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Music for the C7

21K views 40 replies 21 participants last post by  stevec 
#1 ·
The car is on order and I have to clean up my Terabytes of music to ensure optimum road trip back from the museum. I know there are multiple ways to get sound waves pumping, but I am interested in the SD card and the USB, plus some of the features the C7 either uses or excludes. Most everything I have is mp3 and I believe that mp3 is fine on a SD card to be played in the Chevy codec.

  • How are you people putting together music for presentation in the car?
  • Are there other formats that the system can recognize (e.g. wma, MP4A, etc)?
  • Are you using all of the tags afforded to the format (e.g. tags like genre, artist, release date, cover art, etc)?
  • Does all of that information get displayed when playing the music?
  • What is displayed on the HUD?
  • What is displayed on the infotainment screen or the middle screen dash?
  • What is the largest SD card that can be used in the system?
  • Is there a difference between the capabilities of USB delivered music and SD card provided music?
  • Can I connect a 2 TB hard drive to the USB input and have it provide many Terabytes of music or am I limited on the maximum size of the library provided?
  • Is there enough USB power to drive the current required of a hard drive on the USB input?
  • Is Chevy using anything like playlists, if so, what format would these be in?
  • Does the system recognize FAT32 drive protocol or is it something proprietary?

I appreciate any and all help from you people that own the car and understand what I am talking about. If you only know a little, that would help too. Thanks.
 
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#2 ·
I made a Corvette ride home play list on my Iphone with I tunes...I could either access via blue tooth or USB (which is what I did on the ride home keeping the phone connected inside the console as it charged also) List was 6 hours long :cool:
 
#3 ·
Very interested in the USB hard drive idea, and if it will work. Bought a 2 TB one and tried it in my 2013 GMC Yukon Denali, and it didn't work.


John P. Dwyer
 
#6 ·
Not really looking for the quickest way. I am really looking for the best way to stuff my collection through the car and there isn't an iPod that can really handle it all (and I have several). You mentioned playlists. Do you know the format or how you are doing that and what do you see displayed?
 
#5 · (Edited)
Quote: "Very interested in the USB hard drive idea, and if it will work. Bought a 2 TB one and tried it in my 2013 GMC Yukon Denali, and it didn't work."


It may just need additional power. That is generally the issue with USB outlets... not enough current to drive the HD. Some USB drives have data and power separated. In that case there would be a way to do it. Drives are getting more efficient though. I had a drive that came with a cable that plugged into to USB ports to power the drive and provide data connection.
 
#8 ·
I downloaded about 50-60 songs (Christmas gift cards) from iTunes. A mix of 60s, 70s, 80s music.
 
#9 ·
The infotainment user manual is available online, and should be a mandatory read for prospective C7 owners. Page 21 has most of the info on USB devices. This also applies to music on SD cards. Apparently, the latest enhanced SD standards are not supported, so 32GB is the effective max size of an SD card. USB hard drives are not supported, according to info on pg 21.

When we picked up our car, my wife had a 32GB SD card she had loaded up with about 4000 songs in .MP3 format, most of 192kbps or better quality. This only took up about 19GB of the 32 available. You can have the files in folders. For music where we have many songs from one artist, we use the /artist/album/ folder structure. We also have a folder for Christmas music, as well as a couple of generic music type folders. You can select music by artist, album, or genre. Also, if the .MP3 has an album picture imbedded in the file, it will display on the dash or console panel when the audio screen is selected, along with artist, song title, and album.

IIRC on the HUD, when songs change, the title and artist appear for a few seconds.


Sent from my iPad using Corvette Stingray Forum
 
#10 ·
Thanks Fdxpilot, that is good info. Looks like I'll have to organize a little different. I think I can get a hard drive to work, but will load up some SDs for the trip. That would be the trip I may never take if my order never moves. Ah well, there's always 2015...


