MP3 player on 910

[vickyarcher]

After connecting my 910 to my Aux in on the stereo I thought I would give the MP3 player a trial. (Already have a stereo that reads MP3 CDs as standard, but still means I have to have serveral discs to carry my whole music collection.)

I already have my CD collection ripped onto my computer as MP3s as thats what the BMW stereo reads best, so all I had to do was create a playlist using windows media player, then use the Tomtom Home software to load it on to the 910. You don't have to have a playlist but it makes it possible to select a large number of songs to play together.

1199 songs later I was ready to go. I initially set the speaker preferences to play both the music and voice instructions through the external speaker.

I left for my first work venue this morning, a trip along the M42, and set the play list going with the shuffle feature on. I had to turn the Aux in volume on the car stereo to maximum and still have the 910 volume on 100% to hear the voice instructions as they come across alot softer through the car stereo.
I liked the feature where the 910 pauses the music while a voice instruction is performed as it meant I could concentrate on that and not the music (although some people may prefer to set the music to continue during instructions).
I did find that occasionally the music would get stuck in a small loop and the same 1 second piece would play for 2-3 times, but this only happened 3 times during the day, (I have also experienced this with spoken instructions when not playing MP3s, sometimes navigating instructions and sometimes phone related instructions, possibly due to a lack of free memory, I think the text to speech uses alot of memory.)
I also had an occurance where the music seemed to stop playing, when I entered the jukebox setting, I got an error message, saying there was an error during music playback, skipping to the next track fixed this ( not a problem with the track as when selected again it would play all the way through OK).

I later changed the speaker settings so that only the music was output to the external speakers and the voice instructions where given through the 910. This seemed a much better arrangement as you now have independent control of the volume of the music in relation to the instructions (if you want the music louder then you can turn your car stereo up etc.) I have still left the pause music while voice instructions are given activated, so now I get music through the car stereo which pauses while a voice instruction/phone call is given from the 910 unit.

I found the resume function of the MP3 player useful as when returning to the car for the next trip, you can select this and carry on listening to your playlist where you left off, eliminating the problem of repeating the same track you have listened to previously.

I would like to see a few improvments, an option to have the MP3 track title in the info bar along the bottom of the screen when navigating, so you can see what you are listening to.
I would also like the left/right arrows of the remote control to be track back/forward, currently they operate the volume up and down while on the navigating screen, which is a repeat of the volume up/down buttons at the top of the remote. To change track at the moment you have to tap the centre of the screen, tap the Music and Photos icon, tap the jukebox icon and the tap either track forward/back, then tap back and done to return to the main screen.

Overall I have found the MP3 player to be a surprising useful addition to the tomtom (something I wasn't to fussed about when I read the pre sale info) and think I will continue to use this over the MP3 CD player in my car. The ability to have random play of my entire music collection is a big plus point.

[mikealder]

The mp3 side to the go-910 is simply fantastic, the way it integrates with the cars existing system to act as an audio management console whilst performing the navigation. warnings etc is very well thought out.

I have had the occasional repeating of vocals, but there again when I burn a CD with the same info on it, this to skips, so it might be the original that messed up. Its strange that the same mp3 file on the Go-910 allways messes up in the same place, time to re-master the audio files I think - Mike

[awdxs1]

Thanks, Vicky/Mike

Its useful to know, I have not yet tried to connect the TT to my car stereo but the potential this TT 910 offers seems very good. I am going to exploit the Audiobook but I have not had much success with setting up and audible.com account yet. Its on my todo list when I can prise the TT off the windscreen of my wife's car..... she is still 'testing' it!

Bruce
_________________
Garmin Nuvi 865T Firmware 4.60

TomTom GO 930

[Andy_P]

Don't want to ruin anyone's fun, but is the mp3 output of the 910 actually in stereo?

[mikealder]

Well it certainly "steers" the audio around from side to side, so yes it must be, if the audio output wasn't good I would not use it, it is the default source of in car entertainment now, obviously you will only get Stereo when connected through the cars system - Mike

[Andy_P]

They got that bit right, then!
Good to know, that's another tick in the "buy me" box

[999tommo]

[LesP2008]

tommo, were the Archers not killed off before Gatso's arrived?.
Anyway, you shouls know better, Archers whilst driving is not good!! :D

[mrstella]

what settinsg did you have on the 910 as i connected mine up this morning and couldnt get chuff all out the stereo speakers would only come through the 910 speaker.

[Flashyphotos]

[mrstella]

Ahh cheers, yeah putting it in speaker preferences would be just to difficult wouldnt it.

[mrstella]

hmm tried that, same menu as in the speaker prefs.

Will only play mp3 audio via the external speaker. Going to reset and kick it to see if that makes a difference.

[vickyarcher]

Sorry 999tommo, a different Vicky Archer, gave me a shock when I visited Ray's site, as I didn't remember providing a voice :o

mrstella I selected play music through external speakers in the speaker prefernces menu. It then asked me if I wanted to pause the music for voice instructions.

Hopefully a reset will sort it out, if not is your audio jack cable connected all the way in, if it helps I used an after market 3m jack to jack cable to reach the aux input in my centre console, not the Tomtom supplied cable.

Hope you get it fixed.

[HappyTrucker]

I also quickly discovered the 'external spreaker' connector and straight away got the thing wired up (oh, what are people using? I tried an FM transmitter but it seemed to pick up the electrical interference from the HD. I'm using a cassette adapter now) and it's great. No Line-In on the car or truck stero to use the supplied male-male 3.5mm jack cable.

I just wish I could get phone conversations to come through this speaker. There seems to be options for music and directions - and the phone rings through the speakers - but not to get phone audio through the externals. Or am I missing something?

[rosiei]

Does anyone know how I can stop the music from pausing when directions are given out??--I altered the setting and it asked me if I wanted to pause the music-I said NO but it is still pausing the music--am I doing something wrong or is this another gliche in the system??

I am using an FM wireless adapter and it works fantastically--no noise from anywhere else and perfect quality but I am using a good make FM transmitter.

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!