New stereo/nav in M-coupe

I had a new Kenwood P-NAV815 system installed yesterday, and had a few bugs ironed out today (just a matter of wiring up the power to the BMW amp a different way).
It's very cool, I think. It plays DVDs, CDs, mp3/WMA files from discs of any sort that I can think of, has AM/FM radio, is Sirius-ready with an optional tuner (not planning to get it, nor the TV tuner either), and it has a nice navigation system. How's THAT for a run-on sentence? I have my Kenwood Music Keg connected to the CD-changer port and it works like a charm.

I usually leave it retracted except when using the nav system or making changes. The ventilation from the upper ducts is surprisingly good even with the screen up.

Everything is connected through the original BMW connectors, so I can return to original at any time. The Music Keg is sitting on strips of Velcro to keep it from sliding around. The carpeting of the coupe works well as one half of the Velcro, but the rear floor mat doesn't, so I stuck the "soft" half of the Velcro to the mat.

Thanks again to Ron Styger for the "drawer-pull" idea for the CD-changer bay door. I mounted it low and left the top "hooks" un-filed. The opening pull is from the bottom this way. Oh, the nav drive/computer is in the CD-changer bay. The GPS antenna is on the dash, centered and forward under the windshield; I didn't even see it at first!

Here are some photos of the beast.
1. Music Keg in rear area
2. Nav mode (screen up)
3. Screen down
4. Close-up of CD-changer bay door w/ drawer-pull

Reply » New stereo/nav in M-coupe

I had some questions...

What color is the illumination on the face of the system? I would love a setup simmilar to this, but I can't stand the fact that none of them seem to come in any color that even comes close to resembling BMW's illumination.

Actualy, I guess thats my only question, haha. Thanks

Reply » New stereo/nav in M-coupe

The Kenwood nav is the best. I have a way older nav system (KNA-DV2100) with a dual din unit and love Kenwood, even if it is the underdog system now-a-days. One thing you might want to look into is getting the steering wheel remote control. Kenwood discontinued it this year and they can still be had on Ebay for cheap. It works by mounting a small remote behind the steering wheel and you just reach back and make your volume/track/input changes. Its the best thing.. trust me. You can't see it all and it takes about a day to get familiar with the buttons.

Oh and one last trick you might want to know about is if you buy a SanDisk Photoviewer, you can directly hook it up to the unit, so you can put any image you want for your background. The photoviewer uses 12vdc and turns on everytime you connect power to it. Just buy a memory card (cheapest one you can get) and load just one picture on it. I love my custom graphic, its a nice alternative to the stock Kenwood or nav...

Lastly, I don't know about Bob's setup but usually Kenwood buttons light up red or green. Which is why I went with the DDX7015. The screen makes up most of the headunit so the buttons on my unit almost don't count but I had to have a unit that had red illumination.

Laters
Ken 99R6
99 //Mcoupe

Reply » New stereo/nav in M-coupe

Quote:

Oh and one last trick you might want to know about is if you buy a SanDisk Photoviewer, you can directly hook it up to the unit, so you can put any image you want for your background. The photoviewer uses 12vdc and turns on everytime you connect power to it. Just buy a memory card (cheapest one you can get) and load just one picture on it. I love my custom graphic, its a nice alternative to the stock Kenwood or nav...
Laters
Ken 99R6
99 //Mcoupe

Very nice! I love the BMW Roundel graphic!

Reply » New stereo/nav in M-coupe

Thanks for the reply. I love the type of DVD player you have... it looks much closer to an OEM setup, but I really don't want to have to reconfigure my dash that much. Thats why I will probly go with a flip-out (as long as I can find the red illumination)

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