[rhulsery]

If gracenote does not recognize a CD, can you enter the data?

 

[cts_mark]

Somebody just posted this the other day, I did not know you could do it but you can go to https://www.gmnavdisc.com and get an update to the gracenote database for 14.99.

-Mark

 

[Mr Snappy]

I have found that Gracenote is almost worthless...I would not suggest wasting money on upgrades.

The way that I handle it is to rip a CD on your PC using the Microsoft Windows Media Player. That software goes to the internet and pulls the correct song titles and cover art. After you have saved this to your PC, then copy to a USB thumb drive and then plug in to your caddy and copy to your hard drive.

This works perfectly and ensures you have it correctly.

Just so you know, sometimes Gracenote is wrong. When ripping my copy of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" CD, it put the wrong labels on the tracks. When I tried to rip "The Wall", it would not recognize the second disk at all. It would copy it, but with no CD title or track titles.

 

[blg1936]

Thanks for this info, but for a non-computer guy what does ripping off a CD mean and how do you do it?

 

[Maeztro]

I have found that Gracenote is almost worthless...I would not suggest wasting money on upgrades.

The way that I handle it is to rip a CD on your PC using the Microsoft Windows Media Player. That software goes to the internet and pulls the correct song titles and cover art. After you have saved this to your PC, then copy to a USB thumb drive and then plug in to your caddy and copy to your hard drive.

This works perfectly and ensures you have it correctly.

Just so you know, sometimes Gracenote is wrong. When ripping my copy of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" CD, it put the wrong labels on the tracks. When I tried to rip "The Wall", it would not recognize the second disk at all. It would copy it, but with no CD title or track titles.

I can corfirm that. I have the latest gracenote update and of over 400 songs about 10-20% have had their tags screwed up. Has made some interesting combinations though!

 

[Northern SRX]

I can't stand Gracenote. I currently have 2 CDs in the HD for which the title is "Greatest Hits". I am fearful of adding any further "Greatest Hits" discs. I had no trouble, though with my Pink Floyd discs but mine are ruddy ancient versions (at least 20 years old).

Thanks for this info, but for a non-computer guy what does ripping off a CD mean and how do you do it?

Ripping a CD to your computer is converting the disc to music files in another format (such as compressed formats, like MP3) and storing them on your computer's hard drive. The suggestion here is that you can "rip" your CDs to your computer's drive and then copy the MP3 files to a thumb drive (a USB "flash" stick or "jump drive" or whatever name you prefer) and then use that drive to upload your tunes to your HD. The "ripping" is done by software - whether iTunes, MS Media, Roxio, or whatever you have.

The advantage of this approach is that you do most of the work in the comfort of your home and you can fix the labels if your software gets them wrong. Plus, you're not wearing down the CTS' battery and, frankly, it'll be faster - I am unimpressed with the slow transfer speed involved in ripping a CD to the CTS' HD. Although I concede that a transfer from a thumb drive takes a while as well.

 

[crystal_red]

I didn't have much luck with Gracenote either. I found that burning all of the songs I want to a DVD and then copying that to the HDD worked perfectly. I now have several hundred songs with proper title and artist and they all sound great too!

 

[Northern SRX]

I had forgotten the speed of file transfer from a flash drive to the car's HD so I tried it yesterday with a couple of albums - it's several times faster than from a CD to the HD directly. At least on mine - and I can't think of why mine would be any different from others equipped as mine.

 

[MacMuse]

I have found that Gracenote is almost worthless...I would not suggest wasting money on upgrades.

The way that I handle it is to rip a CD on your PC using the Microsoft Windows Media Player. That software goes to the internet and pulls the correct song titles and cover art.

Since artists release new music CDs constantly, updating your Gracenote software is the only way your system has a chance of improving its performance in displaying the correct track information. At $15, that's probably the most cost effective 'upgrade' available for a car like this.

Computer programs that convert CDs to computer files use the live Internet based version of Gracenote and other similar services, and their success rate is really good. iTunes & Winamp both use Gracenote.

Gracenote will likely fix errors reported to them, especially for mainstream artists, so I would definitely recommend this update.

 

[Mr Snappy]

Since artists release new music CDs constantly, updating your Gracenote software is the only way your system has a chance of improving its performance in displaying the correct track information. At $15, that's probably the most cost effective 'upgrade' available for a car like this.

Computer programs that convert CDs to computer files use the live Internet based version of Gracenote and other similar services, and their success rate is really good. iTunes & Winamp both use Gracenote.

Gracenote will likely fix errors reported to them, especially for mainstream artists, so I would definitely recommend this update.

I still disagree. The internet solutions are updated daily or at least weekly. Unless you want to go to the dealer every Wednesday since most CD's are released on Tuesdays, it's wasted money.

Not to mention when my CTS was about 3 months old, I ran in to the problems i described above with my Pink Floyd CD's. I also could not get any readings for a couple of brand new CD's, which is logical since the CD came out after I bought the car. When I went to my dealer, they were clueless to what the hell "Gracenote" even was. Once I pulled out the manual and showed them the section on updating the Gracenote database, they took over 3 hours just to tell me they think the update I have is the latest one....and besides, they don't know how to update it anyways.

True this is the fault of incompetent service "pros" but the point is that even if you do get this updated, it will be out of date by the following week.

What they should have done is allow the Gracenote data base to be updated by OnStar once a month....hell, I would pay for an option like that!

 

[MacMuse]

It certainly sounds like the Gracenote service / system is not ready for the real world. It needs to be hooked into the OnStar system so it can download updates or even just to do the data lookups "on-line".

I just use my iPhone and stream music from amongst 4-5 different audio apps. Most offer dozens or even hundreds of selections so I can always find something good to listen to as the miles go by. Most show album art in addition to artist-album-track information. yeah - letting that free XM trial lapse unrenewed was a no-brainer.

I use a 'Naja' - http://thoughtout.biz/NAJA_King - to put the iPhone in a usable, non-distracting location by wedging the cable between the passenger seat and center console which lets the phone float up to the right of the gear shift.