Sent from my iPad using Corve
 
#11 ·
Between Pandora linked from my iPhone plugged in inside the console, and XM that is all I need. Good info to know about the other methods.:cool:
 
#13 ·
I purchased a Toshiba 1.5TB USB drive and plugged it into USB port behind radio, used velgro to hold it down and hit the media button, it works like a charm. Didn't need anything else.
Amazon.com: Toshiba 1.5 TB Toshiba Canvio 3.0 Plus Portable Hard Drive in Black (HDTC615XK3B1): Computers & Accessories
Glad to hear it works for you, especially since the infotainment manual says on pg 21 that "Hard disk drives are not supported". http://www.chevrolet.com/content/da...oupe/Model_Overview/PDF/2k14corvette_info.pdf
 
#15 ·
I'm basically a computer illiterate so my question is...If I have an iPod with bluetooth, would I be able to marry-it, or whatever you call it, to the StingRay's system and listen to music wirelessly? Since you can marry the iPhone to the system via bluetooth, one would think you would be able to do the same with an iPod.
 
#20 ·
My iPhone music and Pandora are nice. Is there any way to play iHeart Radio from my iPhone through the infotainment system? I haven't discovered how, if possible, to add iHeart app to my system. Reception of my favorite radio stations is not always good so I was hoping to use iHeart to solve that issue.

Bighogg
 
#22 ·
Dont be a sheep
Anything that comes out of the Android can be played thru Bluetooth... :cool:
 
#23 ·
Thank-you! I just needed a little prodding. Connecting iPhone to Bluetooth was a little slow, but connection was made. My iHeart Radio stations came on just great. Every little techno-skill I gain increases enjoyment of our car! Now I can focus on the Nav system!
Your help is appreciated.

Bighogg
 
#24 ·
My C7 was built Nov 1st 2013 if it matters. I'm using a 16 gig SD card in the SD slot in the armrest. I'm having trouble getting my C7 to do what the manual says regarding SD cards (or USB thumb drives, for that matter). Namely,
1) The car does not recognize (or display) folder structure; i.e. In "menu" where the option is supposed to be located, I think, it does not appear (or anywhere else I can find).
2) Regardless of how I've arranged the MP3 content on the card the car arranges it the way it wants to: by title, album, artist - and does so alphabetically. This happens even when I've renamed the song files preceded with a number such as the way computer folder structure works when "arrange by file name" is selected. The car ignores the file name and still arranges them alphabetically.
3) No option I can find appears for "play all" so I have to select a new song or album each time.
4) It does not recognize playlists created in either WMP or Amazon Music, or else it does and only does what is described in "a)" below.
I have tried a number of things thinking the files might have the wrong or incomplete or corrupted hidden file info such as:
a) format a thumb drive or SD card and put the songs (only a small number - like 40 for test) and playlist file (created by either WMP or AM) directly on the card or thumb drive.
The car finds the playlist and plays (or lists) only 5 of the 43 songs.
My Sanza MP3 player works fine plugged in with the "stereo mini-plug" into the armrest plug.
Does anyone have some answers for me? Does your C7 recognize the folder structure of your SD card and display it onscreen to select from?
 
#28 ·
A couple of thoughts: were you able to plug the usb stick into your computer and listen to the music off of it? when you plugged it into your C7, did you select the source (usb) from the audio options in your Infotainment screen?
 
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#27 ·
Same as Norm. I've down loaded hundreds of songs (from various sources) to a USB thumb drive. Never had a play back problem in my '15 Stingray.
 
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#34 ·
Not sure if the vette is "smart" enuf to decode AAC format. Why not convert them to MP3? (bet thats in the manual) Yes, connected USB devices should play straight away... assuming the car recognizes the ipod... I have decent luck with bluetooth on my galaxy... not sure why urs is "fussy".

PS: The manual makes no mention of any other format than MP3
 
#35 · (Edited)
Ok,
I figured out how to convert AAC to MP3 in iTunes, and copied one MP3 song onto USB stick. One search on the USB stick said the car needs "time" to register the music.

I will try again and see if the MP3 song will play: Prince's "Little Red Corvette".

I prefer not to use my iPhone bluetooth connection to play music as I use the bluetooth to connect to my hearing aids. Yes, I am an old guy.
 
#36 ·
Did you have any luck with your memory stick? I have not done that myself but recall reading many threads here saying that the car does have to create an "index" of music.

Understood re bluetooth... plenty of reasons to need help hearing! One last try is just connecting your iphone directly with the usb cable and listen that way. Agree it's not as convenient but you can use your forward button on your steering wheel to advance songs.
 
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