Hi all,

just a quick question to ask if anyone can help with recording CDs to the HDD in my 20 series Alphard. When I put the CD in and start playing it most of the time the artist name, album and track titles come up automatically in English as per the first pic, but when I click on the record button to save it to hard disk all of the album details disappear and are replaced with Japanese writing. Is there any way around this? I've manually added the details the last 18 months but I recently replaced the head unit and I'm currently starting afresh re-recording some discs.

Many thanks in advance!

Dave

I couldn't find a way around it either. It was a case of manually typing each detail.

Hi Dave

That behaviour is pretty common on the Japanese HDD units in the 20 series.

What you are seeing on the CD playback screen is usually CD Text (data stored on the disc) or a temporary lookup, but when you hit Record the unit switches to its internal Gracenote style database entry for the ripped album. That database is Japanese market, so if it finds a match it will populate the HDD entry in Japanese and overwrite what you were seeing on the live CD screen.

A couple of practical things to try before resigning yourself to typing it all in

If there is an option in the audio settings for CDDB or Gracenote language or character set, set it to English or Roman where available (not all models have it).

Or try ripping with the unit disconnected from any phone tether or external nav disc and see if it behaves differently, sometimes the lookup mode changes depending on source.


Or if the disc definitely has CD Text and it still flips to Japanese on record, there usually is not a proper fix other than editing the HDD metadata after the rip.

Trade off wise, manually editing is a pain, but it is the only reliable way to keep consistent English titles on the HDD.

If you can share the exact head unit model number from the screen bezel or settings page, someone might be able to confirm whether your version supports an English database or firmware option.

😐