[m@rk]

You knew it wouldn't be long so here goes.

The car has Business Navigation (I think). This whatever is standard on a 2014MY car.

I have an iPhone 5S which connects over bluetooth just fine for telephony.

I now want to play music. Up to now I have used Spotify on the iPhone but the car doesn't want to play.

Bluetooth Audio does not show up as an option anywhere. I could have sworn one of the brochures said that BT Audio Streaming was standard across the range now.

If I plug the iPhone in via a USB cable (I am using the standard iPhone USB cable here) then nothing shows as being connected.

If I plug in a USB memory stick, THAT does show as connected so at least something works.

HELP!

I am up to my ears in manuals and iDrive menus but they show options I am simply not seeing.

BTW

What is a "Flexible Adapter Cable"? Is this some sort of very expensive cable I need to run my iPhone in the car?

Thanks

[m@rk]

I ended up ringing the supplying dealer

Bluetooth = None starter. It's an option I don't have (because I don't have any options)

USB connection requires a Y cable (no surprises there) which of course isn't the cheapest thing in the world.

Why is this so hard?

[Piers]

Sadly you are right, bluetooth audio streaming is ridiculously expensive fore what it is!

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by Piers

Sadly you are right, bluetooth audio streaming is ridiculously expensive fore what it is!

Compared to the price of the Y Cable it looks like a bargain

[Piers]

Y cable was about £50 on my E60 I think....

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by Piers

Y cable was about £50 on my E60 I think....

Yes.

The dealer has popped one in the post to be with me in the morning (at the grand cost of £50 ish)

[The Beast]

I have pro media and sound so not sure if this applies to business, however if you push the idrive controller to the right to expand the menu denoted by the plus sign on the right of the screen there is a tick box labelled "enable bluetooth streaming". Check to see if this is selected

[valbmw]

Hi m@rk,

To have full media functionality you need the Combox Media PnP Retrofit Kit to add the following features to your car:
- Bluetooth integration and iPhone (you may also want to add iPhone cradle)
- Bluetooth Audio
- Album Art Covers
- Office menu
- Internet
- BMW Live
- etc.
I am still not sure if this retrofit is really so critical, maybe not There are people who love to play with albums, go Google ets. but not me.

The Y-cable is to power iPhone via USB and plug in to the Aux for music. I never use one (also I don't have Combox). First, I bought a very good iPod to Aux cable from Belkin and played from iPod. Then got tired to operate it on move, and switched to music from Hard Disk. You have 12GB or so HDD capacity on board. Download from USB in glove box and here we go.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by The Beast

I have pro media and sound so not sure if this applies to business, however if you push the idrive controller to the right to expand the menu denoted by the plus sign on the right of the screen there is a tick box labelled "enable bluetooth streaming". Check to see if this is selected

Thanks. I double checked but the option isn't there confirming what the supplying dealer said.

Originally Posted by Valery.BMW

Hi m@rk,

To have full media functionality you need the Combox Media PnP Retrofit Kit to add the following features to your car:
- Bluetooth integration and iPhone (you may also want to add iPhone cradle)
- Bluetooth Audio
- Album Art Covers
- Office menu
- Internet
- BMW Live
- etc.
I am still not sure if this retrofit is really so critical, maybe not There are people who love to play with albums, go Google ets. but not me.

The Y-cable is to power iPhone via USB and plug in to the Aux for music. I never use one (also I don't have Combox). First, I bought a very good iPod to Aux cable from Belkin and played from iPod. Then got tired to operate it on move, and switched to music from Hard Disk. You have 12GB or so HDD capacity on board. Download from USB in glove box and here we go.

As long as the Y cable works then I can live with that.

It used to be that all my music was in MP3 files so I could pop it onto a USB stick and play it that way.

For the last 18 months however I listen to more and more music via the likes of Spotify (which my last 3 cars have fully via BlueTooth supported and which I get free though work ) so it would be nice to not have to go and start buying albums again

[valbmw]

OK got it. You need iPhone. When you use Y-cable, you manage music tracks with iPhone screen and touch. When you have Combox iPhone integration, all is transferred to your car's NBT screen and you use car's iDrive dial. That way is more convenient and drive safety is significantly higher. That's the main difference with music app.

[m@rk]

Really disappointed with this

So the Y cable arrived, and sure enough I was able to plug the lightning connector into the cable and then the cable into the AUX and USB sockets as designed.

The iPhone 5S showed up under Media on the iDrive display. I was then able to play music (from iTunes and from Spotify), and in the case of Spotify (because I don't use iTunes), move forwards and backwards between tracks and control volume etc. At the same time, the Artist and Track information was shown on screen.

So far, so good.

But the problem with this set up is that somewhere here, a digital to analogue conversion is made which results in really really poor audio quality.

Music off a USB memory stick sounds OK

Music from the headphone jack on the iPhone into the AUX port with a £4 cable from Tesco sounds OK

But music via the Y cable (costing well over £50) sounds terrible.

