Adding Digital TV to COMAND 2.0

[daviesp]

Hi, thought I'd share my experience of adding Digital TV to the COMAND unit in my car. I used the Dietz Multimedia interface from ebay (£135) which included all the cables to link to COMAND and English instructions, a Bush-ID digital TV tuner from Currys (£40) and Telecam Aerial and amplifier from Argos (£20). These components can all work from 12v so makes connection to the car straight forward. The attached picture shows all the bits connected together, plus some pictures of it working. There is a small remote and separate IR receiver for the TV tuner box so all the bits can be hidden away behind the passager footplate.
I live in a very poor signal area, so haven't tried to connect the aerial into the rear window heating elements yet, although I may try at some point. (Signal strength is 32 dBuV/m on http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe )
I'm pleased with the picture quality and sound but reception can be hit and miss.
Anyone had any better/worst experiences with other components?

 

[Nibbo]

Excellent job and all for under 200 smackers!

 

[television]

Those tuners have now dropped to £23 + vat. If you want to add digi to an existing TV then a modulator from CPC for £9 will do. That just leaves the antenna to join up, and thats the hard bit so you can do it for £36 if you have a analogue tuner.

Joining into the existing antenna is the hardest bit, I am still trying to locate some Wisi Clic plugs

Welcome to the forum

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Welcome to the forum, wow what a first post. I'm impressed.

I've been wanting to add a tuner to COMAND for a while, then the swithcover to digital made me re-think.

I found a solution (also made by Dietz) that integrates fully with COMAND (i.e. allows the channels to be changed using the steering remote or via COMAND). They sell complete kits (tuner, interface etc) on ebay.de for about EUR 750, but yout DIY solution looks like an attractive alternative.

 

[comports]

Very impressive first post - Well done that man. If I wanted to add TV functionality to my comand 2.0 would I just need to get the above if I don't have a TV tuner already or is there something else I would need..?

 

[television]

Very impressive first post - Well done that man. If I wanted to add TV functionality to my comand 2.0 would I just need to get the above if I don't have a TV tuner already or is there something else I would need..?

All you need is the Dietz Multimedia interface plus any digi tuner

This is what the tuner looks like in the box so that you know

 

[DaveML270]

Very good! Is the Dietz interface the same multimedia interface that some of us have used to play our Video iPods etc. though the TV input of the COMAND? HughJarse put me onto this and there is a thread here http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=41512&highlight=multimedia+interface which descibes it well.

If it is then I shall have a go at this project as I have been extremely impressed with the interface for £108 from Poland!

Thanks for a great and interesting article!

Dave

 

[daviesp]

Malcolm - I understand there are 4 TV antenna elements in the rear screen - 1 on the near side and 3 on the off side. Do you know if your tuner favours one, as the elements all look different sizes. I've tried the one element on the near side and got no signal strength. Is it worth trying the others?

comports - I had no TV tuner, just a "TV" button on the COMAND that did nothing! All you need are the components I mentioned, although I did make up my own SCART to RCA plug cable.

Dave - my Dietz unit looks slightly different from the one in the previous post. I got mine from (caraudio24.de) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dietz-1440-Mu...yZ138851QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[television]

All of the antenna systems use 4 connections for the TV, owing to the use of Wisi clic connectors, and this makes it hard to test. when the analogue tuner is fitted, the aerial goes into a splitter, and its much easier.

One thing to remember,no amplifier or magic wand can pull digi TV in, if there is no good signal strength. You could drive to where the is a known good signal, and try them all. The original analogue tuner has a RF mixer for the 4, you could make up a passive connector. To do this you will need the aerial lead split as used on the analogue tuner