[ll71]

I've been trying to get my Ipod touch to play videos through the iDrive for a while now, coded the extra codecs etc required, but still no luck, just audio, no video. Music worked fine. As I have a huge music collection, I was maxing out the 64 gig ipod anyway. So I thought not much to lose by trying a portable USB hard drive as recommended by one of the members on here.

£59 squid later at PC World buys you a 1TB (!) Seagate USB2/3 hard drive (NTFS). By the way, it fits perfectly in the tray to the left of the USB port, almost like it was made for it?!

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/data-s...12046-pdt.html

Created a Videos folder and a Music folder, just copied straight from itunes (I store my music as mp3), and copied across various personal videos and a couple of DVD rips (single file mp4 more on that later).

Didn't expect it to work well, but the USB drive popped straight up and isntantly recognised the folders exactly the same as the ipod with coverart etc. Perfect! No folder browsing! Then went into the Video option (added via coding) and hey presto all of my movies (except those downloaded by Apple, so I suspect copy protection is an issue here).

Now some codecs seem to drop the odd frame on my personal vids taken from a video camera/camera phones/digital cameras, but the mp4 of one of my movies played perfectly including surround sound, wide screen etc. I will work out which codecs are best/worst and post here later.

So, if you're thinking of a solution for the car, I wouldn't bother with a stick or an ipod if all it's going to do is sit in the car all day.

I've gone this route as a) couldn't get the ipod to do video, b) my Sony Xperia phone doesn't work like an ipod when connected unless you connect via apps (otherwise folder browsing) and if it is connected via apps, Email seems to stop working.

It seems by far the cheapest way to get access to a huge amount of data for very little money. Very impressed with what the HU_NBT pro nav can do, it's a perfect in car solution.

[chetalien]

excellentmate. I've tons of music andmovies,will tryitwithmy HDD

[Rich9600]

Great post mate. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

How does the HDD fair in your car? Can you see any real benefit in a SSD over a HDD?

Just to add that I could not get all iTunes codecs to play through the USB using a pen drive. Music stored as Apple Lossless (ALAC) does not seem to play. This can be down converted to 256kbps when synching from iTunes to an iDevice. I also read somewhere that an iDevice could bit-stream higher quality files to the car than could be decided in car.

Enjoy all your in car toys.

[nordberg]

Anything specific need doing with folder structure or anything?

[ll71]

Nordberg - nothing specific at all, no. I just have two folders on mine - Music Library, Video Library in the root. Then under those, I have (video) Kids, Adults, Home Videos etc to seperate the content and put the digicam stuff away from the movies. Under the Music Library folder sits all the music in folders under artist name, then album name, then the tracks. I'm hoping to retrofit rear entertainment into mine for the kids.

Rich9600 - Yes, apple formats are a pain in the backside, I stopped using them a while ago and went highest quality MP3 so I could use other devices. So itunes rips all my music into MP3 for me. Video is also copy protected by Apple, so if you buy anything from Apple you can't use it on another device. Some companies have woken up to this now and offer a digital copy when you buy a DVD/Bluray.

SSD. I did consider buying a USB SSD, but they are few and far between. I've found a 256GB Verbatim unit for £200 odd, but I thought I'd try the HDD first to see how it fairs.

I've loaded it up now with 64 GB of MP3's direct from my iPod music folder, and ripped about 20 movies using DVDFAB into single file MP4 format. I have over 400 movies at home (all legal btw!) ripped in VIDEO_TS format for my Media Server and this is what I'm converting into single file MP4. I have a rather chunky 9TB media server pc I built that serves the entire house for streaming movies to the telly/projector/laptops. The screen in the BMW pro-nav is 1280 x 840 (from memory) so keep that in mind when ripping to MP4.

I just watched AC/DC live at the bull ring in full surround sound with the sat nav on the split screen! Awesome.

OK, couple of small issues I've found. When I plugged it in again with all this added data, the video option didn't appear at first. Thought there was something wrong with it. It turns out that with this much data it takes the iDrive unit a few minutes to index it all and pop up the video icon/organise the music for searching. So, yes, there might well be a place for an SSD. It is certainly not necessary for playback though, as it's perfect and smooth via the HDD. If that bothers you enough, it might be worth looking at an SSD. At the moment there is about 100GB on my HDD, and accessing it once it's indexed everything is fine, no lag. I really can't say if it's the iDrive indexing all that data that is the startup bottleneck, or if it's reading the HDD. I might buy an SSD to try it out and use this HDD as a backup for my media server instead. I don't think I'll want that many movies in the car anyway. Certainly loving the live music DVD's, shows off the HK surround sound perfectly!