So I have been down to my local dealer today and had them check out the Y cable thinking it must be faulty. Turns out not. We tried several cables and the same results were found will all of them although oddly some tracks sounded much better than others so I suspect the digital to audio conversion is being done on a very cheap chip somewhere.

Looks like my Y cable will be going back and I will have to find another way

[Piers]

Originally Posted by m@rk

Really disappointed with this

So the Y cable arrived, and sure enough I was able to plug the lightning connector into the cable and then the cable into the AUX and USB sockets as designed.

The iPhone 5S showed up under Media on the iDrive display. I was then able to play music (from iTunes and from Spotify), and in the case of Spotify (because I don't use iTunes), move forwards and backwards between tracks and control volume etc. At the same time, the Artist and Track information was shown on screen.

So far, so good.

But the problem with this set up is that somewhere here, a digital to analogue conversion is made which results in really really poor audio quality.

Music off a USB memory stick sounds OK

Music from the headphone jack on the iPhone into the AUX port with a £4 cable from Tesco sounds OK

But music via the Y cable (costing well over £50) sounds terrible.

So I have been down to my local dealer today and had them check out the Y cable thinking it must be faulty. Turns out not. We tried several cables and the same results were found will all of them although oddly some tracks sounded much better than others so I suspect the digital to audio conversion is being done on a very cheap chip somewhere.

Looks like my Y cable will be going back and I will have to find another way

How very odd. I used this Y cable with my Pro media E60 and a 30gb iPod for 3 years without any issues. It would appear that Pro media is more than just a screen increase, there is more and more that is coming to light that makes it a necessity for modern tech use

[Barryoor]

I have been struggling with the same issue. there is no blue-tooth audio streaming but the phone seems to work fine. I do not have the combox so here is what I did :-
Option one
connected an extension lead (Cable with 30 pin female and male ends) to the Y cable to enable my Iphone to be mounted on the windscreen (if screen mounting is not preferred then there is an option to fix the Iphone to the cupholder). this way I can play my spotify and everything else thru the BMW sound system. The sound quality is good (I have the professional satnav) but there is the messy wire showing.
Option 2
This is for those who do not want any messy wires. Connected ViseeO tune2Air WMA 1000 bluetooth adapter to the Y cable and kept it in the glove compartment. The music from Iphone is streamed via bluetooth to the idrive with the ID3 tags( sorry no album art). there is no obvious difference in the sounds quality tho purist might argue. with this option there are occasional drops but the iDrive picks up the current music ID3 tags when a song is playing.

hope this helps. let me know if anyone else has any other better suggestions.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by Barryoor

I have been struggling with the same issue. there is no blue-tooth audio streaming but the phone seems to work fine. I do not have the combox so here is what I did :-
Option one
connected an extension lead (Cable with 30 pin female and male ends) to the Y cable to enable my Iphone to be mounted on the windscreen (if screen mounting is not preferred then there is an option to fix the Iphone to the cupholder). this way I can play my spotify and everything else thru the BMW sound system. The sound quality is good (I have the professional satnav) but there is the messy wire showing.
Option 2
This is for those who do not want any messy wires. Connected ViseeO tune2Air WMA 1000 bluetooth adapter to the Y cable and kept it in the glove compartment. The music from Iphone is streamed via bluetooth to the idrive with the ID3 tags( sorry no album art). there is no obvious difference in the sounds quality tho purist might argue. with this option there are occasional drops but the iDrive picks up the current music ID3 tags when a song is playing.

hope this helps. let me know if anyone else has any other better suggestions.

Thanks

The Y cable does work however my disappointment is with the audio quality. Doing a bit more research it would appear that the digital to analogue conversion is being preformed by the Y cable which has very limited processing power. So with more complex tracks and higher bandwidth tracks, it seems to struggle.

I appreciate that the car only has base audio but if I can't get the source right then there is little point in trying to improve speakers etc.

I am currently pursuing a couple of options

Firstly, because audio through the headphone socket and auxiliary jack is good, using this but getting a headphone adaptor that includes an inline remote. This would enable me to skip tracks etc more easily seeing that I would not have that control from the car itself.

Another option is that the guy in parts mentioned he has seen a Bluetooth USB media receiver that is seen by the car as a normal USB memory stick but responds to forward and back controls. This would enable me to connect the phone to the USB stick and stream via that. The downside is that whilst the phone is connected to that, it is not also connected to the car so I could not make and receive calls. There is also the small matter that nobody I have spoken to has heard of this mystical USB bluetooth receiver.

Remember as this is not my car, I am very limited in what I can and can't do to the car but I am not one to be beaten by a car to I will continue to work my way through the options. After all, I am stuck with this for 4 years now so have plenty of time to investigate.

[Barryoor]

Hi Mark,
Thats exactly what the tune2air does.connects my iphone to the car without messy wires. I also have the options to play the songs via the AUX option. perhaps your sound quality might be better with that option. Just google tune 2 air WMA 1000.
Interestingly the sound quality from Y cable connected iPhone is far better than connecting an auxillary lead to the headphone jack of iPhone and AUX of the car for me.

