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jochen

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Posts posted by jochen

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Yes exactly that!

    Anyone have any ideas/thoughts on easiest way to do this mod?

    Also im thinking of possibly adding another pair of these orange LED ambiance lights somewhere in the rear but unsure whether it would look good or not....

    Chris

    Don't forget that the LEDs are powered by 5V, using PWM to control the brightness.

    If you power the LEDs of 12V, they will burn very bright for a very short period of time....

  3. Posted · Report reply

    Quick question -

    A guy at work has an E39 touring with 4:3 nav (it's a jap import).

    The screen has started to die.

    Can he replace the entire unit with an E39 Radio?

    Is this a direct replacement, or is there wiring needed to make that work?

    Otherwise a replacement screen from eBay might be the cheapest way.....

    Thanks for the advice

    You can do anything with the right amount of effort.

    To replace what he has with the lower-spec base radio, he would have to strip the seats, carpet, dash and door panels out to the bare metal to expose the wiring looms.

    You then have to replace the entire audio system wiring loom from what he has to the old radio type.

    The loom is hugely different!

    Honestly, he would be better just either replacing the LCD part of the screen 8common for them to fail) or replacing the 4:3 screen with a 16:9 screen

    He can also replace the jap nav with a Euro Mk4 nav and have fully functional nav in NZ if he wants.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Myself, I am not so concerned about the video, even though getting output via the Apple TV1 is quite a find! I have a Japanese navigation system so any (OEM) solution involving the 16:9 screen I have will be big money. I am tossing up whether to do something similar or just waiting out for a whole new touch-screen system to to replace what I have.

    The video module AV-IN is identical on the Japanese version of the BMW OEM nav system and on the Rest-Of-World version (ie: Euro)

    Just set the nav system to TELEVISION, select AV-IN and voila: picture and sound from the AV source.

    Tip:

    There is no point keeping the Japanese nav computer in NZ, because you cannot get maps for it. You can just unplug the Jap nav computer and then the system reverts to the graphics generated by the TV tuner (at next cold boot).

    You can also swap the Japanese nav computer with a Mk4 nav computer and have a resultant full Euro nav system, if you wish

  8. Posted · Report reply

    The video output from the AppleTV (there's a way to enable composite output in colour) plugs into the Aux In on the 16:9 screen in the front of the car. The screen has been reprogrammed to allow video in motion and PAL input.

    You'd be a lot better off going for RGsB video output from the AppleTV, the picture quality will be hugely better than composite video.

    I do not know if the AppleTV supports RGsB at the right rates for the BMW system, some google research is required. The necessary sync-on-green may be tricky, may require extra hardware.

    But the improvement in picture quality is HUGE.

    Tips for storing movies:

    a) there's no point putting a movie on the AppleTV harddrive in higher resolution than what the display can render. So rip the movies at the native size of the BMWs screen, it reduces the movie filesize down to around 100MB to 120MB per movie

    B) the native TV AV-IN is mono audio only, with no tone controls. Depending on what radio module you have, you can mod the radio module to make stereo AV IN. Requires a change in cabling of course, but worth it for the stereo effect

    I used my iPod to the AV-IN, using just composite video (all an iPod can output) and was very happy with the result. I never had time to mod my radio though.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    Hi,

    I have a 01/2001 E39 Touring with a Nav HU and want to swap out the Japanese radio module in the boot to a Euro model BM24 so as to get NZ radio. From what I understand it's just plug and play right. Just wondering if anybody has any for sale?- Im struggling to find what I need on Ebay...

    Thanks

    Can't have looked hard, there's a quite few on ebay:

    http://cgi.ebay.de/Original-BMW-Radiomodul...a#ht_500wt_1099

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-e38-e39-Radiomodul-...e#ht_572wt_1088

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-Prof-Bordmonitorrad...0#ht_829wt_1088

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-sound-radio-block-b...5#ht_2161wt_856

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-sound-radio-block-b...7#ht_2161wt_856

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-3er-E46-Radio-BM24-...cf#ht_500wt_868

    http://cgi.ebay.de/Radio-BM24-TMC-E38-E39-...3d#ht_755wt_856

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-BM24-TMC-Bordmonito...b#ht_500wt_1099

    http://cgi.ebay.de/BMW-3er-E46-Radio-BM24-...#ht_3125wt_1107

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E39-E38...5fAudioQ5fVideo

    Golden rule:

    Buy the newest you can find with the newest firmware (the manufacture date is written on the label eg KW 08/99 = week 08, 1999)

  13. Posted · Report reply

    My 'manual mode' shifter works the wrong way (in my opinion) e.g. Push forward = change up gear and pull back is downshift. I know a lot of the newer e46's do it the 'right' way. I have however fixed it so it now works how I prefer it- it's really easy to do and if anyone would like instructions/pictures of how to do it, let me know and I will post them here.

