I hadn't played around much with MMCS (Mitsubishi Multimedia Communication System) in the Lancer or our long-term Outlander, so last night I set out to figure out how to "rip" a CD to the system's hard drive. I found it to be a very easy process, as the video below shows. You can set the system to automatically rip any disc you place in its single slot, or manually record. The process of ripping an 18-track CD took about 20 minutes, so a track per minute seems like its running time...
The only minor problem I found was with the Gracenote disc-reading software. It couldn't read a store-bought copy of The Killer's "Sam's Town" (strange), nor an all iTunes-purchased mix CD (expected). Thinking this was common, I went through a bunch of different CDs, but with the exception of other mix CDs, Gracenote managed to correctly identify well-known CDs, a fairly obscure band's CD, a Canadian CD and even a few burned albums. Very impressive. I guess MMCS just doesn't like the Killers, I'll have to try "Hot Fuss" sometime.
My next task is to figure out how to delete things from MMCS. Until then, everyone can enjoy the two "No Track / No Name" playlists in the hard drive. They'll have no idea whether they're about to play The Killers or The Greatest Hits of Wing. Which would seem rather fitting for this car.
(Sorry about the video quality. CarSpace blows it up, which made it fuzzy.)
James Riswick, Associate Editor @ 2,781 miles
stangmatt66 says:
10:43 AM, 08/23/07
A little narration to the video would have been nice. Odd that Mitsu calls it recording and not ripping.
2002blksle says:
10:46 AM, 08/23/07
James- So let's say in two years from now I buy your lancer. I am assuming that I would the be the beneficiary of the fruits of your labor... and the proud owner of your copied music collection unless you went back and deleted all of these songs off the hard drive before you sold your car. As a side note, I wonder if the music industry sees this technology as one more small threat toward people having the ability share music without paying for it.
It will be interesting to see how easy it is to delete songs off the hard drive and if you can do it all at once.
billt9 says:
11:11 AM, 08/23/07
That electric motor garage door action is such a movie gimmic.
Day in, day out, I would not have the patience to wait for the stupid motor to slowly raise and lower the screen.
A quicker damped spring action would be preferable, or a manual override for manual action.
ahightower says:
11:16 AM, 08/23/07
Looks cool. A couple dumb questions, I'm not hip to what the kids are into these days.
1) I assume it will also burn songs when you have your iPod plugged in?
2) Can you go in and label/title the "unknown" tracks manually? Or will they always be unknown?
3) What's the point? If you already have everything on your iPod, wouldn't you rather just have a system that can "control" your iPod, rather than have to load everything into your car all over again? I guess it's convenient to not have to plug in your iPod every time, but worth the money?
PS - The videos within the blog are a pretty cool addition, thanks!
1487 says:
12:09 PM, 08/23/07
this car has a lot of stuff for the money. I would take it over a civic any day of the week.
estreka says:
12:59 PM, 08/23/07
Another Scorsese classic.
ahightower - You might not want to bring your iPod around everywhere you go. Frankly, I'd be worried it would get stolen.
jriz says:
01:11 PM, 08/23/07
ahightower -- Those are good questions. Since our new long-term Scion xB has a direct iPod connection with touchscreen controls, I'll do a direct comparison between the two systems when the XB blog goes live.
rasldasl says:
01:30 PM, 08/23/07
Is there a way to update the Gracenote database? Are you locked into a lifetime of purchasing expensive update discs like with the factory nav units?
mplshawkfan says:
07:04 AM, 08/24/07
Gang -
I've got the same system on my Outlander. It's really easy to delete selected tracks, or you can do a "delete all" command and wipe the whole library. The Outlander came with some songs preinstalled and I quickly figured out how to delete them.
You can also manually type in the names of unrecognized tracks via the touch screen. It is tedious, and not recommended while driving, but go on a road trip and make your passenger do it for you. They won't be bored and you can still listen to the system while they are typing.
Hard drive system versus ipod?
Well, having a line out to the ipod is great, but sometimes you forget your ipod, or do not want to bring it along in the car. The ipod will also run out of juice on a long road trip unless you have a car charger. That said, you get the best of both worlds with this setup, because your hard drive can act in tandem with your ipod in many ways, holding your favorite music instead of ALL of it. And it sounds MUCH better coming from the hard drive than the headphone jack of the ipod!
Any more questions, give me a holler.
daveflores says:
02:24 PM, 08/25/07
I love my Lancer ES with CVT, though I do sometimes think I should have gone with a manual GTS. I'd curse the manual in rush-hour traffic, though and I've also got an MR2 Turbo for when the sporty car bug hits me.
As far as the NAV unit goes, it's great even though the Gracenote software is out of date. In a few years everything will come with built-in 802.11 wireless and these things (plus Nav maps) will update on a regular schedule (for a price, of course $$$).
Anyway, entering artist information manually is a bit of a pain, but at least you only have to do it once. The biggest problem with the Nav unit's music server is that it does a horrible job of organizing your collection. There are no artist sub-folders, and everything simply shows up alphabetized by album. So what I did was to rename all my albums this way: "Artist - Title." Makes it easier to find what I'm looking for that way. Also, if you hold the forward button down, it scans through the album list very quickly, which is nice. What's less nice is that you can only store about 100 albums before you run out of memory. That makes me thik it's storing music at about 192 bits instead of the more common 128 bitrate. The advantage is that your music will sound better. The disadvantage is that you can only store about 100 albums instead of the 150 you'd be able to store at 128 bit in 6 gigs of drive space. Still, having 100 albums at your fingertips is awesome. I never pull out my iPod when I'm in the Lancer. Not much point in it. With 100 of my favorite albums loaded I can find something to match pretty much any mood. (It'll be interesting to see if someone manages to swap in a larger hard drive. Imagine, for instance, having 50 gigs of free space instead of just 6... yummmmmm.)
I'm loving this car otherwise. Yes the CVT is really anemic from a standstill, but accelerates nicely at highway speeds. And the ES boasts a comfortable, quiet ride.
Having lived with this thing for three months now, I have no regrets about getting a Lancer, and would do it again if I hat it to do all over again. My only niggling, nagging question is whether I should have gone with a manual, or better yet, a manual GTS... or heck, waited for the Ralliart (not really an option, though... my previous ride was falling apart).