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11-30-2010, 03:10 PM | #1 |
Scooby Newbie
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2011 WRX Stock Media Guide
Over the last few days I've been playing around with the stock 2011 Subaru WRX head unit. It may not be the best sounding system out there, but it certainly does have a lot of ways to get media... and now I have some pretty good methods of syncing music to my car, so I thought I'd share them. These are likely applicable to 2010 WRX's with media hubs, but I don't have one so I don't know for sure...
USB Audio The USB feature of the head unit is probably the easiest way of getting lots of music in the car. It's good for playing music when you don't have time to fumble with an ipod or phone. This section of the guide gives a good way to easily periodically synchronize your flash drive with your media library, and to avoid codec compatibility issues. What you'll need:
Bluetooth Audio Bluetooth is probably the most powerful way to listen to music in your car. You can use any device with A2DP bluetooth support, but this guide is tailored towards Android phones, because that's what I have. This guide uses wireless sync, because having your phone automatically download new music when you're home is awesome. You can also synchronize with USB, it works almost exactly the same as a flash drive, above. What you'll need:
iPod The major advantage of the iPod is that you can select a song or playlist on the head unit while another song is playing.
MP3 CDs Finally, you have MP3 CDs. The Subaru head unit supports compressed audio on CDs, letting you fit way more than the ~80 minutes a normal audio CD can hold. Mp3 CDs can usually fit about 100 songs, more if you reencode. I'm not going to go into exactly how to do this, because I don't have any CDR's right now, but you'll want to copy over folders to the CD-R in the format "CD:/Artist/Track.mp3". The files must be mp3's, mp4's or wma's, <320kbps. You can burn the CD with Windows or iTunes. I don't think winamp supports burning Mp3 CD's at this point. Other Stuff It's not really audio related, but it is android and subaru related... Check out Torque if you would like highly customizable gauges for your car. It can do boost, speed, temperatures, MAP/MAF, mpg, fuel, and so much more. It works with bluetooth OBD readers you can pick up for $30-50. Works great in the aforementioned car dock. Troubleshooting Only some of my music is showing up in the car even though all the files are there There may be a a file with an incompatible codec, too long of a file name, or with non-standard characters on the drive. Check your transcoding settings and go through your playlist and remove or rename any files with long or abnormal file names. Run Auto-Tag. Can I use a USB Hard drive instead of a flash drive? It may be possible if you have a very low power drive, perhaps a 1.8" drive. But I would be careful. I plugged a hard drive into another head unit once and blew a fuse... I also don't know how quickly the head unit will operate with thousands of files to look through, and I'm sure there is some limit on number of files. But, lemme know if you give this a try... I can't figure out how to pair my phone Make sure that bluetooth is on and discoverable in both the car and the phone. Try pulling the phone battery and restarting, the android bluetooth stack is flakey sometimes. Consult the owner's manual for detailed pairing instructions. I can't get wireless sync to work Make sure the phone and the computer are connected to the same network. Make sure wireless sync is enabled. Try disabling the firewall on your computer. If all else fails, wait for a non-beta release of Winamp and use USB sync. How do I do this with a Mac, iphone, or other bluetooth device I would just use itunes and the ipod interface. Personally, I dislike itunes and ipods and opted for Android and Winamp, So I can't really help you. Wireless Sync is awesome. I'll add more to this if people find it helpful, or if they have other questions... If anyone wants to add information about ipod's, please do.
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Last edited by rabidfurball; 12-02-2010 at 08:21 PM. Reason: grammar. |
11-30-2010, 11:31 PM | #2 |
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Great thread, I didn't realize the usb input worked with thumb drives. Those are cheap enough to just leave plugged in without worrying about it being stolen. It's becoming a pain to open the center console to hook up and remove my ipod every time I get in car anyway.
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12-16-2010, 07:50 AM | #3 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Vehicle:2002 WRX - 750WHP 9.5s @ 150mph |
I've been using Pandora via Bluetooth from my BB Tour for a while now. The Bluetooth connection was set up at the dealer when I picked up the car. Pandora automatically sent the music over to the head unit. Very easy.
Last night I tried a USB Flash drive for the first time. I did not use WinAmp. I don't have it, and I don't think it is necessary. As long as the files are already in a format that the car can read, I don't see any reason to re-transcode them. I simply put the files onto the drive in this format: USB Drive \ Artist and Album Name \ Track Number and Track Name I didn't realize the head unit could even read the tags (as described in the original post). That method may work better for some situations, but the folder / drag and drop method was much easier for me. And it allows me to keep the music sorted by album (one folder for each album) and to keep the songs in order (track number in file name). The only downside is that the Folder / Track info will not scroll. So unless you hold that button you only see the first few words. Another curiosity I noticed was that it starts with Folder 2 instead of Folder 1. I have no idea why it does this, and all of my folders are there, just numbered starting at 2. I love using USB. Very convenient and the folder system makes it very usable. I also have used regular audio CD's. No problems there. One of the main things I've noticed is that any of these high quality sources (Bluetooth, USB, CD/MP3) all sound much, much better than the radio. Obviously this is going to be true, but it seems much more noticeable in my WRX than in past cars. The radio sounds really muffled, but the other sources sound a lot more clear (but still not amazing). |
12-16-2010, 12:47 PM | #4 | |
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12-17-2010, 08:56 AM | #5 |
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I find it very strange that the radio display will not scroll information such as radio station ID, Song Title, ID3 tag info, etc.
