[Enkur]

oh my god... this makes my iDrive look something from the 60's.
I hate my iDrive... i can never seem to find anything in the categories. It works alright if I have the complete address.

[FrankoQ]

Very nice.

[djflex]

Great post.

I've already the new iDrive System in my E92 and I'm really happy about it. It has a lot of functions but it's still very easy and clear to use.
It's nearly a perfect system...

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Can you try hooking a USB hard drive to it?

+1, do have to get the integrated USB/Ipod option?

[nukezero]

can you show where the Google search function/feature is????

[cn555ic]

That really blows...my idrive looks like shit compared to this and the sad part is that no update can allow us to have the most recent Idrive capabilities...SUCKS BALLS!

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by cn555ic

That really blows...my idrive looks like shit compared to this and the sad part is that no update can allow us to have the most recent Idrive capabilities...SUCKS BALLS!

It's completely different hardware.

[to_riffic]

damn i'm seriously jealous of the new idrive...

[Saigon]

nice features; now it is an option worth buying. I've gotten frustrated with the current idrive many times. Oh well...

[LionRampant]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Can you try hooking a USB hard drive to it?

Originally Posted by BMWnator

+1, do have to get the integrated USB/Ipod option?

I can confirm that a bus-powered USB hard drive functions both as an audio source for live play as well as for import into the onboard Music Collection. There are a few caveats, however. The drive must be formatted as FAT32; the system apparently cannot read Mac-formatted (HFS+) or NTFS drives. iDrive is not terribly speedy about indexing the drive--it took well over a minute for my 60Gb USB hard drive with about 5 Gb of music to be recognized and indexed.

Once it started indexing, I was able to access and play what it had found so far. A folder structure is provided for you to navigate, with the music appearing within the folders you set up on the drive just as with a USB flash drive. The indexing is apparently not cached by the system; it took as long to come up the second time I plugged it in as the first. This is not unexpected--if the structure of the drive was cached tightly, iDrive would run into problems if that structure was changed.

Note that using a USB hard drive (or flash drive, for that matter) as an audio source directly seems to require the 6FL iPod/USB Adapter option (or perhaps its dealer-installed counterpart). There is a USB port in the glovebox, but a drive plugged into that port is not usable directly as an audio source--the glovebox port is exclusively for music import/export. One should also note that the music import/export is not finely controllable. There is no provision to select only certain folders to import from the drive, merely a single mode that imports all song files found on the drive into the Music Collection.

--LR

[LionRampant]

Originally Posted by nukezero

can you show where the Google search function/feature is????

I'm afraid that the MyInfo/Google Search features require the BMW Assist option, and my car does not have it. Perhaps another who has both Nav and Bluetooth/Assist will be kind enough to post a few pics.

--LR

[snipersix]

wow, i wish i can upgrade my idrive

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by LionRampant

I can confirm that a bus-powered USB hard drive functions both as an audio source for live play as well as for import into the onboard Music Collection. There are a few caveats, however. The drive must be formatted as FAT32; the system apparently cannot read Mac-formatted (HFS+) or NTFS drives. iDrive is not terribly speedy about indexing the drive--it took well over a minute for my 60Gb USB hard drive with about 5 Gb of music to be recognized and indexed.

Once it started indexing, I was able to access and play what it had found so far. A folder structure is provided for you to navigate, with the music appearing within the folders you set up on the drive just as with a USB flash drive. The indexing is apparently not cached by the system; it took as long to come up the second time I plugged it in as the first. This is not unexpected--if the structure of the drive was cached tightly, iDrive would run into problems if that structure was changed.

Note that using a USB hard drive (or flash drive, for that matter) as an audio source directly seems to require the 6FL iPod/USB Adapter option (or perhaps its dealer-installed counterpart). There is a USB port in the glovebox, but a drive plugged into that port is not usable directly as an audio source--the glovebox port is exclusively for music import/export. One should also note that the music import/export is not finely controllable. There is no provision to select only certain folders to import from the drive, merely a single mode that imports all song files found on the drive into the Music Collection.

--LR

This is great news!

I have a few questions.

What are the specs of your usb hard drive - RPM? sata or pata?
Model number would be great if you know it.

You said that indexing took just as long the second time you plugged it in. Does it have to index the drive every time you start the car or only when you unplug/plug in the drive?

Once it has indexed the drive is there any delay when you browse or switch songs?

Lastly, how did you know that it only reads FAT32? trail and error?
FAT32 is just fine for this use anyway.

Thanks

[jli801]

COOL!

i should have just got a car with no idrive... this navi makes my current idrive obsolete. and it probably would have made me feel better if i didnt have idrive from the beginning.

this makes me want to trade in my o7 for an o9, but i dont know about the new back (blacklines ftw still) and the progman software... but trading in is kind of a ripoff at this point.

[Mantis64]

Thanks for the great writeup, seems it was definitely worth waiting on!

