Is it supposed to display the name of the track on the CD?

 

mine never has. if there's a way to turn it on, i don't know how to get there.

 

Not all CD's have the data programmed into them to show on the displays. In my wife's Mazda 3, I would guess about 1 out of every 5 CD's I play actually has the data loaded.

 

CD text is a Sony thing so dont expect to see it used on many CDs. It was a big push when cd changers for the home came out but being Sony no one else wanted to give in so it pretty much died on the vine

 

Many audio CD burning apps, including iTunes, will create CDs with CD Text.

So you can always create your own.

 

The problem at hand is getting that text to display on our stock radio.

 

Well, for sure it doesn't work on the '04 stock radio, no CD Text support but there's RDS for radio stations.

Not sure about the heads on the later years.

 

'05 Limited without Nav, no text also..

Wonder about the Nav units?

 

I find it strange that they made it to where it would display RDS for radio stations but not text for CD...

 

I have a solution for that.

I burn LP's to CD using my home component system CD burner (in real time) and turntable.



Then I take that CD and go to the PC and copy it to a permanent, high quality CD. During the copy of the CD to CD, I go to the Gracenote CD Database which automatically recognizes the music on the CD and populates the artist album and song data, and then I burn it to the COPY CD. (Sometimes the Gracenote database doesn't recognize the album so I have to type it in - no big deal).

Now the COPY CD has the info and displays on the head unit or any CD player that will do that. The CD standard provides for the data on the CD - kind of a drag that more manufacturers don't take advantage of it.

You can also copy your manufacturer CD's to CDR's and do the same thing - add the album artist song data. And there's another reason you should - CD's used in cars eventually get damaged. Using the original means you are going to end up having to buy a new one... I'd rather "coaster" a copy ($2) than a master ($10-$40).

Since I went to dumping all those CD's to the iPod, and my replacement head unit runs the iPod natively, I get all that stuff displayed on the head unit and the CD's stay at home. I still burn copies of the manufacturered ones for backup, and CD's of my LP's so I can play them on the CD player - that gives me both sides on one CD, more control options on the stereo system.