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2008 BMW with iDashboard

Ai4i

Ai4i

Well, that is what I call it, as there is a big lower case cursive i in the middle.
From the home screen, one can go to GPS, Communication, something else (I forgot what), and Entertainment.
It is an HD radio and has a lovely display and many stations indicated HD-1, but for the life of me, I could not figure how to access HD sub-channels. I clicked one up and went to the next frequency, tilted the master joy stick up/down/left/right/in and different things happened. Been all over the web without any luck.
There is no apparent flashing or solid HD LED, just the big letters on a station that locks.
If this is a first generation HD radio without subchannels, but would it say HD-1 on the HD stations?
Also, the HD never lit up on either of two AM HD stations in the area.
 
I hope you weren't driving when you tried all that. Systems like this ought to be banned outright, or at least disabled when the car is in gear.
 
We can't afford a BMW.
We were a passenger.
 
ai4i said:
Well, that is what I call it, as there is a big lower case cursive i in the middle.
From the home screen, one can go to GPS, Communication, something else (I forgot what), and Entertainment.
It is an HD radio and has a lovely display and many stations indicated HD-1, but for the life of me, I could not figure how to access HD sub-channels. I clicked one up and went to the next frequency, tilted the master joy stick up/down/left/right/in and different things happened. Been all over the web without any luck.
There is no apparent flashing or solid HD LED, just the big letters on a station that locks.
If this is a first generation HD radio without subchannels, but would it say HD-1 on the HD stations?
Also, the HD never lit up on either of two AM HD stations in the area.
Click to expand...

It sounds like a defective radio. Every HD radio I've tried works by simply using the tuning knob to get to HD-2. It is kind of convenient, you can put one preset on the main HD-1 channel, then not have to waste another preset for HD-2, just touch tuning up (or down to get back to HD-1). If somebody makes an HD radio that won't tune HD-2's, that negates one of the only advantages of the system.

I am not surprised you have problems with AM. The last AM HD in my city gave up, but before they did they were extremely susceptible to powerline interference, as close as 5 miles to the tower. Unfortunately, almost all streets and highways are lined with power lines, meaning no lock on AM HD. I wish my local outlet would program C-Quam again - I THINK my radio decodes it because I had some stereo on a very distant C-Quam station. But only for a few moments.
 
That's how the HD radio in my car works.

When you tune to a station with HD, the HD indicator lights up. About 5 seconds later, you usually hear the HD kick in and see the call letters with either an "HD" or "HD-1" after it. If there are no subchannels, it will just say HD. If there are subchannels, it will say HD-1. When you see the HD-1 turning the knob or hitting the up arrow will take you to the HD-2, HD-3 and so on (one station near me goes to HD-4). Once you exhaust the subchannels, then it moves to the next station and the process repeats.
 
ai4i said:
We can't afford a BMW.
We were a passenger.
Click to expand...

... which explains why you called it an iDashboard and not an iDrive. ;D
 
I'm sure there's some needlessly complex way of tuning subchannels… In fact I'm sure it can do millions of whizbang things, none of which are intuitive or easy to figure out. Why? Because the interface was designed and programmed by computer nerds, who know nothing of aesthetics, ease of use or safety considerations. A flat screen with touch controls, or a joystick or even a writing pad *cough* Audi *cough* are all disastrously too complex to be operated at speed.

But this is not a design and programming forum, so I shall end the rant here.
 
Zach said:
But this is not a design and programming forum, so I shall end the rant here.
Click to expand...

I don't see why we can't discuss technical issues related to HD here, I've already seen some interesting technical details on this board.

Simply put, though, the lock time seems to be related to synchronizing with the analog audio. There has to be a quicker way to do that. It may also be related to iTunes tagging, I note that connections with iTunes slow other unrelated things down, and I would gladly give that up if my HD lock time could go from five seconds to one second.
 
At least as far as my car goes, there is nothing stopping me from assigning a preset to an HD-1, 2 or other subchannel. But as has been mentioned, you will have to wait a few seconds for the HD-2 audio to appear if you tune directly to it.
 
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