Nick

I have not been able to find out any information about the factory Mazda hookup, so maybe somebody who has it or knows about it can answer my questions.

If the LCD-display iPod hookup that Truemagellen announced never comes out, what is the best interface to go with for each of the following factors?

Price?
Ease of install?
Features?
Availability?
Compatibility? (I have > 9.55 so this is not an issue for me, but may be for someone else)

Also, where can you even buy the Mazda hookup?

DrDiaboloco

Doesn't the Mazda hookup require that the iPod be placed in the glovebox due to the location/length of the cable? That alone would torpedo THAT one.

I have the AudioLink and I'm very happy with it. There is at least one thread about that unit and the method of install (not "easy" as such, but relatively so, as long as you have basic tools and about 90mins to do it).

Mine has an iPod plug and a headphone plug, but I think I read that it no longer comes with both... You have to choose.

Nick

What features does it have? Is it just simple audio control?

bikes2cars

I just got the Mazda Ipod interface installed this week. I used to use a high quality fm transmitter but don't like things dangling out of the lighter. It looked sloppy, even though the mounting/bracket was pretty neat. The ipod interface is now available at mazda dealers but Ebay has them for a little bit cheaper. Since it's a mazda part, its covered under the warranty.

I was a bit let down though. With the fm transmitter, you could control the volume from the deck & wheel but could not change songs/playlists, etc. I found it a bit "dangerous" to fondle the ipod while driving so I kicked down the extra money for the mazda part.

The mazda interface allows you to change between cd/ipod/radio. If you have satelite, you cannot use it! It plugs into the 30 pin plug in the rear of our decks. You push the cd button on the deck & it goes to the cd player, press again and "EX" shows up on the console. Then there are a series of numbers--this is the sucky part. The first number corresponds to either playlist, aritist, song, genre, etc. Then you have to memorize how many of these categories you have as it only goes up to the number "6" for some reason. The second set of numbers corresponds to that number in you playlists, artists, genres, etc. That is, if it is in playlist "Mode" (it will not say playlist or otherwise, you just have to figure it out by knowing what song is first on what category. Problem is if you have the same song/aritist on several categories you have to play process of elimination) the second set of numbers is your second playlist, etc. The third set of numbers is like a count down. The second set only goes up to "99," so if you have 101 songs in your second playlist, the 101st song would be number "3" after you have scrolled past the first set of 99 songs.

I've spent entire drives just looking for a song or playlist. I'm hoping it just "takes getting use to" as I'm thinking about going back to the fm transmitter.

The good thing is, it's a clean install. The cord is long enough for the rear passengers to hold the ipod. You can even run the wire through the tranny tunnel/consol and have it pop out of the storage there. The glove box is best though as it locks & you can keep the ipod safe w/o taking it out everytime you get out of the car.

Also, you cannot imput the ipod once it is plugged in. Once plugged, a mazda logo appears & you cannot access it unless you disconnect. The sound is a bit better than the best fm station I've ever got, but its a pain to listen you your one favorite song while driving. Because usually, your home once you find it. Its really cool for long drives maybe.

Installation will set you back about $175 at the dealership, unless you are good at drilling & running wire cleanly. You would have to take the dash apart and remove the glove box. Some dealerships don't even have the "instructions" for the RX8 yet. Mine came with Miata instructions!

All in all, if youre more obsessed with a clean interior than easy access to particular songs/playlsits, etc. this is for you. If you don't mind having something hanging out of the 12v plug, the "RoadTrip" fm transmitter would be a better choice as it is "pole" mounted from the lighter and has locking/ratcheting joints to place the ipod right near the e-brake.

Hope this helps.

DrDiaboloco

Okay, I give up... WHY would you buy this knowing that this was the case (maybe YOU didn't know)? The one that I have allows me to go to any song/album/artist/playlist anytime I want straight from the iPod itself... and any other function one cares to access, for that matter, except for the volume control (which will have no effect through the cable, even though the "volume bar" moves). The playlist feature is fine and all, but what if you want to hear a specific song? Do you have to unplug it, find the song, and then plug it back in again?

Better yet, why would Mazda design the part this way if aftermarket stuff at around the same price point allows full functionality?

hyperlitenerd

Are there aftermarket units that allow you to control it from the steering wheels? along with running thorugh all artits/albums/playlists? And displaying the names? (i am not being rude, just curious)

DrDiaboloco

No, there aren't. One was "announced" by another vendor on this site over six months ago, but to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't actually been released.

The unit that I have allows you to skip tracks, fast-fwd/rewind, and move between playlists from the HU and the steering wheel, but doesn't allow you to navigate the menus. This is why leaving the functionality of the iPod's controls intact is essential, in my view. Why the Mazda-supplied unit doesn't allow this is a total mystery to me.

