XBarbarian

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Great thread, as whiterabbit and Vinny state, my 09 , just picked up 6/28, only has the aux and iPod too..and i was like wtf? As they also stated, manual mentions USB, yet..no usb. I thought about grabbing a iPod nano, but jeesh..I h8 iTunes for managing music, especially when you have 60+GB's of mp3's. And I'm always concerened that itunes will DRM my collection, which would piss me off, as I have custom ripped my own stuff with EAC / Lame at VBR 192-320. Also, lately, I have bought downlaods of mp3's off Amazon, as they have NO DRM. I did get a SD card, but 2GB max is not good enough. I like to have a wide eclectic variety available.

So, Vinny, you got yours from the dealer? I see others have ordered online? As you state, USB sticks are way cheap now...

and keroubim is right too. Scrolling text would have been nice..cant see the song titles. =/

However, the system does sound amazing. Cranked some Rage Against the Machine and the punch of the system was smokin' =)

XBarbarian

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Thanks, I just ordered the cable from ************* too!

Whiterabbit... did you receive yours yet? Post when you do. I ordered mine tonight, 7/2/08 at 12:30 am edt with 2nd day shipping. Ill post my experiences with this site and hopefully this part, so I can avoid iTunes crappy UI, and just str8 copy mass mp3's to a fat USB stick.

vincent007

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yep, got my cable from the dealer, $36US. The USB drive is working great and I don't have to leave my iPod in the glovebox. Love the new UMI.

Just a side comment ...... Now I wish they would come up with a "fix" for the rear windows not coming up with the express up feature. They go down, but don't come up, . Just don't understand the logic.

XBarbarian

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Thx Vinny. Looking forward to going USB.

and on the windows thing, ya, I noticed that same isue too. I see others have thoguht it was smarttop related, but I have the same issue without the smarttop. Have to use the window buttons to close the small windows post roof closure from inside. Silly. I'm sure they will fix it in time. Not a biggie, just an annoyance.

Gotta love this car though =) I know I'm practically breathless every drive still. First high end vehicle Ive owned ( or leased in this case )

XBarbarian

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Oh... vinny.. one follow up question:

the SD card has a 2gb restriction. FAT file system limitation I think. Does the USB seem to have any restriction, or was it able to read and play from all 16GB of the stick you bought?

Thx

mtiede

 

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Just make "collections" and store them on multiple sticks

vincent007

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The 2GB restriction is only for the SD slot. I'm sure there is some restriction on the USB, but I don't know what that is. The 16GB can be fully accessed. You can also partition the drive as well it seems.

As for the windows, I was told that the more people that complain, the greather the chance that it will get fixed ..... so go complain, .

SLK55UAE

Limitations as per COMAND manual are:

USB Drive:
8 directory "levels" with up to 1000 tracks (no size limit). Supports USB powered drives (800 mA).

SD Memory:
2GB limit
FAT16 or FAT32
255 folder limit
255 subfolders in each folder
255 tracks in each folder
4000 tracks limit
8 directory "levels"

Directory levels are subfolders with folders, you can drill down upto 8 levels in any given folder.

A bit confusing I guess!

cousjcc

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Just odered my usb adapter from ************* as well. Just went for the standard ground shipping since my car won't be here till the 15th. Hopefully the usb adapter will arrive before or about the same time as the car. Man! The days are slowing to a crawwwll waiting for her

WhiteRabbit

 

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You may get yours before I get mine which is scheduled for delivery next Wednesday. ************* should give forum members an additional discount. Maybe we should have done a group buy on the USB interface cables.

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2009 SLK 350, Arctic White, Gullwing Red, 7G Automatic, Premium PKG I, Lighting, Heating packages, Auto Climate Control, smartTop roof module v3.22, Clear side-marker lenses.

XBarbarian

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right on whiterabbit!