Or am I missing something? Might there be a way to get the display to scroll through the information? |
12-17-2010, 09:24 AM | #6 | |
Scooby Guru
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Quote:
On my car you have to press the "TEXT" button at the top right of the head unit. The choices are frequency, text with autoscroll and text without autoscroll. When you have it on autoscroll it will show station name and slogan, artist name, and song title. Some stations seem to work better than others. |
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12-17-2010, 05:13 PM | #7 |
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Audio
I completely agree, the USB audio is pretty good and the radio is very lack luster. Its wierd.
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12-23-2010, 09:18 PM | #8 |
Tri-State Track Instructor
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Join Date: Aug 1999
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On a side note the USB hub will charge a BB if you have it plugged in. This is great cause I don't have to have a cig lighter plug dedicate for my phone.
Does anyone know if the BT in the 2011 can transfer phone book/contact info from phones? -mike |
12-23-2010, 09:36 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
I can't figure out how to do it with my android phone. And the functionality of the BT deteriorated ( won't show me what song is playing over BT) so going to the dealer tommorow to see if anything is wrong with it. |
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12-23-2010, 09:48 PM | #10 |
Scooby Guru
Member#: 261612
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Vehicle:2002 WRX - 750WHP 9.5s @ 150mph |
Wow. Good info. Wish I would have known about the USB BB charging before I bought a $30 car charger. I have tons of USB cables lying around!
What do you use for music playing via BT? I just use Pandora via my BB and it doesn't ever show anything. Most of the time is says "Pause" (even while playing). |
12-23-2010, 09:50 PM | #11 |
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Im having a slight problem with my media hub, Im not sure if any of yall are having the same issues. When I search through my 120g IPOD classic it wont show all of my artists only the first 50 or 60, Ive reset the ipod, unplugged it and plugged it back in. Im about to take it in for them to look at but I just cant figure it out, and Id like to save a trip to the stealership
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12-23-2010, 09:54 PM | #12 |
Scooby Guru
Member#: 261612
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Vehicle:2002 WRX - 750WHP 9.5s @ 150mph |
Sounds like a software limitation. I doubt the dealer will be able to do anything unless Subaru has released newer software that supports it. I don't have any new enough iPods to try it. 120GB sounds huge. I think mine is 4GB. LOL.
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12-23-2010, 10:04 PM | #13 | |
Tri-State Track Instructor
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Join Date: Aug 1999
Chapter/Region:
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Location: Kenilworth, NJ, Caroga Lk, NY
Vehicle:'14 Touareg TDI '14 BRZ http://48hrs.info |
Quote:
I am really stumped on the transfer contact info to the HU. -mike |
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12-24-2010, 03:18 PM | #14 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Yeah I use it mostly to put tv shows and some movies on it, for when im bored at work haha
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12-30-2010, 12:21 AM | #15 |
Scooby Specialist
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How do you get the Average Fuel Economy to display in the center console? I'm confused because it's not there on my base STI, yet my brochure clearly shows "Digital trip computer displaying average fuel economy, digital clock and ambient temperature" being standard on all WRX's and STI's.
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12-30-2010, 07:51 AM | #16 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Mine will only display the average fuel economy for each trip counter, not for the entire odometer.
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12-30-2010, 08:41 AM | #17 |
Tri-State Track Instructor
Moderator Member#: 197
Join Date: Aug 1999
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
Location: Kenilworth, NJ, Caroga Lk, NY
Vehicle:'14 Touareg TDI '14 BRZ http://48hrs.info |
That is how it works. The Avg is only for the particular ODO you are displaying. So you actually have 2 Avg Fuel Economies.
-mike |
12-30-2010, 10:27 AM | #18 |
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There is also an update to get the thing to display more than 255 items in a list.
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12-30-2010, 01:48 PM | #19 | |
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Quote:
I've tried rotating through ODO, trip 1 and trip 2 and nothing is displaying between the temp and the clock. |
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12-30-2010, 02:56 PM | #20 |
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On my car I didn't have to.
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12-30-2010, 03:03 PM | #21 |
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oh man, I need to RTFM.
It's supposed to be turned on from the factory but mine wasn't. Put the key in lock, hold the + sign for 5 seconds until the display blinks and it'll turn on. Repeat to turn it off. 20.4 mpg averaged so far with ~190 miles of 2-4k revving and then engine braking, and constantly shifting gears and speeds on the highway. Not too bad! |
12-30-2010, 03:14 PM | #22 | |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Chapter/Region:
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Quote:
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12-30-2010, 03:16 PM | #23 |
Scooby Guru
Member#: 261612
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Vehicle:2002 WRX - 750WHP 9.5s @ 150mph |
On the stock tune I would sit at about 26-26.5MPG while going 60MPH on cruise. Really couldn't get it any higher than that, no matter how much I babied it. Normal mix of city/highway is about 20MPG.
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04-02-2011, 02:40 PM | #24 |
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If you are using a USB flash drive, does the unit "remember" what track you are on when you turn the car off and pick up where you left off? On our Outback, it starts back over at folder1/track1 each time.
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04-02-2011, 02:45 PM | #25 |
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It remembers what track you're on, and the position in the song. it even fades it in for you. pretty nice really.
Also, an update, I finally got my OEM under seat subwoofer to work, and it sounds pretty awesome now in my opinion. Probably still not as good as aftermarket, but the extra bass really fills out the system nicely. If anyone else bought the OEM subwoofer to find it was incompatible with the bluetooth wiring harness, the dealers can get you a new harness now. |
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