richard-tx

you can download the update from Audi

http://www.audi.de/etc/medialib/ngw/...userupdate.zip

it is rumored that the 4000 file limit is changed with the update. One fellow claims to have over 14,000 songs on media and the AMI sees them all.

below is another document..

revelator1969

Many thanks. I already have the update you posted earlier and so i know what to do. I am going to test the 4 formats WAV FLAC MP3 M4A before i do anything and then i will try the update and see if it makes a difference to what files it plays.

How would you know how many files the MMI see's is there a way to show the files loaded onto your usb device?

richard-tx

You forgot about the other formats like AAC, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...coding_formats

revelator1969

Update to MMI not done yet.

I did try the 4 formats earlier and my MMI does play MP3 and M4A. So as i mentioned before it does not play AAC. I will incude an AAC file in the test after the update.

For the record i did convert a WAV file to MP3 (320k) & M4A (256k), i played in on my AV system with B&W CM9 floorstanders & Roksan 2 chan power amp. They both sounded very good however the M4A did sound slightly better, not night and day but a slight noticeable difference, the M4A did sound as good as the WAV file. I have yet to compare them in the A8 Bose system.

richard-tx

I did a string dump of the ami update. What I found is that the following file extensions and presumably file formats are recognized.
wma
mp3
m4a
m4b
mp4
m4p
m4v
bin
pls
b4s
m3u

I did a little experimentation and found that the AMI will not play lossless wma files. It will play encoded wma files however. It has a problem with version 10 WMA, but version 9.2 WMA files are OK.

FAAC files saved as MP4 is OK.

I have not messed with anything else as MP3 is a dead format since file sizes are no longer important.

JulianHicks

Rich; thanks for all your useful info and binary/pdf attachments.

Your 'string dump' comment prompted me to go and have a look at the code for all the AMI updates on the MMI CDs I have and the 'update file' you provided. The Result is:

The apparently 'final' version of the AMI firmware on the MMI CDs is 0850 which is dated 5th February 2008.
The USB update file is dated 23 April 2008 so it post-dates the supposedly final firmware.

A 'string dump' of the 0850 firmware shows no sign of M4A filetypes.
A 'string dump' of the 'USB update' clearly does.

So my conclusion is that Audi allowed someone to write code to update the firmware that didn't alter the Date and Version embedded within the code - an irresponsible solution.

So now we have two versions of the firmware in the AMI that look identical to observers who either use VCDS or the 'red screens' to try and identify the code. No wonder we've had frustrated user problems over the years.

How can anyone identify whether or not a particular AMI supports extended file types?

But at least we now know that the USB update is potentially useful, even if you have to find a working 'AMI to USB' cable to install it. The question is - does the USB update work with any AMI firmware level or does it need 0850 as a pre-requisite?

Julian

revelator1969

Guys the AMI would not update due to it not being a newer version. So ill just have to stick with it playing mp3's and m4a's.

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revelator1969

Many thanks for sharing the info. I will probably convert all my flac music to .m4a for playback on my AMI. I still have a load of mp'3 that i use and i guess i will continue to use them for years to come. Anything i need to compress in the future will be .m4a. Thanks for switching me onto this format.

richard-tx

AAC saved in m4a format is about as good as it gets.

JulianHicks

Interesting message! Maybe the USB stick update has already been applied to your AMI?

I'd be interested to see what the update does to my AMI but I haven't got one of the 'AMI to USB' connectors.

Julian