MTRHEAD

Since the long awaited Dension Gateway appears to be incompatable with my late 2004 E60 (M-ASK equipped, non MP3 compatible, business radio) I'm thinking about going ahead and having the BMW IPOD interface fitted since this now appears the only option left to me. I'm told by my dealer this will work with a CIP upgrade but I'm concerned about the limitations and would appreciate some owner input/feedback:

The BMW manual tells me folders are limited to 255 entries:

I understand that means on a fully loaded 80GB IPOD I'm not going to get further than selecting artists beginning with C and I'm guessing there isn't a workaround? This feature is essentially worthless on a loaded IPOD is that correct?

Does this mean I'm simply can never select all the the contents of my IPOD? I suspect the workaround is somehow to use playlists, but if they themselves have 255 entry limitations is this practical?


The BMW manual tells me files are limited to 500 entries:

I'm guessing this means playlists, random, genre and artists can only be 500 entries. Again is there anyway to get round this in practice?

The random mode presumably only ever picks from 500 entries, I'm guessing it is always the same 500 entries?

The unit is slow to load with a loaded IPOD according to some postings

How slow is slow? 5 minutes, 10 minutes?
Is it also slow to respond to user input through I-drive or steering wheel controls?


Sorry for all the questions, but I would appreciate feedback on whether this is worth doing and anything else I'm missing. I'm halfway through my lease and after waiting 18 months for a solution it is decision time; jump or stay with the CD changer.

Thanks!

DaveP

I have an 80gb ipod with about 30gb on there.

It takes 2-3mins to load each "CD" ie playlist, album, artist. Once loaded it seems to stay in memory. Not certain about it staying in memory if you turn the car off but leave the ipod plugged in.

Not sure of the number of artists, etc I have (plenty, but not sure if it is over a specific limit), but it does show them all.

If a playlist has >1000 songs it does not display that playlist or any others after that playlist.

If you are playing Album G and you go back to the root menu it starts at A again (that IS annoying).

Scrolling takes a long time (which has been said many times, but I had not realised HOW long).


I bought the ipod adapter with my eyes open and realised most of it's pitfalls.

TBH I am looking to buy a cheap(er) old ipod (something like a 20gb) that will hold the songs I am more likely to listen to regularly, rather than holding all my music and taking ages to find the song I actually want to listen to.

andy545

I've got a 30gb gV ipod. About 8gb on it - it only takes 10 seconds to load and manipulation thereafter is instant.