2007 Pro Nav DSP - What Ipod Interface?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi All,

I have spent the last couple of hours searching this forum and I have found some threads but nothing conclusive as to what the best way to go is in respect to getting an ipod to work in this car. I want to be able to control the ipod from the bordmonitor, change tracks on steering wheel, etc.

The car in question has professional nav (pop up screen in dash) which looks like the interface to my old E39 and E46 nav. It also has the hi-fi professional DSP option, which having read up a bit, seems to complicate things a little.

The car is a Z4M so the battery is actually sitting taking up most of the RHS of the boot. On the top of the carpet covered battery box, there is a black box which looked to me like it could well be the DSP amp.

Seeing as this is a very late car (August 2007 build), I am confused as to whether I would need a DSP D/A interface. I think probably not seeing as the car is so late. I do not have the car yet and pick it up next week so I was not able to see if the amp has a coax plug going into it.

I am also confused with what route to go down. In my E92 I had a Dension Gateway 500, which was excellent. I therefore have good experience with Dension products to do this job.

However, it seems that the Dension Gateway 300 is the model you need for a Z4 but it does not work on cars with DSP according to the Dension website. . . .now are they writing off all cars with DSP unnecessarily? From what I understant, this car should have the last incarnation of the DSP system which would NOT have a coax and would simply have a 3pin and a 6pin (CD changer loom). Surely the Dension would work in this case? The possible solutions as I see it are:

1. DIce. Poor support because the products are from america. Heard some reports of them being a bit flakey.

2. Dension. Not sure they make anything which would work in this car, being pro nav and DSP.

3. Intravee. I had one of these before in my E39. It needed the Alpine box too but did the job. As I remember it simply took the CD changer plug.

Any advice or thoughts would be most welcome.
 
I can't answer on the Dension.

I have an Intravee and the same nav/dsp setup as you. As you said, no co-ax on mine. The one limitation on the Alpine KCA-420i iPod adapter is the limit of 511 of anything. (Album, artist, song, playlist etc) which, if you have a really big music collection on a big iPod can quickly become a pain in the arse. Mainly because due to a poor implementation by Alpine, it lists track artist and not Album artist, so for one album, you could have 10 or more artists listed.

That said, it's considered to be the best integration bar none and the Intravee extras that allow you to code a few things in the car are truly excellent. I'm being very picky with the above.
 
Stuart Truman said:
I can't answer on the Dension.

I have an Intravee and the same nav/dsp setup as you. As you said, no co-ax on mine. The one limitation on the Alpine KCA-420i iPod adapter is the limit of 511 of anything. (Album, artist, song, playlist etc) which, if you have a really big music collection on a big iPod can quickly become a pain in the arse. Mainly because due to a poor implementation by Alpine, it lists track artist and not Album artist, so for one album, you could have 10 or more artists listed.

That said, it's considered to be the best integration bar none and the Intravee extras that allow you to code a few things in the car are truly excellent. I'm being very picky with the above.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. What build date is your car? Did you just have the 6pin and 3pin CD changer plugs? Where did you find them? Where have you put the intravee and the Alpine KCA? Also, did you run a cable back to the glovebox for the ipod?

Has anyone got experience of Dension or Dice in this configuration of a late car with pro nav and DSP?

Thanks again,
 
I'm having they same issue. Reason I don't have iPhone integration in my car yet is due to the number of potential integration kits and a lack of clarify which one is the best for my needs.

Next to sniffer's list I would also like to add the Soundplicity One, Control II and Control III kits available on http://www.bavsound.com/category/282/0/BMW-iPhone-Integration/

If I'm not mistaken those are successor products of Dice - but I'm not sure.
 
My car is an 06. Yes, it had the 3 and 6 pin connectors. I found them in the back of the CD-Changer I disconnected :) If you don't have one the cables are normally in the wiring bundle, or tucked up nearby. The Intravee is on the rear bulkhead in the boot, the KCA is under the passenger seat and the cable runs along the transmission tunnel as I was going to fit an Ashtray mount. I've changed my mind though and will probably re-do the install of the KCA to facilitate putting the iPod in the cubby. I did post a thread, I'll find it and put the link up here.

Edit - This is when I re-installed in my last Zed, which had the basic speaker setup, but broadly the same except there were no speakers behind the seats. http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=45207
 
Thanks for the information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB28-WHincI

I found the above video of the Dension Gateway 300 with nav. It is in another BMW car but the system architecture and versions are the same as the Z4 - DVD based MK4 navigation system pre MOST bus cars with 16:9 bordmonitor. So I guess this is what it would be like in the Z4 - :(

It does NOT look very impressive. It looks like it is designed for the radio screen as it is doing everything on one line. . .thats not good because it is not making the most of the navigation interface in the way the Intravee did.

