Chinese bluetooth adaptor, mediabridge clone type

8

85genius

Senior member
I have been researching the dice mediabridge as I want to add bluetooth to my Z4 as soon as possible after I pick it up (cant risk the 3 points on my licence for driving on my phone) Looks like the dice option is perfect for my needs but whilst browsing ebay to see how much I could recoup selling my CD changer I found this which could be a serious gem

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Bluetooth-Handsfree-A2DP-CD-changer-adapter-BMW-E39-E83-E53-E85-Business-CD-/111685007449?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1a00f1f859

OK so it doesn't have the deep iPhone integration that the dice has but I have an Xperia not an iphone and therefore I don't have or need siri integration, I'm in the UK so satellite radio is no use to me either so this seems like it could be a great alternative to the Dice unit for less than a third of the dough.

If anyone has already tried one of these cheapie boxes would be interested to hear your experiences, if not I'll have to be your guniea pig
 
That particular on won't be any good as it has the wrong interface with round pins. The Z4 interface is different with flat pins.
 
ESP said:
Im interested to follow this
Can you be the guniea pig please
Click to expand...

Ok then sod it... For 50 sheets I've gone ahead and ordered one :)

Just hope no one else chimes in now to say its crap, although if it doesn't work I'm covered by ebay and paypal protection so nothing to lose really. Will post some more info once I have it in hand, usually 1-2 weeks for stuff coming from China so going to be a bit of a wait but as soon as it arrives it's going straight in
 
srhutch said:
That particular on won't be any good as it has the wrong interface with round pins. The Z4 interface is different with flat pins.
Click to expand...

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually noticed that just before I paid the order and went for this one instead http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Bluetooth-Handsfree-A2DP-CD-changer-adapter-BMW-E39-E83-E53-E85-Business-CD-/111685007449?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1a00f1f859

I have edited the link in the original post just in-case someone accidentally ordered the wrong one like I almost did
 
Very interested to see how this pans out. Especially if the next/prev track button on the steering wheel trigger the corresponding bluetooth commands
 
jeffers said:
Very interested to see how this pans out. Especially if the next/prev track button on the steering wheel trigger the corresponding bluetooth commands
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No mf steering wheel in my z (yet) may upgrade if I find one cheap enough so can't help with that, although I assume if it works with the control on the head unit it will also work with the steering wheel
 
My experience having used various iPod integration modules in my M5 and Z4 (including Dension, Ice>>Link, and the Audiovox MediaBridge in my Z4) is that the most important thing is actually the software, not the hardware - and whether the developers have got it right in the first place, and continue to release bug-fixes after they have sold the device.

The recent fixes to the Audiovox MediaBridge can be found here: http://diceelectronics.com/release_...Electronics&sku=MEDIABRIDGE MB1500 - BMW/MINI.

I'll be curious to see how pro-active the sellers of the Chinese unit are when it comes to releasing firmware updates.
 
85genius said:
jeffers said:
Very interested to see how this pans out. Especially if the next/prev track button on the steering wheel trigger the corresponding bluetooth commands
Click to expand...
No mf steering wheel in my z (yet) may upgrade if I find one cheap enough so can't help with that, although I assume if it works with the control on the head unit it will also work with the steering wheel
Click to expand...

Yeah, I would expect it to work in the same way. Would also be possible for it to feed the current track info back to the display... but i would be a little less optimistic about that
 
This looks very similar to a device I recently ordered from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A8XQTYK.

I returned it because the connectors seem to be made to plug into the back of the head unit, rather than into the CD changer multi-pin connectors in the boot. That's what I assumed, anyway - they certainly wouldn't fit the connectors in the boot and I couldn't be bothered to take the head unit out to check. Installation of the Mediabridge and Dension seems to be fairly simple because you don't need to remove the head unit.

Also, it requires you to organize files into folders called "CD1", "CD2" etc, with the tracks as "TR01", "TR02", so it didn't seem likely that the head unit would be able to display titles (though I suppose the titles come from MP3 ID tags, not filenames). It's a moot point which head units can display titles. The ads for Mediabridge say something about grey head units being incapable. My head unit doesn't seem to be grey, so I'm hoping that the Mediabridge I've just acquired will display titles. More news when I've installed it.
 
walker1c said:
This looks very similar to a device I recently ordered from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A8XQTYK.

