Kenwood KDC-X890: USB/iPod capabilities question...

[gordholio 10+ year member]

Great news, prochobo. What format are your audio files? MP3? WMA? Did you use PhatNoise?

gordo

 

[San Diego Dude]

Just an FYI...

PhatNoise continues to try and help me out....they requested a screen shot of my Device Manager to see if they can figure out what up. In my opinion they have been very helpful, though I still cannot play an MP3 on my Kenwood KDC-X890...but that is really not their fault and so just wanted to let you all know what great follow-up I am getting from PhatNoise.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[gordholio 10+ year member]

I called Kenwood Canada today (I live in Canada), and just happened to speak with the guy who went out to the big retail chains to familiarize them with the Excelon series and its USB capabilities. I asked him straight up if I could transfer audio tracks to a thumb drive just as I would any other storage device, and expect the x890 to play them. He told me, again straight-up, yes. He said if I used Phatnoise that I'd get more display info and be able to move to given tracks easier, but that I didn't have to use it if I didn't want to. He made it seem like it was *super* easy. Indeed, he promised me it was super easy. No compatibilty issues, no screw-ups.

Hmm...

gordo

 

[HIFINoise]

After having trouble myself with the x890 I found this thread which helped. I bought an 80GB mobile drive in an external enclosure assuming no problems because it is a mass storage device. Well.....no audio files exsist. I was however able to connect my Virgin 5GB mp3 player via usb and it works fine. I really don't want this 80 gb drive to go to waist. It also seems that some thumb drives work and some dont. As for the media manager software. Did anyone else have trouble installing this. I keep getting a decode error that I have to ignore for it to install. This is on two seperate machines. I am a network admin and keep my personal machines tip top. I say crappy software. I have not played with it too much but i don't see how you get the file library onto a mobile drive. Has anyone burned a disk with the Voice Index?? How did that work out?

As for formatting, From what a previous post said, I might format the HD in Fat32 then copy the files. I didn't even think of that. They need a larger list of compatible drives. Especially Hard drives. I have read a few reviews that state that they have succesfully connected an external hard drive. None say what brand of drive or external drive. Elaboration is definatley needed by kenwood. http://www.kenwood.com/usb

This site is not very much help because my virgin 5gb player seems to work and its not even mentioned. And what is a non-applicable drive?? I love this unit other than this problem.

 

[HIFINoise]

OK........so I got it to work. On the websight....it says it must be formated in the FAT32 format and be a mass storage device. As I am sure all of you know, you can only go up to a 32GB partition in Fat32. So all you flash drive and thumb drive users, format the drive in fat32. For hard drive users such as myself(laptop 80gb drive)....go into disk managment and delete any and all partitions. Then create a new primary partition. Set the drive size to 32,768 (32GB). Select format to Fat32. Once it is finished. Copy your music. Yoll loose some space but thats still the most space for your money.

The navigation for the USB is not as terrible as a previous posted review. You just press menu and there is a Fselect or something of the sort. You can select file. push it again it goes to folder select then use the control knob up and down side to side to navigate folder structure So just put your music in genre/artist/album/track format. I just wish the random feature was for all the songs on the HDD. It only randoms an individual folder.