Nav plus and TV inputs

[IT]

The 5" colour screen that comes with the Sat Nav Plus unit is a good one, and most people want to know what else they can pipe into it:




Now, some lucky folk have got a TV tuner installed as well. Depending on when your car was built, will dictate which version of the tuner you have.

Tuner A was fitted to all cars upto VIN WAUZZZ4D-1-003650 (the dashes can be ignored for the purposes of comparision) This VIN was approximately Spring 2001.



After this time, Tuner B was fitted.



There are pros and cons to each:

Tuner A has a single A/V input available, but as you can see in the photo (which is of the rear of the unit) it is in the form of 3 easily usable phono/rca connectors. These can be used for DVD, ipod video, playstation, reversing camera, in fact anything you want.

Tuner B is gifted with 2 seperate A/V inputs, however they are not so easily accessed. On the rear of Tuner B is 4 aerial connections and on multiplug connector only. The A/V inputs are part of the multiplug, and it requires a little work to wire them in. The easiest option is to buy an adapter cable, which are readily available and look like this:




But I dont have a TV Tuner?

For those without the TV tuner, life is more complicated. Although analog TV is due to be phased out, the TV Tuner with an A/V input is still the easiest way to get an input in.

There are two problems if you dont have a Tuner:

1) The inputs on the 13 pin din at the rear of the Nav Plus unit are RGB (Red / Green / Blue) which means it can't take a normal composite video input straight from most devices.

2) Even when you work round this, the TV function isn't normally selectable unless you have the TV Tuner. This is because the Nav Plus unit uses a canbus connection to the TV tuner for both controlling the tuning process, but also for detecting the presence of a signal. If there is no canbus device then the Nav Plus unit wont even let you select video.

There are some A/V adapters available on the web, but you need to make sure that they are compatibile with the Audi Navigation plus of this era. Many of them are designed to work with the VW 5" colour navigation, which shares many of the same features and looks of the Audi unit, but it doesnt require the canbus connection, and so works.

Fitting the TV tuner isn't too difficult. TV Tuner looms are readily available, but ensure you get the right one for Tuner A or Tuner B - Its the same connection at the other end irrespective. The loom connects straight from the TV tuner all the way to the Nav unit at the front, and requires four additional connections to be made for power and canbus.

There are also a good selection of aftermarket aerials available so you can enjoy the analog terestrial TV while its still here, and teletext of course, which is a standard feature of both tuners

[The_Laird]

...could I plug in my iPod and see the iPod display on the sat nav screen (RNS 4.2)

[Singh]

For some reason, no. It will play the tracks and you will be able to hear them. You will only be able to view the picture if you are outputting specific video, so from youtube or a video stored on your I Pod. I just put the 'position map' mode on the satnav when I'm listening to tracks on my I Pod now. Also make sure you buy an official Apple cable if you want to output video. The new 3.0 firmware update on the I Phone stopped video being outputted by third party cables.
P.S If you want to see track names over on the screen, buy a Nokia N95. It works quite well with this and freshens up and makes the sat nav screen look more modern.
Edit: If you buy the apple cable, make sure you buy the revised version with B at the end of the product code and not A.

[CliveH]

Originally Posted by Singh

If you want to see track names over on the screen, buy a Nokia N95. It works quite well with this and freshens up and makes the sat nav screen look more modern.

Can you elaborate on this please Amar? How does it work and integrate with the head unit?

[Singh]

Clive, I will show you on Sunday mate

Originally Posted by CliveH

Can you elaborate on this please Amar? How does it work and integrate with the head unit?

[quattronutter]

n95 output is pretty good on rns-d,i have it running tom tom from an n95,the otheraux input i have linked to a mini pc

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by IT

Tuner A was fitted to all cars upto VIN WAUZZZ4D-1-003650 (the dashes can be ignored for the purposes of comparision) This VIN was approximately Spring 2001.

Apologies if I've asked this before, but if I did I lost the reply or wasn't specific enough.......

I have one of these tuners, which obviously no longer tunes in to anything, but I would like to add a DVB-T tuner to the Aux inputs, and as noted in a separate rather rambling thread I've tested this works "in principle". http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4687

I did ask there about the aerials and whilst I did get a "discouraging" reply I wondered if anyone does know a definitive answer.

I presume the TV aerials (4 small plugs) are hidden away somewhere, but I have 2 questions (for my PF S8):
Where actually are the aerials?
Are they powered (voltage?) or passive?

Basically wondering if there's a way I can reuse them rather than fitting a new one somewhere.

[Architex_mA8tey]

The tv aerials run along the bottom of the rear screen in most later cars and I believe in the rear bumpers in very early cars
If you do a search on the forum for my thread that mentions phantom aeriels there is a guy in Edinburgh that does adapter cables so you can still use the oem diversity aerials and take the feed into whatever equipment you need to

[HPsauce]

Ah right, I have that link "saved" (it was parkmyauto.co.uk) but had misunderstood what it was, just reread in detail.

I'll get in touch with them ASAP.
Edit: Just sent them an email explaining what I want to do and asking a few questions.

I'll report on detailed progress back in my own thread to avoid "polluting" this one. http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4687