DoctorWho said:
It's great that a dealer spent so much time on this. I tried to persuade mine that I had the same problem and they wouldn't believe me. Kudos to the dealer in Athens! Now let's hope for a firmware fix...
Btw I mostly noticed this issue with mp3's extracted from YouTube videos.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
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The dealer in Athens escalated the issue to their regional support center in Italy and sent them a bad MP3 file to recreate the problem there. I have to say that the local Volvo dealer spent a lot of time to analyze this problem, but it was beyond their ability to resolve. Unfortunately I received a “sad” answer from Volvo in Italy, saying that they do not agree this is a bug and “closed” the incident report. So I have no hope for a quick resolution. Here is the reason why they closed the incident.
The “High performance Multimedia System” specs say that it supports MP3 files with sampling rate up to 320Kbps. Volvo-Italy responded that if we “play” songs with rates 320Kbps … we are “marginally” within the boundaries of the specs.
Volvo-Italy examined one of the bad files and they said that the bit rate is “variable” and that at a couple of instances (during the playback), the bit rate jumps up to 324Kbps…. So they said the file is outside the “standard specs” (320 Kbps max.) and closed the incident. END OF STORY.
Now in my humble opinion, all the above is just … BULLSHIT from Volvo (!) … From my own experience, here were my replies:
1.- Yes, the MP3 algorithm indeed has a variable bit rate … this is the nature of all compression algorithms (like MP3), so this is not anything unusual. Anyone knows this.
2.- If there were a few instances were the bit rate jumps to 324Kbps … in the WORST CASE … these intervals would not play correctly and you would hear a …Hhssss sound … thru the speakers. Not that the entire file is rejected !!!!
3.- The 99.999% of all MP3 players in the market (I am referring to simple devices that cost 40-60 Euros even), tolerate such small spikes in MP3 rate. Even with minor … Hhssss sounds… at these time points. But Volvo’s … Super Duper ….“High performance Multimedia System” … which Volvo Greece is kind enough to price at 2,000 EUR as extra feature … does not (!!!).
4.- This is why most songs play OK in other cars I tried them. And also in all Windows PCs with Windows Media Player or other. … they all play well everywhere.
5.- For those that “know the basics” … this is an obvious case of a firmware bug (software bug) in the “High performance Multimedia System” and they could easily look into it and come up with a firmware upgrade, to resolve it .. .this is very easy .. Honestly.
Unfortunately Volvo found a good excuse not to address the problem in good faith and they said all this … bullshit … and closed the incident !!! Oh, well ….
Regards
Angelo (Athens, Greece)