One last try. Can't find a discussion on this anywhere online... thought maybe someone here might have used it. If you know of a forum, please let me know.

Thanks again for any help.

 

I take it you mean the PhatNoise media manager? Or even the music manager. But to answer your question, yes it does. And if it works on XP, it works on 2000.
I do find it interesting that you're able to use a 160gb drive when the IIRC, the HU's can only recognize FAT32 formatted drives. Anything beyond 30gb is NTFS.

http://forum.phathack.com/index.php

 

Hey thanks for the reply! :salute:

I think the Phatbox/Phathack forum is for something else. The software in question came with my Kenwood HU. It's supposed to have a feature to allow the user to create playlists in their proprietary format...but I haven't been able to get it to install on my Windows 2000 system.

Not true about FAT32 30-GB limit, though! See under 'HU Details and Setup' in my recent post:
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258218

I have full use of my 160-GB HD as a FAT32 drive and it's awesome having hundreds of CD's in my car at once! I've only been ripping .wav files to the HD because I wanted CD-quality...and with my new HU I can hear the difference between lossy MP3's even encoded with the best quality setting and very high variable bit rates. I know some folks will think that's ridiculous, but I did a "side-by-side" comparison and I feel that something is lost in the conversion to MP3--well obviously, that's where the term 'lossy' comes from. But then, it could just be that I'm whacked and my brain doesn't fit the standard psycho-acoustic model.

I can't imagine how many songs I could fit on the drive if I used MP3's though...I think I'd reach the hard limitation of the HU first which is about 15,000 files. But that's a moot point since I'm using wav files...but I estimate I'll get about 230-250 albums at full CD quality...probably more than I'll need for my drive to work and back.:driving:

 

Double check the name of your software. I got the same thing with my DPX701 and it ended up being the same software I had with my Phatbox......It's Kenwood hardware either way. I'll look too.

 

Cool, thanks!

Well, the manual calls it "Kenwood Music Editor". The very small user manual is available as a PDF here: http://inform3.kenwoodusa.com/manuals%5CMusic%20Editor%20Manual.pdf

Kenwoods website indicates that the Music Editor Installation Manual applies to the following Kenwood Models: KDC-X891, KDC-X991, KDC-X791, KDC-X591, KDC-MP735U, KDC-MP535U. I didn't see your model listed.

For what it's worth, the HU's manual is here:
http://inform3.kenwoodusa.com/manuals\KDC-MP535U.pdf
(I have the KDC-X591, the manual covers both.)

Thanks for any help.

 

I actually got a reply from Kenwood regarding this issue. For anyone who might be interested:

=[MY INQUIRY]============================================

Area: Car & Home
Topic: Software
Product Model: KDC-X591
Product of Interest: Other
Where did you see the Kenwood Products?:Other
Subject: Kenwood Music Editor Questions
Body:

Hello! Love my new KDC-X591.

I would like to know:
1. Is it possible to install and use the Kenwood Music Editor (KME) software on Windows 2000?
2. If not, is there a version available for download compatible with Windows 2000?
3. Can the KME software create playlists for that the KDC-X591 can recognize and play?

Thank you!.

=[RESPONSE]============================================

Thank you for contacting Kenwood USA Corporation.
As an authorized agent for Kenwood, we are responding to your recent email inquiry.

The software should run fine on a windows 2000 system and Yes the software can be used to create playlists that can be recognized by a kdc-x591.

Please feel free to contact us again with any additional questions.

Edward ********
Product Support Representative
Kenwood USA Authorized Call Center
PO Box 22745
Long Beach, CA 90801-5745
Phone: 1-800-536-9663 x ****
Fax: 1-559-324-4594
Email: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Contact

=======================================================

So I guess I'm not yet meeting the install requirements. I'll have to take another look at that.

Thanks R36Dreams and to Kenwood!:salute:

 

Playlist software for Kenwood USB Decks

Actually what Kenwood Music Editor Lite refers as a playlist is not what we would call a playlist, it allows you to create a directory level on your USB drive where you will store playlists by adding an additional copy of your music files, then when you use KMELite to create the kenwood database you would specify the directory level where your playlists are and it will create a playlist for each folder on that level and name the playlist after the folder name. For example if I organize my device as follows:

Drive:\Music\Artist\Album\Song.mp3

Then all my songs are in the 3rd level, if I choose 3 as the playlist level it will create a playlist for each album named after the album's folder name. However if I add a directory as follows:

Drive:\Music\All Artists\Playlist\Playlist Name\Song.mp3

Then I can specify 4 as the playlist level and it will create one playlist for each folder under Drive:\Music\All Artists\Playlists. The problem with that is 1) you need to store separate copies of each file, and 2) When you browse by Album, Genre or Artist you will get duplicate songs on the list. It also makes the process of creating playlists tedious. I believe it is the same with the non-lite version except it allows you to manage the songs on the device while the lite version only creates the database.

The good news is that your deck has excellent support for playlists, Kenwood just doesn't provide a decent piece of software to create them. I have created an application that allows you to create playlists for your kenwood device without any of the limitations that KME has.

