what is the optimal usb and ssd drive type/size

[c2insa@yahoo.com]

if I have 500 cd's to rip lossless:

 

do I get one ssd large enough to hold all 500, or will the count of files/folders end up beyond the max

 

do I get two smaller ssd's (one for 1 and the other for 2)

[jhren]

Go with one large ssd.  JMO

[c2insa@yahoo.com]

what size, 500 is not too large?

[hella356]

I have a 500GB external HDD which I'm going to test with a mini USB3 Y-cable.  The other end has two USB cables which I'm going to plug into both ports on the AVH-4000.  If it works, I'll have a solution with an external drive I already have, which will hopefully work until I can budget some big SSDs.  I will actually install a separate USB power source ($13) to plug the 2nd USB plug into, a dual USB which would allow two HDDs to connect.  If all goes well, I could add a 2nd drive just like it for $60 vs about $230 for an SSD + enclosure.  Dang budget.  It seems clear that a typical SSD USB drive can simply plug into the back and work.  If it does work, it'll probably take quite a while on the first read, but apparently that goes away after the initial run.  I don't know if there is any difference in the speed of reading the files initially on an SSD vs HDD.

 

I have the drive maxed out at 14,999 FLAC files, within 1,421 folders, primarily across-the-board rock music.  I don't know how many CDs it is, but it's in the hundreds, as a big percentage of the 1,421 folders represent individual CDs.  With a couple exceptions for testing purposes, these FLAC files are all individual songs. This batch of music yields 370GB. The range, compressed, seems to be 200-500MB per CD, with most between 250-350MB per disk.  I guess that if I figured 370MB per CD, I've got roughly 1,000 CDs on it.  So if you figure 500MB x 500 CDs, you're looking at about 250GB.  If they average 300MB per CD, you're at about 150GB.  Good chance you can do them all in a 250GB SSD or even a 256GB USB flash drive, or two 128GB USB flash drives. 

[c2insa@yahoo.com]

thank you for the awesome, complete answer!

[c2insa@yahoo.com]

and if I understand the functionality of the 8000, there is no need to put the cd's on the drive in any particular order because they can be searched in any way through the hu software (except for playlists of course)

[tickerguy]

The indexing is a one-shot unless you change files on the drive, then it requires some time again (but not nearly as much.)  On a startup after the disk has been previously attached it takes maybe 20 seconds before it starts playing.  The first read takes several minutes.

 

This is with a 120Gb SSD.  Note that you can format either in FAT32 or NTFS, but beware that folder (not song!) sort order is a problem; you can sort a FAT directory drive, but NOT a NTFS one. 

[hella356]

The indexing is a one-shot unless you change files on the drive, then it requires some time again (but not nearly as much.)  On a startup after the disk has been previously attached it takes maybe 20 seconds before it starts playing.  The first read takes several minutes.

 

This is with a 120Gb SSD.  Note that you can format either in FAT32 or NTFS, but beware that folder (not song!) sort order is a problem; you can sort a FAT directory drive, but NOT a NTFS one. 

tickerguy, can you please elaborate on the folder sorting thing?  I have the folders on the 500GB drive (NTFS) in alphabetical order by artist, with album folders under the artist, then the files themselves in order by number, as in "01 Blitzkrieg Bop.flac", "02 Beat on the Brat.flac".  Does that mean that when it reads the drive, it might list the folders out of order, as in having U2 before the Beatles?  I'm not interested in scanning by song, artist, genre, etc., just hoping to have it so when I switch to a USB input that it lists the folders the same way they appear on my computer.  It sounds like that would be the case with FAT32, but they may be jumbled in NTFS? 

[MarketSqHero]

It's the same for both FAT32 & NTFS, however with FAT32 there are other options (FATSorter being one) which will reorganise the folders into alphabetical order. With NTFS you wouldn't have the option and the order will be the order they're added to the SD card / USB drive.

 

It's one simple line of code in the HU software (Android) to do the sorting, but they didn't add it so you're stuck with doing it outside of the HU.

[hella356]

Thanks for the insight, MarketSqHero.  That is annoying, but I think it would be worth spending some extra time carefully placing the folders in order if I went NTFS, considering I'll likely fill the drive on the first shot and won't have to do anything further with it after that.  Good to hear there is a viable solution, even though it seems rather clunky with either format!  It's like when I finally got around to organizing my roughy 2,500 LP collection; it was a nightmare to find anything until I spent an entire day sorting them.  Now it's no problem finding a record, so it was worth it in that case, too. 

 

A big thanks to everyone here, btw.  The info I've been gaining will make my install and subsequent usage MUCH better!

[MarketSqHero]

One thing that's missing also is the ability to search within tags. Scrolling through 100s of artists or 1000s of albums is a pain, yes they have the quick "jump" letters down the side to make it slightly easier but being able to type the name of the artist or album and it filtering down as you hit each letter (a bit like searching for a place in the nav) would make things much easier!

[tickerguy]

Exactly as noted.  The unit does not sort folders, it displays them in the order they are on the disk.  This is a serious screw-up on Pioneer's part as it's a literal single line of code to perform the sort.

 

SONGS are sorted within a folder, so if you have the track filenames as "01 -- Some name", "02 - Some other name", etc it works as expected.  HOWEVER, if using the tag browser it's not because track NAMES (in ID3 tags) do NOT, as a matter of rule, have track numbers and thus when the unit sorts the ID3 tags (and yes, it does at the bottom level!) the album plays in ALPHABETICAL track order -- which is ALSO wrong!

 

The software "engineer" responsible for this deserves to be strung up by his balls -- but until and unless Pioneer fixes this (note that other head unit manufacturers ALSO typically get this wrong!) with a FAT32 directory you can use an external utility to sort the directory order and resolve it.  There is no way to do that with NTFS filesystems.

[hella356]

Great info, fellas.  I agree, this is a silly oversight by the software people - makes me wonder if they every actually use the head units themselves.  Hopefully this will be addressed in an update.  The ability to drill down by typing in a few letters rather than scrolling down through hundreds of folders would indeed be a nice touch.  Personally, I don't use playlists on my Android phone or Windows PC, nor utilize ID3 tags for anything.  I just navigate through the folders, so hopefully that won't prove too cumbersome.  Compared to fishing through a huge binder (which still only gives me access to a fraction of my collection) of CDs and having to eject & insert a disk every time I want different music, I have no doubt I'll be able to live with the USB storage quite happily.  Great to hear of the pitfalls before I dive in with all the new gear, though!

[jhren]

...  There is no way to do that with NTFS filesystems.

I wouldn't say no way to do it... just not any widely-known solutions... but I could be wrong.

 

Anyone know the particulars of how the HU reads folders (is it files also?) in non-alphanumeric order (other than firmware screw-up).  It seems it would read them in some order other than non-a/n order... be it folder creation date, master file table, etc.

[tickerguy]

It just reads the directory tree in order as on the disk.