satnav help please!!!

[grantsmith]

Hi
please help
how can i tell the difference between Hi and Li satnav?

there was car for sale today with satnav althoug the dealer on the phone said it doesnt have tv/teletext

i thought if you had colour sanav it was the Hisatnav and it automatically had the tv tuner

can the tv tuner be easily retrofitted (plug n play) will the wiring looms be there?
thanks
grant

[redsmagicspoon]

I think the TV tuner is a separate unit.

If you look on ebay you might see some for sale.

As for plug "n" play Dunno.

But I can imagine that the difficult part may be running a cable from the tv reciever to the head unit.

There is bound to be someone who knows what they are talking about along soon.

Red

[alrsv]

The car you are looking at probably has a symphony loline head unit with just
a basic satnav built into it
The highline has a television screen in the head unit with the tuner and satnav in the boot.

[grantsmith]

how can i tell the difference betweenthe two?

[Steve1987]

As alrsv said, the highline will have a tv screen above the climate controls, and the lowline won't.

I had a play around with the sat nav in a MG I was looking at and I wouldn't be that fussed about it to be honest. A cheap tomtom will do a far better job as the old bmw system is getting on a bit now.

Tv screen was a nice novelty though.

[geo-veo]

I have a ConnSE with the TV/Satnav. There is a TV screen above the climate controls as Steve says. I also agree with him that the original built in BMW unit is quite basic and not too accurate. I now use a Garmin, much quicker and more accurate and cheaper than updating the BMW CD. As for the TV, why bother unless you are going to fit a DVT unit with the appropriate antenna. The one built in is analogue and will be useless in a year or so, depending where you are, when they pull the analogue plug and you will only be able to pick up digital TV signals. If you like sitting in the car watching TV better to buy a small portable. The built-in one does not work whilst the car is moving.

[jimbo]

Quite agree with several comments about the MGR/BMW tv/satnav fitted is getting rather long in the tooth. Never had one with it but have driven several that had it fitted. My old Mio 268+, updated to the latest version at very small cost, is a much better solution, especially for european touring.

As has been said the tv tuner would need updating for digital and there's the need on most I've seen to update the map CD's, both can run mega bucks. That's before you start thinking of upgrading to widescreen!

Just my opinion's, but each to their own.

[ztturbo]

Hi
I have the low line Sat nav & find its very good, tells you in good time what you need to know, always accurate as I get the updated maps each year & is in the perfect place in the dash for you to view. I have a Garmin unit for another car with all the display tricks and functions etc, but much prefer the low line nav myself, so if you dont need a TV, give it a try, you might be surprised.

[Keith Alexander]

Hi line has colour screen a 4:3 version of the 16:9 one in my Avitar
All OEM installed cars should have TV

Lo line controls are top right of the radio and direction info is displayed in the centre of the clocks

[cougaruk]

Originally Posted by ztturbo

Hi
I have the low line Sat nav & find its very good, tells you in good time what you need to know, always accurate as I get the updated maps each year & is in the perfect place in the dash for you to view. I have a Garmin unit for another car with all the display tricks and functions etc, but much prefer the low line nav myself, so if you dont need a TV, give it a try, you might be surprised.

Exactly what i would have said, the lowline works great and the visual arrows are bang in front of you in the message centre and also the audio instructions are very accurate.

In putting the destination is also easy and in most cases will take you to the door.You can also have destination info which list petrol stations cash machines etc. also position info so you know where the nearest petrol station is etc.

[robdrinkwater]

Originally Posted by jimbo180649

Quite agree with several comments about the MGR/BMW tv/satnav fitted is getting rather long in the tooth. Never had one with it but have driven several that had it fitted. My old Mio 268+, updated to the latest version at very small cost, is a much better solution, especially for european touring.

As has been said the tv tuner would need updating for digital and there's the need on most I've seen to update the map CD's, both can run mega bucks. That's before you start thinking of upgrading to widescreen!

Just my opinion's, but each to their own.

It's dead easy & not too expensive to swap out the original Mk3 sat nav computer for a Mk4 to speed it all up & give faster updating.

As regards the other comments on this thread, there is nothing wrong with the accuracy of the OEM sat nav, indeed it will be better than any handheld throw on the dash job, as it also contains gyros & speed snsing, not just reliant on 'seeing' a handful of satellites to work out where it is.

