USB device format queries

FastAndFluid

I have spent this afternoon trying to get a few MP3 files purchased from SelectMix to play via USB and have got nowhere. I have a couple of questions about playing via USB and I would appreciate any responses from those who own SC3900s and have managed to play music from a USB HDD. I am running the latest (September 2014) firmware as indicated by System Info.

My first question is around the file format for the USB HDD or stick. My laptop has very little space on it and I was excited that it looked like I could use a large capacity USB HDD and an iPad instead. However, a limitation of the SC3900 according to the manual (if not the marketing literature or very basic video everyone keeps linking to) is that it doesn’t support NTFS formatted drives. So my plans to use a heavy duty 4TB G-Raid USB HDD drive have been dashed. FAT32 drives can only be formatted to a maximum size of 32GB in Windows. However there is a glimmer of hope in that the manual says the SC3900 can support hard drives up to 2TB - a much more realistic figure. But it gives no details on how this can be achieved. How can I support a 2TB USB HDD on the SC3900 and can anybody give me the name of such a drive that actually works? (I can’t even get a FAT32 formatted 16GB USB stick to work - see below).

I resorted to a 16GB USB stick formatted to FAT32 just to try and get SOMETHING to play through the deck. When I plug in the USB it is recognised and the selector starts flashing for me to select a track. Following the instructions in the manual I select “Title” and it shows me the list of tracks available to select. I select a track. Almost immediately it says “Complete!” and the selector just sits there flashing its blue light again. According to the manual what should happen is that the Cue button should be cued up (by lighting up presumably). It isn’t. Both the cue button and play button are not lit up and are completely dead. The Selector button just keeps flashing and when I respond by pressing it, it just repeats the process of saying “Complete!” before starting to flash again. Can anyone suggest why this is happening? Could it be that the MP3 format is a problem or is the manual wrong and I have to do something else to get the track actually cued up? If the format is a problem then I am very unhappy since this music is only avaiable in the MP3 format I have purchased and I assumed the SC3900 would “just work” with that format.

One last question: I can’t get the iPad application to work. the manual is only 3 pages and contains very little information, and what it does contain is slightly ambiguous. When the app is started it asks for a “Connection Id”. the manual gives no indication as to what this is, why it is needed, or what it is actually used for. It implies I can type anything in which makes no real sense - why bother at all? Whatever I type gives “Error! Player not found” even though the SC3900 is plugged in using wired Ethernet using the same micro-router someone else on here recommended as being suitable. Presumably the player needs to be configured in some way so that it can be found by the iPad app. Any clues as to what to try to fix this very basic error?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

DJ_Boothe

Some online suppliers of MP3 files do Wierd stuff to their files eg: mutating the headers, adding huge huge huge album art graphics, or very unusual formatting - beat port being very commonly mentioned offenders but certainly not the only ones.

Many downloaded send up downloading the mutated MP3s, burning them to CD then re-ripping them with a safe, sturdy, well-respected ripping program and then using them on media players. Yes, the mutated MP3s play ok on cheap pocket MP3 players which don’t need to be able to read the file properly, as such basic playback devices/apps arnt expected to be able to loop or scratch or otherwise manipulate the track deeply, but proper players need to be able to work within the track, not just start at 00:00 and stop at the end.

Alternatively, there are various MP3 cleaning/repair programs which can attempt to repair damaged/mutated headers.

For a good test, get a proper, shop-bought music CD, rip it yourself, at home, on your own system using a trusted ripper, avoid cheap tricks like variable bit rate (go for constant bit rate), a nice high quality Kbps rate eg: 320kbps and drop the resulting dozen or so tracks onto a pen drive or hard drive and run those files through Engine. Should work fine - plenty of people using 3900s and 2900s with engine, in this way.,

DJ_Double_A

Re: Questions about playing files via USB it doesn’t support NTFS formatted drives.

As far as I know, no dj media player does. The reason is simple… you can’t write/rewrite to a NTFS drive unless you are using windows based computer. NTFS is a secure format/system. To save cue points, recall and rewrite hotstarts, loops, and memo’s ect… the drive must be formatted as Fat32.

