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      11-09-2013, 02:12 PM   #1
dbs600
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Music Collection Quality after Backup and Restore

Anyone notice a loss of music quality after Music Collection backup to a USB drive and restoring same back to the car?

I backed up my Music Collection to a USB drive, converted the BR5 files to WAV files (for which there should be no loss), but when I play the WAV files on the car directly from the USB drive, I feel there’s something different about the quality / levels / volume, but not 100% sure.

Please advise, as I plan to convert the WAV files back to BR5 files, but I’m hesitant to delete the Music Collection already on the car prior to Music Collection restoration if it means a loss of quality. I’d really like to get my Music Collection organized, but don’t want to do so at the expense of quality. Don’t understand why BMW doesn’t allow us to re-order saved albums. That’s all I’m asking for!

ALSO, is there any way to do a partial restoration (without deleting the Music Collection already on the car) to test / compare an album or two?

Thanks!
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      11-09-2013, 05:09 PM   #2
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What I do is format a USB stick (largest memory stick I can find) and create folders on the memory stick. One for Rock, Soul, Modern,...etc... Then I make subfolders for the Artist within those categories. Then, I just drag the songs for the appropriate artist, out of my iTunes widow directly to the folder the songs belong in. All of my files are high quality 320KBS per file, if you have a Hi-Fidelity system, 320KBS is better than CD quality for the most part and theres no loss of definition. I wouldn't convert files from one thing to the other, sometimes you lose quality in the process.

Once I put the USB stick together, I just copy things on and off the usb stick and when I am ready to upload the new stuff to the car, I delete the entire collection and re-import the USB stick. There doesn't seem to be a way to only import new things.

With BMW's new Nav systems (as of 2013 refresh) the larger hard drive and the speedier cpu of the nav/radio unit is just outstanding. I can upload my entire USB stick of high quality soundtrack in only minutes versus having to wait for a longer road trip to do the import. In my older 2011 550i, the process would take up to 45 minutes.

Dragging the songs out of iTunes is very easy and requires no conversions, not to mention, you keep the quality of the given track.
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      11-09-2013, 05:10 PM   #3
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What I do is format a USB stick (largest memory stick I can find) and create folders on the memory stick. One for Rock, Soul, Modern,...etc... Then I make subfolders for the Artist within those categories. Then, I just drag the songs for the appropriate artist, out of my iTunes widow directly to the folder the songs belong in. All of my files are high quality 320KBS per file, if you have a Hi-Fidelity system, 320KBS is better than CD quality for the most part and theres no loss of definition. I wouldn't convert files from one thing to the other, sometimes you lose quality in the process.

Once I put the USB stick together, I just copy things on and off the usb stick and when I am ready to upload the new stuff to the car, I delete the entire collection and re-import the USB stick. There doesn't seem to be a way to only import new things.

With BMW's new Nav systems (as of 2013 refresh) the larger hard drive and the speedier cpu of the nav/radio unit is just outstanding. I can upload my entire USB stick of high quality soundtrack in only minutes versus having to wait for a longer road trip to do the import. In my older 2011 550i, the process would take up to 45 minutes.

Dragging the songs out of iTunes is very easy and requires no conversions, not to mention, you keep the quality of the given track.
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      11-09-2013, 05:12 PM   #4
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What I do is format a USB stick (largest memory stick I can find) and create folders on the memory stick. One for Rock, Soul, Modern,...etc... Then I make subfolders for the Artist within those categories. Then, I just drag the songs for the appropriate artist, out of my iTunes widow directly to the folder the songs belong in. All of my files are high quality 320KBS per file, if you have a Hi-Fidelity system, 320KBS is better than CD quality for the most part and theres no loss of definition. I wouldn't convert files from one thing to the other, sometimes you lose quality in the process.

Once I put the USB stick together, I just copy things on and off the usb stick and when I am ready to upload the new stuff to the car, I delete the entire collection and re-import the USB stick. There doesn't seem to be a way to only import new things.

With BMW's new Nav systems (as of 2013 refresh) the larger hard drive and the speedier cpu of the nav/radio unit is just outstanding. I can upload my entire USB stick of high quality soundtrack in only minutes versus having to wait for a longer road trip to do the import. In my older 2011 550i, the process would take up to 45 minutes.

Dragging the songs out of iTunes is very easy and requires no conversions, not to mention, you keep the quality of the given track.
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      11-09-2013, 05:28 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by osxcode View Post
What I do is format a USB stick (largest memory stick I can find) and create folders on the memory stick. One for Rock, Soul, Modern,...etc... Then I make subfolders for the Artist within those categories. Then, I just drag the songs for the appropriate artist, out of my iTunes widow directly to the folder the songs belong in. All of my files are high quality 320KBS per file, if you have a Hi-Fidelity system, 320KBS is better than CD quality for the most part and theres no loss of definition. I wouldn't convert files from one thing to the other, sometimes you lose quality in the process.

Once I put the USB stick together, I just copy things on and off the usb stick and when I am ready to upload the new stuff to the car, I delete the entire collection and re-import the USB stick. There doesn't seem to be a way to only import new things.