As long as you're happy with the 4:3 screen, there is no need to change from the OEM fit screen, it does exactly what it needs to & there will be no need to change the TV tuner until 2012 in many areas of the UK, unless you happen to want to add freeview to the car.

So I'm afraid that there's been a little bit of scaremongering, mainly from those who don;t have the Hiline sat nav/TV setup anyway.

Whether it has the hiline or the loline sat nav, I'd always prefer to use factory sat nav than the plonk on the dash ones.

But for reasons of balance, the plonk on the dash sat navs are better than no sat nav at all of course.

When I bought my ZTT with all the hiline gear, the dealer didn't know what he had, although an ex MGR dealership, they thought it only had TV, I looked at the pictres on Autotrader & straight away knew it also had the colour satnav, so he didn;t know what kit the car had, maybe your dealer doesn;t either.

Either way, good luck & I hope you like/buy the car.

Kind regards, Rob.

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by robdrinkwater

It's dead easy & not too expensive to swap out the original Mk3 sat nav computer for a Mk4 to speed it all up & give faster updating.

As regards the other comments on this thread, there is nothing wrong with the accuracy of the OEM sat nav, indeed it will be better than any handheld throw on the dash job, as it also contains gyros & speed snsing, not just reliant on 'seeing' a handful of satellites to work out where it is.

As long as you're happy with the 4:3 screen, there is no need to change from the OEM fit screen, it does exactly what it needs to & there will be no need to change the TV tuner until 2012 in many areas of the UK, unless you happen to want to add freeview to the car.

So I'm afraid that there's been a little bit of scaremongering, mainly from those who don;t have the Hiline sat nav/TV setup anyway.

Whether it has the hiline or the loline sat nav, I'd always prefer to use factory sat nav than the plonk on the dash ones.

But for reasons of balance, the plonk on the dash sat navs are better than no sat nav at all of course.

When I bought my ZTT with all the hiline gear, the dealer didn't know what he had, although an ex MGR dealership, they thought it only had TV, I looked at the pictres on Autotrader & straight away knew it also had the colour satnav, so he didn;t know what kit the car had, maybe your dealer doesn;t either.

Either way, good luck & I hope you like/buy the car.

Kind regards, Rob.

Rob, no scaremongering on my behalf, just my opinion. The cars I have driven with the hiline setup were running old cd's and therefore some of the mapping was rather out of date. I also found the map display rather old fashioned, being used to a seamless transition between 3D, 2D and overview modes. Granted an OEM fitted setup would always be the best option, but not the main reason I would buy a car.

The upgrade you've done in your car looks very nice, but as you have mentioned on another recent post, at quite some cost hence my comments. I'm also looking at a possible upgrade, but I will probably go the route of a Kenwood double din unit, when and if funds allow it.

However it's all a bit academic as I think the op might be talking about a vehicle fitted with a Symphony lowline unit.

Regards

[robdrinkwater]

Originally Posted by jimbo180649

Rob, no scaremongering on my behalf, just my opinion. The cars I have driven with the hiline setup were running old cd's and therefore some of the mapping was rather out of date. I also found the map display rather old fashioned, being used to a seamless transition between 3D, 2D and overview modes. Granted an OEM fitted setup would always be the best option, but not the main reason I would buy a car.

The upgrade you've done in your car looks very nice, but as you have mentioned on another recent post, at quite some cost hence my comments. I'm also looking at a possible upgrade, but I will probably go the route of a Kenwood double din unit, when and if funds allow it.

However it's all a bit academic as I think the op might be talking about a vehicle fitted with a Symphony lowline unit.

Regards

Yes, a full upgrade is expensive, but my Father has the OE system in his Connie SE, with the latest BMW CD & it works fine, fast enough setup & updating, so no trouble, I have also loaded the latest firmware for him & this gives postcode lookup etc, so not behind the times at all. I think the disc was around 80 quid, so hardly expensive to update.

Even Garmin & Tom Toms go out of date & need map updates, if I remember correctly the Tom Tom updates were pretty expensive, especially compared to buying the unit in the first place.

With the later firmware on the MGR OE system, you can switch between 2D & 3D modes, even have split screen to show other info next to the map (although the widescreen is better than the 4:3 for this admittedly).

As regards the OP, as I have already said, many dealers don't really know what they've got when they get a 75/ZT in, so they are not aware of what equipment it has. Either way, the loline or the hiline is well worth having.