[accordRE]

Have a look on amazon, you can get a bluetooth receiver that outputs via 3.5mm jack which will fit in the aux port. The bluetooth receiver is wireless and charges off a USB cable when it needs to.

So connect your phone to the receiver and mount in on the dash, you'll be able to receive and make calls as well as play music.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by Barryoor

Hi Mark,
Thats exactly what the tune2air does.connects my iphone to the car without messy wires. I also have the options to play the songs via the AUX option. perhaps your sound quality might be better with that option. Just google tune 2 air WMA 1000.
Interestingly the sound quality from Y cable connected iPhone is far better than connecting an auxillary lead to the headphone jack of iPhone and AUX of the car for me.

That looks interesting except my Phone has a lighting connection and so does the Y lead I have so another £50 on a 30 pin Y lead sounds silly.

In addition, although the website claims you can take calls at the same time, I can't see how. An iPhone can only connect to one bluetooth device at any time. In this case you have the bluetooth for the phone in the car and bluetooth for eh music on Tune2Air thing. I can't see how it gets both working at the same time.

Originally Posted by accordRE

Have a look on amazon, you can get a bluetooth receiver that outputs via 3.5mm jack which will fit in the aux port. The bluetooth receiver is wireless and charges off a USB cable when it needs to.

So connect your phone to the receiver and mount in on the dash, you'll be able to receive and make calls as well as play music.

I have seen them

But I won't be able to control the phone (skip tracks etc) without physically touching the handset.

My company has what they call absolute rules which all result in instant dismissal regardless of you being a board level director or a 20 year veteran. One of those absolute rules is the use of a hand held phone whilst driving and this includes "just changing the track on my MP3 player". As an employee who wants to keep his job, any solution that requires me to physically touch the phone whilst on the move isn't an option

Thanks

[2tek]

I read that its possible Bluetooth Streaming in the base audio (business Nav) with coding.
Ive got the MY2014 F10 with the base stereo too. I have ordered the coding cable online but havent gotten around to doing the coding as i'm pretty happy wth playing music from USB drive in the midconsole.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by 2tek

I read that its possible Bluetooth Streaming in the base audio (business Nav) with coding.
Ive got the MY2014 F10 with the base stereo too. I have ordered the coding cable online but havent gotten around to doing the coding as i'm pretty happy wth playing music from USB drive in the midconsole.

I would be interested in hearing how you get on as from what I have read, without this combox thing, it's a non starter. I would be delighted to see you prove that wrong

[hajmuntz]

can you not load all your tracks to a 64GB USB key drive and just use that?

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by hajmuntz

can you not load all your tracks to a 64GB USB key drive and just use that?

I used to have a folder with some 200GB of MP3 files but I haven't had the need to even open it in over a year.

As I said, since I started using Spotify a couple of years ago, I have simply stopped buying music (either on CD or MP3) so have no files to actually put onto the memory stick in the first place.

[m@rk]

FIXED!

I can't believe how complex this has been.

So the Y cable for my iPhone 5 worked but gave god awful sound quality. Clipping, distortion, crackling and so on. Having been a pro musician in a previous life, this technology is not alien to me and after getting the dealer to swap the cable twice, I put the problem down to a poor quality digital to analogue convertor in the Y cable itself.

So i have been reading some of the comments on here and elsewhere and dug out my old iPhone 4S from the cupboard, reactivated it and set it up basically as an iPod. I then ordered up a new 30 pin Y cable from Amazon.

The cable I bought was one linked to by people on this forum as being cheaper than the genuine BMW one (cost £7.99) but still functional.

Didn't work!

Returned cheap Y cable and bought 30 pin Y cable from BMW. Plugged iPhone 4S into it and it worked perfectly. Spotify sounded great and I could skip tracks etc from the buttons on the dashboard. Perfect

So I could have stopped here however in this thread. somebody mentioned the ViseeO tune2Air WMA 1000 bluetooth adapter which connects to the 30 pin connection on the Y cable and extends that over bluetooth to the iPhone whilst maintaining the same functionality.

See here http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I pair my iPhone 5S to the ViseeO over bluetooth.

I iPhone is now paired to the ViseeO AND is paired to the cars telephone bluetooth at the same time (I did not know this was even possible).

AND IT WORKS

I can open up Spotify (or iTunes or Podcasts) on my iPhone and play them. I can skip tracks etc using the buttons on the dashboard and the display shows the track playing although there is no cover art.

At the same time, if the phone rings, music is paused and I can take the call etc as normal. I can access the phone book etc etc etc

This solution has not come cheap.

The Y cable cost the best part of £50. Yes I tried the cheaper ones on Amazon including ones linked to from this forum and they simply did not work so I ended up going for a genuine cable

The ViseeO thing cost another £60 so over all this has come at over £100

What I have learn't however is that the genuine BMW Y cable for the iPhone 5 is made from very cheap parts and at £50 is a rip off. Compared to the older iPhone 4S 30 pin BMW cable which works (and sounds) fine.

But this has taken a number of weeks now and lots of returns and it really should not be this hard