With BMW's new Nav systems (as of 2013 refresh) the larger hard drive and the speedier cpu of the nav/radio unit is just outstanding. I can upload my entire USB stick of high quality soundtrack in only minutes versus having to wait for a longer road trip to do the import. In my older 2011 550i, the process would take up to 45 minutes.

Dragging the songs out of iTunes is very easy and requires no conversions, not to mention, you keep the quality of the given track.
Okay; thanks for the detailed reply!

So, I don't know, maybe converting BR5's to WAV's do impact quality? It shouldn't, as nothing is being "converted" per-se; it's simply a bit-reversed WAV...
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      11-09-2013, 05:32 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbs600 View Post
Okay; thanks for your detailed reply!

So, I really don't know, maybe converting from BR5's to WAV's do effect quality? It really shouldn't as nothing is being "converted" per-se; it's simply a bit reversed WAV file...
I didn't mean to reply so many times, the server must have been having an issue. Anytime you make modifications from an original, the file is no longer the same. WAV's are not high quality files to begin with, you need AAC or some kind of lossless format which retains the originality of the mastered file.

If it's not of the highest quality, of course you will hear artifacts during playback.
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      11-09-2013, 05:48 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by osxcode View Post
I didn't mean to reply so many times, the server must have been having an issue. Anytime you make modifications from an original, the file is no longer the same. WAV's are not high quality files to begin with, you need AAC or some kind of lossless format which retains the originality of the mastered file.

If it's not of the highest quality, of course you will hear artifacts during playback.
But when you store a CD to the Music Collection, what's saved is a BR5 (It's not as though BR5's are created only when backing up a Music Collection), right? Also are BR5's and WAV's of the same quality? I don't believe there is any loss from one to the other, unless mistaken...
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      11-09-2013, 05:51 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbs600 View Post
But when you store a CD to the Music Collection, what's saved is a BR5 (It's not as though BR5's are created only when backing up a Music Collection), right? Also are BR5's and WAV's of the same quality? I don't believe there is any loss from one to the other, unless mistaken...
BR5's are a low quality audio file. That's a conversion process from AAC or MP4 to BR5 by way of BMWs software. WAVs are one of the oldest forms of digital audio files. If you want the best quality audio, I would import your CD to your computer and keep your digital library there, then when ready, transfer by way of USB stick to the BMWs hard disk drive.
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      11-09-2013, 07:06 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by osxcode View Post
BR5's are a low quality audio file. That's a conversion process from AAC or MP4 to BR5 by way of BMWs software. WAVs are one of the oldest forms of digital audio files. If you want the best quality audio, I would import your CD to your computer and keep your digital library there, then when ready, transfer by way of USB stick to the BMWs hard disk drive.
Thanks again, but I'm not necessarily looking for the best quality. I'm not great with keeping music on a computer or player and the way in which I've created my digital collection has been through my car, by storing CD's to the car.

Anyway, you seem tech inclined, so another question: How can I keep the same order of the tracks from an album when saving same in folder structure to a USB drive? In other words: When I plug in the USB drive to the car, everything is in alphabetical order (I'd prefer track order)...

Last edited by dbs600; 11-10-2013 at 09:53 AM..
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      11-10-2013, 10:21 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbs600 View Post
Thanks again, but I'm not necessarily looking for the best quality. I'm not great with keeping music on a computer or player and the way in which I've created my digital collection has been through my car, by storing CD's to the car.

Anyway, you seem tech inclined, so another question: How can I keep the same order of the tracks from an album when saving same in folder structure to a USB drive? In other words: When I plug in the USB drive to the car, everything is in alphabetical order (I'd prefer track order)...
If you copy out of iTunes, you keep the Album priority -- So your Dark Side of the Moon soundtrack will appear as it does on the CD insert, start to finish. If you are not using that method, you can copy the files to the USB stick and and numbers to each file to be sure that the order is retained. You may not have to do that, you can try with a small batch of albums and see what happens. Copying out of iTunes is definitely the easiest way, you just drag the songs onto the folder of the USB stick.
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      11-10-2013, 11:07 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by osxcode View Post
If you copy out of iTunes, you keep the Album priority -- So your Dark Side of the Moon soundtrack will appear as it does on the CD insert, start to finish. If you are not using that method, you can copy the files to the USB stick and and numbers to each file to be sure that the order is retained. You may not have to do that, you can try with a small batch of albums and see what happens. Copying out of iTunes is definitely the easiest way, you just drag the songs onto the folder of the USB stick.
I have a PC and really do not like iTunes at all, but are you saying that if I use iTunes the tracks will be in order without them saying 1, 2, 3… before the title of the song?

Thanks for all of your help with this!
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      11-10-2013, 11:13 AM   #12
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Thats exactly what I am saying. iTunes keeps the natural order (it does on both my macs and pcs) so it should work this way on your PC also. There may be other programs that do this as well, but iTunes does it and very well.
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      11-10-2013, 09:17 PM   #13
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Okay; thanks!
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