SD Cards 16gb? What works.... — AVIC411 Forum Archive

Posted Sep 01, 2008 · 22:23 UTC#1

I have a "transcend 16gb class 6 card" formatted with fat32 with the default sector size and it doesn't work.

Is there anyone out there that has gotten these to work? Hoping that you can post the specs of the card so we can all learn what works.

Thanks!

Posted Sep 10, 2008 · 16:56 UTC#2

I'm wondering the same thing. I know many have gotten large SD cards to work. What brands? What speed class?

Has anyone determine the difference in boot up time with a card plugged in versus without? (and perhaps with/without the scan turned on?)

Would a USB stick be any better?

Newegg has a 16GB A-Data for only $38.99. Unless someone warns me away I'm going to buy it and give it a try.

The 32 GB SD cards are still a bit too pricey for now.

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 00:09 UTC#3

Just FYI..I got my 16gb card to work after I reformatted in Vista with the default FAT32 and then I moved my videos into a "Video" folder along with a "Music" folder

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 15:19 UTC#4

I bought an 8GB Class 6 Transcend card and cannot get it to read music off of it. It reads data/background/boots to Windows off of the card. But it will not even read the folder structure of the card when I try to play music or video.

It think its a software issue with my headunit, as I have the exact same issue reading from USB. My replacement F700 arrived today and I'll see if the new one reads the music.

SD Cards I have tried:

128 Mb Sandisk (FAT/FAT16/FAT32) - Reads data

2 GB Adata (FAT/FAT16/FAT32) - Reads data

2 GB Kingston (FAT/FAT16/FAT32) - Reads data

8 GB Transcend (FAT/FAT16/FAT32) - Reads data

USB Drives I have tried:

2 GB Memorex Traveldrive (FAT32) - Reads data

4 GB Sandisk Cruzer (FAT32) - Reads data

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 16:09 UTC#5

I noticed one quirk that might affect how it looks at the SD cards. Mind you this was a 2GB card, but it might affect the larger ones as well.

I found that it would only search one level of directories for music. If it found no music in the first level of subdirectories, it gave up.

So this works:

SD Card
-->Album1 (folder)
---->Song1.mp3
---->Song2.mp3
---->Song3.mp3
-->Album2 (folder)
---->Song1.mp3
---->Song2.mp3
---->Song3.mp3

But this does not work:

SD Card
-->Music (folder)
---->Album1 (folder)
------>Song1.mp3
------>Song2.mp3
------>Song3.mp3
---->Album2 (folder)
------>Song1.mp3
------>Song2.mp3
------>Song3.mp3

In other words, if the 'top' directory of the SD Card contains music, or contains a bunch of folders which themselves contain music, then it would be fine. But if the 'top' directory had no music, and the next level of directories also had no music, then it would simply give up and stop searching -- even if there was a hundred song files in a 3rd level directory.

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 17:57 UTC#6

I would have believed that to be my issue if I hadn't tried putting music directly on the root of the card/USB. But I will make sure to put some music one folder up.

My current folder structure looks like this:

Root

----->Music

---------->Artist

--------------->Album

-------------------->Song

I'll try it before I replace my current F700 as well as with the new one.

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 18:15 UTC#7

A note in the manual (page 179) made me try moving my music up a directory level when I first tried it out. It's a small little thing, but it solved the problem for me at least.

If there is a folder that does not contain any playable file, the folder itself will display in the folder list but you cannot check any files in the folder. (The blank list will appear.) Also, these folders will be skipped without displaying the folder number.

I took that to mean, if a folder contains no music at all (even if it has subdirectories which themselves have music), the folder's contents will not be displayed. They have an illustration on that page that shows music in various subdirectory levels, but every level does contain some music.

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 18:30 UTC#8

I put a bunch of movies on mine .avi format and mpeg4 same thing. But I don't see the titles it always says file 01 or 02 for example. anyone know if you can have the unit recognize the titles?

stephanie great job on the look and feel of your f900 I really love it, did you ever get the N.S.E.W. heading worked out? I'd love to have the same thing on mine but don't want to risk ruining a good thing.

Thumbs UP

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 18:56 UTC#9

I haven't tried movies at all so can't help there, sorry.

Re the NSEW thing, I can get it to display a 'linear compass' which basically is like one of those old floating compasses, it floats the letters along on the screen. The code is already in place in the files, just not displayed, so it's just a matter of enabling it. Oh and the compass.bmp they had was backwards (E and W were backwards) so I had to make my own graphic for that. Sadly there is no way I can find to display the heading in degrees.

Posted Sep 11, 2008 · 21:53 UTC#10

Well, that solves my problem.

It looks like my headunit had some kind of software and hardware issue.

My replacement headunit read the SD card and USB drive immediately without making any changes to my existing file structure.

There was always an issue with the SD slot in my old headunit, it would go half way in and then I would have to wiggle it in the rest of the way. The SD card slot in the new headunit slides in smoothly and feels stronger/firmer.

Stephanie, I tried your suggestion before I removed my old headunit. But I got the same result. But both my 2GB (with your suggestion) card and 8GB (without your suggestion) card read in my replacement headunit.

Another tribute to the build quality of the F series... :cry:

Posted Sep 19, 2008 · 13:22 UTC#11

I just bought a 16GB A-Data card. Its the class 6 "turbo" version.

Had problem at first because all of my readers are too old and don't support HC so I couldn't write to it. I have a new reader being shipped to me. I finally had a brain fart and plugged it into my camera, and then plugged my camera into my computer. The camera allows me to read/write to it. First I reformatted it (FAT32), I don't know if this was necessary. I transferred over about half my music collection so far (the card is about half full). It was getting to late to copy over the whole thing.

It works perfectly! (or at least as perfect as can be with the lackluster avic software) I didn't notice any increased start up time.

Posted Sep 23, 2008 · 18:30 UTC#12

I have two 16 gig transend SDHC class 6 cards, one is full of movies. most of my movies come through, they are in .avi format. I think the ones that aren't may be corrupted. Anyway... the 16gb card seems to slow down the reaction time in the unit. after a while it speeds up again, but as long as it's looking at the card ... it's slow.

Can I rant... and if I get help GREAT...

Another thing... anyone having problems receiving MSN Direct? I've gotten the signal bars (not always) but it is always in an inactive state. and I get no updates even though I'm well withing their coverage.

Last item... Video input on AV1 If I set up a plug-and-play (example sega genesis dreamware) the image does not refresh and is not shown properly. Could this be a grounding issue or maybe it just doesn't work? I also pluged it into the AV2 using a jack and it was worse, I got sound and static buzz like when you plug video into sound.

Posted Sep 23, 2008 · 18:30 UTC#13