s2ktoofahn

New to the group. Got my GS a few weeks ago!!

Salesguy said we could burn DVD's with mp3s and play it in the ML sound system. I burned a dvd on the MAC from Itunes and no luck. Any ideas on how to set this up? Anyone using DVD audio with the ML system?

jerfitz

Burning music CDs: I have a 2007 ES350 with the Mark Levinson (ML) audio system and have experimented with burning music to both DVDs and CDs. Even though you can get 600 plus songs on a single DVD+R, I personally do not like music DVDs. This is because they are recorded as if they were a Video File (a movie) and I could not see the song titles as they played and I had no other control over them. It may be somewhere but I couldn't even get DVD recorded songs to play in a random sequence like you can with CDs.

I now burn my music on CDs in the MP3 format. Depending on the MP3 file sizes it appears that you can get about 250 songs per CD. I have already tested a CD with 204 songs on it and it plays perfectly. That means with a six-disk CD changer I can have 1,500 songs in my ML Audio system. You can choose to play the songs sequentially, random, or repeat. When the car is moving the song title that is playing is shown on the screen.

On the other hand, when the car is NOT moving I can view and scroll through the entire list of song titles on the CD because you can access the FOLDERS and FILES menu, which is grayed out when the car is moving.

THIS IS MY EXPERIENCE: I could not get Windows Media Player 11 to work with the Lexus Audio system because it wants to use the .M3U playback format. I found buried at the end of a sentence somewhere in the Lexus manual that .M3U playback will NOT work. NOTE: the playback format for songs is different from the MP3 recording format for the songs.

I used Sonic System’s Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 to burn a music CD with 204 songs on it and it both plays and shows each song's title as it plays even when driving.

Here's how I did it. Start Roxio, click on AUDIO, choose MUSIC DISK CREATOR, choose MP3/WMA disk, click FILE (upper left), click IMPORT AUDIO in the drop down menu, in the left pane of the two panes that just appeared click on My Computer to get to your C: drive and find you music files (songs) you want to burn, choose the songs you want to burn by clicking on them (they change color), click on ADD (middle right of screen).

If you want to edit any song's title, before burning the CD, click on that specific song and then click on Edit Audio Tags.

Then choose PROJECT SETTINGS. Here you name your disk, choose convert all to: MP3 (good quality), uncheck .M3U and leave only .PLS and .WPL playback formats checked, for file use Joliet and press okay to return to the previous screen.

Next, look at bottom left of the screen to make you have an 80 Min (703 MB) CD in the CD burner. Now click on BURN (right middle of screen). You probably should not use a rewritable CD-R.

This worked very well for me!

HKN

all dvd and music cd works...including burnt ones...

2thfixr

I haven't had any problems playing CDs full of MP3 files but I have NEVER gotten a DVD with MP3 files to play. I tried Roxio, iTunes, Nero, and a couple of smaller programs that I can't remember off hand. DVDs with audio tracks yes, DVDs with MP3 files no. Have any of you been able to do this?

jerfitz

I got a DVD made using Roxio to play but I never knew which format (MP3 or WAV) Roxio used. Also, when it finally played I could not see any song titles or anything on the screen because it was recorded as an Audio/Video disk and Lexas disables video when moving. When I was parked I could see the song title of the song that was playing. Also I had to get it started BEFORE driving or it never started playing. It was yucky!

CDs with up to 250 songs each are the way to go!

2thfixr

If it displayed on the screen in DVD-video mode, it wasn't MP3 or wav format. My guess is that it was recorded as a DVD-video format audio track and you can only get so many songs on a disc this way. If I had to guess, I would say 90-100 mins or so, way less than you could if it was an actual DVD disc with 4.7gb of mp3 data files. Some say that it sounds better than MP3s but I tried it and was unimpressed. My understanding is that the Lexus system can't read DVD data files but one person in the past said they got it to work somehow.

MikeOO

Is there any way to access the folders and files menu while the car is moving?

jerfitz

Here is how to access the folders and files menu while the ES350 is moving.

Go to this detailed HOW TO description on: Enabling access to the Music Folders & Files, Phone Dialing, Calendar and Maintenance Menus while Driving the Lexus ES350.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=276775

s2ktoofahn

thanks guys!! I got the cds working.. why have a dvd player if you can't really use dvds?? DVD-A is tough to get working

gbondioli

Will an MP3 CD work on my 2006 ML system?

jerfitz

Yes. I have one CD with 204 songs recorded in MP3 format.

DrexLex

No. The 2006 ML system does not understand MP3 encoding. That was added for 2007.

gbondioli

Ahhh, once again, I feel the pain of owning a first-generation 3rd generation GS