teddyoh

If you do a quick search of my posts, you will see quite a few regarding my questions about how to get MMI working the way I want on my new A6 with regards to media sources. I would like to share my findings with any other current/potential A6 owners. The MMI manual is woefully inadequate in explaining the nuances of media and audio playback in general. This will save you a week of headaches, and a lot of wasted gas with the engine running in your driveway!

JUKEBOX
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Positives
- Album art scrolling, just like iTunes or iPod.
- Easy to load songs from any source: DVD, CD, SD card.
- Automatically organizes your songs by ID3 tag info. You can search by artist, album or track just like iTunes.
Negatives
- Does not support user created playlists.
- Limited to 4000 files. Not enough for a large music library.
- Takes quite a while for a full import to fill up the Jukebox.

I like the Jukebox a lot. Works just like iTunes. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't support user created playlists. The file limit restrictions and space restrictions of the Jukebox do not allow for a full music library import, but it would be a perfect size to load up your favorite playlists. Alas, it is not to be. Maybe a software upgrade by Audi in the future???

SD Card
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Positives
- There are 2 slots. One can be used for playing music, while the 2nd can be used to add songs to the jukebox without ever having to pull one out.
- MMI supports up to 32gb cards. If you use both, that is 64gb of storage, more than enough for most peoples music libraries.
- Supports user created playlists.
- Displays album art.
Negatives
- Songs are not organized. MMI reads the song files however you load them, with names and folder structures intact.
- Cannot scroll album art.
- Must edit your playlist files to get them working correctly.

The SD card will probably be the main audio source in my use. I listen to music by playlists. However, it is very tricky to get the SD card folder structure correct and matching the playlist. Check out my detailed instructions on this on another thread. Trust me, this was the biggest headache with my new car. I spent 2 weeks trying to figure it out with no help from my dealer, the manual, and very little help online.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...30&postcount=4

iPod
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Positives
- Easy connection, as Audi provides a cable.
- Can play your iPod using the car controls, fully integrated.
- Easy to maintain your iPod and change up the music on it.
Negatives
- MMI converts the digital music from iPod to an analog signal. This can reduce sound quality. Not noticeable by me with Bose system and most tracks at 128kbs.
- Album art is not transferred.

CD Changer
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It's a 6 disc changer. Does anyone use CDs anymore? Fits nicely in the glove box. I believe you can import songs from CDs, but I have not tried. I also believe you can play .mp3 discs. That could squeeze a few more gb of storage if you need it.

DVD Player
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In the dash. It can play regular movie DVDs and burned DVDs. I believe it supports DVD-Audio, but I don't own any to test. You can also use it as a data drive and fill a DVD up with .mp3 or video files for more storage.

USB
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Audi does not include a USB cable. Not really necessary with dual SD card slots, but available for anyone with a flash drive with music. Not sure of the list price.

Enjoy. Please review the link to my other thread. I think most will probably find that the SD card is the best way to listen to larger music libraries.

basf_audio

Great information! I had the opportunity to read the MMI manual for just a few minutes while I was waiting at the dealer... It mentioned that you could play video files directly from DVD (of course), but also off of SD and jukebox based on a handful of video formats (mpg, avi, etc.). Have you tried that in your experimentation? How about video off your iPod?

Thanks!

teddyoh

Video files play great from Jukebox and SD. I played a movie DVD too. I don't keep video on the iPod I use in my car, but I suppose it would work. Not sure. Can't recall if the Video option was there on the menu under MMI.

jetinder

Unfortunately, video doesn't play off the ipod. I have composite connector for the MMI which you can plug into the ipod/ipad etc, via the composite ip*d cable. Get's messy, but it's fun to play angry birds on the screen and hear it through the sound system.

I use it sometimes to show the BBC iplayer on the screen. The quality is excellent. I've yet to work out how to get my Bberry playbook to output flash to it as it only has a mini-hdmi output and as far as I know, I can only input analogue video through the MMI. Please feel free to let me know if there's a way to do it. That way, you can watch Audi TV, for example when the Le Mans series racing is on it.

das2.7t

This is good to hear. With the iOS4x and MLB At Bat 2011 recent upgrades, this means one will be able to watch MLB games on the in-vehicle screen and audio. Nice.

Miwa

How in the world is that a negative? That's exactly how I want my stuff to show, exactly the same as the file structure on the NAS...

Anything else is an abomination...

teddyoh

So playing music on your iPod/iPhone is an abomination? Jukebox organizes by album, artist or track - just like with any portable music player. Most people get used to that and use it to find and play music. Hard to call that an ABOMINATION! Lighten up!

If you use Windows explorer to find and select music, fine. Enjoy. I prefer software to keep my music organized. Jukebox does that. The good thing is, Audi allows you to choose how you want to listen and play!

aquarian

I have an A7 and I believe the MMI is the same version as the A6. The DVD won't play any DVD-audio discs as I still have some from my previous Acura RL. Jukebox is a good design from Audi, and it even displays Chinese characters on the instrument LCD!

Barry626

I can play DVD-Audio disc on my A6 without any issues.

EF99

Can anyone confirm that you can copy CD's from the changer to the hard drive?

If so, how much is the quality degraded since I imagine it converts from PCM to some lossy compressed format to save space.