[Zinedine Sedan]

Hey guys

After going round in circles and running into issues about wanting to use my old headunit (apparently you lose your PDC tones and ability to code stuff, plus the amount of space at the sides is ugly), I decided that I might as well just go and load up my Professional radio with some options, starting with USB and the Apline upgrade and maybe DAB later.

Trouble is, there are like 3 USB retrofit options and one of them is massively more expensive than the others and I can't see a legit reason for this?!

USB in centre console (most expensive)
USB in glove box
USB in centre console (cheaper version)

So does anyone have any info on the differences between these kits? I'm probably going to skip the glove box option as I've already got a heap of creature comforts and stuff I like to keep in there such as satnav, multi tools, USB chargers etc and I'd like to plug my USB stick into something solid like the centre console rather than having it flapping around on a cable.

Basically I'm not too fussed about iPod support as such as USB stick capability is the main thing I'm going for. That said a couple of things that I would really like are the ability to read the audio file tags (eg IDv3 for artist/album/genre stuff) and if at all possible, mp4/m4a support.

Maybe some of these kits just have basic USB and MP3 support but the more expensive option has full iPod control through the USB cable (rather than just using the USB to charge it and the 3.5 jack for audio. I'm also guessing my chances of mp4/m4a files working is better with the full on iPod support?

Also, this isn't important but which system was it that had the built in HDD, was it only stuff with nav? My car is a 1 hump.

I saw this video but as demonstrated it doesn't support the info tags in MP3 so it only goes on filenames.

Could it be that the more expensive options have a better control box?

Cheers

[bmw325i]

You can replace the headunit without the issues you mentioned if you know what your doing.