[sooofast]

Hey everyone,
I am new to this forum from Toronto, Canada. I just got an 07 328xi and I can tell you with confidence that I'm in love! haha. Anyway, I've looked around and have already found many many useful posts. I was however, unable to find much answer to 2 issues, one I found on the forum and the other one I could not.

1. When I burn mp3 cds, random tracks at random times tend to skip a few seconds. For example, track A starts playing and when it gets to 2:50 it skips to 2:52 and just continues playing. It may skips a few more times again but it still plays the whole song. This happens even when the car is stopped. Ive tried different CD brands and I have tried burning at slower speeds like 4X, yet no luck.

2. Sometimes, some tracks don't get played at all! For example out of the 70 songs I have on a disc 1-2 may not play, the names show up and it tries to play it but then it just skips to the next track. There was this one time, my whole 100 tracks were skipped so i was left with nothing to listen to in the car except the radio...(Wasn't much fun! haha)

I have tried 4 Audio Cds and so far none of them had any of the mentioned issues.

I have an iDrive system on my car so I am just wondering is my unit defective? Should I take it to the dealer and ask them to have a look? Is it covered under warranty? What if my luck, when they test none of the tracks skip?

Thank you all again for such a great forum!

Pete.

[MB330]

I found by trying few different media and different recording speed - use as lowest recording speed as your burner has (2x - in my case) - no more skipping .

[sooofast]

Thanks for the reply, however, Ive tried burning at even 4x! Still no luck

[WingZeroX5]

I have the same problem...this is what I did

Most of my MP3's are encoded in 320kbps bitrate and when I directly burned these as MP3 CD, the first 30or 40ish skips, like it won't even play. So, I re-encoded all my songs to WMA 128kbps. Everything is flawless now. Not to mention, I can squeeze more songs onto the CD!!!

Oh, and quality is just as good. Burned at max speeds too

ETA: Before I did the WMA encoding, the dash would show up as "CD ERROR" when it didn't play the first 30 or 40 tracks. I had to eject the disk and put it back in, but it still won't play my 320kbps mp3's.

I don't have iDrive. Try it, see if it works.

[tbensous]

FYI, I have a similar issue from the hard drive of my 2009. Ref http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425200

[sooofast]

Originally Posted by WingZeroX5

I have the same problem...this is what I did

Most of my MP3's are encoded in 320kbps bitrate and when I directly burned these as MP3 CD, the first 30or 40ish skips, like it won't even play. So, I re-encoded all my songs to WMA 128kbps. Everything is flawless now. Not to mention, I can squeeze more songs onto the CD!!!

Oh, and quality is just as good. Burned at max speeds too

ETA: Before I did the WMA encoding, the dash would show up as "CD ERROR" when it didn't play the first 30 or 40 tracks. I had to eject the disk and put it back in, but it still won't play my 320kbps mp3's.

I don't have iDrive. Try it, see if it works.

WingZeroX5, good point. All my Mp3s are 320kbps. Do you think 192kbps Mp3s will work fine? They should, no?
I will have to convert my music to WMA and see if they work fine or not. Converting them though will be such a hassle, I burn a full 700mb mp3 cd every 2-3 weeks! It will take too long!

tbensous, same problem using the hard drive definitely means that it is a compatibility issue that still exists with the newer iDrives/BMWs! We just have to find out what it is!

[WingZeroX5]

Originally Posted by Pete2662

WingZeroX5, good point. All my Mp3s are 320kbps. Do you think 192kbps Mp3s will work fine? They should, no?
I will have to convert my music to WMA and see if they work fine or not. Converting them though will be such a hassle, I burn a full 700mb mp3 cd every 2-3 weeks! It will take too long!

tbensous, same problem using the hard drive definitely means that it is a compatibility issue that still exists with the newer iDrives/BMWs! We just have to find out what it is!

Yep, they should...BUT...I cannot say for sure because it is buggy. Sometimes it might, and others it might not lol.

I used Roxio's batch converter. What I do is make a new folder on my desktop, and label it. Then, using the batch converter, take all the original MP3 files and dump it into the program. Set WMA 128kbps, point it to the new folder I, return 20mins later, burn.

I must note that I burned the WMA's using 22x, not the slowest and it still works.

