[vazsev]

I recently bought a new 2013 touareg TDI, and I have to say I am impressed. The only thing bugging me is that I just can't get consistency from my SD card audio. I can play 5 songs in a row alright and then it starts breaking up. the music is not completely gone but it sounds funny the only way I can describe it is it sort of sounds as if you had a speaker underwater. I have tried everything I can think of. I bought the fastest SD card I could find, since i thought the speed was the problem, I believe it is 45 mbps, I have reformatted the card to FAT32 tried slot 1 and 2, but still to no avail. Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[ConservativeConsumer]

If the Optical Parking Assistance System is active and/or backup view camera, i.e. a driver supposed to pay less attention to music and more to the road, then, the music is hashed to lower (settable) volume. Is there a chance that the above mentioned system (s) is triggered when it should not be? I do not believe that SD card type/formatting plays any role in this situation. Use your warranty if won’t find what is wrong. Good luck!

 

[Nepalsings]

No I don't think this is the issue, the dealer tells me non of the Bluetooth for the phones work on the Touareg . He doesn't have a clue. When you press phone it draws a blank on the screen. The steering is integrated with the phone options. He tells me they need some software update, then tells me another device to attach to the car. Not quite sure what he is talking about. Perhaps the cars phone system can be disabled and they can con you, it's nepal, to pay more for integration of Bluetooth. ?

 

[burnsy1]

I think you've replied in the wrong thread on accident Nepal

 

[Nepalsings]

Yes I did

 

[vazsev]

No i don't think it has anything to do with the parking system, it happens when i am parked or when cruising down the freeway. I called my dealer and said he has never heard of the problem but he said he would look into it.

 

[IntProst]

Sorry, I don't have an answer for you, but perhaps this will help you narrow down the problem. Try copying from the SD card onto the hard drive. Does playing the music from the hard drive do the same thing as when playing from the SD card?

 

[fincher]

Could be the card itself. Try a different card. I actually use two cards (in addition to iPod) and both cards are 16GB, Class 6. Perhaps you're using a card that is too fast (or too slow) for the unit.

 

[vazsev]

I tried two cards already the first one was a class 6 and the second one a class 10 since i taught the first was was to slow and that could be causing the problem. I will need to try copying the song to the hard drive to see if it is maybe the song. The wierd part that I have found is that it always occurs in the last 30-20 seconds of a song.

 

[burnsy1]

Sounds like a very odd issue....Just curious... What bit rate are your mp3's?

 

[Eugene-Dave-1]

I'm currently on a driving trip in my 2012. I played music from SD for several hours straight with no issues. A mix of 320kbps MP3s ripped from CDs, and 256kbps AAC purchased from iTunes. Worked fine. OTOH I have issues with Bluetooth music streaming from iPhone 4.

I've read of issues with tracks ripped from CDs not having the correct playing time encoded in metadata or whatever it is. For example the track is 3:20 long but the metadata says its 2:45 so it cuts off early. Don't know if that's true or an internet rumor.

 

[Jurgenk]

This is very interesting
I noticed on two occasions with the RNS850 that there was a glitch in playing back some files on the SD where the files sounded muffled and distorted much in the way you described.

In the first case the files themselves were corrupted. This probably happened during the copying onto SD. They were garbled the same way during playback on the PC. Rewriting to the SD fixed the problem.

In the other instance the problem seemed to be RNS850 dependent. The garbling was fixed essentially by rebooting the radio

I'll keep an eye out to see if it repeats

The RNS 850 is basically a beta testers unit as delivered. Initially it looks slick but the lack of crash proofing, consistent interface functionality, HD radio monaural reception as Dave so effectively demonstrated, and terrible equalization that assaults my ears every day suggest poor quality control and insufficient r&d

On one hand its early in the smartphone game to expect that they build interface compatibility with every smartphone. But they didn't exactly go out of their way to make iPhone users happy.

