marmel 4 Report post Posted April 23, 2019 (edited) Can anyone with an E9x with idrive and the DVD/MD combo in dash tell me if you see MD as a source option when scrolling across the screen. The DVD/CD drive works fine and there is an option to select CD on screen although it is greyed out if no disc is present. The MD player on the other hand loads discs but there is no option anywhere on the screen to select MD as an input and I can't get it to play, the option isn't even there greyed out. At this stage I don't think it has anything to do with the recording format as I would of thought I would be able to at least see MD as an option on screen, greyed out or not. Yes I know MD's are historic but I'm going through a nostalgic phase and reliving my youth ? Edited April 23, 2019 by marmel Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted May 23, 2019 (edited) So was that a CD playing or MD? Edited May 25, 2019 by E30 325i Rag-Top quoting prev post Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MD335 12 Report post Posted May 24, 2019 I have a Japanese E91 with MD and DVD in the head unit and 6 disc changer/HD/nav in the boot. On my entertainment menu on CCC I see DVD drive, CD, & CD0 to CD6 i am assuming that the CD really means the MD slot but can’t test as I don’t have any mini discs. I believe that the DVD drive setting/slot is for the Navigation DVD because I’ve tried butting a normal DVD in the slot and nothing at all happens and the DVD option on the selection list remains greyed out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2963 Report post Posted May 25, 2019 Does there need to be a valid / playable disc in the slot for it to show as an option in the menu? With other BMW ICE systems you only get the choice of available options. Also, I can't remember if MDs had a region coding / format thing on them, might need to be Japanese format for the disc to be recognised by the system. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted May 26, 2019 3 hours ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said: Does there need to be a valid / playable disc in the slot for it to show as an option in the menu? With other BMW ICE systems you only get the choice of available options. Also, I can't remember if MDs had a region coding / format thing on them, might need to be Japanese format for the disc to be recognised by the system. Pretty sure the MD format was not region coded. I’ve tried several different file types, .mp3, .wav etc but none appear to work. Not sure if the player is faulty or I’m just not accessing it properly, can’t find any online instructions either. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2963 Report post Posted May 27, 2019 Don’t Mini-discs just play from the “standard” music file? I’ve never put anything onto MD as a file format - but then I have only ever transferred from CD to MD and never from a PC. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted May 29, 2019 Just now, Blackie said: Correct. Mds play audio not mp3s I have tried recording onto a MD using an analogue cable, made no difference. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted May 29, 2019 Yes. I have recorded using an analogue cable in real time, so a 5 minute song takes 5 minutes etc. they play fine on the two MD devices I have. Even putting a blank disc in the MD slot in the car does nothing, normally MD players would come up saying blank disc etc. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted June 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Blackie said: Did you figure this out? Found a mate up the road who kept his MD collection so could check at the weekend No never got it sorted. I'd appreciate it if you let me know if you do manage to get your hands on a disc to see how it goes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marmel 4 Report post Posted July 17, 2019 27 minutes ago, Blackie said: I videoed, maybe you can see something I missed? My guess is it only likes official MDs or some sort of zoning restriction? Thanks for trying. I'm pretty sure the minidisc format was never region locked. Not really.sure what is going on. It doesnt help that I cant seem to find a BMW instruction manual online that had minidisc instructions, I'm assuming they were mainly for the Japanese market? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olaf 3340 Report post Posted July 17, 2019 MiniDisc - no region coding - CD audio though different sampling rate from CD (44.1KHz), compression via ATRAC. - there was a long-play ATRAC2. - NetMD allowed transfer of music from your PC or Mac, I have one of these units though forget most of the features/benefits/limitations. - HiMD was a step forward with uncompressed PCM recording, but is not backward compatible with the original ATRAC. what does all this mean? It is possible you have an MD recorded in something other than original ATRAC, though relatively unlikely. if you need a test disc, I’m sure I can find a couple, I’ve a hundred or more MDs, at least 4 Walkmen (some recording and net MD enabled), a JDM ghetto blaster with MD, a Sony HiFi MD recording deck (destined for my workshop HiFi), and a couple of e46 MD head units. I can test them before sending. Having typed that, I’m wondering why I’ve still got this mad MD collection! It’s almost as good for recording from an LP12 as a decent cassette on a Nakamichi... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jon dee 500 Report post Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) WARNING... Post Necro Tried to insert a MD into the MD slot on the E92 today and it wouldn't accept the disc. Went pretty much all the way in but no action from the player and the disc did not get "sucked in" like a CD. I-drive does not have any reference to MD among the various input options. So question... does the car have to be coded to show MD as an input option and allow the player to operate ? Cheers... PS: Car has these options if it makes any difference. Edited March 7, 2022 by jon dee PS Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jon dee 500 Report post Posted March 7, 2022 Japanese language users handbook that came with the car clearly covers the MD player and shows where it should be in the Idrive menu. Therefore it seems that it has either been coded out or deleted by some other action. Cheers... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jon dee 500 Report post Posted March 9, 2022 Appears that the MD option does disappear when the region is changed from JAPAN to OCEANIA. Therefore if you want MD functionality you need to tell the car it is still in Japan, and that you are happy with Japanese radio and NAV I have no use for NAV but I do like having the radio working properly for NZ stations. And I make my own compilation discs for the CD stacker so no worries about being able to listen to my favorites. If anyone was desperate to get the MD working I guess they could revert the region to JAPAN, forget about NAV and install a band expander... Cheers... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
F10er 65 Report post Posted March 10, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, jon dee said: Appears that the MD option does disappear when the region is changed from JAPAN to OCEANIA. Therefore if you want MD functionality you need to tell the car it is still in Japan, and that you are happy with Japanese radio and NAV I have no use for NAV but I do like having the radio working properly for NZ stations. And I make my own compilation discs for the CD stacker so no worries about being able to listen to my favorites. If anyone was desperate to get the MD working I guess they could revert the region to JAPAN, forget about NAV and install a band expander... Cheers... You could probably code it back in with NCS Expert while still leaving it in Oceania. Using NCS Dummy would make it easier as well as it translates all the coding options into English. I'm almost certain I've seen options for MD while coding CCCs before. Edited March 10, 2022 by F10er 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jon dee 500 Report post Posted March 10, 2022 (edited) Yeah... I guess there are other ways of getting there, but I don't have any hardware capable of running NCS so not an option for me. It was suggested that if the region was changed back to JAPAN to get the MD working, it may be possible to change the radio frequency range back to the EURO/NZ range by coding. In reality, having six CD's tucked away neatly in the boot is a lot tidier and safer than having to sort and change minidiscs on the fly Cheers... Edited March 10, 2022 by jon dee Becoz change... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
