So all change! Things have moved on in 5 years, though I still have the same car of course. :cool:

Digital TV reception has proved problematic, maybe due to technical or power changes at the transmitters, I don't really know why.
And now, with fairly universal 4G I can get almost anything I want on my phone.
There have been a couple of other "niggles" so I decided most of this added complexity can go.

Today I started ripping out the TV installation, not as simple as I thought and there's still an aerial lead that is pretty inaccessible to get rid of!
Once I'd done that the camera, which had been intermittent, started working reliably. Until I put everything back and screwed the knee panel back in place. :mad:

So, "in for a penny, in for a pound" I decided to take out almost everything and along the way found a loose connection in a power supply lead.
First thing out was the XCarLink, which was less easy than it might be as I had piggybacked several other circuits off its conveniently-accessible wiring.

But once gone I found a handy spare +12v connector driven by the reversing light circuit (RFLS) and decided to try using that to power the video signal converter.
That's no longer needed for TV, just the camera. Worked fine. +++
(The RNS video input is RGB whereas the tuner and camera both output CVBS, though one is PAL and the other NTSC!)

A bit more simplification, what's left of the wiring tucked away, knee panel back on and the camera is working just fine. :cool:

I might reinstate the XCarlink at some time in the future, mainly for the Bluetooth input allowing music streaming from my phone.
Unless there's a simpler solution?

The other audio features - playing music from USB or SD Card - are rather old hat now.
And the handsfree phone facility I've hardly ever used and wouldn't expect to at all in future.
So it's really served its time and should perhaps be retired?

And I still have a covert but functional reversing camera. :D
And Video-In-Motion so I could still use the camera when reversing at over 5mph. :tuttut:

Actually, there might be. The TV input has stereo audio but my reversing camera doesn't use it.

This post on an A2 forum gives an idea of the possibilities: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index...mm-jack.38941/
I can probably patch in whatever I want to the existing video input cabling, it has easily accessible multi-way connectors part way along.

At present the converter supplies the 12v "TV available" trigger signal when it turns on, but I can easily make that come on with the RNS itself.

The USB-Nachruesten box I put in Paul's FE is a pretty simple solution. That has aux and USB input, and bluetooth for streaming and handsfree. It just connects in place of the CD changer, so the changer itself and tv tuner can go away and run everything from the phone.

Thanks MJ I'll have a look at that, I think I've seen similar online.

And looking back almost 6 years in this very thread:

There seem to be several models, do you happen to know which, how much and where from?

Universal streaming box 1701

They won't ship to the UK but we have friends in Germany who can solve that ;) I printed a mounting to put it under the hvac controls in Paul's. I think there are pictures in the thread.

I like these because they are trivial to fit, do everything I need, and just work.

Ah, the barn find that Bert dragged in! Yes here's the sneaky picture:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1650217542

I'll have a play with the TV audio input first as that will probably do almost all I need and I have almost all the components already including a Bluetooth audio module.
If it doesn't work well enough then that unit seems to cover ALL the bases! +++

As always: why not just gen an Android HU? :ROFL:

:tuttut: Now my Fabulous Barn Find +++

The unit does all that I currently need it to do. The USB has six folders to mimic the 6 disc CD locations and you can have up to 999 songs in each folder, though with no way to scroll through apart from pressing 'next' on the head unit - can get tedious :) - So it is a 'virtual' CD player and works with all the buttons on the head unit. :boogy:

The bluetooth connection allows (in my case) to use the android phone to use Google Maps or WAZE (whatever the preference). Voice directions will interrupt the 'CD' player if needed. Using Google drive I can use voice commands so don't even have to touch the screen, as it is frowned upon by the boys in blue. I have a holder set on the dashboard that holds my phone out of arms reach but still able to view directions.

Phone calls also pause the 'CD' player. Only annoyance which I have not looked into is notifications on the phone also interrupt proceedings. I am sure there must be a setting for that.

I like the symmetry the OEM unit provides but the screen is just a little dire! Yes it may not be the ideal solution but as this thread there are all sorts of options:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showpost....09&postcount=1


Ideally I would like BMW's iDrive :snigger:

That's pretty much the same as XCarLink (though maybe only 99 tracks per virtual CD) and they're both limited by the way the RNS works.
As noted earlier, I "may" reinstate the XCarlink depending how Bluetooth via TV-in goes.
One advantage it does have is that you can use the "real" CD changer as well as the virtual one.

The rest of the functions of your unit I don't really need so initially at least I'll stick with audio streaming via Bluetooth on the TV audio input.
I'm just waiting for a mini-jack cable I've ordered to arrive so I can splice it in to the TV input loom. I have everything else I need.

I'm pretty good with maps and planning routes so the RNS-D navigation is more than adequate despite its age.
I don't get real-time traffic information of course but I do actually get RDS-TMC on the RNS (Thanks to Adrian_E for the appropriate map CD).

As for TV I've just been testing the poorly-behaving tuner that I took out of my S8. It's definitely faulty so has been scrapped.