Scooternz 1 Report post Posted July 1, 2018 Hi all, Sorry if this has been asked before, but I cant find an answer in the forums. I have a 2015 F30 import from Japan. The Nav has been converted to NZ, but the TV mode still is Japanese. Does anyone know if there is an easy way to covert the TV for NZ? Im assuming it needs to be switched from NTSC to PAL and did read apparently its a simple change in settings, but if that is the case, I cant find out how to do it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 1, 2018 BMW were & to my knowledge still do, run the TV on Digital MPEG2 format where NZ is running on MPEG4 - so different formats. NTSC / PAL is for the reverse camera & is programmable (on the earlier cars anyway) but nothing to do with TV function. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2957 Report post Posted July 2, 2018 Just going back a few steps to the original question, has your car definately got the TV option fitted? It's quite a rare option, even rarer on an F30. Second question for a bonus point, does your car have the analogue TV option fitted, or the digital TV option fitted? If you don't know how to check, then post up the last 7 digits of the VIN and I can check out the build details for you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2957 Report post Posted July 2, 2018 Hence the reason for the question. Anyone heard the joke about the lost woman and the guy in the balloon..? Keeps coming to mind for some strange reason. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 2, 2018 Oops my bad wasn't meaning MPEG. ? Cant recall the format offhand but in discussion with Jochen at the time, we run a different digital system to that of Europe - on which BMW use in their cars. There was a digital video module available for the E39 - a plug & play for the analogue unit as in our car. They were not suitable for NZ Unless BMW have changed then there will still be the same issue. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scooternz 1 Report post Posted July 4, 2018 On 7/2/2018 at 1:05 PM, E30 325i Rag-Top said: Just going back a few steps to the original question, has your car definately got the TV option fitted? It's quite a rare option, even rarer on an F30. Second question for a bonus point, does your car have the analogue TV option fitted, or the digital TV option fitted? If you don't know how to check, then post up the last 7 digits of the VIN and I can check out the build details for you. Yeah pretty sure it does as when I go into media, TV is an option and it scans for stations etc and if I go to "TV region" a whole lot of Japanese provinces come up to choose from. Have no idea about digital or analogue, but the VIN is NS62941 Cheers Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 4, 2018 Splitting hairs somewhat with my description. Net result is - a Digital video module from 38/39/46/53 & a few others of that vintage will work in UK/Europe but NOT in NZ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2957 Report post Posted July 5, 2018 16 hours ago, Scooternz said: Yeah pretty sure it does as when I go into media, TV is an option and it scans for stations etc and if I go to "TV region" a whole lot of Japanese provinces come up to choose from. Have no idea about digital or analogue, but the VIN is NS62941 Cheers Well, the good news is that your car was definately fitted with the TV function at the factory, and also that it was fitted with the Digital TV module and not the analogue one. However, from the parts system the TV module for Japan / China / Brazil is different to that fitted for other regions / markets. Now whether this is down to different hardware required for different digital TV formats, or just a software difference I can't tell. I can see that replacing the TV module with an NZ part would be an expensive option. My suggestion would be to talk to one of the specialist NZ converters, like Euro Surgeon that have a lot of experience with swapping these things over and they will advise your best course of action. It could be a sodtware change, or possibly new hardware, but at least you have got some of the system from factory which gives you a head start. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scooternz 1 Report post Posted July 6, 2018 Thanks for the help everyone. Appreciate it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hi-Tek 3 Report post Posted July 19, 2018 I’m going to chime in here in the hope someone can help me with my 5 series TV issue. I have a NZ new 2009 E61 525i with a DVD/TV player. The DVD player works fine but the TV is just static. Is that an analogue in my car vs digital issue? Has anyone remedied this here easily? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwi535 538 Report post Posted July 19, 2018 given that tv turned didgital in 2013 i would guess the answer is yes.As suggested above talk to tone of the converter people. a quick google turned up this.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 544 Report post Posted July 19, 2018 Paul, this is the conversion for ibus based tv modules. I’ve done this to my e46. From memory I only had the choice of one tuner module that did both the nz standard with Dolby ac3 for sound.. The key to the conversion was a custom micro controller that mapped the bmw button commands to a tuner standard. The realty is the coverage isn’t great . I get tv coverage in parts of Wellington only. But it’s very good when you can get it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 544 Report post Posted July 19, 2018 (edited) Info on ibus / gen 2 tv module digital tv upgrade. Applicable to circa 2000 plus E39, E46, E53 and later ZMcoupes scroll to last couple of pages for tv tuner Edited July 19, 2018 by Neal Link didn’t go to correct pages Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwi535 538 Report post Posted July 20, 2018 ok this may not be any good for an E61...just tryin to help. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites