listening to the radio with the stick in you can just push the cd/aux button and it comes back on...you can have multiple folders also and they will read also..

what sucks is it doesnt work with HD's and i wish it did.

 

whats nice is that if you have an ipod it will play songs that you buy from itunes

 

i got a 320gb hdd hooked up. What's a CD??

 

exactly..i got the car it came with a 6cd changer..u know how many cd's i use?..0

 

MP3's are convenient because the files are so small, but I don't like the compression and losing some of the music range. I don't suppose the HU will play wav files off a USB flash drive?

 

i lose no quality my bitrates for my mp3's are all 256

 

Yeah you're still losing quality but most people don't really notice it with the higher bit rates like 256 and 320.

 

how can you run a HDD and i cant...what kind do you have? when i hooked my harddrive up it didnt read.

 

I checked back to see what most of my mp3 were encoded as and they are 128 bit rate. So I tried 256 and 320 of the same song and compared the CD quality vs. the other mp3 versions. The 128 pretty much sucked. The 256 is a little better and the 320 is relatively acceptable, although I can still notice a slight degradation if I listen really close. Looks like I'll be redoing all my music to the higher bit rate mp3 files.

 

You need to format the drive to Fat32 for the hdd to be able to read. Use this program it will format fat32 up to 1 TB CompuApps SwissKnife V3. I got over 100Gb thats why i dont use a cd LOL

 

im about to try that now, if this works im gonna be pissed tho cus i just spent 250 on a ipod.

 

It could also be the fact some drives are 7200rpm vs 5400rpm, I would try and get a 5400rpm, seeing as it would use less power. Thus the USB maybe able to power it

 

i got a ext hdd that a 3.5 and needed DC power. I bought a inverter to power it

 

I have a Flash drive hooked up, but i cant figure out what determines the playlist order, it seems to go alphabetical by artist name, but then a random artist will play between songs...
Anyone know what determines the Playlist sequence?

 

I tried my 16Gb flash, no worky. Currently using a 1Gb.

I suspect that this radio does not recognize "high capacity" flash drives

 

My radio recognized my 2GB USB drive w/o any problems. All I did was put MP3 files into the main root directory. I don't like using folders because the shuffling doesn't work as well.

BTW, the USB port was standard on all 09.5 SS/TC's. The UUI option was no longer an option starting somewhere around March.

My complaint is the USB port isn't located somewhere more concealed.

 

I have a Flash drive hooked up, but i cant figure out what determines the playlist order, it seems to go alphabetical by artist name, but then a random artist will play between songs...
Anyone know what determines the Playlist sequence?

 

Yes, stock playlist order is determined by file name. For example, AC DC - Rock On.mp3 would come before Beethoven - 9th Symphony.mp3 because of how the files are named.

If you hit the soft menu buttons you can access the shuffling options (the buttons right under the VFD display)

 

I'm not so sure about that.
They play in this order, 50cent --> 112 --> A Perfect Circle --> Outkast --> ACDC

 

Check filenames for leading characters?

Also perhaps its also reading ID3 tags?

 

It's file names, but that's why you include folders so you can select a certain folder instead of skipping through all of the songs.