As for formatting a drive larger than 32gb… Google is your friend. :wink:

https://www.google.ca/webhp?gws_rd=ssl# … t+to+fat32

Or, our very own search tool here on the forums would of also helped you find the info you seek. (this was originally made for the Denon 1200, but it’s FAQ is useful for most media decks)

USB:

Q: What kind of USB drive does the 1200 support? A: USB thumb/key drives, USB hard drives, iPods (with MP3s or WAV) and media card readers. As long as they conform to USB standards for power (does not draw more than 5V/500mA). For external hard drives, please use their own power supply/plug . People have mentioned that the Kingston Data Traveler brand of thumb drives are hit and miss. Please stay away from that brand.

Q: What file format is supported using USB drives? A: WAV and MP3. MP3 supports CBR (Constant Bit Rate) and VBR (Variable Bit Rate). Although with VBR, scanning a song and Quick Jump is not permitted, and you cannot set Memo info either. Might I suggest sticking with CBR files?

Q: Will it play protected / DRM’d files? A: No.

Q: Will it play MP4 (m4a) files? A: No.

Q: How should my USB drive be formatted? A: The 1200 will only read a FAT32 formatted drive. NTFS formatted drives will not work. There are several utilities for formatting FAT32 in Windows, such as this one: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/ … Format.zip or CompuApps SwissKnife.

You can also use the utility built-in to the 1200. :wink:

Connect your USB drive. Press the "Util." button Scroll to "Initialize", then “USB Format” (Warning… THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON THE DISK!)

Q: Does the 1200 support a USB drive with multiple partitions? A: No, only the first partition will be seen. Any others on the drive will be ignored.

Q: For some reason my iPod/iPhone does not seem to work/connect with the deck…? A: Depending on the model/generation, some Apple players will not connect due to Apple’s closed system. The Apple player must be a “Mass Storage Device”. More information can be found at the Apple forums website (do a search for “Mass Storage Device”). https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

Q: How can I search on a USB drive? A: There are 8-ways to search:

Artist Album Title Genre Year BPM File name Folder

*Note: To be able to use the search feature effectively, the ID tag info for the track must be filled out (there are a few different programs out there you can use to do that… like Tag and Rename or Media Monkey). If you don’t fill in the tag info, like Album, Year, BPM, ect… then those search options will not be available.

Or… you could have taken a moment to read the manual. The 3900 can format USB HDD’s (upto 2TB). :wink:

http://b06ba727c886717f9577-fff53f92784 … 13_ENG.pdf

Page 20.

Image

And page 5 mentions the file formats that will work.

Image

Anyway, to format with the deck…

Connect Device. Go into the preset, select “Initialize” > USB Format.

(Note, this will delete/erase everything on the drive, so save anything you want to keep.)

One last thing. Please make sure that any external portable hard drive you decide to use has it’s own power supply (as in a power plug/wall wart). Do not rely on the deck’s USB port for power. DJ_Double_A User avatar Posts: 10735 Joined: 07 Sep 2005 16:26 Location: Ontario, Canada Location: The city w/ the CN Tower Type of DJ: Mobile DJ Post 26 Oct 2014 04:59 Re: Questions about playing files via USB FastAndFluid wrote: One last question: I can’t get the iPad application to work. the manual is only 3 pages and contains very little information, and what it does contain is slightly ambiguous. When the app is started it asks for a “Connection Id”. the manual gives no indication as to what this is, why it is needed, or what it is actually used for. It implies I can type anything in which makes no real sense - why bother at all? Whatever I type gives “Error! Player not found” even though the SC3900 is plugged in using wired Ethernet using the same micro-router someone else on here recommended as being suitable. Presumably the player needs to be configured in some way so that it can be found by the iPad app. Any clues as to what to try to fix this very basic error?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Did you set the ID for each deck first?

Also, did you set up the router’s name and password? You’ll have to connect it to a computer first to do that.

FastAndFluid

Thanks everyone for all the replies. Lots for me to investigate there.

DJ_Double_A you’ve gone to a lot of trouble pasting examples from the manual. Thanks

DJ_Double_A

In my post above I did explain how to use the deck to format the drive, unfortunately you will only be able to use just over half of the 4tb drive space you have once done.

mrtyme209

Fast And Fluid here you go = http://www.2tware.com/product/8/2tware+fat32format its a free program that i used when i ran into the same problem as you with the usb formats. i bought a SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128gb usb flash drive and used this free tool. to format it to FAT32 so my sc3900’s will reconize it without any limitations

DJ_Double_A

There is also a link to a free one in the “1200” quote I posted above.