DrDiaboloco

Actually... There kind of IS a unit that allows you to remotely control the iPod, the Harmon Kardon Drive+Play (at least that's what I remember the name of it to be). The problem is that I think it gets plugged into your stereo via the FM input, so the limitations of the FM unit now constrict the dynamic/frequency range that the iPod is capable of. However, it does give you a remotely-viewed screen and a separate joystick for the purpose. Whether you want this stuff sitting out in plain view in your car is another issue entirely. In my case, with the cupholder lid closed, there's no evidence that I have anything other than a stock stereo installed.

Astral

Holy ****, that sounds terrible!

I can't believe that Mazda/Ford/whoever botched the iPod integration so bad. What you described is a sick joke. Wow!

hyperlitenerd

which ipod connection do you have??

DrDiaboloco

I have the AudioLink. It has some of the same limitations as the Mazda part (plugs into the Sirius jack, nothing helpful appears on the radio's display), but it beats the Mazda part in that the iPod maintains full functionality aside from the volume control. Near as I can tell, the price is nearly the same for each piece.

BTW, with any of these units that plug into the bottom of the iPod, make sure you have your iPod's EQ set to "flat" or you'll get those frequency curves delivered to your HU. With some kinds of files, leaving the unit set to "Rock" or other settings with bass boost especially, you'll get distortion in the signal... To say nothing of the messed up sound quality.

Speaking of sound quality, this is the highest-quality sound you're going to get with your iPod in the car. It murders any FM modulator and is way better than the wired cassette tape method or a direct line-in from the headphone jack. The fact that it charges the iPod while it's plugged in and pauses the player when you switch HU modes or turn off the car is just the icing on the cake.

Nick

How does it compare to the DICE module from what you've read about it? The AudioLink seems to beat it in price for sure ($119 to $159?)

drmrw

Waitin on the aux mod advanced unit.....That one should do the trick, even with the satellite radio....

DrDiaboloco

I don't know anything about the "DICE module". I've never even heard of it.

What I do know is that the one I have does the trick and I'm happy with it. I even installed it myself in about two hours (using instructions from another thread on RX8Club), saving the cost of having it professionally done.

Do I wish it displayed relevant information on the radio display? Sure. Then again, there's not a lot of room on that display so I don't see what good it will do... But if I had the choice I'd go for one that displays text on the IP.

Unless, of course, it disabled the iPod. Can't go without that considering the near impossibility of navigating my collection without it.

DrDiaboloco

Heh, I use my Audiolink to listen to my XM unit, too (though it does require me unplugging one to use the other as both cables come out of the same splitter). Since I have zero interest in Sirius the choice was easy for me... Might as well use the Sirius input to listen to what I really WANT to listen to.

glassetcher

Well, I'll throw my 2 cents in here. Althought I have posted this in another thread, (https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...31#post1597031) I thought it would be helpful here also. I recently installed the Mazda iPod interface and am very happy with it so far. It certainly isn't perfect, but my main reason for opting for it is that it doesen't require a specific firmware version. Since my Bose system would have required a firmware upgrade for the other available options to work, this was the best option for me.

This is how I think the iPod adaptor unit works.

The top hierarchy is called Music Menus. There are 6 menus – 1. Playlists 2. Artists 3. Albums 4. Songs 5. Genres 6. Composers. The unit looks at all of the songs you have on the iPod and accesses them according to the Music Menu it is in, regardless of the playlists you have on the iPod. (except for the Playlist Music Menu which DOES see your playlists) For example if you are in the 2. Artists Music Menu, the unit will group all of the songs by artist. Thus if you cycle through the lists it will go from one artist to the next. More on lists later. To change from one Music Menu to another you press the Disc up or Disc down buttons on the center console, either twice rapidly or holding the button. The numbers flashing by on the readout mean nothing. The Music Menu is identified by a number which appears in the minutes position where the song time usually appears. It will disappear after about 1 or 2 seconds. Thus, if you see a 2, you are in Artists Music Menu. Continuing to hold the Disc up button will not make the music menus continue to change. Only one step per press.

The next level of organization is the Lists. Under each Music Menu the unit creates Lists of Artists, Composers, etc. dictated by which Music Menu you are in. It doesn’t actually change anything on your iPod, but organizes them internally, I guess. As I said before, the Playlists Music Menu will actually see the playlists you have put on the iPod. You cycle from one list to another by pressing the Disc up button once. The list number is the first number on the digital readout. Although the unit will display only numbers 1 – 6 for lists, if there are, for example, seven playlists on your iPod and you are in Playlists Music Menu, when you cycle from 6 to 7, the number will cycle back to 1 but the unit is actually accessing playlist 7 on the iPod. Thus, since the list numbers may change if there are more than 6 lists, it is nearly impossible to use the list numbers to positively identify which list you are in. You need to identify the first song in the list, or some other cue, to know which list you are in.