Regards, Rob.

[redsmagicspoon]

Hi

This thread has piqued my interest as I really like the look of your avatar Rob.

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while but lack the know-how, or the funds.

So as I do, I was window shopping on ebay and seen these;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/806-7-TFT-LCD-TOUCHSCREEN-TV-MONITOR-GPS-DVD-PLAYER-02_W0QQitemZ290262584372QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item29 0262584372&_trkparms=72%3A1299|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A 12|240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

coming from china and wondered if they would be any use.

Seem a little too cheap for what it supposedly offers.

What are your thoughts?

Red

[robdrinkwater]

Originally Posted by redsmagicspoon

Hi

This thread has piqued my interest as I really like the look of your avatar Rob.

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while but lack the know-how, or the funds.

So as I do, I was window shopping on ebay and seen these;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/806-7-TFT-LCD-TOUCHSCREEN-TV-MONITOR-GPS-DVD-PLAYER-02_W0QQitemZ290262584372QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item29 0262584372&_trkparms=72%3A1299|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A 12|240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

coming from china and wondered if they would be any use.

Seem a little too cheap for what it supposedly offers.

What are your thoughts?

Red

I'm afraid they ARE too good to be true.

When we brought our people carrier over from Japan, they come without any form of Hifi in them, so you choose what you want, I went for one of those units, almost identical I think. The idea looked good, & by god it has some features. But the quality is REALLY poor. It had huge amounts of hiss through the amplifiers. The radion sectio was really poor, would hardly pick up any radio stations, those it did were hissy.
DVD playback was adequate, but not that high quality & when I passed the sound from the rear DVD player to the head unit there was so much whine on the line that it was impossible to listen to.

I learnt my lesson from this, I sent the unit back, it took six weeks to get a paypal refund & when I eventually did it was minus all the postal costs, so it cost me something in the region of 70 quid to have no head unit.

I ended up biting the bullet & spending around £850 on a Pioneer AVICD3 head unit & bluetooth module. This is superb, with near HD quality screen, superb DVD playback, the DVD in the rear for the kids can be routed through (indeed through exactly the same cable as was on the cheap Chinese head unit) to the head unit so we can all listen/watch what the kids have on & vice versa. The kids DVD plaer in the ceiling in the rear is on infra red headphones, so they have them on & we listen to the head unit.

The AVICD3 also has full sat nav & Ipod control, so we have an 80gb Ipod with around 10,000 tracks on it which is all controlled by the headunit. It's like having a huge jukebox with our entire CD collection in the car with us.

Great unit, not cheap but I'm pleased that I got it & is way better than the Chinese crap.

HTH, regards, Rob.

[redsmagicspoon]

cheers Rob

Very informative.

Your set-up sounds excellent, put a toilet in there and I could live in it.

Cheers mate

Red

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by robdrinkwater

Yes, a full upgrade is expensive, but my Father has the OE system in his Connie SE, with the latest BMW CD & it works fine, fast enough setup & updating, so no trouble, I have also loaded the latest firmware for him & this gives postcode lookup etc, so not behind the times at all. I think the disc was around 80 quid, so hardly expensive to update.

Even Garmin & Tom Toms go out of date & need map updates, if I remember correctly the Tom Tom updates were pretty expensive, especially compared to buying the unit in the first place.

With the later firmware on the MGR OE system, you can switch between 2D & 3D modes, even have split screen to show other info next to the map (although the widescreen is better than the 4:3 for this admittedly).

As regards the OP, as I have already said, many dealers don't really know what they've got when they get a 75/ZT in, so they are not aware of what equipment it has. Either way, the loline or the hiline is well worth having.

Regards, Rob.

Hi Rob, thanks for your comments, I was unaware of some of the points raised, especially regarding map displays that were now possible on the MGR OEM system.

As I previously mentioned I have driven several 75's fitted with the OEM tv/satnav and didn't find it all that good, but that would seem to be due to the lack of any update's to the system.

When I was in the market for a 75 I would have liked to have found one with OEM satnav, but there were other faults with all the vehicles that had it fitted. If I had sourced one I had already looked at upgrading, I knew that postcode search was possible with later versions of the UK CD and at the replacement of the mark 3 unit with the mark 4, however the cheapest mark 4 I saw was priced at £200. I eventually purchased a non SE and I've been very happy with it, best car I've had since my SD1 years ago. A point to mention is that I removed the horrible aftermarket stereo that had been fitted and replaced it with a Symphony and CD changer, together with a hardwired Nokia carkit. I did look at the possibilty at a retrofit of the MGR tv/satnav system, as others on the forum have done, but thought it involved far to much work. IMHO it would be easier/cheaper to replace the car!

