so I went and bought the dension GW 500 Ipod adaptor and I instal it
but unforunatly it didnt work for my car I have E60 idrive M-ASK version and no MP3 player and I cant retrofit it !! its a business radio (there is prof. radio this will fit !!)
so after a huge research here is my conclusion to help any body b4 they ran and buy it
its Gr8 adaptor u can keep ur CDC and use ipod 2 it will fit any car 5series E60 2005-2010 and other 3 series or 6 series
but NOT cars made before 3/2005 ( mine was 12/2004 despite its a 2006 model Daah !! and dont ask me how ! i dont know ) it has what it called M-ASK idrive Business radio with No text despite i have 8.8 inch i drive and CDC doesnt make any different trust me what i ment by no text is u put the CD in the CDC no song name will appear only track number and if u have Mask business radio with no Mp3 at the dash board THIS type of cars it wont work !!!!! nor u cant retrofit it at the dealer I went to 2 dealer tried multiple times to retrofit or even programing the whole car it didnt work
so those car DENSION will not work with them and Oh has 2 be made B4 3/2005 !!!!!!
any way i will put mine i bought for sale its a brand new not even used was in and out in my car as above
will sell it for $370 with shipping and all wires and manual and I print even all forum descussion and how to install it to help any one I will include them about 5 pages with pics
text or call
562-310-8718
SERIOUS BUYER ONLY PLEASE
finally I hope i could be of any help to any one Good luck !!!!

 

damn that sucks..sorry to hear

 

I installed dension 500 on my car with MASK and 4/2003 production date, it is working fine!

 

damn, that really sucks....i was just researching the same Denison set up but my car is a February 2004 build 545i w/ the dreaded/horrible/crappy/lackluster/ugly/icouldgoonforever MASK system. no cd text, no mp3 compatibility, etc.

but before you give up, perhaps you can have someone enable these options via NCS. i think CD text and mp3 capability are things that can be coded....at least i hope so, its the only way im ever going to get a Denison or any iPod adapter to work in my car. good luck, thanks for the post, i was not aware that the pre 05 e60s had this issue. u just saved me $500!

 

As I said in my other thread you are going to the wrong shop or wired it wrong! I HAVE A 2004, and it works just fine! I have the exact same setup, MASK with NO mp3. If I can get mine coded properly in San Antonio, I'm suuuuure in SoCal you can get it coded.

 

Dension gateway hooked up to 500GB external

 

it all depend on your car made date if before 3/2005 it wont work even if u go to the dealer to update the softwear I did the same the upadte computer will stop at CIC part and the car will fail !!!
if ur car made after 3/05 ( I am not talking about year model here !!! b carful ) it may work with the update it all depend on the type of the Idrive and radio type if M-ask business radio like the one I have it wont if idrive M-ask & prof. radio it work with the update
summery :
1- before 3/2005 made date not model idrive M-ask business radio no CdC text at I drive ______> wont work even if u update simply because update will fail
2- after 3/2005 with I drive M-ask & prof radio ______> needs dealer update to enable Mp3 player and update program to retrofit the ipod ( u can ask for retroft mp3 player only if u r lucky they will do it for u but they usually refuses unless u update the whole program $ 300
3- starting end of 2005 i drive CCC all came with Prof radio and text enable at CD player if MP3 working it will be perfect its plug in and play ipod
4- CCC idrive + prof radio CD text present with No MP3 at the dash cd ______> needs mp3 enable at the dealer and will work its free hahah
I became an expert its complicated hahahahah
bottom line its a G8 module But my damn bad luck !

 

Interesting discussion. I have a 2004 525i built in 11/2003. I can play MP3 CDs but the idrive doesn't display any text. From what I've seen on the Dension site, they show my model compatible with a note stating "can't display text." I had hoped that meant that I could control one song to the next on the idrive but it wouldn't display the song name or cover art. Not a big deal to me.

I was planning on buying the Dension with the bluetooth adapter so I could you my iPhone music and use the bluetooth for the phone. Currently without bluetooth I run out of extremities when I need to use the phone and drive the manual transmission!!!

I curious to others experience, if I can be convinced this configuration works, I'll buy your unit.

 

Like phil said its possible just with the right coding...by the way you have good taste in music phil

 

I have a pre 3/2005 car. Mine was one of the first models, and its M-ASK, no cdc, as basic as you can get! Who told you that info, I'm guessing the dealer?