B&M USB stick idiot's guide?

[clockworks]

Is there an idiot's guide anywhere?

I've just bought a Qubo Dynamic, which has B&M. Thing is, the manual is pretty poor, and the buttons on the steering wheel aren't actually labelled with media player labels in any meaningful way.

I've figured out how to get it to play tracks from a USB stick, but can't figure out how to switch folders. If I press the up and down arrow buttons on the wheel, it'll sometimes switch to the first track in the next folder, rather than the next track in the same folder.

The radio just sits there displaying "media player", while the track info is displayed on the instrument panel - is this right? It'd be more useful if the info was on the radio display.

While in media player mode, the 4-way switch on the radio doesn't do anything. That seems like the logical place to put track and folder selection functions.

It could just be that I'm too old for all this tech! Maybe I should just stick with Radio4.

 

[alexh365]

Press the windows key and say "Artists", or "Folders" then you can use the up and down on the steering wheel to select track or album.

More info in the manual, heres a link to one for the Lancia Ypsilon but its near enough the same, just look for the symbols on the buttons

http://www.lancia.com/LANCIA_COM/uploads/PB_IMAGES/0/20061130/Lancia_Ypsilon_Blue&Me_User_Manual.pdf

 

[clockworks]

Looks like I was approaching this from the wrong direction, thinking that B&M was part of the car radio. Looks like it's a totally separate system that just happens to use the car radio aux input - correct?

 

[alexh365]

Looks like I was approaching this from the wrong direction, thinking that B&M was part of the car radio. Looks like it's a totally separate system that just happens to use the car radio aux input - correct?

Spot on.

Its CAN integrated to get mpg data etc but no actual stereo integration other than the aux input.

 

[Tim84]

Is there an idiot's guide anywhere?
I've figured out how to get it to play tracks from a USB stick, but can't figure out how to switch folders. If I press the up and down arrow buttons on the wheel, it'll sometimes switch to the first track in the next folder, rather than the next track in the same folder.

While in media player mode, the 4-way switch on the radio doesn't do anything. That seems like the logical place to put track and folder selection functions.

It could just be that I'm too old for all this tech! Maybe I should just stick with Radio4.

LOL Love that last bit about sticking to Radio4 ha ha....perhaps.....but if you do want to get the most out of B&M the best thing is just to have a play with it (tho don't do what i did the other day and start going through all your folders while sat at traffic lights, the people in the car behind were NOT happy with me!)

The best way to navigate through your folders on the USB stick is press the phone symbol button once and scroll through to Media Player. The phone symbol button acts as your 'Enter/OK' key so remember that. Once in Media Player goto Artists and again scroll to find the artist you want to play, hit phone symbol, then scroll through to find the name of the album and hit the phone symbol. When you are in the album menu you can either select 'Play All' which will play the first song on the album in order through the last song (while it is playing you can hit the up or down arrow buttons on the steering wheel controls to jump to a track) if you don't select play all it will list the song titles in alphabetical order, not the order in which they are on the album.

I hope that gets you started. You have to remember that everything about B&M is operated from the steering mounted controls, the only control you have for the music that is played from the media player on the main console is the volume, but you also have that on the steering mounted controls anyway so there is little point using it from the main console.

Like i say, just have a play with it and soon you'll find it very easy to use and a great addition to your driving. For me now it's kinda one of those 'how did i ever live without this before?' things. If you still can't get the hang of it maybe you should just make sure you have your radio tuned constantly to Radio4

 

[clockworks]

Thanks for that explanation - I prefer pressing buttons to using voice control. Talking to my car just doesn't seem right.

I've got all my music ripped using cdex as wav files, with the file names in the format "track number - track title - artist - album title". The album folders are named "artist - album title".
I use these wav files at home on my Pixel Magic media player, for CD-perfect sound quality.

For computer or in-car mp3 CD use, I've converted all the wav albums to 320kbs mp3, with v2.3 ID tags, keeping the same file name structure.
My mp3 CD player uses the file names to display track info.
Does B&M use file names or ID tags to display the track info?

 

[Tim84]

For computer or in-car mp3 CD use, I've converted all the wav albums to 320kbs mp3, with v2.3 ID tags, keeping the same file name structure.
My mp3 CD player uses the file names to display track info.
Does B&M use file names or ID tags to display the track info?

Yes i prefer pressing the buttons too, i find that sometimes if the artist or album has an obscure name that B&M doesn't recgonise it first time and you have to repeat yourself.

To answer your question about how B&M recgonises track display i'm not entirely sure. But i always make sure i have the inputted the info correctly on my USB stick first. I think the best way for me to show you how i do this is by attaching some pictures.

Doc1: Shows the correct way for information to be displayed. In black at the top you have the track number and track title. Underneath in grey is Artist and underneath that is Album Title

Doc2: Shows the way you can change that information. Right click on the icon and select 'Properties' then hit the 'Summary' tab to change the selected information. You can change any of the information simply by clicking on the text an overwrite it. Remember to hit 'Apply' once you are finished for the changes to be saved.

Thats what i have done and it works fine for me. Most of the time, cus you are ripping CDs the information should be correct but just check it first cus it isn't always. Your car display won't be able to diplay symbols like / ? ' or # so take those out.

Sorry if you know all this already, but im just thinking back to what you said about Radio4 - my Dad listens to R4 and he wouldn't have a clue about any of this stuff, so don't be offeneded ok

 

[clockworks]

I'd never be offended by being told the simple stuff. I know from experience that even the most knowledgeable person can overlook the obvious

BTW, you don't have to be old to listen to Radio4. I switched to Radio4 from the local "pop" station during the first Gulf war, as it was the best place to hear what was going on. I was in my early thirties at the time. I've stayed with Radio4 ever since, switching to CDs when something boring was on.

Despite having worked as a computer engineer for over 30 years, I still struggle with some of the newer applications.

I think that Windows gets the track info from the ID tags - can't be sure, as I'm a mac user - so I'll be sure to double-check the tags.

 

[Tim84]

OK Understood about Radio4 - but i think it will be a while before i move onto it, i still enjoy Radio1, Galaxy and Absolute Radio

Yes just double-check your tags when putting music onto your USB stick. For some people it's only a minor inconvenience but i find it very annoying when a message on the dipsplay comes up saying 'Track 1 by Unknown Artist' Arrgghh!

Anyway, glad i could help and enjoy using Blue&Me -- Tim.