I've used my Mio 268, bought new at a knockdown price on eBay, in my last three vehicles and I've been very pleased with it. It's guided us on many UK based holidays and last year took us to France. We are due to use it again for a 2.5K short break to the South of France for my wifes 60'ith during October. I don't use it in a plonk on dash/wobble mount mode, but have a dedicated holder mounted on a dashclip over one of the centre airvents.

It's true some of the aftermarket manufacturers charge rather a lot for map upgrade's but I've been lucky,when purchased the Mio was running version 2 mapping dated 2005, but with a CD for the whole of Europe, east and West. Since then I have flashed it with the latest operating update, free off the manufacturers website, and obtained at very low cost a CD with version 3.2 2007 mapping which includes the whole of Europe, America And Canada.

Granted I don't have TMC (possible to upgrade) or Trafficmaster, but I can if needed transfer the unit to another vehicle within minutes.

Sorry if you felt I had issues with the OEM fitted system, but as you rightly say I don't have it fitted in my vehicle and I can only speak it as I see it. Just I feel I have the best solution for my individual circumstances until the funds allow for some sort of upgrade.

Regards to you,

[robdrinkwater]

Originally Posted by jimbo180649

Hi Rob, thanks for your comments, I was unaware of some of the points raised, especially regarding map displays that were now possible on the MGR OEM system.

As I previously mentioned I have driven several 75's fitted with the OEM tv/satnav and didn't find it all that good, but that would seem to be due to the lack of any update's to the system.

When I was in the market for a 75 I would have liked to have found one with OEM satnav, but there were other faults with all the vehicles that had it fitted. If I had sourced one I had already looked at upgrading, I knew that postcode search was possible with later versions of the UK CD and at the replacement of the mark 3 unit with the mark 4, however the cheapest mark 4 I saw was priced at £200. I eventually purchased a non SE and I've been very happy with it, best car I've had since my SD1 years ago. A point to mention is that I removed the horrible aftermarket stereo that had been fitted and replaced it with a Symphony and CD changer, together with a hardwired Nokia carkit. I did look at the possibilty at a retrofit of the MGR tv/satnav system, as others on the forum have done, but thought it involved far to much work. IMHO it would be easier/cheaper to replace the car!

I've used my Mio 268, bought new at a knockdown price on eBay, in my last three vehicles and I've been very pleased with it. It's guided us on many UK based holidays and last year took us to France. We are due to use it again for a 2.5K short break to the South of France for my wifes 60'ith during October. I don't use it in a plonk on dash/wobble mount mode, but have a dedicated holder mounted on a dashclip over one of the centre airvents.

It's true some of the aftermarket manufacturers charge rather a lot for map upgrade's but I've been lucky,when purchased the Mio was running version 2 mapping dated 2005, but with a CD for the whole of Europe, east and West. Since then I have flashed it with the latest operating update, free off the manufacturers website, and obtained at very low cost a CD with version 3.2 2007 mapping which includes the whole of Europe, America And Canada.

Granted I don't have TMC (possible to upgrade) or Trafficmaster, but I can if needed transfer the unit to another vehicle within minutes.

Sorry if you felt I had issues with the OEM fitted system, but as you rightly say I don't have it fitted in my vehicle and I can only speak it as I see it. Just I feel I have the best solution for my individual circumstances until the funds allow for some sort of upgrade.

Regards to you,

Hi Jim,

The criticism wasn't aimed solely at you, we have often seen the MGR system knocked by those that don't have it.

Granted, it is a bit long in the tooth now and many have not added the latest software discs or fimrware updates. If you don;t keep it up to date it will become inaccurate.

As regards the portable units, they certainly have their place, I have TOM TOM built into my PDA, just in case I happen to be suing a car without GPS & need it for any reason, but I do find that the factory fit systems, ar at least proper fitted in the dash systems, like I fitted into our Estima, always seem a little more accurate.

Having said that, with cheap sat navs being well under a hundred quid now, the thousand pound fully fitted jobs don;t look such good value.

Regards, Rob.