USB vs. IPOD

emsmatt

emsmatt

New member
Ive been looking the posts in regards to the USB and IPOD functions. Ive only used an IPOD so far but am frustrated with how long it takes to 'load' songs/artists and such sometimes. When scrolling thru all the artists it is really slow to load them. Is this a normal thing? Im curious if the USB function has the same issue. My wife has an Acura and her IPOD connection is really fast, no delay. What are the opinions out there...USB or IPOD?
 
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USB is pretty slow too :(

iPhone with bluetooth seems to work the best. or leave it on shuffle and just hit Next till you find something you like :cheers:
 
Well crap, guess Im gonna have to get rid of the flip phone and upgrade to an Iphone. Had no idea I would need a new phone to go with my new 4R.
 
Strange, we are loving the ipod through the usb interface. Don't find it slow at all. We are using a newish ipod nano in ours. Haven't even tried the BT streaming option.
 
emsmatt said:
Well crap, guess Im gonna have to get rid of the flip phone and upgrade to an Iphone. Had no idea I would need a new phone to go with my new 4R.
Click to expand...

You could always use the iPod through the AUX input and control the audio via the iPod.
 
my experience

I have a 2nd gen Nano and 2nd gen ipod Touch.

I have used them both via the USB port. The Nano definitely has the fastest interface.

However, the ipod Touch is a completely different story. the touch is painfully slow when browsing through playlists etc. I think the OS on the ipod is passing more data/info than the USB port and stereo software can handle.

In addition, I have never received the "ERROR 5" message when connecting the Nano. But I frequently see it with the ipod touch, especially if the battery has gone dead.

I think the software developers at toyota didn't do their QA testing with the touch. They probably saw that it loaded the songs and said, "it works". But failed to actually use the interface.

-Edit-
I have also used the Bluetooth streaming from the ipod touch and that seems to work well. Although there are two problems I see with this:
#1 You can only have one bluetooth device connected at any time. If you connect your ipod touch via bluetooth, then it disconnects any phone device.
#2 Your ipod is not charging
 
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USB thumbdrive!

So yea I like the use of a thumbdrive the best! You can organize the songs you like the best into a folder and have all the artists in all separate folders and scroll very easily. If you hold the left or right button on the steering wheel for a couple of seconds it jumps to the next folder. Then just tap the left or right to browse thru the selected folder. This way works best for me anyway. The streaming is awesome when using an iPhone! I use it to listen to Pandora all the time. Sometimes tho, it doesn't detect a connection for Bluetooth? If I turn car off and start it back again later after goin into a store it will pick it back up without me doing anything. I sometimes feel the truck doesn't want to connect to the devise sometimes? What ever- there's always XM radio or regular radio?
 
USB Works Fine Except

The USB works fine for a small number of songs. If you have many folders with a large number of songs, it can be slow on the first scan through them. Also, long song titles seems to slow it down in certain circumstances. After the first scan through them, it works fine. But it can be frustrating when first starting the rig and going to a certain folder or song. Playing sequentially through the songs is no problem at all. Really nice feature. A little faster software would have made it awesome.
 
wheeliemert said:
So yea I like the use of a thumbdrive the best! You can organize the songs you like the best into a folder and have all the artists in all separate folders and scroll very easily. If you hold the left or right button on the steering wheel for a couple of seconds it jumps to the next folder. Then just tap the left or right to browse thru the selected folder. This way works best for me anyway. The streaming is awesome when using an iPhone! I use it to listen to Pandora all the time. Sometimes tho, it doesn't detect a connection for Bluetooth? If I turn car off and start it back again later after goin into a store it will pick it back up without me doing anything. I sometimes feel the truck doesn't want to connect to the devise sometimes? What ever- there's always XM radio or regular radio?
Click to expand...

On your iphone, go into settings > general > bluetooth and click where it says "car multi-media". (don't click the blue arrow) This always fixes the rare time my 4Runner and iPhone don't play nice.
 
Do you guys leave the ipod in the glove box? Do you leave it hooked up all the time? Will temperature in the glovebox matter on a hot summer day? I would think the ipod is constantly charging through the USB interface. I have the second gen ipod and it loads very fast on the T4R's head unit through the USB interface. To the person that uses flash drive: Just make a playlist on the ipod! Thanks in advance for answers.
 
I leave my Ipod pluggen in in the glovebox. I get an ERROR 3 message fairly often. Im going to the dealership tomorrow to have it looked at. There is another post about a recent TSB in regards to this problem. I really dont think the heat has anything to do with it tho.
 
Toyota has kind of deceptive marketing and descriptions when it comes to the USB/iPod interface. It says USB 2.0, but the speed is listed at 12 mb/s. This is actually USB 1.1 speeds. If it was truly USB 2.0, the speed should be 480 mb/s which is plenty fast for iPods or USBs. I think this is why I am experiencing slow times on both my iPod and my USB. USB is faster than iPod Touch.
 
emsmatt said:
I leave my Ipod pluggen in in the glovebox. I get an ERROR 3 message fairly often. Im going to the dealership tomorrow to have it looked at. There is another post about a recent TSB in regards to this problem. I really dont think the heat has anything to do with it tho.
Click to expand...

You should definitely be covered under the TSB. My wife's nano has the same issue, but we both have iPhone 4s, so it really probably isn't worth the effort. It has probably been over 6 months since we've had an iPod plugged into the USB port. haha
 
Since I bought my LE I have been leaving my ipod nano in the glovebox hooked up to the USB. Drove down to the shooting range this AM for some practice, listing to the ipod, and when I got back in to go home, it would not play anything. It says it is connected, and will skip songs, but absolutely refuses to play.

I have an iphone, and I plugged it into the USB, and the iphone/ipod functioned completely normal, just as it had been. Very odd.

I did not know you could stream from the iphone, so I set that up thanks to this thread. However, I'd like to know if something in the headunit is messed up, or it is just my ipod.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
1engineer said:
Do you guys leave the ipod in the glove box? Do you leave it hooked up all the time? Will temperature in the glovebox matter on a hot summer day? I would think the ipod is constantly charging through the USB interface. I have the second gen ipod and it loads very fast on the T4R's head unit through the USB interface. To the person that uses flash drive: Just make a playlist on the ipod! Thanks in advance for answers.
Click to expand...

i live in a pretty hot area, nothing like the desert, but its been close to 100 this week and it seems to be fine. we have an ipod touch in our glove box and its been there since march 2010. it works fine, no complaints or problems. i've been wondering though if there is a way to download my itunes file onto a flash drive and plug that into the usb port. will the 4runner thinks it still an ipod? i would like to move my ipod into my house for my entertainment center.
 
2strokepoke said:
i live in a pretty hot area, nothing like the desert, but its been close to 100 this week and it seems to be fine. we have an ipod touch in our glove box and its been there since march 2010. it works fine, no complaints or problems. i've been wondering though if there is a way to download my itunes file onto a flash drive and plug that into the usb port. will the 4runner thinks it still an ipod? i would like to move my ipod into my house for my entertainment center.
Click to expand...

Yes, I did a quick search and found this.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/65621-how-use-usb-hard-drive-music.html
 
I have to agree with those of you that are using a flash drive in the USB port. I find this method works fine for my needs and works better for me than connecting my iPod Touch to the USB.

Now, here is the next question: Has anyway tried connecting iTunes through the bluetooth on a MacBook? Seems to me that it should work. Just haven't tried making the connection yet.

Thoughts Ideas???

Thanks


4BYTOY
 
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