Formatting USB for car audio surround. (Using JRiver Formatting). Questions.

[marpow]

I finally finished my first 32G USB drive, FAT32. This first one is all 4.0 Dutton Vocalion.
There were others DV's that did not make it onto drive as I didn't think they would be cool for car.
I also did, I think, the last DSP tune for the car. On the 5.1 songs the center channel vocals sounded a little like coming out of a tin can, fixed.
The good news with the Chinese 5.1 decoder is you can select each channel (speaker) and raise or lower DB's (volume).
I also tested with the tune the 4.0 recordings, I wanted to verify that the true 4.0's had no LFE and no center channel, confirmed to be true.
I was worried because I had to select 5.1 audio out on the re-format and I didn't know if that was going to come out as a faux 5.1 or not, good news, comes out as a true 4.0.
I have also started my 5TB SSD drive all in stereo that goes through stock UConnect head unit, and I started a 5.1 32G Fat32 drive for the decoder. Both play well and tuned great, sounds great.
Small note, as good as the stereo sounds it does not compare to the surround sound which sounds so much better. It is the phenomenon of being spoiled. Having not heard surround in the car the stereo with the new JL Audio system would be fantastic, just not mind blowing like the surround sound.
Well, I think I achieved my goal, I might get some bugs that pop up, but feel pretty comfortable now.

 

[marpow]

I knew before this was finished I would have another question.
My question regarding ripping Atmos and 5.1.
I have the ability to rip both, I use the combo of MKV and MMH, works perfect every time, not my question.
In the interest of time saving, would it matter in the car to play a Atmos rip through the 5.1 decoder? That would mean the decoder would have to downmix the Atmos file to 5.1?
Or is it more of a pure playback to just use the 5.1 rip?
I think I read somewhere on QQ that a person ripped all the 5.1 and played back in the car stereo only, he did not have 5.1 listening available in the car. The reasoning was the 5.1 downmixed to 2.0 in the car, had better fidelity because of the lossless play back of the file?
I can rip and playback anything, just don't want to be wasting time.
OK, there are a few questions here.

 

[marpow]

I thought I would post my findings on this thread, but I will also post the same on the Challenger build thread.
So I got This, no longer for sale 5.1 decoder, works well, remote is so/so and screen size is small. Most importantly it delivers true 4.0 and 5.1 decoding assuming you have your 32G FAT32 drive correct.
Just for the heck of it I purchased two of these new available ones, screen is larger and it shows albums, that is a big plus as the discontinued model only shows tracks. Remote is far more advanced. Has an actual instructions via Q code.
The big problem for me is we designed the unit to separate the screen plate to go from the unit in the glove box to center dash console.
Unfortunately the new version has a ribbon connection from screen to unit and looks like a no go, in my case, unless I want to do everything all over, which I don't.
So, if I wanted the new unit, it would have to be inside glove box only and I need a break from all this madness.
Here is the LINK TO INSTRUCTIONS OF NEW UNIT The two units I received, that I am not using are called HD920, they call it HD920PRO, but I think they are the same.

 

[marpow]

You are all pretty smart when it comes to all this. My current 5.1 Decoder does not show albums or artists on screen only track list (song names) so I made a index on Google Docs that I can see from my phone that will keep me from getting completely lost. Once I am on an album I don't really need to know the track name.
Is there maybe a better way? I titled each thumb drive with it's own name and what is on it, and the order of albums that is on each thumb drive. The colors of the thumb drives match my index, and black sharpie marks the actual thumb drive.
So Far I have done 7 drives and each drive holds from 15-19 albums. Shown here are just my SACD drives but I have also done a Blu Ray and a DVD-A, not shown. I am going to finish what I started, and then I have to stop, getting burned out on all this formatting, 1 or 2 is nothing but when I start looking at a thousand or so surround albums it's not fun.
Plus I got to drive the actual car and start listening.
FWIW: I am a hole album music listener, not a playlist listener, don't know why, maybe the way I grew up?

