Random selection on Audio

[Steviebobs]

HI all. I have a 2022 registered ES300h R Sport and have an issue with the audio that maybe someone can advise on?

If I use a 'music populated' usb connected 'device' (either an ipod, a usb stick, or even an old Blackberry phone with memory card), I am unable to get the songs to play sequentially i.e. in the right Album order. It always plays randomly regardless of how many times I press the 'random' button. This does not happen with the music on my Bluetooth connected Iphone, suggesting it may be a formatting issue.

I am sure I must be doing something silly, but as a reasonably experienced person in the ways of tech/hifi etc, I just don't know what that silly thing is.

Any help?

Thanks

[PDM]

11 hours ago, Steviebobs said:

HI all. I have a 2022 registered ES300h R Sport and have an issue with the audio that maybe someone can advise on?

If I use a 'music populated' usb connected 'device' (either an ipod, a usb stick, or even an old Blackberry phone with memory card), I am unable to get the songs to play sequentially i.e. in the right Album order. It always plays randomly regardless of how many times I press the 'random' button. This does not happen with the music on my bluetooth connected iPhone, suggesting it may be a formatting issue.

I am sure I must be doing something silly, but as a reasonably experienced person in the ways of tech/hifi etc, I just don't know what that silly thing is.

Any help?

Thanks

Steve,

The MM19 audio system you have on a 22 ES plays tracks of an album in alphabetical order, rather than track number. It's alphabetical based on sorting of the track name id3 label.

I have been round the block with Lexus on this one and all I get told is "this is how it is designed".  I argue that in this case it wasn't designed because I know nobody that listens to music from an album in alphabetical order. But.. no fix... 

The work around is to prefix all your song names with:

$disc_number.$track_number 

So that they sort correctly.

Paul

[Steviebobs]

Hi Paul, thanks a bundle for that very definitive answer. I actually read something similar a while ago but frankly found it too hard to believe so dropped it for a while. Having a bit of time yesterday, I dug into it again and did some testing with various usb devices and hence my post. I missed the alphabetic element during my testing but in hindsight you are obviously right. I just loaded one album (Blondie - Parallel Lines) onto several usb ‘media’s’ and, again in hindsight, now remember that the album tracks were listed the same on all, confirming your point. What a staggeringly odd way of doing things!! Seems in keeping with some other elements of this, my first Lexus. 15 months into ownership and have to admit I preferred my 2019 BMW 5 series.

With 13,000 songs on a 128g usb stick, I may choose not to go the ‘prefix’ route!

Ah well, only 2.75 years of lease left…..

Thanks again for your diligence, and probably extreme patience, dealing with a major car co. !

Steve

[PDM]

3 hours ago, Steviebobs said:

Hi Paul, thanks a bundle for that very definitive answer. I actually read something similar a while ago but frankly found it too hard to believe so dropped it for a while. Having a bit of time yesterday, I dug into it again and did some testing with various usb devices and hence my post. I missed the alphabetic element during my testing but in hindsight you are obviously right. I just loaded one album (Blondie - Parallel Lines) onto several usb ‘media’s’ and, again in hindsight, now remember that the album tracks were listed the same on all, confirming your point. What a staggeringly odd way of doing things!! Seems in keeping with some other elements of this, my first Lexus. 15 months into ownership and have to admit I preferred my 2019 BMW 5 series.

With 13,000 songs on a 128g usb stick, I may choose not to go the ‘prefix’ route!

Ah well, only 2.75 years of lease left…..

Thanks again for your diligence, and probably extreme patience, dealing with a major car co. !

Steve

Steve,

You can probably implement the work-around faster than you think.

This software can automatically add the prefixes for you in one batch:

https://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Please feel free to also write to cr@lexus.co.uk as another customer who thinks the "design" is bonkers.  This (any many other bugs in MM19) could be fixed in less than a day for a programmer, but....

Are the voice commands working for you?  ("Play album XXXXX")?

Paul

[DLX]

Yes this bugged me too from the start!

I have renamed all my tracks on an album as 01 - trackname1, 02 - trackname2 etc. and they are in folders of /artist/album.
If you use browse folders on the system and select the folder (album) they seem to play in the right order.
I did this using a program called fre:ac (freac.org) - which works on windows, linux and mac and well for all sorts of music conversions and sorting.
Another bugbear is  that the system is not really a surround system (pioneer system on premium MY19).   If you try moving the sound toward the rear it just disappears and there is virtually no sound in the rear at the best of times.   You really only get sound from the front.   With my previous car(mercedes) you could move the focal point of the sound back and forth .
I chased this up at the start and was told "by design" - even on the upgraded sound system I am told.
I note that the pioneer system is not described as a surround system but as a 10 speaker system you would expect it to be so.
Having said all that I think the sound quality is good.

[Steviebobs]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies and help.

 

A further test this morning showed that my iPod (Classic) DOES show correct playing order on the album so this is the source I will use for the time being. I did notice when using the iPod some time ago that it seemed to freeze for no reason so new test in progress.

Thanks again.

Steve

[Steviebobs]

Hi all - an update.

Ipod works 'ok', I play via "tracks' and randomise, or select a particular album, it DOES play the album tracks in the correct order. Abbey Road sounds sensible now....

But, it does 'disconnect' every-so-often and disappears from the Media list. I disconnect and reconnect and it works again for a while. I will live with it.

 

Re Voice Commands, not managed to get it to work yet, always says 'no media selected' or such-like. Will play at this some time in the future, no big deal for me.

Re Surround or not, I just leave it at default. Trying to move the focus appears haphazard to say the least.

Steve

[PDM]

1 hour ago, Steviebobs said:

Hi all - an update.

Ipod works 'ok', I play via "tracks' and randomise, or select a particular album, it DOES play the album tracks in the correct order. Abbey Road sounds sensible now....

But, it does 'disconnect' every-so-often and disappears from the Media list. I disconnect and reconnect and it works again for a while. I will live with it.

 

Re Voice Commands, not managed to get it to work yet, always says 'no media selected' or such-like. Will play at this some time in the future, no big deal for me.

Re Surround or not, I just leave it at default. Trying to move the focus appears haphazard to say the least.

Steve

Sounds like you have the MM19 bug for voice activation ("no media device selected", even when it is already playing from that device!).    Only way to fix that is to downgrade the system to an older, working version.  I've never used an ipod, so I can't tell you if an older version of the software would also fix that unfortunately.  At least your tracks are playing in the correct order.

Paul

[Steviebobs]

Thanks Paul, I am not really bothered with Voice Ac and I will live with having to unplug the ipod occasionally.

Steve