SD Card requirements

Posts : 8 Join date : 2009-10-21

What are the SD Card requirements? I saw Storm's "Quick Initial Review" and he says

Storm wrote:: The SD is even worse, at it only supports FAT16 and that means 512 megabytes!.

Does the unit only support FAT16 for the SD card? Or just 512MB? or both? FAT16's limit is 2GB so I'm not sure about his 512MB limit he's talking about.

I've already tried a 4GB SD Card formatted to FAT32 and the unit never stopped "loading" the files (I gave it 20 minutes to try). Am I wrong to think the SD card requires a different file system than the USB interface? Is there a reason why there's duplicated functions here?

Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-11-11

I'm using a 2gb type 2 SD card with no problems. It currently has about 18 albums on it ripped as mp3's which is using about 1gb of the card.

It would be nice if it supported SDHC cards, but I'm content with having several 2gb SD cards stored in the glovebox.

Subject: Re: SD Card requirements Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:13 pm

genoski wrote:: I'm using a 2gb type 2 SD card with no problems. It currently has about 18 albums on it ripped as mp3's which is using about 1gb of the card.

It would be nice if it supported SDHC cards, but I'm content with having several 2gb SD cards stored in the glovebox.

I do the same myself. I also hook my iPhone up via line in.

Joe

Posts : 8 Join date : 2009-10-21

So no one knows the requirements? I just got a new SD card and it doesn't work again. If I put it in the card reader and hookup to the USB it does. I've formatted the SD card to 4GB FAT32 4K block size.

I just looked at the specs from the manual it says that the requirements are in fact what storm said. FAT12/16 and 8-512MB.

genoski, can you check out the file system type of your SD card and if the JVC is seeing all 2GB of your card. Thanks.

Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-11-11

My 2gb cards are RAW file system and the radio see's 1.83GB The S100 will read type 2 SD cards, which peak at 2gb. Any 4GB card would be a Type 4 SDHC, and not be supported.

Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-11-11

Another thing you have to watch is the hierarchy, it can't be too complex. Initially I had folders for each artist, which contains folders for each album each containing the song files. Too complex for the reader I'm guessing you can't have subfolders.

Also, the naming conventions are pretty slim, keep folder names to 8 characters and file names to 12. As long as the files themselves have the tags for artist, album, and song name, they will still scroll on the display marquee.

Posts : 8 Join date : 2009-10-21

Thanks for the info, that should help out a lot.

Posts : 3 Join date : 2010-01-07

Just wanted to follow up a bit on this topic. I just installed my unit a couple of days ago and have been experimenting with it. The SD card feature was the main reason I chose this deck over others. Most decks these days offer USB drive support and iPod/iPhone integration, but I preferred the completely hidden nature of the SD card behind the faceplate.

At first, it didn't recognize my FAT32 formatted 1GB OCZ card. Re-formatted to FAT16 and it worked fine.

Next, I tried a 2GB Kingston microSD in SD card adapter. Seemed to work fine, so I started adding more songs and folders. Soon, I realized that additional folders I added were not showing up and couldn't be accessed on the unit. Also, as I seeked out certain tracks, it would throw the Read Error and kick me out of SD mode. So I went back and started deleting files thinking there might be some corrupted files that might be the cause.

Eventually, I erased the whole card and methodically started adding 10 songs at a time in each folder. I would seek to every track in each folder to make sure they played. Eventually, I ran into the Read Error again. I suspected it might be running into a 1GB limit, and sure enough, when I pulled out the card, it was right around 1GB used. My conclusion is that the unit can read a 2GB SD card, but only utilize up to 1GB of files.

On the Crutchfield site, someone mentioned a 255 file limit, but I haven't been able to test that.

Someone above my post says they have the unit seeing 1.83GB. I wonder if all the files can actually be played. What I found is that when you first insert the card, the unit can "see" all the files and folders (the folder/track number which appears briefly). But when you actually try to play the files, it would crash.

I would really love to be proven wrong on my theory. The difference between 1 and 2 gigs is like 12 hours of extra tunes!

I'll try experimenting with the USB port this weekend. There are tiny USB drives that fit almost flush with the USB port, so that's a possible solution if I'm not happy with the SD card. (EagleTec Nano, Lexar ZE). A firmware upgrade to "fix" the SD card slot would be totally awesome.

Cheers,

Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-11-11

zimagold wrote:: I would really love to be proven wrong on my theory. The difference between 1 and 2 gigs is like 12 hours of extra tunes!

Cheers,

I do believe your theory is spot on. It will recognize and use a 2gb SD card, but only the first 1gb of it, and I have yet to figure out how it reads the files, because even tho Windows will "see" them alphabetically, the folders don't play that way by the unit. That being said, I still prefer the SD card usage, and at this point have several cards that I keep in the glove box, each loaded with different genres, for what I want to hear that day.

Posts : 3 Join date : 2010-01-07

This morning, I updated the firmware on my old Pentax dSLR camera and it now supports SDHC cards. If there's anything the engineering team can do to make this possible for the KDS100, it would really make it this an incredible head unit.

Unfortunately, it looks like they're ending support for the unit and making it a legacy device. Just got that email saying they will release a bunch of profiles as their "last show of support". I don't even care that much about the profiles....the unit sounds great as it is. Please please please give us SDHC support if at all possible!

Posts : 3 Join date : 2010-01-07

genoski wrote:: and I have yet to figure out how it reads the files, because even tho Windows will "see" them alphabetically, the folders don't play that way by the unit.

The unit plays the files in the order which the files were copied onto the card. When you drag a bunch of files or folders onto the drive from Windows, it copies it in pretty much a random order. You can write your own scripts to force copy in the sequence that you want, or someone did write a freeware tool that does the job. It's called CopyInOrder. Give that a try...I tested it and it works for me. (The program does have some strange behaviors, but you'll figure it out).

Good luck