The last level is the individual song. The song number in the list is the second number on the display. You cycle through the songs with the up or down buttons on the steering wheel. Pressing the random button on the console will put the unit into a random selection mode within the list that is currently playing. Touching any button after that will take the unit out of the random mode and put it back at the beginning of the list.

Well, that is about the extent of what I have learned so far. The above explanation seems to jive with the way my unit is behaving. Hope that helps!!

Zoom, Zoom!

P.S. If you look at post #74 in this thread - https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...7&page=5&pp=15 - you can also see my comments about installing one of these units.

bikes2cars

I, personally, did not know about the limitations (suckiness) until AFTER Mazda installed it! I bought it from them and they said, "you will be able to control the iPod from the steering wheel & deck." I figured it'd have all the menus written out on the center display. After installation & a bunch of money...the tech expains the suckines!

glassetcher

I'm not surprised. Since it is so new, and I'd bet you were the first on at your dealer to have it installed, they probably hadn't even seen one before. They obviously made some assumptions that they shouldn't have about how it works . I pretty much knew what to expect after reading about various other products on this forum.

bikes2cars

Word! That's why I'm finding this club more and more valueable! Every future purcahse from here on out will be researched through this site...

RotaryP7

lol, I was about to go next week to install the iPod Adapter.. Thanks for ruining it.
Na, I'm playing, but that right there makes me think twice.. Hmm.. I should just go for the Sirius install instead.

glassetcher

Sirius sounds like a good idea as well, but if you think about it, it's kind of like the Mazda interface except you have to listen to the random songs they pick, not the ones you want. The Mazda unit works fine for me because I mostly want to listen to podcasts I update daily and/or all of the songs on the iPod in random mode. I don't have any desire to find any one song. Oh, and i can also lode playlists of, say a single artist, and listen that way too. Can't do those things with Sirius, can you?

Astral

whoa, glassetcher, I missed your description the first time around.

So if you are trying to flip through the lists (say you know you want list 5), and you're in a hurry and press Disc Up or Disc Down TOO FAST (so it thinks you pressed it twice), then instead of moving on to the next list, it'll throw you to the next "music menu"! AAAH! I'd go crazy.
Wow, unbelievable! So much for any type of ability to positively select music. It's like fumbling in the dark.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like a whiney bastard, but it galls me to no end that in the 21st century it is considered acceptable to release a piece of electronics with such obviously substandard usability. I wonder whether the sales literature advertises it as "easy to use"--if it does, then they have some *****!

Heck, who the heck released this thing out into the wild? It must've been some crazy sales/marketing pressure (hear the chant of "Must have iPod integration! Must have!"), because I wouldn't have released such a thing even as an internal company tool. This must've been a mole planted by a competitor (Nissan?), designed to ruin the public opinion of Mazda's iPod integration.

Nubo

My Dension unit does pretty much the same thing. 6 is the magic number because the unit is pretending that it is a CD-changer so that the head unit will "talk" to it. Head unit expects to be able to access 6 CDs on the changer -- voila.

The dension does sacrifice "CD number 6" to allow you to go into "iPod UI mode", where you get to control the ipod with its own controls -- but then you lose some of the steering wheel controls. Frankly, I almost never use the iPod UI mode. Fiddling with an iPod Mini while driving is probably not a good idea, at least with my middle-aged eyes! In fact I've realized the mount I fabricated really isn't doing anything for me and the unit would do just as well in the glove box.

As far as the suckiness -- I guess it's all relative. For me, if I'm going to be using the pod in the car, I just plan on my first 5 playlists around that fact. Works pretty well. If there are tunes I really must hear, I make the first playlist short and put them there. Not as good as having the head unit actually behave like an iPod, but close enough. I guess ideally, you could have a Nav video-screen with touchscreen that interfaced directly to the iPod video and UI.

glassetcher

Astral, you are right that this is not what we would have asked for in a product. I'm guessing they had to deal with some severe limitations in the radio head units that are in the current fleet of cars. As you probably know, Mazda has announced iPod compatibility starting with 2007 cars, I think. I'd be willing to bet that product won't be as cryptic as this one is. But, they were probably trying to at least give all of us that recently bought a Mazda something better than the current crop of FM transmitter products with less that stellar sound performance. Anyway, it does what I want for now, so I'm willing to live with it.

DrDiaboloco

Unless I'm mistaken, the "iPod compatibility" is nothing more than an aux-in jack on the front of the HU. While that's better than nothing, it's not TRUE compatibility, like that found on stereos that are designed to accept (and control) an iPod... And of course this means it's compatible with ANY device that makes sound and can be connected to a cable with a 1/8" jack on one end.