apologies if this has already been covered - I took a quick look and couldn't find anything so here goes...

just curious (as I sit here knowing my truck is on the train so I am using small facts about the truck to try and string me along until it gets here
will the CD player in the Audiophile play/read MP3 and/or WMA formats?

thanks

 

That's a negative

 

NO and in todays music environment for a MSRP 40k truck that sucks......

I love my truck but Ford should of put some thought into the awesome audiophile system and add mp3 and XM capabilities.

JMO

freddy

 

that's a bummer... thanks guys for the info. I'd bet they will add it in the '05 or at least '06. not big enough an item for me to wait though

 

You might call me pessimistic, but I doubt you'll EVER see a radio with WMA capabilities. WMA is a proprietary Microsoft file type which requires Windows Media Player to work, whereas MP3 is a universal file type that doesn't.

Besides, you're better off with AAC (MP4's) encoded audio anyway. Smaller file sizes and better audio with AAC compression. It's the win.

 

ogg all the way.

 

Actually, your wrong TOD...Alpine has some decks that are mp3/wma compatible.

 

Yep. I was wrong.

I would stay away from WMA anyways, as the compression is lossy and it sucks ***.

 

Are you smoking crack?

Ok, I can't resist. I work for a large Software company in Redmond, WA in the area of digital audio/video.

"Truck of Doom's" comment about staying away from WMA because of its "lossy" is just silly. Any compression format will result in the loss of data, but loss of data isn't an issue unless the human ear can hear the difference.

You can say WMA sucks ***, but you are clearly not coming from a position of knowledge. Give it a try and rip the same song in two formats and then listen. Microsoft does a LOT of consumer and professional testing to determine what will work best for the consumer. This probably isn't the place to go into the specifics of the codec or how the different compression types effect highs/lows, etc.

Don't mean to get off topic here, but I just had to refute that silly comment.

 

Actually, WMA's compression is better than MP3's, with better fidelity to boot.

It is by definition lossy, as are MP3's, however a 96Kbps WMA file has the audio fidelity of a 128Kbps MP3 file.

Ergo, it hardly 'sucks ***' ...

The Microsoft variable bit rate encoder approaches lossless compression, but with obviously less compression.

Additionally, WMA compatable units have been widely available for some time, most popularily in the Creative Nomad Zen players and the like. Apple, of course, does not support WMA on their INSANELY overpriced IPods, however.

And there is NO REASON why Visteon (Ford) could not add MP3/WMA support to their Audiophile units. $15,000 Mazda Protege head units support it !!!

That is seriously weak ........

 

well it's good to know there are other geeks driving f150s out there - I don't feel quite so alone

ok - well while we are on this topic, how about another related question - anyone try burning their own CD audio disks and getting them to work in the Audiophile CD Player? I'd like to put my own CD audio CD together but find as a frequent rental car driver some CD's will read CDRs and some will not...

thx

 

One of the CDs in my audiophile is one I burned on my computer. It works just fine.

 

exclt! thanks for the info...

 

Bah. My opinion is based on personal experience ripping cd's on my Dell running XP Professional with Media Player. I've also ripped the same cd on my Mac running OS X using AAC. I HEARD the difference. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

As far as the comment you made regarding me smoking crack, I'm not...but you are obviously smoking MS's ****.

 

I just received my new 2004 with the audiophile system. The summary instructions that came with my manual indicate it will take mp3 cds so I tried a couple. Didn't work. I suspect they expected it to work and didn't require the supplier to provide the functionality. I'm going to try a warranty complaint when I take it in for my 1st service.