The application can be found here:

http://cid-05aef63bdfd87777.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/kpe.zip

It requires Kenwood Music Editor Lite Version 1.0 in order to run properly, so you must install that first, if you don't already have it you can get it here:

http://www.kenwood.com/i/faq/music_editor_lite/download.html

The first time you run it it will ask you to locate the kmelite.exe file from Kenwood Music Editor Lite Version 1.0, after that everything should be pretty straight forward. For a full description of the program see here: http://community.crutchfield.com/forums/t/18576.aspx

Hope that helps,
Fernan

 

Playlist software for Kenwood USB Decks

Actually what Kenwood Music Editor Lite refers as a playlist is not what we would call a playlist, it allows you to create a directory level on your USB drive where you will store playlists by adding an additional copy of your music files, then when you use KMELite to create the kenwood database you would specify the directory level where your playlists are and it will create a playlist for each folder on that level and name the playlist after the folder name. For example if I organize my device as follows:

Drive:\Music\Artist\Album\Song.mp3

Then all my songs are in the 3rd level, if I choose 3 as the playlist level it will create a playlist for each album named after the album's folder name. However if I add a directory as follows:

Drive:\Music\All Artists\Playlist\Playlist Name\Song.mp3

Then I can specify 4 as the playlist level and it will create one playlist for each folder under Drive:\Music\All Artists\Playlists. The problem with that is 1) you need to store separate copies of each file, and 2) When you browse by Album, Genre or Artist you will get duplicate songs on the list. It also makes the process of creating playlists tedious. I believe it is the same with the non-lite version except it allows you to manage the songs on the device while the lite version only creates the database.

The good news is that your deck has excellent support for playlists, Kenwood just doesn't provide a decent piece of software to create them. I have created an application that allows you to create playlists for your kenwood device without any of the limitations that KME has.

The application can be found here:

http://cid-05aef63bdfd87777.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/kpe.zip

It requires Kenwood Music Editor Lite Version 1.0 in order to run properly, so you must install that first, if you don't already have it you can get it here:

KENWOOD Music Editor Light | KENWOOD

The first time you run it it will ask you to locate the kmelite.exe file from Kenwood Music Editor Lite Version 1.0, after that everything should be pretty straight forward. For a full description of the program see here: Crutchfield Articles & Videos

Hope that helps,
Fernan

Could you re post your software? The link seems to be broken. THANKS !!!

 

By next weekend I plan to add the ability to add and remove songs to the USB device, edit ID3 Tags and headers, and import M3U and WPL playlists by copying them to the device and regenerating the Kenwood database (so it'll almost by as if the deck supported them natively).

The menus and buttons for some of these features are already on the application but are currently disabled, this is not a bug, that feature is simply not done yet.

 

Thank you Fernan! I downloaded your playlist software for Kenwood USB Decks and all I can say is Thank You!

It took me a couple tries to figure out all the steps.

I do have one question, or maybe a request for an additional enhancement... I have a lot of wma files on my computer...closing in on 75,000. When I rip a cd, I usually assign my own genre rating in the genre field. Then later when I build playlists, I combine music from multiple genres.

For example, I have a playlist called "fabulous fifties" and another playlist called "summertime"...Both of these playlists have a mix of old rock and roll, motown, balads, torch songs, etc., and there is some overlap in songs, but there is enough unique content in each playlist to establish a different mood.

Heres my issue. When I added "summertime" to the thumb drive that already contained "late nite love songs", "fabulous fifties", "best rocknroll" and "new age and world" the songs from "summertime" get mixed in with the rest of the music already on the drive.

Is there a way to flag new songs that haven't been put in a playlist yet? If there was, I'd be able to then build the song data base one playlist at a time.

If there isn't, I'll have to corrupt the genre field in order to be able to find the new songs each time I add a playlist to the USB drive. The other choice is to have more (small) thumb drives, with not so many playlists on each.

Anyway, food for thought. I really appreciate having the software that builds the playlists. And the Kenwood 794 is truly a great player.

Thanks again!
Ray

 

Good evening everybody.
At least it's evening here in Germany where i live.
I sadly have to confess that I dont drive a Passat, nonetheless a B5, just the Audi counterpart.

Rightfully you may ask yourself why does that Idiot introduce himself while digging out that rotting corpse of a thread, and I have to confess again:
This thread is kind of the reason I registered in the first place.
I'm desperately searching for that peace of software, Fernan's "Kenwood Playlist Editor".
Today, only 3 leads on it are left to find out about that.
Someone mentioning it in the WinAmp forum, an archiving site that snapshotted one of Fernan's posts on the old crutchfield.community forum, which has gone away without successor, and here in this forum.
Sadly, but understandably, the skydrive link in sources two and three has expired by now.

So i'm praying that someone reading this post may have downloaded the tool at the time and has it still saved somewhere, and may just be able to help me out.

If so, thank you very very much.

 

I have it - at least, I think it's the same .exe that Fernan created those years ago.
I'll get it uploaded to OneDrive tomorrow (Wednesday afternoon, US Central time) for you.

 

Here you go:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqQl4cEmEcs_mvt7F2QapRSk25wbqw

Recommend to simply copy that folder to the root of your flash drive (on mine, the folder is named "01 kpe", so it stays at the top of the directory, making it easily found.) Just run kpe.exe, and (after it finishes the scan), click "create Kenwood database."

 

Scroll up one post, friend. I put up a link (which is still valid) in 2018.

 

THANKS SO MUCH