The new interfaces coming will allow one to replicate the smartphone screen and touch contols on the large touch display-- apparently Nvidia is behind some of this. So all these niggling issues will be moot because no auto infotainment package will ever reach the level of refinement of a robust and widely used application based smartphone OS

Please take my comments with a grain of salt-- I am a bit of a perfectionist. I still prefer this interface to the laggy jaguar and land rover infotainment, and the BMW interfaces have gotten much better but are counterintuitive. Only the latest Merc and their iPhone app controlled functions are consistently ergonomic and functional. The TREG infotainment is well conceived and miles ahead of what preceded it but shockingly imperfect

 

[Jdsmooth]

I have had the exact same problem described above. One day all of my SD card tracks sounded scratchy and distorted. Interestingly this also applied to my iPhone playing through Bluetooth. FM and Sirius sounded fine. I tried just cycling power and ignition with no effect, but after turning off the car and seeing a movie, all was good when we got back to the car. Seemed like a computer error.

 

[Eugene-Dave-1]

I have to agree with characterizing the 850 as "beta". It has too many bugs to call it a finished product. Sometimes I start the car and the radio is playing Station A but the 850 shows it's playing Station B, B being the station I was listening to last time I shut off the ignition.

Interesting thing about the EQ. When I first got my new module for the HD Radio fix, before they did the SVM update, the system EQ was radically different. I am not kidding when I say at first I thought they had accidentally activated some hidden subwoofer! It was WAY more punchy. I had to turn down both bass and treble well below the midpoint setting. I'd really like to know how to get different EQ out of the 850 via VAGCOM. I suspect it can be done...

Having said that, I don't hate the 850. I just wish it was a little more polished.

 

[Jurgenk]

Exactly Dave!
Even with its glitchiness and issues I prefer the RNS850 to the Lexus and Toyota touchscreen infotainment which I always felt to be the standard bearers of intuitive feel, fast responses, nav accuracy, and smartphone / Bluetooth compatibility.

I could see these issues being present on the first models to roll off the line in late 2010-- but it's been two years as someone should have a clue by now, and it should all be flashable.

Dave, thanks for the heads up on the EQ. Sounds like I'll have to get this done BEFORE any aftermarket audio upgrades to make sure we don't overcompensate for the current EQ.

 

[Eugene-Dave-1]

I read somewhere (probably here) that the 850 come from the factory with flat EQ. No tricks to make it compensate for interior layout, speakers, etc. I tend to believe that. If the 850 is flat by default it actually makes it a good candidate for aftermarket downstream EQ since they don't have to try and "uncompensate" for the factory curve.

 

[vazsev]

This is very interesting
I noticed on two occasions with the RNS850 that there was a glitch in playing back some files on the SD where the files sounded muffled and distorted much in the way you described.

In the first case the files themselves were corrupted. This probably happened during the copying onto SD. They were garbled the same way during playback on the PC. Rewriting to the SD fixed the problem.

In the other instance the problem seemed to be RNS850 dependent. The garbling was fixed essentially by rebooting the radio

I'll keep an eye out to see if it repeats

The RNS 850 is basically a beta testers unit as delivered. Initially it looks slick but the lack of crash proofing, consistent interface functionality, HD radio monaural reception as Dave so effectively demonstrated, and terrible equalization that assaults my ears every day suggest poor quality control and insufficient r&d

On one hand its early in the smartphone game to expect that they build interface compatibility with every smartphone. But they didn't exactly go out of their way to make iPhone users happy.

The new interfaces coming will allow one to replicate the smartphone screen and touch contols on the large touch display-- apparently Nvidia is behind some of this. So all these niggling issues will be moot because no auto infotainment package will ever reach the level of refinement of a robust and widely used application based smartphone OS

Please take my comments with a grain of salt-- I am a bit of a perfectionist. I still prefer this interface to the laggy jaguar and land rover infotainment, and the BMW interfaces have gotten much better but are counterintuitive. Only the latest Merc and their iPhone app controlled functions are consistently ergonomic and functional. The TREG infotainment is well conceived and miles ahead of what preceded it but shockingly imperfect

I have tried recopying the files to the sd but it is still happening,also all the tracks seem to play perfectly on my computer. I do have to say that i changed the sd card from slot 1 to slot 2 and it seems to happen less frequently, but its still happening. To add I have not had this problem over bluetooth, but I only stream pandora every once in a while if that makes a difference.

 

[vazsev]

If I can find the time I will record it and upload it to the forum if someone shows me how.

 

[fincher]

Not sure this will make a difference, but I bought the Mac App 'Playlist Exporter' to move iTunes playlists to my SD card. It's $4.99, I think.