USB RED 4.0 SACD		USB RED 4.0 SACD II		USB BLACK 5.1 SACD		USB BLUE 5.1 SACD
#10-Guess Who		Abraxas-Santana		A Night At The Opera-Queen		Captain Fantastic-Elton John
360 Degrees-Billy Paul		Are You Experienced-Hendrix		Abacab-Genesis		Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player-Elton John
Ain't Nothin'Stoppin' Us Now-Tower Of Power		Axis Bold As Love-Hendrix		Blow By Blow-Jeff Beck		Elton John-Elton John
All American Boy-Rick Derringer		Best Of Bread-Bread		Brothers In Arms-Dire Straits		Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Disc1)
American Woman&Share The Land-Guess Who		Best Of Doors-Doors		Dark Side Of The Moon-Pink Floyd		Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Disc2)
Body Talk-George Benson		Best Of Guess Who-Guess Who		Duke-Genesis		Honky Chateau-Elton John
Booger Bear-Buddy Miles		Birds Of Fire-Mahvishnu Orchestra		Eric Johnson-Ah Via Musicom		Madman Across The Water-Elton John
BTO 1 & 2- Bachman Turner Overdrive		Brass & Ivory-Mancini & Sevrinson		Genesis-Genesis		Tumbleweed Connection-Elton John
Cantamos-Poco		Blood Sweat & Tears-BST		Invisible Touch-Genesis
Chase-Chase		Days of Future Passed-Moody Blues		L.A. Woman-The Doors
Dimension 3-Jimmy Castor Bunch		Earth Wind & Fire		Morrison Hotel-The Doors
Lost Horizons-Gerhardt NPO		Full Sail-Loggins & Messina		Rough And Ready-Jeff Beck
Music For Soulful Lovers-Cecil Holmes		Black&Blue, Wake Up Everybody-Harold Melvin		Shangri La-Mark Knopfler
Musicmagic-Return To Forever		Head To The Sky-Earth Wind & Fire		Strange Days-The Doors
Philadelphia Freedom-MFSB		Hearts-America		The Doors-The Doors
Picks The Best-Chet Atkins		Rockin' Soul & Love Corporation-The Hues Corporation		The Game-Queen
Road Food-Guess Who		In Deep-Argent		The Soft Parade-The Doors
Rockin & Vol 2-Guess Who		Loggins & Messina		Toys In The Attic-Aerosmith
Seven-Poco		Muscle Of Love-Alice Cooper		Waiting For The Sun-The Doors
Sextant-Herbie Hancock		Night Birds-Patti Labell		We Can't Dance-Genesis
Soul Box-Grover Washington Jr.		Open Our Eyes-Earth Wind & Fire		Waiting For The Sun-The Doors
Spring Fever-Rick Derringer		Santana-Santana		We Can't Dance-Genesis
Street Lady-Donald Byrd		Santana III-Santana		Wired-Jeff Beck
Superpickers-Chet Atkins		Secret Treaties-Blue Oyster Cult		Wish You Where Here-Pink Floyd
Tale Spinnin'-Weather Report		Sly Stone-Greatest Hits
The Black Motion Picture-Cecil Holmes		Spectrum-Billy Cobham
The O'Jays		The Collection-Various Artists
War Of The Gods-Billy Paul		The Hoople-Mott The Hoople
Wheatfield Soul & Canned Wheat-Guess Who		Thrust-Herbie Hancock

 

[DuncanS]

I'm with you on only listening to whole albums, unfortunately my Audi A5 also likes playlists and if you select an album, that is what it will play repeatedly, until you go back to the source and scroll through folders, albums etc- and I now hate touch screens, useless when driving

 

[marpow]

Just in case anyone is still following this thread, I came upon all my 5.1 surround DTS discs, which are 16bit X 44.1 KHz.
As an experiment I didn't know how the decoder would do so I reformatted with zero compression set to 24bit/44.1 and another just took the 5.1 as it is and copied over to the USB.
I could not tell the difference between the two in the car, so the good news no need to re-format with the surround DTS discs.

 

[marpow]

My new player that will go in car, finally the solution, will be the Cambridge CXU Disc Player

This player reads all, SACD, Blu Ray, DVD-A, etc.
I will operate with a 32Fat thumb drive. I have tested the SACD and will play as is DSD64, with no formatting.
The Blu Ray gets a little clipping at 192, so will reformat 6 compression, 24/96.

MY QUESTION: Should I reformat as talked about above?
SACD: 24 bit, 0 compression, 44.1
BLU RAY and DVD-A: 24 bit 0 compression, 48Khz.
Is there any benefit playing the larger files using the USB, if the player can handle them?
OR, do the smaller files work better with USB because?_________________

 

[surroundophile]

My new player that will go in car, finally the solution, will be the Cambridge CXU Disc Player

This player reads all, SACD, Blu Ray, DVD-A, etc.
I will operate with a 32Fat thumb drive. I have tested the SACD and will play as is DSD64, with no formatting.
The Blu Ray gets a little clipping at 192, so will reformat 6 compression, 24/96.

MY QUESTION: Should I reformat as talked about above?
SACD: 24 bit, 0 compression, 44.1
BLU RAY and DVD-A: 24 bit 0 compression, 48Khz.
Is there any benefit playing the larger files using the USB, if the player can handle them?
OR, do the smaller files work better with USB because?_________________

Isn't that a home player? How are you going to power that up? If you're on a bumpy road, won't it skip?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

My new player that will go in car, finally the solution, will be the Cambridge CXU Disc Player

This player reads all, SACD, Blu Ray, DVD-A, etc.
I will operate with a 32Fat thumb drive. I have tested the SACD and will play as is DSD64, with no formatting.
The Blu Ray gets a little clipping at 192, so will reformat 6 compression, 24/96.

MY QUESTION: Should I reformat as talked about above?
SACD: 24 bit, 0 compression, 44.1
BLU RAY and DVD-A: 24 bit 0 compression, 48Khz.
Is there any benefit playing the larger files using the USB, if the player can handle them?
OR, do the smaller files work better with USB because?_________________

In my mind the only issue is storage space.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Isn't that a home player? How are you going to power that up? If you're on a bumpy road, won't it skip?

