You may want to try an ipod first before buying one as there is an annoying (well it is to me) pause as it changes track
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=131370.30
I was on a 2 hour journey today and the problem was really evident and annoying. So much so I switched to the radio.
I think I'll invest in a SD card and see if that cures the problem.
hi thanks for your input. to be honest i think the USB option seems better for me, although when (or ifÂ
) I get the car I'm gonna see if i can borrow somebody's iPod and test it during collection (make sure i get the right cables and stuff)
as for the pause during tracks, i would hazard a guess that even the USB option will not cure it. the reason i think this is i simply think the audio system is not sophisticated enough. imagine you are the audio system (effectively it's just like a computer) and you are playing an MP3 file, say "sweet_child_o_mine.mp3". You're spending all your CPU cycles reading the MP3 file from the USB stick, uncompressing the data into an output buffer, then the sound comes out from the data in the output buffer, then when that buffer is played, it is filled again from more data from the CPU.
suddenly the CPU reaches the end of the track. i don't think it is likely this audio system is clever enough to know when it reaches the end, it just stops. the CPU would have been busy trying to play "sweet_child...mp3". so it has to stop. then it will probably need to clear the buffer that has the ending of the track, which will take a bit of time. then it has to look through the USB stick for what the next track is, and electronically this will take time depending on the speed at which the USB can feed the CPU data. once found, data is then read by the CPU and it starts to uncompress filling in the output buffer and music comes out again. but all these minute steps are taking place within fractions of a second, however as you have noticed puts a tiny skip in the music.
to solve this problem the CPU needs to be clever enough to know when the end is approaching, and then start to read the next track, doing this whilst playing the end of the existing track. it's probably too much to handle for the CPU, and from a programming point of view it's just easier and cheaper to implement just basic playback, and just put up having the tiny gap in the music.
alternately you just have one huge-arse MP3 and it just plays from beginning to end with no pauses
but then again i have no personal experience of this system and i could be talking completely out of my arse, i just know from playing MP3s on my PC you sometimes get the tiny skips and i would expect the same on this GTI sound system too. Certain software like WinAMP will 'fade' the previous track and new track so it seems more seamless.
*edit* as a side note before i completely go off topic, one of the main reasons I wanted a GTI is because of the driving thing, not really for the music system - i could still live with CDs if i had to, in fact to be bluntly honest most of the time I have the radio tuned to BBC Radio 5 Live (AM radio qualtiy ftw
) but sometimes it is nice just to be thinking of song whilst driving and just put it on.