It would be simpler to just convert to a lower bitrate and/or use a different codec container rather than figuring out what's bugging iDrive's

[sooofast]

Originally Posted by WingZeroX5

Yep, they should...BUT...I cannot say for sure because it is buggy. Sometimes it might, and others it might not lol.

I used Roxio's batch converter. What I do is make a new folder on my desktop, and label it. Then, using the batch converter, take all the original MP3 files and dump it into the program. Set WMA 128kbps, point it to the new folder I, return 20mins later, burn.

I must note that I burned the WMA's using 22x, not the slowest and it still works.

It would be simpler to just convert to a lower bitrate and/or use a different codec container rather than figuring out what's bugging iDrive's

Oh how stupid of me!! Roxio came with my laptop for free but I uninstalled it since I like nero better!!! In the meantime, yesterday, I converted some of my Mp3s to 192kps just to see if iDrive supports them better. I used Imtoo Audio Converter. I haven't had the time to test the new 192s. I will test and post the results. Also, I will burn using the fastest speed just to again experiment haha

[WingZeroX5]

Originally Posted by Pete2662

Oh how stupid of me!! Roxio came with my laptop for free but I uninstalled it since I like nero better!!! In the meantime, yesterday, I converted some of my Mp3s to 192kps just to see if iDrive supports them better. I used Imtoo Audio Converter. I haven't had the time to test the new 192s. I will test and post the results. Also, I will burn using the fastest speed just to again experiment haha

I have both installed, i just use Roxio for more media like things and use Nero for utilities and burning

Yup, experiment everything. I wasted like 10 CD's just because of this. I think it's probably a hardware issue with the Idrives/non Idrives or just the audio chipset in the dash itself.

[sooofast]

Originally Posted by WingZeroX5

I have both installed, i just use Roxio for more media like things and use Nero for utilities and burning

Yup, experiment everything. I wasted like 10 CD's just because of this. I think it's probably a hardware issue with the Idrives/non Idrives or just the audio chipset in the dash itself.

I tested 192kbps mp3s and they failed because of the fact that they all had a sample rate of 48khz. I reconverted to 192 with 44.1khz sample rate and this time they worked just fine. I guess we can conclude that it doesn't matter if its 320 or 192. It is the sample rate that counts! Any thoughts?
What is your wma sample rate? what was your sample rate for the songs that were skipping??

[WingZeroX5]

Originally Posted by Pete2662

I tested 192kbps mp3s and they failed because of the fact that they all had a sample rate of 48khz. I reconverted to 192 with 44.1khz sample rate and this time they worked just fine. I guess we can conclude that it doesn't matter if its 320 or 192. It is the sample rate that counts! Any thoughts?
What is your wma sample rate? what was your sample rate for the songs that were skipping??

44.1khz on 320kbps

WMA just works haha so I'm just going to stick with that, plus I can squeeze a lot more songs onto the CD at a lower bitrate w/o quality loss.

[sooofast]

Originally Posted by WingZeroX5

44.1khz on 320kbps

WMA just works haha so I'm just going to stick with that, plus I can squeeze a lot more songs onto the CD at a lower bitrate w/o quality loss.

Niice , I don't have the whole track skipping problem anymore, but I still have to test and see if I experience the 1-2 seconds "jump".
I will update again.

p.s. are you sure they were 44.1khz on 320? Weird. Just to be safe though, I still went down to 192kbps for my songs. Which is much better since, as you mentioned, I can fit more songs in the CD

[WingZeroX5]

Originally Posted by Pete2662

Niice , I don't have the whole track skipping problem anymore, but I still have to test and see if I experience the 1-2 seconds "jump".
I will update again.

p.s. are you sure they were 44.1khz on 320? Weird. Just to be safe though, I still went down to 192kbps for my songs. Which is much better since, as you mentioned, I can fit more songs in the CD

The 1-2sec jump could be the way you wrote the CD. There's a mechanism where you can close the CD using DAO (disk at once) or TAO (Track at once)

I forgot which one will give you the jumps but i used DAO.

[mikeHardis]

Found a good blogpost regarding this issue. Removing the ID3 Tag solved all playback problems for me.

http://markusperl.blogspot.de/2013/0...-business.html

[sooofast]

Originally Posted by mikeHardis

Found a good blogpost regarding this issue. Removing the ID3 Tag solved all playback problems for me.

http://markusperl.blogspot.de/2013/0...-business.html

Oh, thanks. I've been fine using with 192 44.1kHz since this thread. Thanks for this though