Access via CarPlay / Android Auto w/ USB CD Player (imanoob)

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Hello,
I have scoured the net for a solution to no avail.
We have a 2025 Accord w/ CP & AA integration via iPhone.
I have looked at (and purchased 2) external USB car CD players and can find no way to get past the “Track1 / Track2” display. I seem to be in a large boat with many other people. I have no interest in ripping my CD collection to anything (MP3 etc.). I’ve been on this quest for a couple of weeks now. If there is a solution I can’t find it.
Any guidance, hardware / APP / etc. would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Dave

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I do not believe there are any audio headunits that perform internet metadata lookups for CD’s.
The only way around this is to either:
a) buy CD’s with CD-TEXT and get a headunit that supports that feature
b) burn your own CD-R’s and add the CD-TEXT values in

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are often wholly seperate to the traditional audio sources (like CD, FM radio) so no apps for them have any real understanding that CD’s are playing. The most you get is the system will allow the audio from the CD/radio to play “over the top” of the Android Auto/CarPlay source.

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FWIW, I use at least 3 different music players on Android Auto:
Musicolet (most of the times), Neutron and Player Pro. I never use
Android Auto’s integrated media player.

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I was writing this because I thought that simply using an Android CD
player should give users what they want. But it seems that such an app
does not exist :slightly_frowning_face:

5

Thanks for the reply!
Am I understanding this correctly. The in dash infotainment system merely sees CarPlay & Android Auto as audio sources? The USB-C data port while able to play external CD via CP & AA they do not recognize the source as a CD. I was hoping as the infotainment system has internet access via iPhone there would be a path to retrieve the meta data. I get that CP (Apple) is a somewhat closed system but for the number of people I’ve found looking for this feature there would be an Android App or script that could accomplish this. I’m sure I’m missing something in the concept.

Thanks again,
Dave

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I’ve D/L Neutron to my iPhone (nice interface) but haven’t had a chance to explore it.

Thanks,
Dave

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I use Neutron mainly because it is supposed to be able to render music
more perfectly than most mainstream apps. I use it when I want to
connect my phone to my HiFI system). But the interface is pretty but
sometimes quite difficult to understand.

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Hi Dave,

You’re looking for something that as far as I know doesn’t exist. I’m an iphone and CarPlay user.
CarPlay is about linking your iphone to your car’s entertainment system so the display and speakers can be used by apps running on the iphone.

The Apple music app runs on the iphone playing music. The music comes out the car speakers. If there is information (metadata) available about the music, then that that is shown on the display.

I’m not aware of any apps on the iphone that can play music from CDs. Even if there is, the vast majority (99.9999999 %) of CDs don’t have the information (metadata) about the music. If you are expecting to play CDs that you’ve purchased and have information displayed, then you will be disappointed.

There are three choices that I know of:

  1. Subscribe to Apple Music and use the music app on the iphone to play music over CarPlay.
    You can listen to everything that Apple Music has on it. If you have CDs that aren’t in Apple Music, you won’t be able to listen to them. Track info and Album cover will be shown on the car display when you play that album on the iphone.

  2. On your PC or Mac, load all your CDs into Apple Music. It will do the ripping and encoding for you pretty painlessly (other than feeding your CD drive). Then you can play the music on the CDs from Apple Music. For the CDs (Albums) that it knows about, the track info and Album cover will be shown car display when you play that album on the iphone. If you have CDs that Apple music doesn’t know about because they are ‘rare’ or live etc, then they won’t be shown.

  3. The choice you don’t want - ripping but listed for completeness. The high level summary is that you rip them and encoded them to apple lossless. Depending on the software you use to encode and tag the music, the metadata and album covers are retrieved from databases like musicbrainz and then stored into the music files. Then you load the encoded music into Apple music on your computer and sync to your iphone. Then you can play it using the Apple music app on the iphone over Carplay to your car display and speakers. This is a lot of work and has two advantages:

  • You don’t have to play a monthly subscription fee for apple music
  • You have complete control over the information and covers shown

The third one is what I do. Lots more info, if you decide it is worth it.

One other point is that for an iphone app to work over Carplay, it needs to be Carplay enabled. Not all apps are.

Hope this helps.
Another Dave

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My Subaru is Gracenote enabled (which I do not care for).

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The more you know eh! :joy:

I’m driving a 2002 Nissan Micra with a general design from like 1993 so this sounds very fancy :joy:

I bet you have air conditioning and electric windows too! :grin:

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Yes, but the “nanny controls” in the Subaru are hideous.

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If the car’s computer (ASR, ESP, ABS, etc.) breaks down while driving, an accident is inevitable.