    Swap 2 pins over on the connector?

    Yep, easy.

    Here's where you guys may be able to help me: I'm after the selector panel (P, R, N etc lights) to match as the +/- symbols no longer match what the lever does. Although this does not affect the components/functionality in any way, it would still be nice to get it sorted!

    Is anyone willing to swap their panel with me? Obviously you would need to prefer that forward = shift up and currently have the opposite.

    get a new panel from bmw

    www.realoem.com

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Just buy a jvc or similar headunit with bluetooth adap streaming built in

    You would loose a whole lot of functionality in a E38 740i if you did that.

    Eg: you loose OBC, ability to set date/time, aux ventilation control, navigation, TV, integrated phone handsfree system, and totally integrated stereo system.

    Not worth it. Nothing beats the OEM system in terms of integrated functionality

  18. Posted · Report reply

    For the MPEG4 thing, there are actually a quite a few country using this now, even countrys in Europe, so I'm sure that they are going to have to sort it at some stage, hopefully its not a new decoder chip and is just a software update. there is a list here of all the countrys using MPEG4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T#America

    Dedicated DVB-T receivers use hardware decoder, instead of software decoders, because it is much cheaper.

    Less processor power and less memory required.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    will just be interesting to see what their opinion will be when analog switches off with the car under warranty and the TV stops working!

    They won't be able to do anything

    If someone sells you an AM radio, and the government turns off the AM radio transmitters, what can the seller do about it?

    BMW have no influence over the analogue TV switch off, it is totally outside their control, so they will not be able to help you at all.

    All they can do is send feedback to BMW Germany about what TV systems are available in this market and hope that BMW incorporate MPEG4 into their future designs.

  20. Posted · Edited by jochen · Report reply

    The car is a Jap import , and has been fitted with a band expander - although it's not a great one, and the dealer has already said he needs to replace it. However, I notice that the unit is not displaying station names etc, as other ones I have seen on Trade Me seem to. Is there a software update available for this to give it NZ frequency and RDS? I assume this is one of the 'World' radios I have read about, so I would also assume this is possible? If so, anyone know how much the upgarde is?

    My other question is to do with the GPS. I know that Jap unit won't take an NZ disk, but I think from reading another thread, it may be able to be modified to work? I may have misunderstood this, can one of you kind experts please advise me. If it is a mod, is there anyone in Chch who could do it, or could I send the unit on it's own to someone north?

    Changing radio from Japan mode to Europe mode (which is what NZ uses) is a software change that requires the right BMW tools and experience. No band expander required. Once in Euro mode, RDS is automatically enabled.

    Changing the nav is a hardware change that requires also the right hardware, tools and experience, and is not easy or cheap. Budget around NZD 6k for the nav upgrade. (would include radio reprogramming)

    If you are serious about doing this, drive to Auckland and see the guy that knows how - because experience and knowhow is an absolute MUST.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    It seems odd that they wouldn't have the appropreate digital tuner installed from factory, NZ does have an 'odd' spec of digital broadcast but at that price point it shouldn't matter, i would be asking the dealer what the deal is.

    BMW designers never made an MPEG4 compatible tuner.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Hi,

    Just bought my first M3 and love it, its a E90 M3 HP model with the TV upgrade, only problem is that the TV has a DVB-T tuner which is only MPEG2, which is designed for Australian and UK Freeview broadcasts, in NZ we need the MPEG4 tuners to support freeview. the tuner still picks up analog tv - but not for long once they switch this off.

    I've asked the dealer and they are checking it out for me, but though I'd try my luck here too

    Cheers

    Mark

    BMW do not have any TV tuners that support MPEG-4

    This applies to all BMWs, all models, all markets, the entire world

    Maybe they may bring it out in the future (I don't know). If so, it would mean a hardware swap (replacement of the tuner) IF they every make a model for your car.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    This morning on my way to work my speakers on the right side of the car cut out when going round a right hand bend. Came back on again a few seconds after levelling out. Very strange....

    I just wondered if anyone had had something like this before who if anyone might be able to impart some knowledge as to what could be causing it before I rip apart the door panels and go wire hunting.

    Check for chaffing on the wires on the rear parcel tray, just where they go to the speakers. I've seen an E39 where this happened, put the amp output stage into protection mode, stopped sound

  25. Posted · Report reply

    I think the tv tuners will be useless once the old tv signals are replaced by freeview, we'll have to have freeview receivers in cars then......

    The TV tuner provides multiple functions:

    1. Analog TV reception

    2. AV in eg for iPod movies

    3. AV out eg for rear seat monitors

    4. Reverse Camera In

    When they turn off Analog TV, you only loose function 1.

    But remember - some local TV stations may continue on analog for a while after TV1 and TV2 turn off

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