[illuminist]

I've looked all over the place to find a solution to this but to no success. So I'm hoping some BMW guru can help me out

I have quite a lot of Chinese/Japanese mp3 music that I'd like to be able to display on my iDrive (2010 version, after the 09 update). I've tried connecting through iPod interface, importing to iDrive hard disk but neither worked. All I got was some "????" in place of actual meaningful characters. I've found some posts on forum suggesting that the non-iDrive model can get around this by setting the region setting of the stereo to Japan but I can't seem to find an equivalent setting on iDrive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[alex2364]

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254432

[illuminist]

Yea I've read that thread but there doesn't seem to be a solution though? I mean where can I get an hard drive from Asia? I searched on eBay but nothing turned up. Moreover, has anyone tried and got it to work?

I'm also curious if anyone here actually own an E90 with iDrive in Asia and get Asian language to display properly?

[outie]

Toward the end Technic suggested using autologic to code the iDrive to another language. If you know a shop w/ autologic give it a try. I contacted eas and they said they have not done it before so I don't want to risk it.

[illuminist]

Oops I guess I missed that Seems to be a pretty risky move though.. I guess before doing anything this drastic I'd like to see if anyone from Asia can actually tell me if their iDrive works with Asian characters.

[jbeemer]

Originally Posted by illuminist

Oops I guess I missed that Seems to be a pretty risky move though.. I guess before doing anything this drastic I'd like to see if anyone from Asia can actually tell me if their iDrive works with Asian characters.

Mine is 2010 CIC on 5 GT. It displays Chinese song names. With black panel, it can also display them on the dashboard allowing to be selected in the driving wheel.

[outie]

There you go, so the asian version iDrive can display Chinese characters. Now who wanna try doing the coding?

[outie]

Originally Posted by jbeemer

Mine is 2010 CIC on 5 GT. It displays Chinese song names. With black panel, it can also display them on the dashboard allowing to be selected in the driving wheel.

Attachment 412634

Attachment 412635

Where are you located or what country is the car from? Thnx for the pic!

[illuminist]

wow thanks for the pics!! did you get it done at a dealer shop or some custom auto shop? I'm in St Louis so there isn't a lot of high end tuning shop around... But I guess I can drive to Chicago to find one? :P

[jbeemer]

Originally Posted by outie

Where are you located or what country is the car from? Thnx for the pic!

I bought the car from BMW hong kong that imports their cars direct from Germany. Mine was manufactured in Dingolfing plant of germany. I guess all current new models with can support multiple languages with proper settings in cic. Mine can display menu of English, simplified and traditional Chinese characters. You can see all simplified/transitional Chinese characters can even be shown at the same time under English menu. To play save adding languages, better check with your cic version and ask experienced dealer to recode it.

[illuminist]

Thanks for the info jbeemer. I'm guessing your vehicle's specifically coded for HK. That's why your interface supports English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Mine's a NA version that only supports English, French and Spanish. So the hope is that my dealer will be willing (and actually know) how to recode the CIC for another region.

[Park828]

hmm i'll ask patryk about this tonight.

[Patrys@BimmerTech]

Originally Posted by Park828

hmm i'll ask patryk about this tonight.

I did some quick test this morning and coded my Euro spec CIC to Chinese simplified, traditional and Japanese, but in all cases instead of characters I got only empty spaces.
I will do some further testing, but it looks like there is no character set for these languages in the Euro spec CIC.
I suspect it is the same with the US spec CIC

[vtec96]

Originally Posted by Patrys

I did some quick test this morning and coded my Euro spec CIC to Chinese simplified, traditional and Japanese, but in all cases instead of characters I got only empty spaces.
I will do some further testing, but it looks like there is no character set for these languages in the Euro spec CIC.
I suspect it is the same with the US spec CIC

Too bad...
I would paid for that function for sure!

[zerrantoss]

Anyone figured out a way yet?
If we have to replace the parts with those from Taiwan/China/Hong Kong, which part would that be? And does doing that void the factory warranty?

[kaishang]

Originally Posted by jbeemer

I bought the car from BMW hong kong that imports their cars direct from Germany. Mine was manufactured in Dingolfing plant of germany. I guess all current new models with can support multiple languages with proper settings in cic. Mine can display menu of English, simplified and traditional Chinese characters. You can see all simplified/transitional Chinese characters can even be shown at the same time under English menu. To play save adding languages, better check with your cic version and ask experienced dealer to recode it.

Hmm, obv the HK version can display Chinese characters, otherwise everyone would be pissed.

However it doesn't seem possible to display Chinese or Japanese characters if you have a Euro or North America spec BMW. I've tried asking BMW in the UK. Tamen bu zhi dao. Bu keyi.

It may be possible to completely reprogram the iDrive and/or headunit so it will display but that seems like a major operation.

[Patrys@BimmerTech]

The solution is ready

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...60#post8956960