[nukezero]

Originally Posted by LionRampant

I can confirm that a bus-powered USB hard drive functions both as an audio source for live play as well as for import into the onboard Music Collection. There are a few caveats, however. The drive must be formatted as FAT32; the system apparently cannot read Mac-formatted (HFS+) or NTFS drives. iDrive is not terribly speedy about indexing the drive--it took well over a minute for my 60Gb USB hard drive with about 5 Gb of music to be recognized and indexed.

Once it started indexing, I was able to access and play what it had found so far. A folder structure is provided for you to navigate, with the music appearing within the folders you set up on the drive just as with a USB flash drive. The indexing is apparently not cached by the system; it took as long to come up the second time I plugged it in as the first. This is not unexpected--if the structure of the drive was cached tightly, iDrive would run into problems if that structure was changed.

Note that using a USB hard drive (or flash drive, for that matter) as an audio source directly seems to require the 6FL iPod/USB Adapter option (or perhaps its dealer-installed counterpart). There is a USB port in the glovebox, but a drive plugged into that port is not usable directly as an audio source--the glovebox port is exclusively for music import/export. One should also note that the music import/export is not finely controllable. There is no provision to select only certain folders to import from the drive, merely a single mode that imports all song files found on the drive into the Music Collection.

--LR

Wait, a minute, I don't understand. So you're saying there's TWO USB ports? One somewhere, that you connected your hard drive to, and it will index and search what's on there and let you play Mp3s.

While the other one is in the glove box, and that one ONLY allows you to import/export , in other worlds, upload/download to the iDrive internal hard drive??

thanks.

[KevinO]

Originally Posted by nukezero

Wait, a minute, I don't understand. So you're saying there's TWO USB ports? One somewhere, that you connected your hard drive to, and it will index and search what's on there and let you play Mp3s.

While the other one is in the glove box, and that one ONLY allows you to import/export , in other worlds, upload/download to the iDrive internal hard drive??

thanks.

Correct. One in the armrest, where you would connect an iPod or flash drive, and the one in the glove box which is used for importing music (I've also seen speculation that the one in the glovebox might be usable to update the iDrive software, but haven't seen that confirmed).

[nukezero]

Originally Posted by KevinO

Correct. One in the armrest, where you would connect an iPod or flash drive, and the one in the glove box which is used for importing music (I've also seen speculation that the one in the glovebox might be usable to update the iDrive software, but haven't seen that confirmed).

[LionRampant]

Originally Posted by nukezero

Wait, a minute, I don't understand. So you're saying there's TWO USB ports? One somewhere, that you connected your hard drive to, and it will index and search what's on there and let you play Mp3s.

While the other one is in the glove box, and that one ONLY allows you to import/export , in other worlds, upload/download to the iDrive internal hard drive??

thanks.

Note that the USB port in the armrest is not standard equipment--it is included only in cars with the 6FL iPod/USB Adapter option or the dealer-installed USB adapter. If you order a car without the 6FL option, you only get the USB connection in the glovebox, and that seemingly cannot be used to play music directly.

--LR

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

It's completely different hardware.

The new Idrive looks great, and I'm glad my E91 will have it. But, don't be envious - you've still got a nice and very underrated system. They'll always been something newer and more fancy down the line. The point is that what you got was top notch for the time you bought it.

[LionRampant]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

What are the specs of your usb hard drive - RPM? sata or pata?
Model number would be great if you know it.

The drive I am testing with is a 60Gb 4200rpm USB2.0 drive packaged by Apricorn (the Aegis Mini). I am reasonably certain that it uses a PATA interface internally, but it isn't likely to matter--USB2.0 is the bottleneck either way.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

You said that indexing took just as long the second time you plugged it in. Does it have to index the drive every time you start the car or only when you unplug/plug in the drive?

I am going to need to do some more testing this evening. I added a few folders to the drive bringing the total up to 24Gb of music files, and it was taking quite a while to index. Merely turning off the car and later restarting it does not seem to prompt a reindex, and there are some indications that only the changed items are indexed when you unplug and plug it back in, which would indicate some sort of caching/change recognition ability. I'll let you know what I find tonight.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Once it has indexed the drive is there any delay when you browse or switch songs?

Switching songs, even between distant folders, is nearly instant--a moment to read the drive, and the new song is up. Browsing songs in the folder structure is not dependent on the indexing process--you can navigate through the entire drive and listings are pulled up as you go. The indexing is tied to the search function, which allows you to pull up songs by track, artist, album, and/or genre. Until the indexing is complete, the search options are gray (disabled). If there is no search active, random play is limited to the contents of whichever folder you are in.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Lastly, how did you know that it only reads FAT32? trail and error?

I use Macs primarily, and most of my external drives are formatted HFS+. I tried one of those first, and received a "not supported" message when iDrive tried to access it. I tried a drive with NTFS next and received the same response. FAT32 is what most PCs will use to format a USB flash drive, so it is perhaps not surprising that hard drives must be formatted the same way to work with the system.

--LR

[bluetapedog]

hey does anybody know if there is a way to disable the "video only when parking brake is on"?