Here's a pic of the unit in the car.

[ll71]

Just a thought, but not sure if you're aware but the F30 has a built in Wifi, it's just not enabled in the current build (it works in the F10) of the software. I'm not sure if it ever will be, but it opens up the potential for the HU_NBT to operate as a DLNA server. At the moment, it can work as a client, reading from a DLNA server streaming video to the screen. If it worked the other way, it would let your kids on their tablets in the back stream videos to their tablets, music, etc.. Now that would be cool! (and antisocial) lol

[nordberg]

Beige interior? Excellent choice!!!

[stefan4]

Is this on a nbt nav or cic? I would love to play video from a hard drive but I have cic nav

[venkata]

Originally Posted by stefan4

Is this on a nbt nav or cic? I would love to play video from a hard drive but I have cic nav

I'm afraid Cic will not work.

[BMWSKI]

Thanks for this information
So did your ACDC video work whilst driving? Can it distinguish between a music video and a film ?
Have you tried connecting an iphone and viewing camera videos from that too?
Cheers!

[ll71]

You can code Video in motion, yes. The head unit (HU_NBT) will play all sorts of formats over a USB connection, like avi, xvid, vcd, mp4, ogg etc. Some better than others. MP4 is perfect, that's what I'm using. I've just used DVDFAB to convert all my various formats into MP4 for copying onto the USB HDD.

I haven't tried the iphone no, but I think it should work, however I couldn't get any video to play on my ipod touch. I think I know what the issue is with that though, and might apply to the iphone too? I think you might need a Y connector cable like this.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Apple-...f=pd_cp_auto_1

I've read that this cable doesn't work the same as the official BMW cable, so I can't comment if this will work for video or not. I believe the official BMW cable shuts the ipod down for control via the apps in the car. This cable lets you basically use the ipod to control the media playing to the car itself. The BMW cable is much more expensive and will limit you to whatever the BMW apps are. As I don't use an iphone I can't comment on whats apps there are, someone else on here should be able to tell you what you can do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/genuine-bmw-ipod-cable

I gave up on the ipod angle as I have 64GB of music so no space for any movies, hence why I went to the USB HDD. My second thought was to use the phone for media playback but I also don't like having the phone in the centre console. I find it's better to have the phone serving the email via EBT/BT MAP and leave the media jobs to the HDD. I found using my Sony connected via Android ConnectedDrive apps stopped the BT MAP working properly, however it did give me the only thing missing via EBT and that's access to your calendar/tasks which is pretty cool but much less important than email.

BTW, my post about about it taking time for the car to show the files when there is a lot of data is incorrect. I think the first time the USB is connected, when you have updated the file (critical bit), the car creates an index. The next time you start the car, it checks to see if the index needs rebuilding, if it doesn't, it starts pretty much straight away! So great news there.

[Xplosiv166]

HDD is overkill plus a mechanical drive is a bad idea in a car, as it is basically made up of a spinning disc and read/write head which is fractions of mm away from the spinning disc. and if you go over a large bump and it is reading / writing the head may crash into the disc and damage it, so the best option is a large USB drive:

You can get these from ebuyer, overclockers or Amazon as well. Although the pen drives are USB 3.0 they will also work with USB 2.0 which is what the iDrive uses.

NOTE: If you are streaming video the flash memory is better than a mechanical drive as the sustained read speed is much higher.

32GB - £14

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-...mb-s-read-80mb

64GB - £27

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-...0-g3-pen-drive

128GB - £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...veler-g4-green

or you can build your own using an SSD drive and the following:

Enclosure - £10

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/icy-b...to-usb-30-host

SSD Drive

128GB - £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...s-8000-iops-pc

256GB - £167

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb...write-525mb-s-

NOTE: I have the following drive and it works fine (i paid more for a drive with a fast read/write speed):

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-...s-write-70mb-s

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Xplosiv166

HDD is overkill plus a mechanical drive is a bad idea in a car, as it is basically made up of a spinning disc and read/write head which is fractions of mm away from the spinning disc. and if you go over a large bump and it is reading / writing the head may crash into the disc and damage it, so the best option is a large USB drive:

You can get these from ebuyer, overclockers or Amazon as well. Although the pen drives are USB 3.0 they will also work with USB 2.0 which is what the iDrive uses.

NOTE: If you are streaming video the flash memory is better than a mechanical drive as the sustained read speed is much higher.