I returned it because the connectors seem to be made to plug into the back of the head unit, rather than into the CD changer multi-pin connectors in the boot. That's what I assumed, anyway - they certainly wouldn't fit the connectors in the boot and I couldn't be bothered to take the head unit out to check. Installation of the Mediabridge and Dension seems to be fairly simple because you don't need to remove the head unit.

Also, it requires you to organize files into folders called "CD1", "CD2" etc, with the tracks as "TR01", "TR02", so it didn't seem likely that the head unit would be able to display titles (though I suppose the titles come from MP3 ID tags, not filenames). It's a moot point which head units can display titles. The ads for Mediabridge say something about grey head units being incapable. My head unit doesn't seem to be grey, so I'm hoping that the Mediabridge I've just acquired will display titles. More news when I've installed it.
Click to expand...

Yours does look similar to the one I ordered but unlike yours (at least from the picture) I think mine has the leads to plug into the CD changer in the boot, hopefully anyway. They have got pretty good feedback on ebay so hopefully it will just work
 
OK so the thing arrived, and it does plug into the back of the stereo not the boot so was a PITA to wire up what with the fiddly removing center vents and running wire to the glove box and disconnecting the CD changer from the back but eventually got it done.... and the bloody head unit wont pick it up!!!!!

Email sent to the seller so hopefully there is a magic fix I dont know about but after an hour or so carefully running wires I'm a little unhappy shall we say, I'v been banging my head against a wall trying to work this out checked and double checked all the wires are secure but there's just something not right with it that I cant figure out, im guessing the unit is just faulty and now wishing id bought the dice one
 
OK so maybe I spoke a little too soon, was trying to get it paired with my phone and the CD changer just wasn't showing up on the head unit but had't tried playing from usb so stuck a USB stick in the front and the stereo picked the box up straight away!

No track names on the head unit which is a little annoying but the sound quality is excellent both through USB and bluetooth.

I'm still on the fence about this as I havnt lived with it yet, but definately an improvement over the CD changer as it has given me bluetooth and aux in options, would prefer the dice but now this is wired in I doubt i'll change it unless I go for a flip out sat nav jobbie.

I really hate the flip out screen head units but after having an in dash double din in my last car I do miss the functionality, ease of calling someone, gps in dash, I wish someone made a factory fit look unit like the do for pretty much every other BMW model
 
Just a quick update on this box with my feelings after living with it for a few weeks, as I already posted elsewhere I thought it may be useful to have it in this thread too

Pros:

Its cheap!
Excellent sound quality
USB port - spoofed as a magazine from the CD changer so will play up to 6 folders of music as 6 CD's. Also 4gb USBS are really cheap now and really easy to swap USB sticks so it means you can have a load of "6 CD magazines" in the car
Micro SD Card - spoofed as another magazine from the CD changer so will play up to 6 folders of music as 6 CD's
Gives 12 folders of music as opposed to 6 with the CD changer
Aux input
Bluetooth for both phone calls and music streaming
Small - so fits in the glovebox


Cons:
You lose the CD changer - this is not really a problem as it gives you 2 spoofed CD changers at a time
Bluetooth doesn't display caller ID or track names.
You can initiate call from the head unit, it has to be done through the phone screen you can answer through the head unit though
Don't get track IDs on the CDs

All in all I'm happy with it didn't cost much money and was relatively easy to fit, once I had got my head round the centre vent fixings (which seem like a massive PITA until you realise you have been doing it wrong and then are really easy), also the ebay seller was really quite helpful given the language barrier
 
Glad you got it working.

You make an interesting point about switching USB sticks. I've just installed a Mediabridge, and I'm playing music from a 16 Gb stick that I used to use with the iDrive in my 5-series. The good news is that the Mediabridge displays titles on the head unit. The bad news is that there are thousands of tracks on this drive, so finding what you want with a one-line display and a couple of arrow buttons is nearly impossible. The Mediabridge can be put into folder mode for browsing (I put albums in their own folders) but it still takes a long time to work through the list. I end up playing a lot of albums from the start and end of the list - the middle ones might as well not be there.

Just yesterday I wondered if it would be easier to organise if I split the tracks over several smaller USB sticks.
 
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