[Raikkonen]

The album art on my nav screen is clear, but almost seems a little hazy, like it could be more "crisp", especially when compared to the navigation map when it's on split screen mode.

I'm using a 3rd generation iPod nano (it's about 6 years old), and I ordered a new, 7th generation nano last night. Will this upgrade to newer tech improve the album art picture and how it appears???

Does anyone using more recent Apple tech have crisp, clear album art on their nav screens?


The new nano itself only has a 240 x 432 resolution screen, so I'm just curious if that will have any impact on the image on the car's nav screen, or if that fact is irrelevant...

Thanks everyone!

[diesel86]

I have the same experience with my Nano. I have a non-Nav car with enhanced Bluetooth and when I was using my iPhone 4S connected via USB, all album art was crisp and detailed. I then got tired of forgetting my iPhone in the car all the time and decided to use my 8GB Nano via USB. When I connected and starting playing music using it, I noticed a huge degradation in picture quality; is as if all of the album covers were pixelated. I chalked it up to either A.) to save space I reduced the bit rate to 128kb so maybe it also decreases the image quality as well, or B.) maybe since the art is normally displayed on such a small screen on the Nano, that its having a problem scaling up the image onto the larger iDrive screen.

Either way, I've been living with it until I break down and get an iPod Classic. Hopefully the bigger display screen and larger capacity will allow for better quality pictures. Maybe I should test that theory usingy wife's Classic.

[Raikkonen]

Thanks diesel.

That's interesting to note that your newer 4s was clear, but your nano isn't.

I've got a 4GB nano, connected by USB, and it's OK at best.

Your theory is what I'm wondering about as well. The 4s has a much higher resolution screen compared to the nano...but is that really the issue?

I'm HOPING that scaling is not the issue, the the original device's screen size/resolution has nothing to do with it, but it's an issue of storage space, processing speed etc.

That would mean regardless of how small the nanos screen size is, its newer tech allows it to hold these images at their highest size/resolution...

My fingers are crossed, and when I get it this week, I'll post some images of old v. new nano album art...

[OC40]

My iPod Classic finally died on Friday after approximately 5 years. I have a 4s but I am too lazy to plug it in all of the time. I purchased a 7th gen Nano yesterday and I believe the artwork is better than the Classic. I will double check in the am and report back (assuming I do not feel worse than I do right now).

[chriskd]

I have a 4th Gen Ipod Touch and 6th Gen Ipod Classic. The album art clarity on the Touch is vastly superior to that of the Classic. I think it has to do with the tech specs of the display:
- Ipod Touch: 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch
- Ipod Classic: 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch

[diesel86]

It's not terribly important to me, but I really would like my connected iPod to have the better quality album art. I only have 6400+ songs in my library, but I don't think they have an iPod touch that could handle that many. That's why I wanted to get a new Classic so I could have all the space I ever wanted and have decent sized bit rates.

Plus, I don't need all the features of a Touch since it will just sit in my center console untouched for most of it's life.

[bimmermeupscoty]

Originally Posted by diesel86

It's not terribly important to me, but I really would like my connected iPod to have the better quality album art. I only have 6400+ songs in my library, but I don't think they have an iPod touch that could handle that many. That's why I wanted to get a new Classic so I could have all the space I ever wanted and have decent sized bit rates.

Plus, I don't need all the features of a Touch since it will just sit in my center console untouched for most of it's life.

You may not need to do this, but I leave an iTouch 4 32GB in my armrest for my song library, but also use it to connect to BMW APPS. I use my iPhone's hot spot capability to feed the iTouch internet, and it runs Pandora, Stitcher, the News (RSS feeds), Facebook, Twitter, and my Calendar. In my carport, the iTouch can sync over my home interent with iTunes and update its library.

I use my iPhone connected via Bluetooth as my phone, for my contacts/address book, and for the "current office," which feeds me my emails and text messages. It is a pretty sweet setup that utilizes about everything BMW offers under the CIC NAV system.

[BarryK]

A 64GB iPod Touch will easily hold 6400 songs - I have close to 9000 on mine.

As for album art, I had the same problem with my VERY old iPod Classic. Based on advice here, I tried just copying my iTunes library to a USB stick & it works great! A couple of caveats:

- DRM protected tracks: you'll need to remove DRM and/or download unprotected versions..
- Album cover art needs to be embedded in the ID3 tags to display them in high res. About half of my almost 10K tracks either did not display the art, or displayed them low res. I used a shareware program to embed/re-tag these files & now ALL is well!

FYI, I copied my entire iTunes library onto a 128GB USB flash drive, plugged it into the USB port in the center compartment under the armrest, & I have full functionality through iDrive & all cover art displays perfectly - crystal clear & sharp.

I did discover that the car does not recognize some brands of USB drives - I have no idea why. I'm using a PNY 128GB stick & have also used Kingston successfully. So I guess the lesson here is to be sure you can return/exchange whatever you buy...

Hope that helps ...

[Raikkonen]

I'm so technologically inept...I can't believe I just dropped $140 on a new nano when I could have just purchased a USB stick!!!!!! Oh God....

[bimmermeupscoty]

Originally Posted by Raikkonen

I'm so technologically inept...I can't believe I just dropped $140 on a new nano when I could have just purchased a USB stick!!!!!! Oh God....

While a USB is cheaper and will work, the Nano (as with my iTouch) will be a more seamless use of your iTunes library. My experiemce with my iTunes library on a USB disc is that a lot of the info (album art, names and titles were wrong or jumbled). I know you can straighten most out with third party programs, but it takes some work and may not be without some frustration. I buy a lot of my songs through iTunes and many have DRM, so I would have to convert them to another format and remove the DRM, which would be an ongoing challenge for new songs addeed to yor library.

[Maxpnc]

It's because when itunes sync from your computer to your ipod, it changes resolution of album art according to the resolution of the destination device to save space. In other words, itunes thought you would not need an album art that has higher resolution than your ipod nano can display.

[bringonthenite]

Originally Posted by bimmermeupscoty

You may not need to do this, but I leave an iTouch 4 32GB in my armrest for my song library, but also use it to connect to BMW APPS. I use my iPhone's hot spot capability to feed the iTouch internet, and it runs Pandora, Stitcher, the News (RSS feeds), Facebook, Twitter, and my Calendar. In my carport, the iTouch can sync over my home interent with iTunes and update its library.

I use my iPhone connected via Bluetooth as my phone, for my contacts/address book, and for the "current office," which feeds me my emails and text messages. It is a pretty sweet setup that utilizes about everything BMW offers under the CIC NAV system.

Smart!!