I did email the site owner at *************.com because once you search for the part number and add it to the cart... it never confirms the actual part number ordered.. at that point forard to completion of sale, it only lists "OEM Media Interface" which is ok, but at the final confirmation page, it would be nice to know the cart system had the right part number. the site guy said he would suggest it to the right people. I'm sure he's a drop shipper biz, as in he doesnt actually keep any inventory, just relationships with outher distributers ( I have few friends that import all sorts of stuff from China, etc, and dont actually have any invenotry, its all about relationships with manufacturers. )

Funny, with the 2nd day delivery, my deal ended up costing more than just going to my dealer... LOL..although I dont know if they have one in stock

XBarbarian

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hmm. 8 directory "levels" with up to 1000 tracks (no size limit) 1000 tracks per directory? I hope? Plan is to have Artist Directories at the root level, then directories for each album.

c:\Radiohead\OK Computer\Lucky.mp3

will soon find out. ecost.com has 32GB OCZ USB sticks for $99 today. Think I'l grab one.

WhiteRabbit

 

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The parts are shipped from a California Mercedes dealer, if you call the phone number it's a Honda dealer.

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2009 SLK 350, Arctic White, Gullwing Red, 7G Automatic, Premium PKG I, Lighting, Heating packages, Auto Climate Control, smartTop roof module v3.22, Clear side-marker lenses.

XBarbarian

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Danka WhiteRabbit, thx for the infoz!

XBarbarian

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well, I just got back from a biz trip all last week. I just went to the ************* site, and see that the part shipped today. 2nd day. should have it Tuesday I guess. I 'll report my findings then. I'm hoping to maximize my use and switch to that as my long term Library. Gonna pick up a 32gb USB stick, fill er up, and leave it in the glove box.

Anyone else have experience with the USB sticks?

WhiteRabbit

 

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The new USB cable arrived on Tuesday but just got around to trying it out. Used it with my wife's Zune 2. The car 'saw' it was a Zune and could see all the albums, tracks and metadata. However, when I tried to play a track it seemed to work but no sound came out. I found that there was a flash update for the Zune itself which I applied to the Zune. After that I got the same results in the car except this time the car said every track was not playable.
Now the good news, I bought a new 8 gig PNY USB thumb drive for $39, copied all the music files from the Zune (WMA files) to the drive. Hooked the thumb drive to the car and they all played just great and the car showed all the metadata, etc. for each one. My original plan was to use a cheap thumb drive I could leave in the car so this is just fine for me. Anybody try another MP3 player yet?

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XBarbarian

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Alrighty then. Got my cable from *************.com , also received the 32 GB ocz stick I got from ecost.com

copied the nearly 2gb I had on the SD card to the stick, and began filling it up. Kinda a slow process, as my mp3 collection is not divided into sub directories; my naming convention over the years on mp3's was all in one big directory, and REM - Murmur - 1 - Radio Free Europe.mp3 .

As the COMMAND system doesn't scroll long file names, on the SD and now the USB, I ve broken that into Directories. g:\REM\Murmur\01- Radio Free Europe.mp3, therefore the copying over is fast, but lots of admin setting it right. No worries. Speant about 3 hours and now at 5gb on the stick. So, lots to go with the 32gb stick! w00t!

Once I'm done, and filled it up with as much as possible, with a wide eclectic selection, my intent is to synch the USB to my external HDD for backup purposes ( so if the stick dies, I wont have to go thru all the admin to recreate it ), throw it in the car, and forget about it; all the while having a nice, no moving parts, massive music collection always available.

vincent007

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That's exactly what I do, but I"m using just a mere 16GB stick. It"s been working great for over a month now

sakabacus

Hi been reading the threads whilst waiting for my facelift 200 to arrive had ordered the media interface and was looking forward to connecting my i pod to the audio 20. Picked up the car yesterday. The inteface female is in the glovebox but no cables were supplied, went to the dealers who claim these are fibre optic and none have yet arrived on british soil. Question should a cable have been in my car? does anyone know if the dealer is correct?
Thanks

SLK55UAE

You'll have to order cable(s) separately. iPod, USB and AUX.