Garmin SP2820 - Help needed

Seem to be having a problem getting my MP3 tracks to show up on the 2820. I've managed to copy my music via the USB connection into the MP3 folder but they don't appear on the playlist when I run the Garmin Music Player on the 2820. Any clues? Thanks a bunch. (I've RTFM but it's hopeless!)

When you rip the tracks they MUST be in .MP3 format to show up on the playlist - mine do. When I tried another output format from Windows media player, they did not show up.

Brilliant! They were ripped over as Windows Media files which now explains the problem. Thanks a heap.

LeslieK. Glad that helped.
Don't forget Michael's (PanEuropean) tip of deleting the unwanted voice files to free up even more space on the unit for Music.
I've just done that - after copying all the remaining voices to a back-up drive.

BeemerBoy:

Thanks a lot for answering that question, it always perplexed me too.

I don't know very much about music that is stored in any other format than a compact disc, and the first time I ever tried using a music file (MP3 file) on my computer was when the 2820 arrived in March and I was trying to figure out how it worked.

What I discovered (stumbling around in the dark) was that playlists with the extension .wpl didn't seem to work, but playlists with the extension .m3u did work. The problem I still have is that I have no idea how to make a playlist with the extension .m3u on the end of it. The music player I use (Windows Media Player 10) seems to only be able to make playlists with .wpl at the end of them.

Something else I observed by stumbling around - the GPSR does not appear to list playlists that are 'nested' in folders. For example, if the heirarchy of music folders inside the GPSR is 'music' / 'oldies' / 'singles', the playlists buried three folders down in 'singles' didn't show up on my GPSR.

May I trouble you to perhaps provide all of us 'music newbies' with a beginners guide to things like playlists, album art, stuff like that? I would sure be grateful for an overview of the subject.

Michael

beemerboy9 said:

...after copying all the remaining voices to a back-up drive.

Click to expand...

You don't even have to worry about that - you can safely discard all the voice files that you don't want or need, because they will always be offered to you on the second update pass when you use the Garmin WebUpdater program to check for new software for your GPSR.

In other words, just toss everything except the (presumably) English language voice files. You should keep two files - one called 'English', and the other called 'English - (boy name or girl name). The files with the boy or girl name appended to them are the TTS (text to speech) ones that can actually pronounce street names. The ones without a boy or girl name appended to them are the simpler files that cannot read proper nouns, and just say 'turn left' or 'turn right'.

Michael

PanEuropean said:

BeemerBoy:


May I trouble you to perhaps provide all of us 'music newbies' with a beginners guide to things like playlists, album art, stuff like that? I would sure be grateful for an overview of the subject.

Michael

Click to expand...

Michael , you do me too much honour, sir, for I am an absolute novice at "ripping" compared to my music-mad children!
There is absolutely no problem in having nested directories in the 2820. If you had a problem at the time it was probably because you put a non-MP3 file in there.
It will select by Title, Genre and Artist and will add new genre categories as required by the music.
I haven't really decided how I am going to use the limited space on the 2820 as my bike has a CD/radio already. I may use it for books or humour shows for boring motorways (possibly an opportunity to die laughing).
After copying music, if you eject the Garmin drive using the correct Windows tool, "Safely Remove Hardware" , the unit will ask you what mode you wish to continue in. Silly me tried switching the unit off to regain the mode prompt.

Michael, I ended up using Roxio's AudioCentral to rip the music to MP3 but you can do the same with Window's Media Player too. After you open Media Player, at the top right of the window (next to the Minimize-Maximize-Close quick buttons), you'll see a pull-down selection button that will allow you to access the Application Menus. Select Tools -> Options, click on the Rip Music tab. You should see a pull down list of formats that you can rip music to. MP3 is down at the bottom of the list. Hope this helps.

PanEuropean said:

May I trouble you to perhaps provide all of us 'music newbies' with a beginners guide to things like playlists, album art, stuff like that? I would sure be grateful for an overview of the subject.

Michael

Click to expand...

This is a huge subject, with a ton of (mostly very young) people who spend hours messing with it..

I learned what I know (estimated 50%) by following a web group that focuses on iRiver products... put up with the teenagers, and learned a few things..

The details change depending on what the music player is though... and until somone messes with the Garmin mp3 player a bit (for instance until this thread, I didn't know the 2820 would do playlists), a generic guide would be less than perfect.

I recomend you run a search for winamp, a free music player that generates playlists etc, and does m3u I think.... The help associated (web forum etc.) will get you started in a more generic way...

I'm going to dump some music on my GPS, but intend to mostly use my 20 gig hardisk player (which I keep in my pocket for vibration isolation reasons), as I firmly believe that you can never have enough tunes with you... and half a gig is just barely enough to hold some emergency 'wake up' music for when the iRiver's battery dies at a critical point.. I dont' intend to mess with playlists or album art though... =)

Al...