Dension Gateway 500 review

[M5CLK]

Finally got around to put everything together today, the installation went pretty smooth including hooking up the MB OE TV-tuner. The iPod sounds pretty sweet but in order to play video with Dension, I need to switch to iPod UI which I can't seem to do with the COMAND DX. Whenever I press "6", it just says "Loading CD..." for a few secs and start to display it's playing CD6 without going into the Dension menu.. I've email Dension already asking how I can go into Dension menu or switch to iPod UI

I tested the Aux input, USB disc and iPod, no ID3 tag is displayed on the COMAND (as expected), but steering wheel and COMAND have full control on tracks, volume etc. And COMAND + MBQuart speakers (only the door speakers and tweakers, stock center and woofer with digital BOSE amp) seems to be a pretty good match.

Here's my setup:
'02 W203 C32
COMAND DX 2.0
MBQuart door speakers (DKF116 and ESA216, older models, nothing fancy)
OE TV-tuner AV1 RCA hooked to G500 for iPod
Dension Gateway 500

Will report back once I hear back from Dension and if I able to get video to play on the iPod.

 

[M5CLK]

Woot, I'm a retard XD The Dension menu displays on iPod itself and not the COMAND like with Ice-Link Plus in my BMW XD ... Anyway, all is working perfectly now. The G500 only capable of RCA video output, so when in TV-tuner AV mode, another RCA audio cable was run from the iPod headphone to the TV-Tuner RCA audio in... The picture quality is decent and the audio is pretty good too even though it's not D2B Is it worth the US$500? I dunno, but don't have much choice on a D2B system

 

[colh]

The iPod sounds pretty sweet but in order to play video with Dension, I need to switch to iPod UI which I can't seem to do with the COMAND DX. Whenever I press "6", it just says "Loading CD..." for a few secs and start to display it's playing CD6 without going into the Dension menu.. I've email Dension already asking how I can go into Dension menu or switch to iPod UI

When it comes up with "Access ipod UI" on the iPod, press and hold >> on the COMAND. You may have to scroll (left/right) with ipod wheel - if i remmeber right - to get "Access iPod UI" to show. Its one of the 6 options. Basically the ">>" button acts as an 'Enter'. Oh hang on, it may be >> and << pressed briefly to scroll thru the 6 options - i can't remember! But it IS all in the manual.

 

[jeffwebb]

Nice, but your choice of films looked a bit suspect

 

[M5CLK]

The first pic is TV boardcast in HK.. And the rest are random music video off my iPod, don't have any film uploaded to iPod yet..