He's going to be playing files, not discs. He needs the internal DAC.

 

[marpow]

Thanks all,
Yes, I believe I will situate the player to be able to open and close the disc tray, however I have no faith that a disc would play because of bumpiness.
I have decided to add a lot of music in it's native format. Re-formatting takes a lot of time that was absolutely necessary in the previous 5.1 decoders, as the native format would not play.
This home player that does have the DAC inside can handle FLAC up to 24/96, so Blu Rays that are 24/192 then I have to reformat, but DVD-A at 24/48 and SACD at DSD64 there is no reason to re-format.
I now have 10 USB's set up for the player. They are numbered and color coded. I made a spread sheet on Google Docs, that shows the albums on each USB thumb drive.
I have them broken down to 4.0 SACD, 5.1 Blu Ray, on and on and on.
it is starting to look like my entire music collection on my NAS, it's just too much.
I was able to get a USB extender to go from trunk to front seat console, so I don't have to open trunk to get to player.
Back to my question above, I will stick to the full native because having more than 15 albums on one drive really is not necessary.
I'll send some pictures soon.

 

[nikomen]

1) That is the level of flac compression. 0 being none, 8 being the most.
This impacts the size of the file 0 = largest, 8 = smallest.
It also increases the duration of the file creation due to the CPU time it takes to compress.
None should impact playback, it just sounds like your car wants uncompressed flac which means larger files.

I’m not sure if this is the right forum for me to ask this question, it seems to be the closest I could find. I am trying to find out if anyone is aware of a player that you can stream 5.1 files to your cars audio system? My newest car has a built-in 5.1 audio system. I currently use an iPhone that is running iTunes which I can stream to my other two cars in stereo, but iTunes will not stream 5.1 files to any system, and iTunes does not recognize FLAC files, it uses and recognizes ALAC, Apples lossless system. I have no desire to use Apple Music to stream to the system since I already owned so much music myself.

I see in the screen that it must be possible to plug a flash drive into the system and play 5.1 files from that flash drive, I guess if it’s formatted correctly? For me it would be better if I could find some type of music player that can stream by 5.1, if that’s possible, to my car’s 5.1 system. I have about 2 Terabyte worth of 5.1 surround music on an external hard drive, which is the source of music that I’d like to play in my car 5.1 player. Any suggestions? Appreciate any help that others do and or can offer! The main reason I would rather have some type of music player that I can stream from rather than a flash drive, like iTunes, a lot of music players at least in the past have the ability to Create, edit and play playlists from the player, similar to iTunes playlists. I don’t know how you could do that with a flash drive.

 

[marpow]

I’m not sure if this is the right forum for me to ask this question, it seems to be the closest I could find. I am trying to find out if anyone is aware of a player that you can stream 5.1 files to your cars audio system? My newest car has a built-in 5.1 audio system. I currently use an iPhone that is running iTunes which I can stream to my other two cars in stereo, but iTunes will not stream 5.1 files to any system, and iTunes does not recognize FLAC files, it uses and recognizes ALAC, Apples lossless system. I have no desire to use Apple Music to stream to the system since I already owned so much music myself.

I see in the screen that it must be possible to plug a flash drive into the system and play 5.1 files from that flash drive, I guess if it’s formatted correctly? For me it would be better if I could find some type of music player that can stream by 5.1, if that’s possible, to my car’s 5.1 system. I have about 2 Terabyte worth of 5.1 surround music on an external hard drive, which is the source of music that I’d like to play in my car 5.1 player. Any suggestions? Appreciate any help that others do and or can offer! The main reason I would rather have some type of music player that I can stream from rather than a flash drive, like iTunes, a lot of music players at least in the past have the ability to Create, edit and play playlists from the player, similar to iTunes playlists. I don’t know how you could do that with a flash drive.

Is it an actual 5.1 system or is it a selection called, Surround Sound, if so that is not a true 5.1, it just activates a center channel on front dash.
The USB flash drives are wonderful for bringing your stereo music from home. My experience is the USB drive will play all FLAC in any 16 or 24 bit format including up to 192Khz.
Will not play any form of DSD (DSF files).
Creating Playlists on thumb drive is easy, insert drive in PC, open empty drive, add folder, say Jazz Music, then go through your personal music loaded via NAS or on your PC, or even another thumb drive. Copy over one song at a time, when you are done with your Jazz playlist, make a new folder Rock Music and do same, or a a single band playlist, Rolling Stones.
Regarding true 5.1 surround music that would be equal to what you listen at home, very hard to do unless you have one of those Acura cars, and I have read on QQ there are even some problems with those.
I have been down this road extensively building my Challenger, 5.1 decoders are hit and miss, some only want to take a stereo source and decode the 5.1 to a faux surround sound, sounds pretty good but not the real thing. I am currently building a home Blu Ray player in my car to get the actual REAL THING. Lots of trial and error on my part, plus wasted money, but nobody has done what I have done, and I have to find out things on my own. They used to sell aftermarket DVD players, but those at best are rare, and they do not have the capabilities of modern format surround listening in a car.
Keep asking questions, I will try to help.