32GB - £14

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-...mb-s-read-80mb

64GB - £27

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-...0-g3-pen-drive

128GB - £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...veler-g4-green

or you can build your own using an SSD drive and the following:

Enclosure - £10

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/icy-b...to-usb-30-host

SSD Drive

128GB - £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...s-8000-iops-pc

256GB - £167

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb...write-525mb-s-

NOTE: I have the following drive and it works fine (i paid more for a drive with a fast read/write speed):

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-...s-write-70mb-s

Jeez, your suggestion for the 256gb SSD is a bit over the top isn't it!?

The Vertex 450 is an enthusiast level SSD and would give no advantage for car use over a sandisk drive for £54 less:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSS...I1NY55PPIDIUST

[ll71]

What do you think is fitted inside an ipod classic or the vast majority of laptops..?

This is a cheap way to get access to a huge amount of storage space - if you need it. If you don't, USB sticks and SSD are other options, one is space limited, the other more expensive. SSD from what I can see so far is not worth it as the HDD works fine, and you could break two of these and still be ahead for the cost of it vs SSD.

[ll71]

As promised, here's the FDL coding required to enable video over USB and to enable the other codecs supported by the head unit. I would use MP4/h.264 though if you can, it works fine and a couple of the other codecs seem a bit iffy.

HU_NBT => API_USB_VIDEO = both
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_OGG = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_VCD = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_XVID = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_MC_VIDEO_SUPPORT = aktiv

The coding section on here can help understand how to do it, if you get stuck drop me a PM.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by ll71

As promised, here's the FDL coding required to enable video over USB and to enable the other codecs supported by the head unit. I would use MP4/h.264 though if you can, it works fine and a couple of the other codecs seem a bit iffy.

HU_NBT => API_USB_VIDEO = both
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_OGG = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_VCD = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_CODEC_XVID = aktiv
HU_NBT => ENT_MC_VIDEO_SUPPORT = aktiv

The coding section on here can help understand how to do it, if you get stuck drop me a PM.

Thanks mate!

Also you said in the other thread that the professional & business head units are the same, is that definitely the case? If so does that mean EBT can be coded on a 2014 business nav head unit do you know?

[ll71]

Yes, I think it can be. If you go to the BMW compatibility checker, the new one (!) it states that EBT is an option for Business Nav.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by ll71

Yes, I think it can be. If you go to the BMW compatibility checker, the new one (!) it states that EBT is an option for Business Nav.

I think it was always an option on business nav, and it added the combox in the boot, which the prof nav had whether or not EBT was specced.

But i gather the NBT prof nav does't have a combox anymore as it's all built into the HU, so hopefully the business nav does as well!

I didn't want the EBT enough to pay £450 for it, but it would be a nice bonus to get it for free.

[Xplosiv166]

Jeez, your suggestion for the 256gb SSD is a bit over the top isn't it!?

The Vertex 450 is an enthusiast level SSD and would give no advantage for car use over a sandisk drive for £54 less:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSS...I1NY55PPIDIUST

yes must have copied the wrong one:

240GB - £101

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb...-250mb-s-write

What do you think is fitted inside an ipod classic or the vast majority of laptops..?

Dam really i never new! but on a seriously note i believe the ipad had G sensors (like the sony) that detected falls, drops and rapidly parked the HDD head/heads standard cheap laptop HDD's don't

You would not believe the number of laptop HDD i have replaced over the years for this very reason (mechanical damage)

Have a look at this video (for those that don't know what is happening inside the magic box!):

[AN03REW]

Question. I really dont know much about this kind of stuff.

I have the dvd inmotion done to my car so my girl can watch her dvds fine.

If I buy this box can I convert the likes of toy story into mp4 and watch through the box so dont need to always change dvd. Or is this not possible?

[nordberg]

Originally Posted by AN03REW

If I buy this box can I convert the likes of toy story into mp4 and watch through the box so dont need to always change dvd.

[ll71]

Originally Posted by Xplosiv166

yes must have copied the wrong one:

240GB - £101

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb...-250mb-s-write



Dam really i never new! but on a seriously note i believe the ipad had G sensors (like the sony) that detected falls, drops and rapidly parked the HDD head/heads standard cheap laptop HDD's don't

You would not believe the number of laptop HDD i have replaced over the years for this very reason (mechanical damage)

Have a look at this video (for those that don't know what is happening inside the magic box!):

Well good luck with that, what "drop" are you expecting to occur exactly in the BMW? My experience over the last 35 years working in IT with HDD's - in warranty and repair - I might add, is different than yours. Millions of laptops out there including my current one which I've dropped too many times I can't remember, still work, so in the centre console of an F30, that's positive luxury. I'll tell you when my HDD crashes though. As I suspect it never will in my softly sprung F30, although in an E90/2 I understand why you'd be worried. Crash, bang, bump. SSD FTW.