BMW Television systems & digital TV?

[john_r]

Hi all - just a quick question, I have the TV option in my M5 but it is analogue. The car is still well within warranty and later this year the digital switchover starts which will effectively make this expensive option worthless!

Is it likely I could make a claim under warranty for the digital upgrade, as technically when the car was built the UK government had announced the digital switchover... TV's supplied now are Digital and I believe the only difference is the decoding software as I can see all the digital channels, just not view them.

Worth trying it on?

[RichBurley]

The problem with that is that buy making the TV, they don't actually provide the programming and no do8ubt make no undertakings as to whether anythign is actaully broadcasted. If all the TV companies went bust, then could you require BMW to provide something for you to tune in to? Nope. I think the anology applies to Analogue TV. BMW supply a car with a TV, but they make no guarantee that any signals will broadcast on its frequencies. They should guarantee under warranty that any signals broadcast that the TV can receive, should be received. If not, then it would not be effective.

So to confirm guys, anybody with an analogue TV, will we be stuffed come the "switch over"?

although it's not for a few years, yet...

www.digitaluk.co.uk/en/when.html

Edited by RichBurley on Thursday 15th March 17:06

[john_r]

My car will be under warranty through 2008...

Just spoken to BMW warranty, then customer service, then complaints who all umm'd and errr'd at me as they didn't know. However one smart mouth at the end told me that her TV at home wasn't digital and she'd have to pay for an upgrade in warranty so why should I get it free on my car! I pointed out that a set-top box is £20 and if the digital upgrade on my £75k car was going to be £20 then I'd be happy to pay it...

Weird thing is, I can see all the digital channels listed when auto-tuning but there is no sound or vision when selected. Seems to me that it is a software upgrade to decode the signal as opposed to new aerials and stuff.

I can see stealers making a mint by charging hundreds of pounds to carry out a 30-sec software update!

[bobthemonkey]

I'm pretty certain the tv recivers fitted to E60's are analogue(sp) only so its a hardware rather than software update. A new box would be needed (dash disassembly I think, and anyway a software update on an E60 can take up to a day)

Edited by bobthemonkey on Thursday 15th March 19:41

[blackspider]

I'll be suprised if your M doesnt recieve digital as all the ones I have worked with do.How early is it?X5 has turned to digital since 05,DAB can be retrofitted to 1,3,5,7.

Im off for 2 weeks on paternaty leave(3rd daughter)so I cant research it or talk to technical.

[john_r]

blackspider said:

I'll be suprised if your M doesnt recieve digital as all the ones I have worked with do.How early is it?X5 has turned to digital since 05,DAB can be retrofitted to 1,3,5,7.

Im off for 2 weeks on paternaty leave(3rd daughter)so I cant research it or talk to technical.

As per my earlier post, I can see all the channels just not view them!