I had the intravee before and whilst it was nowhere near as good as the Dension Gateway 500 in my MOST based E92, based on the above video, it is much better than the Dension Gateway 300 would be in the Z4.

So, what is the Dice / Soundplicity like compared to the intravee anyone know?
 
Markeg swapped from Dice to Intravee. I put a thread up about possibly going the other way and was talked out of it. Unless you have a mega music collection on your iPod, you probably won't get better then the Intravee/Alpine package. It has its limitations as per my first reply, but they are niggles.
 
jpeeters said:
I'm having they same issue. Reason I don't have iPhone integration in my car yet is due to the number of potential integration kits and a lack of clarify which one is the best for my needs.

Next to sniffer's list I would also like to add the Soundplicity One, Control II and Control III kits available on http://www.bavsound.com/category/282/0/BMW-iPhone-Integration/

If I'm not mistaken those are successor products of Dice - but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

Hi there,

The Soundplicity product looks to have an even worse user interface than the Dension Gateway 300 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6a-la1ywZE

So far, it looks like the Intravee is the most advanced.
 
Thanks for your help, I have managed to get an Intravee and KCA-420i through e-bay.

Should just be a case of plumbing it in and plugging in the ipod.

Can I ask why you did not present the cable in the central storage compartment between the seats?

This seems to be the easiest option as you can then put both units in the back of the car somewhere. . . .any ideas where to put them?

I have seen pictures of someone who has put the KCA on one side of the subwoofer enclosure in a car which has DSP. Cannot find the picture now but IIRC it was someone in the states.
 
If you've got a CD changer there's precious little space to get the cable into the cubby unless you want to drill holes and I don't.
 
Stuart Truman said:
If you've got a CD changer there's precious little space to get the cable into the cubby unless you want to drill holes and I don't.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

My car does not have a CD changer so hopefully I can find somewhere to present the cable and then store the ipod in there.
 
I wouldn't recommend going for the DICE - I needed to reset the interface every time I restarted the car, as it forgot it's settings. Also, I didn't think the interface was very good - extremely basic to be honest.

I would definitely recommend going for the Intravee - as Stuart mentions, it has it's limitations but delivers so much more than just iPod /iPhone integration.
 
Face lift models do note require the adapter when fitting an Intravee.

THat's the way I would go. Only Stuart seems to have an issue with the Alpine limits. I have over 1000 Atists, 785 Albums and nearly 13,000 songs but never had an issue with the Intravee.
 
srhutch said:
Face lift models do note require the adapter when fitting an Intravee.

THat's the way I would go. Only Stuart seems to have an issue with the Alpine limits. I have over 1000 Atists, 785 Albums and nearly 13,000 songs but never had an issue with the Intravee.
Click to expand...

Does yours go over 511 items then? If so maybe my Alpine has an older firmware version.
 
Stuart Truman said:
srhutch said:
Face lift models do note require the adapter when fitting an Intravee.

THat's the way I would go. Only Stuart seems to have an issue with the Alpine limits. I have over 1000 Atists, 785 Albums and nearly 13,000 songs but never had an issue with the Intravee.
Click to expand...

Does yours go over 511 items then? If so maybe my Alpine has an older firmware version.
Click to expand...

Not noticed an issue, how's the best way to test?
 
sniffer said:
Stuart Truman said:
If you've got a CD changer there's precious little space to get the cable into the cubby unless you want to drill holes and I don't.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

My car does not have a CD changer so hopefully I can find somewhere to present the cable and then store the ipod in there.
Click to expand...

That the best place for it if you have DSP, and where I fitted mine.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33505&start=45#p472037
 
srhutch said:
Stuart Truman said:
srhutch said:
Face lift models do note require the adapter when fitting an Intravee.

THat's the way I would go. Only Stuart seems to have an issue with the Alpine limits. I have over 1000 Atists, 785 Albums and nearly 13,000 songs but never had an issue with the Intravee.
Click to expand...

Does yours go over 511 items then? If so maybe my Alpine has an older firmware version.
Click to expand...

Not noticed an issue, how's the best way to test?
Click to expand...

Go into search on anything, songs, albums etc where you have more than 511 in the list and it starts to build a list with a percentage. On mine, as it hits 511 it shows "full" and that's it. You can scroll so far and you're done. As it indexes by artist and not album artist, you can have 10,12 etc artists shown for one album.

When I read up on it, it seems to be a known issue and a regular gripe on reviews.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom