I have been using a 32GB usb drive in my VT for months. I have not tried anything larger.

 

How's the performance of the 32GB drive? Does is still load fairly quickly or do you experience lag when browsing your files? Is your 32GB fully loaded with files or are you just utilizing a smaller amount of drive space? Thanks for the response!

 

I have a 128gb and it works fine. Its USB 3.0, not sure if that matters. There is no lag accessing folders or files.

 

I'm using the low profile 32 SanDisk Fit and don't have any lag.

 

I have about 15GB of music on the drice and it takes about 10-15 seconds to load when I start the car and there is no lag when playing music from it or moving between albums/artists.

 

@13VT - is your 128GB drive a flash drive or portable external USB hard drive? USB 3.0 is much faster than 2.0, but I'm curious if the headunit is 3.0 compatible?

@VeloT - I hadn't thought about the low profile drives, that sounds like a great option. May just need to pick up 2-3 of those cheap and load em down with tunes.

When I first picked up the VT, I was excited to be able to connect my iphone to the car and play music stored on my 16GB phone. However, after seeing how well the 8GB flash drive worked, I haven't connected my iphone since, lol...

 

I was happy about plugging in my touch via usb but after plugging in my usb drive, which is low profile also, i never plug in my touch anymore. You can't tell anything is plugged in so I can just leave it there when out and about.

 

Amazon.com: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB Flash Drive (SDCZ33-032G-B35): Computers & Accessories

Sandsik 32GB for around $25.

 

Amazon.com: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB Flash Drive (SDCZ33-032G-B35): Computers & Accessories

Sandsik 32GB for around $25.

That's the one I have-don't even know its there, blends right in. Works great, I downloaded the Dezoris software-check it out, pretty cool stuff.

 

@13VT - is your 128GB drive a flash drive or portable external USB hard drive? USB 3.0 is much faster than 2.0, but I'm curious if the headunit is 3.0 compatible?

Its a flash drive and it's exfat format. 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0

 

I thought exfat was the standard format for thumb drives and SD cards now?

The problems that I have are that the index has to be rebuilt every time the NAV unit boots up, setting up proper folder structures by artist, navigating large folder structures on large USB volumes and the lack of playlist support. Navigating through iTunes or Windows Media Player folders with similar artist names and incomplete tracks is very frustrating. Plugging in an iPod doesn't help either.

At this point I'm looking at buying an iPod with Bluetooth and using its interface to select music and playlists.

The NAV uses WinCE and I would have expected that transferring a Windows Media Player library to a USB thumb drive would allow it to support the meta database or at least playlists.

 

Stone Axe, I use my iPod Touch with the USB cable all the time. I have set up smart playlists in different ways, based on Genre, or a grouping, or date added. When I connect it, I just press the list button on the head unit, choose a list, and randomize it. So I don't spend much time messing with it. True, the iPod interface is much more powerful, but you are wasting battery when in bluetooth mode. I use the iPod's interface when I play videos.

Here is a sample of how I have it set up:

BTW, I don't think exFAT works for the head unit.

 

It doesn't take long to read 15B of music from my USB at start. I just copied the folders of .mp3 files to the USB drive from my itunes library, not using itunes, and created a few folders for playlists. I added numbers to the beginning of the playlist folder names so they would always be at the top.

I would expect problems with a windows media library based on file types and proprietary playlist file format. MS has shown that some Windows are more equal...

 

I've noticed that MPEG-4 (apple itunes format) won't play from a flash drive, only mp3's work. My problem is, half of my library is mp3 and the rest is mpeg-4. Any tips on a utility that I can point to my entire library and it will scan and convert any mpeg-4 into mp3 in bulk? I have a free utility that I can add individual albums to and convert but it would take awhile to sort through 98GB worth of tunes

 

I can confirm that exfat does indeed work.

 

Have you guys noticed the volume needs to be turned up a lot for USB vs. radio and other sources?

 

same as berniefritts here, I find the volume louder using USB, thus the reason me thinks I have now blown a door speaker and this mysterious rattle is driving me nuts. 206 miles on the clock and already got a rattle.

 

I find the opposite. I can get a better sound from the USB. Make sure you exported it at a high bitrate. I did 190+ and it sounds great.

 

I think most of my music is @ 128 bit rate. It's clear, but the volume needs to be cranked. To be honest though, the VT lets a lot of noise in at highway speeds (75+ mph). I'm still working on my iPod music list, so time consuming. Took the USB route as a shortcut to hear my tunes. Btw, I'm using 2 16GB and 1 32GB USB's from San Disk. Their only 1/2" long, so it's easier access to the front console area.

 

Sack22, I use iTunes to do just that....Most of my songs are at 192, some at 128. You can select the whole range of songs and convert them to MP3, provided that your settings for when you rip a CD in iTunes is set to do MP3 at 192. This way even your 128 songs can be converted to 192. Doesn't take long either. Then you need to delete the older songs from your library and if you wish from your PC. I keep track of which one I just converted by the DATE ADDED column.

 

Converting a 128kbps mp3 to 192kbps will not do anything to improve sound quality. It will be the audio equivalent of blowing up a 640x480 image to 1280x960.
But it is a good idea to set up your iTunes to rip at a higher bitrate to avoid adding more tracks with lower audio quality.
Another good option is to sign up for iTunes match to get hi-fi versions of any track it scans. That process is - scan library > delete all tracks that get the "icloud" icon next to them > re-download new versions. If your library isn't obscure, you could end up with your entire collection replaced at 256kbps

 

Considering how large my music collection is (all .mp3 format), I decided to go with a PNY 128GB flash drive I caught on sale. I'm having issues where not all folders/files are showing up once I navigate through the lists inside the car. If I browse on my PC, they all show up. At first, I thought maybe it was a formatting issue so I formatted the entire drive (not quick format) using FAT32. I moved about 70GB of music folders/files over to the drive and have the same problem. So then I thought maybe the car could only recognize up to a certain amount of folders so I reorganized the folder structure. For example, I have a folder called "rock" and when scrolling, nothing would show up past artists thats name begins with "R" so I created two rock folders labeling them Rock A-M and Rock N-Z in hopes that would fix the issue. Still no dice. The root of the drive is structured like Genre > Artist > Album and within the album folders lies all the .mp3 files.

I've also tried reformatting using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to no avail. Please for the love of jesus, someone tell me they know how to correct this? I'm all ears...