A few questions about NTG2.5 COMAND

[keiron99]

If anyone's still listening

They took the car in again to update it but the version I got was not 01/2010 09.29 referred to by npuk above. [edit - on revisiting npuk's post above I think I do actually have the latest firmware now]

See the screen grab below

Of course the whole point of getting it updated was to remove the limit on the SD card and unfortunately it has not worked

Whilst it recognises my 32gb card, it will not read all the files. It stops reading after it gets to Genesis in my case. When I examine the card on Windows Explorer, it shows that amounts to 2,470 Files in 256 Folders.

So unfortunately the limit still remains.

Two questions remain:

1) Have they updated me with the very latest firmware? (They gave me a printout with a load of technical info on it and swear this is the latest version) [edit - as stated above I believe I do have the latest firmware]

2) Why is it that some people seem to report they no longer have the 256 folder limit?

 

[jetjockey]

Hi Kieron99

Are you any further forward with this?

I am considering buying one of these units as an upgrade but there seem to be an awful lot of limitations.
256 folders will equate to 256 albums I guess which is not brilliant.

Add to this the cost of the map and firmware updates and......

Thanks.

 

[keiron99]

Hi jetjockey

I have just decided to put up with the limitations, but they are frustrating.

I have my music spread across the hard drive, a memory card and DVD. Each of course has a limit of 256 folders and 2000 or so songs (files).

It is a pain in the bum A proper pain in fact, deciding which music to delete when I want to add something new.

Ideally I would rip it out and put in an aftermarket unit that is properly iPod compatible. But I'd probably need to find something like £500 to make it worthwhile (unless someone can recommend something that looks reasonably stock, has iPod compatibility, built in sat nav and blue tooth all for just a few hundred quid!)

Quite why MB decided to cripple the unit by placing this limitation on the number of files is beyond me.

 

[Comand]

You could fit the MB ipod interface or media interface which doesnt have these limitations.

 

[keiron99]

You could fit the MB ipod interface or media interface which doesnt have these limitations.

Correct, but the iPod interface seems to be clumsy. As I understand it (I know you are the expert so do correct me if i am wrong!), you can only control the iPod through the steering wheel and using the tiny display on the speedo. It would be impossible to scroll through hundreds (or thousands) of albums, and because the display is limited to a certain number of characters, if there is a long artist or album title, it won't display it all (and doesn't scroll).

As far as I am aware, the full blown media interface will show all the artist/album/track details on the headunit and you can control through either the headunit or steering wheel (i really wish I could see one in operation, maybe a YouTube video). But this costs an absolute bomb. About £500 plus fitting? Yikes

 

[Comand]

Correct, but the iPod interface seems to be clumsy. As I understand it (I know you are the expert so do correct me if i am wrong!), you can only control the iPod through the steering wheel and using the tiny display on the speedo. It would be impossible to scroll through hundreds (or thousands) of albums, and because the display is limited to a certain number of characters, if there is a long artist or album title, it won't display it all (and doesn't scroll).

As far as I am aware, the full blown media interface will show all the artist/album/track details on the headunit and you can control through either the headunit or steering wheel (i really wish I could see one in operation, maybe a YouTube video). But this costs an absolute bomb. About £500 plus fitting? Yikes

You are correct. Ill try and take a video of my media interface in action for you.

 

[jetjockey]

Hi Command.

Many thanks for that. I went to look at an NTG 2.5 the other evening. I was looking to fit it to my late 2004 E class W211 estate instead of the existing Audio 20.
I must confess to being seriously underwhelmed on the music capability front.
A 4Gb hard drive is nowhere near big enough, and as for the rigmarole transferring tracks from the SD card to the HDD.........

For me the answer would seem to be the media interface which allows playback from iPad or iPod or iPhone, or even USB. As kieron99 said earlier though, controlling and viewing this from the instrument cluster seems very Heath Robinson. I would very much like to see some pictures with the media interface added and being viewed from an NTG 2.5

Thank you.