R 56 Sat Nav System

[Rakey]

had a really good play with the nav today, as the test drive car I borrowed had it.

must say it takes some getting used to compared to the old nav, the voice is more American and I couldn't figure out how to make her loud enough to hear over the stereo Also the only way I could get the map to show was to select a destination, and then cancel it, so not as easy to navigate. I'm also not convinced that the new stylish black back ground is as visibly easy to use as the current mapping, yes it might look more attractive, but function should be more important IMO

[popey]

I cant wait to have a go with it.... what a toy

[miniman23]

I couldnt figure out either how to make the volume lower or louder but then figured it out. You can only control the volume of her voice whilst she is speaking by using the volume button, How weird I know. I used it for the 1st time on Saturday on my R56 MCS and the traffic warning is brilliant warning me of traffic from start of journey telling me where it is and how long of a delay it is and if I want a detour route planned. I missed all the road works to Luton from London.

[Rakey]

don't get me wrong, I'd still order it, just its got some big differences to what I am used to, the old factory nav

Still not sure what dynamic route selection is, but I had it set on that

[Sowellman]

Quote: Originally Posted by That's Guv to me (original)

must say it takes some getting used to compared to the old nav, the voice is more American ...

That's really bad news. That's one of the big selling points here, to have a British voice directing you around the motorway.

[~Marcus~]

She's kind of mid-Atlantic isn't she. Bit disappointing - a MINI nav system should sound like Joanna Lumley or Michael Caine, or how about Tom Baker (Little Britiain) and the Geordie guy that does the Big Brother voice.

[Derepente]

British Voice on the 2nd Gen Nav systems, does anyone have it?

I have been lurking around the x5world forums and North American Motoring without any news.

Has anyone been able to "reverse engineer" or modify their nav systems to play the Female British Voice or any other voice?

I have done this with my Tomtom Go 910 so I want to try it on my new MINI when it arrives.

[Tobes]

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Marcus~ (original)

She's kind of mid-Atlantic isn't she. Bit disappointing - a MINI nav system should sound like Joanna Lumley or Michael Caine, or how about Tom Baker (Little Britiain) and the Geordie guy that does the Big Brother voice.

Lumley gets my vote - id pay good money for that!

[~Marcus~]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tobes (original)

Lumley gets my vote - id pay good money for that!

Hey that was a delayed response to an old post
Anyway I now hate Catherine (I call her that after Catherine Zeta Jones because of her annoying mid-Atlantic accent) with a passion and only have the voice on if absolutely necessary!

Ordering a new MINI soon and I take it it's still the same voice

[ALD0]

Quote: Originally Posted by Derepente (original)

British Voice on the 2nd Gen Nav systems, does anyone have it?

I have been lurking around the x5world forums and North American Motoring without any news.

Has anyone been able to "reverse engineer" or modify their nav systems to play the Female British Voice or any other voice?

I have done this with my Tomtom Go 910 so I want to try it on my new MINI when it arrives.

I have Hacked the Ibus on my 3 series which has same or similar Nav to the R53 and I have now got a very well spoken English gent. Not been able to play about with a R56 Nav yet though...

[Derepente]

ALD0,
Me inspiras! I hope you are on to something. I looked on some other forums to find the possible solution to this but hadn't seen anything concrete that I could apply to the MINI R57 when it finally arrives. I assume it's the same SATNAV as the R56. there are a few BMW x5 forums that talk about the hack into the IBus. Can you give some tips on how you did it? I would also like a very well spoken English gent or Lady.

[Roma]

Quote: Originally Posted by Derepente (original)

British Voice on the 2nd Gen Nav systems, does anyone have it?

I have been lurking around the x5world forums and North American Motoring without any news.

Has anyone been able to "reverse engineer" or modify their nav systems to play the Female British Voice or any other voice?

I have done this with my Tomtom Go 910 so I want to try it on my new MINI when it arrives.

The voice is almost unrecognisable! The visual side and logic of the satnav is amongst the best there is. But...the voice seems to be synthesised like it was on computers in the 80s. Sadly, I cannot see any way of changing to a natural 'human' voice as you can on BMWs and other cars.

A lot of the time I simply cannot understand what the voice is saying but the visual guidance is very clear so that helps a lot. The voice is one of the blemishes on the current MINI satnav. I mentioned on another thread that a £100 Tom Tom has clearer voice guidance.

[Roma]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rakey (original)

Still not sure what dynamic route selection is, but I had it set on that

Dynamic route selection works in conjunction with TMC (Traffic Management Channel). It will check for traffic delays on your current route and offer to recalculate your route around the traffic delay. To do this it relies on traffic information being broadcast on a non-audio portion of the Classic FM signal (the radio station on the FM band). It continually decodes the information to see if any of the traffic hold-ups occur on your current route. When it matches a hold-up on your current route, it will work out another route dynamically (i.e. whilst you are driving and in mid-route).

[davyboy]

Hi Guys

Anyone know if it's possible to get safety camera alerts

Bit of a pain having to have my old Garmin running as well

[ALD0]

Quote: Originally Posted by Derepente (original)

ALD0,
Me inspiras! I hope you are on to something. I looked on some other forums to find the possible solution to this but hadn't seen anything concrete that I could apply to the MINI R57 when it finally arrives. I assume it's the same SATNAV as the R56. there are a few BMW x5 forums that talk about the hack into the IBus. Can you give some tips on how you did it? I would also like a very well spoken English gent or Lady.

I'm not too familiar with the R56/R57 Navigation firmware as not got one to play about with. For the prev MINI/BMW's you can download the firmware updates off the Net Currently V32, I am expecting these would be different on the new ones. When I changed the voice on mine I had to have a update disk to reload the firmware on but then I had the male voice.

Anyone know about the current firmware version for the R56/R57 Nav?